Easy CD Creator 5 Platinum

• Platform:   No Operating System
• Media: CD-ROM
• Item Quantity: 1

Pick just about any file format and this program provides an innovative way of storing it on CD. Burning an audio CD is a piece of cake for this tool, as is creating a video CD and picture slide shows, transferring audio from a cassette or phonograph to CD, and archiving a hard drive. A nifty CD label creator helps organise your archive as well.

As expected, audio CD-burning options are comprehensive. In addition to CDA-formatted audio, playable in most CD players, a great feature converts MP3 tracks into CD audio (and vice versa) and pumps up the audio quality of MP3 files lost during compression before transferring the batch of tracks to disk. A sound transition control allows you to fade songs out or in, add a gap between tracks or cross-fade songs.

Easy CD Creator 5.0 is much more than an audio CD burner. A photo-sharing tool frames pictures into a self-running slide show presentations that can be backed with music. Videophiles will enjoy the video CD capabilities. You can add any Quicktime, AVI or series of still images to the layout interface, configure the layout, then burn the CD as an MPEG-1, viewable in compatible DVD players.

CD burning is a CPU-taxing endeavour that'll spit out flawed disks if the hardware isn't up to the task. Easy CD Creator 5.0 requires a 200 MHz CPU or faster and the recommended 64 MB RAM should be doubled to avoid those annoying buffer overrun error messages. But if your system is up to par, Easy CD Creator 5.0 should churn out CD after CD of beautifully formatted disks. --Eric Twelker

Manufacturer's Description
Although Easy CD Creator operates fully with the Windows 2000 Professional OS, users running this OS are advised not to instal the Take Two module owing to possible instabilities. Before installation, select the "Custom Install" option and un-select Take Two.

Users new to CD burning can easily understand how to use the MPEG1 and MP3 encoder and its MS audio support. Easy CD Creator 5 Platinum's music features let users create their own MP3s with an MP3 encoder, burn over 100 MP3s onto one CD, and then play it in a MP3 CD player or in any CD-ROM drive. Transitions and cross fades between tracks can be added easily to the CD. Other music features include CD Label Creator, for designing and printing professional-looking custom CD labels and inserts. Numerous design suggestions are included in the package. It also allows track titles and performers to be automatically transferred onto the layout.

Platinum's new SoundStream 2 feature has the ability to enhance the sound quality of MP3 files as well as offering many special affects that enable the user to create their own unique compilations. Even old, scratchy LPs can easily be turned into digital CDs with the help of this tool. Easy CD Creator 5 Platinum offers a new MPEG-1 encoder, which enables data in AVI format to be used as source material--for example, multimedia film clips. The software's video capabilities include VideoImpression, for easy editing and inclusion of special affects. Version 5 also offers a tool to create video postcards which can be played back on any PC. The templates that come bundled with the software provide a quick and easy way to do this.

Version 5's data tools include Direct CD, which enables the user to treat a CD like a giant floppy disc, and has a new simple user interface. To fit more material onto each CD, Direct CD can compress data during the CD creation process. ScanDisc, part of Direct CD, can repair some instances of corrupted material as well as copying data that is no longer readable onto a hard disc drive. The CD Copier feature lets users create a backup copy of any non-copyrighted CD with a single mouse-click.

• Software > Home Computing > Utilities > CD & DVD Burning
• Software > Video & Music > CD & DVD Burning