WHAT IS Easy CD Creator 5 Platinum?

Easy CD Creator 5 Platinum (ECDC5) is a full featured cd authoring program, which can be used to "save" or "burn" data to cd-r's and cd-rw's. ECDC5 can burn data, music, and video cd's, make labels for your cd's and cd cases, convert wav files or songs from your old vinyl lp's to mp3 files, or turn mp3's or vinyl albums into music cd's. The standard version of ECDC is included with many of cd writers sold today, and provides the software to perform the basic cd writing functions, but you will need to upgrade to the platinum version if you want to make video cd's or encode mp3's or convert your old vinyl albums to cd's. ECDC5 also supports writing to 80 min cdr's, and buffer underrun technologies (burnproof,etc). ECDC5 cannot be used to make SVCD's, or to burn bin/cue image files. Roxio (a recent spinoff of Adaptec), provides this software and claims ECDC is the best selling cd writing sofware in the world. Roxio's cd writing software was incorporated into Windows XP.

"In the box" you'll find the ECDC5 software on one cd, a 19 page Getting Started guide, and an impressive, well organized User's Guide which is over 300 pages long and has an extensive table of contents and index.

If you're looking for a review of Easy CD Creator 6, click here:
Easy CD Creator 6 Platinum - A Major Upgrade that Works

Roxio's latest version of this classic software suite for cd and dvd authoring, Media Creator 7, is reviewed here:
Roxio Easy Media Creator 7 - Way Past CD Burning Now


HOW IS IT SUPPOSED TO WORK?

"Insert the cd into your cd rom drive, and follow the on screen instructions" should get most users through the installation process. After installation, ECDC5 launches whenever a blank cd is inserted into your cd writer, and presents an easy to use menu of cd writing options (make a data cd, video cd, music cd, or a copy of another cd).

INSTALLATION

Many users will be upgrading from previous versions, as was I, and unfortunately this did not go well for me. I was prompted to uninstall the previous version, and after I did that, the installation program continued to claim that I needed to remove the previous version. Apparently this has happened to others, as there are tips on the Roxio web site about how to resolve this problem. The solution required renaming system files ("dll") and editing the registry, steps not to be taken lightly.

DOES THE SOFTWARE WORK??

Yes. I installed the software on on a Windows ME system consisting of an Iomega ZipCD 12 X 4 X 20 CD Writer (w/burnproof technology), ASUS motherboard, 750MHZ Athlon CPU, 128 mg ram, Soundblaster Live, ATI Rage Fury Pro video, and 45 gig Maxtor hard drive. Once the software was installed, everything worked as advertised.
Easy CD Creator 5 is really a package of several programs. After inserting a blank cd into your cd rom drive, ECDC5 launches the Project Selector, a clean interface which allows users to select from the different options possible with this package (create a music cd, data cd, VCD, cd label, hard disk backup, etc) and then launch the correct program to the desired task. Unfortunately, this collection of programs is not always integrated well, and some have a different look and feel. On their own, each works as expected, and the parts which are actually used to create cd's work very well. A brief "review" of each of ECDC5's parts follows.

DATA CD's

The main function of any cd authoring software is to burn data to cd's. The heart of this package is its namesake program Easy CD Creator, and you'll find yourself using this program more than anything else. This software allows you to easily create data cd's, enhanced cd's (multisession cd's with music in the first session, and data for your computer in the second session), mixed mode cd's (single session cd's that contain music and data), bootable cd's, and mp3 cd's with a playlist. The user interface is explorer-like, with two windows (source and destination). Drag and drop files and directories from the source window, representing your hard drive or another cd, to a destination window that represents your blank cd. An info/status bar at the bottom of the screen visually tracks how full your cd will be, how many bytes are still available, how many files are selected, write method (track at once,TAO or disk at once, DAO), and the file system (Joliet, which suports long file names, or ISO 9660). Once you have finished selecting files, you push the record button, or choose to save an image file of this cd to your hard disk. Image files are single, large files that represent the complete set of data to be burned to a cd, and are stored in Roxio's CIF (CD Image File) format. Later you can record from this image file to one or multiple cd's. The record button brings up a menu listing options for write speed, recorder selected, number of copies, write method and whether you want to test before writing. Testing is recommended if you have made changes to your cd recorder setup.

MUSIC CD CREATOR (Music CD's)

Music CD Creator will also create music cd's that you can play back in most cd players (some older models won't recognize cdr's or cdrw's). If you are creating a music cd from mp3 or wma (windows media audio) files, ECDC5 will transparently convert these files back to wav files prior to burning on the cd. Music CD Creator allows you to add transition effects between songs (fade in/out), to adjust the gap between songs or fade one song into another. Music CD Creator will also access the Online Music Database to get information about songs on commercial cd's, and can write Universal Product Code (UPC) or International Standard Recording Code (ISRC) information so you can enter data about audio tracks yourself.
If you want to create an mp3 cd, ECDC5 will convert wave files to mp3 (32 to 320kbs) or wma (16 to 128kbs) format, although this is a separate step. ECDC5 also includes a integrated playlist editor. If you want to convert mp3's to wma files, you will need to use the Soundstream program also included in this package.
Authoring cd's can be a little confusing at times (do I want a mixed mode cd or enhanced cd?) but the ECDC5 online help is very good and ECDC5 can walk users through the needed steps. This software works very well, so well that I can't remember the last time I made a coaster. I have used this software or previous versions to burn 300 cd's.


DIRECT CD 5.0 (Packet Writing)

Direct CD formats a cdr/rw so you can treat your cd writer like a hard drive or floppy drive. This allows you to drag and drop files to a blank cd using windows explorer, and even erase files. Erasing a file from a cdr removes the file, but does not free up space, while erasing a file from a cdrw does free space. The Direct CD file system is based on Universal Disk Format (UDF) v 1.5, and uses ~ 100 mb's of disk space, reducing space available for data files. To read UDF cd's on another computer, you must make sure UDF reading software is installed on that computer. Macintosh and Windows UDF software is available free on Roxio's website, and Direct CD installs a version of the UDF reader on each formatted cd, so that when you take it to another computer, you are given the option to install it. The UDF software runs in the background once installed on a computer, allowing those computers to read UDF cd's just as they read any other cd. Direct CD also includes Scandisc, a utility to repair and recover data from bad cd's, an "undelete" utility, and an option that compresses data files as they are saved to a cd. Formatting a cd with Direct CD can take up to an hour.

UPDATE 11/02
The latest version of Easy CD Creator (5.3.2.XXX) adds Mt. Rainier Packet Writing Support to DirectCD. CD Writers with Mt. Rainier support (many 48X and faster writers), combined with Mt. Rainier capable software, can format CDRW's in a minute or less. At least CDRW's "appear" to format in a minute or less, some formating continues in the background, even while you are saving files to the cd. Eliminating the time required to format CDRW's for packet writing makes this feature much more usable.

VCD CREATOR (Video CD's for your DVD Player)

"A video CD is a disc containing video clips, .... referred to as play items. Video clips must be stored as MPEG-1 files-an iso standard for compressing video-and must conform to the White Book specification" -- Easy CD Creator 5 Platinum User's Guide.
Creating video cd's is one of the key reasons to upgrade from the standard version of ECDC5 to the platinum version. If you want to save video files to a cd to play them back on your computer, just save them to a blank cd as you would any other data. But if you own a standalone DVD player, and if it plays VCD's (most models do), and if it recognizes cdr's or cdrw's (many, but not all models do), you will want to be able to create video cd's that you can play on your DVD player.
ECDC5 will painlessly help you create video cd's from your mpg files, by (1) allowing you to add one or more play items (mpg video files) to a cd layout, (2) creating a play sequence, and (3) burning your cd layout to your blank cd. MPG files are made VCD compliant prior to burning. Adding play items and modifying the play sequence is all done through an intuitive, mouse driven interface. You can also playback your VCD layout before you burn it. Creating VCD's using video cd creator is very easy, with almost no learning curve. You do need to start with an MPG file, (not a avi file or quicktime file) and you cannot create SVCD's, which provides better picture quality on the DVD players that support the SVCD format. Fortunately, you can convert avi or quicktime files to the mpg format using the Video Impression software include with ECDC5. If you want to create (higher quality) SVCD's you will need another cd authoring program (and should seriously consider Nero Burning Rom, another well respected cd authoring program).

VIDEO IMPRESSION (VI) and PHOTORELAY (Video Editing)

VI and Photorelay are both supplied by Arcsoft. VI is a basic video editing program that can be used to save/convert video files to MPG format (352X240 NTSC VCD compliant and 352X288 PAL VCD compliant resolutions only), quicktime MOV files if you have quicktime installed on your system, the proprietary Video Impression Format (VIF), self playing VIF files, and AVI files. Most video editing programs provide many more options than this, but these options are adequate to fill the needs of the other software in the package, such as creating mpg files used to create VCD's. VI will also convert digital pictures to mpg,avi or mov slide shows, with the ability to add text to the pictures and a choice of about 50 different transitions between pictures. This software can also be used to capture video files, assuming you have a video capture card or other capture device, and can also capture wav files from your microphone. VI will meet the most basic needs of ECDC5 users, and is easy to use, but most users will want to upgrade to a more powerful program for serious video editing. I suspect most users will use this package to convert avi files to vcd format prior to burning a VCD, and to create video slideshows from digital pictures. As with other encoding software, compressing video to mpg files can take from several minutes for just a few seconds of video to many hours to compress a 1 hour tv show captured from your vcr.
Photorelay can be used to organize your digital pictures into photo albums, and to create self running cd's that can be used to share photos with others. These self running cd's include display software that launches when the cd is inserted into a cdrom drive. Options include changing the time interval between photos, playing back an audio file with the photos, and different transitions between photos.
Photos are stored on these cd's in the original jpg format, so they can be easily retrieved for other uses. These cd's were easy to create and worked well on several computer systems I tried.

CD LABEL CREATOR

ECDC5 now asks if you want to launch Label Creator after each cd is burned. This program allows you to create labels for your cd and cd cases, and provides tools to add as much graphics and text as desired. The program provides about 40 "themes" (kids data, rock music, etc) to get you started. Label Creator now includes the ability to read file names and song lengths directly from a cd and add those to the labels, a really nice feature.

TAKE TWO (Hard disk backup)

Take Two allows you to make compressed or uncompressed back ups of one or more hard disks to cdr/rw's or to another hard disk. Take Two does not allow backing up selected files or recently changed files. Restoration of individual files and folders is possible. Take Two feels like a throw in, it works, but does not offer all the power most users will want.

IMPORTANT UPDATE Take Two does not work with Windows XP. Because of this, new versions of ECDC5 do not include Take Two, and, the Roxio website says it will be disabled if you download and install the latest update for ECDC5. As of this writing, Roxio has chosen not to include an alternate backup solution with ECDC5.



SOUNDSTREAM/SPIN DOCTOR/SOUND EDITOR
(Audio capture and editing)

Another reason to upgrade from the standard version of ECDC5 is to get the Soundstream Editor and Spin Doctor. These programs help you record analog audio through your sound card, which converts the analog signal to a digital format. In addition, Spin Doctor will remove clicks, pops and hiss from your analog signal. I've found if you only have a few scratches or clicks to remove from a wave file, its better to remove the clicks manually, with the included sound editor program. Using Spin Doctor to automatically remove clicks can affect the sound quality, depending on how aggresively you adjust spin doctor's settings.
I've used this software to convert several of my old albums to cd's with very good results. The process is time consuming, and your stereo system must be close enough to your computer that you can run cables from the amplifier outputs to your sound card inputs. The signal output from most turntables and tape decks is not strong enough to connect directly to your sound card, and must be routed through an amplifier.

SUPPORT

Online techinical support on the Roxio website was extensive, and I have been able to find answers to all my questions there. Free email or phone support is available for only 90 days after you first contact Roxio, after that be prepared to pay $35.00/incident.

SHOULD YOU BUY THE PROGRAM?
If you have the standard version of ECDC, upgrading to the platinum version is recommended if you want to create VCD's or mp3's, or want to digitize music from tapes & vinyl albums, or create photo cd's.
Deciding to upgrade from ECDC4 Deluxe if more difficult, as many of the improvements are incremental. Improvements include the ability to create MP3's and WMA files, and additional sound editing features features. Direct CD continues to become more stable and includes the ability to compress files as they are saved to a cd. The video editing package is different in this version (ECDC4 included Videowave) and now includes a MPG encoder, and the ability to convert pictures, avi files and quicktime files to VCD's. The label creator now launches with one button after a cd is created and picks up the song titles and length, and file names from data cd's, and places these on the label layouts.

ECDC 5 is an excellent program and tries to include software to cover all of the expected uses of a cd writer. I have successfully used this program to burn data cd's, music cd's, VCD's, self playing photo cd's, and have converted several of my vinyl albums to cd. Most of the core functions to make data cd's, music cd's and cd labels are integrated well, but some of the other packages (like Take Two and Video Impression) feel more like recent add ons, and are appreciated, but need to be better integrated.

ECDC5 Platinum lists for $99.00 but is often on sale at Compusa and other stores for $60-$80, often with free blank cd's and/or rebates.

Recommended: Yes