Review by Jennifer A. Ray

New computers or CD/DVD burners come with software to create and copy discs, but that software is usually a starter edition that provides basic functionality. This is enough for the general user, but there are times when you need your media creation software to be a bit more robust.

Ive had TiVo since the first model came out and one of my favorite features is its ability to transfer recorded programs to your computer, where the show can be burned to a DVD. Since this TiVo feature was introduced, there has always been only brand of media burning software at a time that could transcode the TiVo video format to DVD. That started with a different company, but Roxio bought them several years back.

I have to say that I have always been disappointed that Roxio has offered less functionality for creating DVDs from TiVo files than the previous company offered, but the software still works well for the core function, transcoding the video. What is missing is a lot of extra templates and features that made the menu screens for the DVDs a bit spiffier. And of course if you need software that can create a DVD from a TiVo file, Roxio is your only option today.

Roxio does a great job of burning copies of CDs and DVDs as well as creating new ones. You can use it to create back-up discs of your data as well.

Roxio Creator NXT 3 does a lot more than burn discs, however. You can use it to edit video, make movies and slideshows, and even record directly from your computers screen using the new Live Screen Capture feature. As with previous versions, you can also convert videos to formats that can be transferred to and played on portable devices like iPods.

This version of Roxio supports a variety of Windows operating systems, including Window 8, Windows XP, and all of the workstation class versions of Windows in between those two.

The install of Roxio went smoothly on both of my Windows 7 x64 computers and the software runs very well on both.

If all you need to do is to make copies of discs or burn data to discs, I recommend you stick with the software that came with your computer or optical drive. If you want a full-featured media creation program that can edit and create video and turn TiVo files into DVDs that can be played on most DVD players, then you will want Roxio Creator NXT 3.