Review by Sherry Berry

This is a very robust program with a lot of features. You can edit pictures, edit videos, create photo slideshows for a photo montage, burn CDs/DVDs, etc. Let’s go a little bit more in depth on the software itself.

Installation - Installation was very easy. If you have conflicting software, i.e. another Roxio program that has similar features, such as a burner, then it will ask you if it’s OK to uninstall it. And the only way to install it is if you let it uninstall the previous software. Unfortunately, it does not tell you what the conflicting software is so this is only going on assumption. It’s really just clicking on OK and next and the software is installed. Keeping in mind that before you can really use the software, you need to restart your computer.

Usage - Burning CDs/DVDs is easy with this. When you put a disc in, it is instantly recognized by the software and you are able to burn it from the quick launch if you would like. I have also put two pictures side by side and that was easy to do once you figure it out. I didn’t find anything in the picture editing software that allows a cutout so you can take an object and make the background transparent so it is a little bit lacking if you’re really looking for a comprehensive picture editing tool. The video editor is also easy to use. You can locate videos and pictures you want to put in there. You’re even able to flip videos clockwise/counter-clockwise, an especially useful feature if you are like me and use the iPhone for some video capture and when it gets put on the computer, it’s not rotated properly. Overall, the features are pretty straightforward. It isn’t going to be extremely advanced but for a simple novice or if you’re just needing this for simple adjustments, it works great.

Performance - This is where I had to take stars off for this. It seems to have slowed my computer down a bit so starting up takes a little bit longer. Another issue I have noticed is that when I was exporting my video project, it froze the program a while before it would allow you to export it. My other gripe is that right after installing it, my computer suddenly crashed for no reason. This only happened once but I have to blame this software since I have never seen my computer do that before. It could just be that you need an extremely new computer to run this software but if that’s the case, Roxio is a little bit short-sighted as not everyone can upgrade their computer every 2 years or so.

Overall, it does come with a lot of features. All of the things you can do with this program is a bit intermediate level and not really for an advanced user who is relying on this for state of the art photo editing or movie making. It also seem to have a bit of performance issues so hopefully Roxio fixes this in future products.