Good Program -- But Not Excellent
Written: Jun 06 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: More creation features that you can shake a stick at, excellent customer service, the best thing out there
Cons: A touch pricey, not always stable
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| DuffMan's Full Review: Individual Screen Saver Creator Deluxe Edition 5.0... |
I upgraded from Easy CD Creator 3 a while ago, and I must confess that I am much more impressed with the new version that I was with that simple program. Creator 3 came with my 4x Sony CD-RW, and it got a basic workout copying data CD's and creating music CD's from mp3's. I assumed Creator 4 Deluxe would handle these at least as well as the old version, but I've come across a couple of problems. I'll run through them quickly just so you get an idea of where I'm coming from.
Problems
1 -- The main problem I've had with Creator 4 is that it can't correctly burn mp3's with a great deal of certainty. I was thrilled when I saw the feature to burn directly from mp3, instead of first converting to wav's in Winamp. Sometimes I've burned an entire CD full, and it's worked beautifully. However, the majority of the time it just cuts songs off and overwrites the ends of some with others, as well as make them all sound like they are being played in a tin can. It's a very odd effect, and I've had it happen a number of times, each under different conditions. If anyone's got any theories, I'd love to hear from you.
2 -- I’ve head to reinstall it once simply because the program kept freezing on me. This didn't really bother me until I had to start force quitting the Disk Copier all the time, and soon it wouldn't start at all. Reinstalling fixed this problem, but it hasn't alleviated the other random crashes. Combine this with the penchant for my computer to cause a buffer underrun, which happens far more often than I'd like and I can't blame nearly as much on Creator 4, has made for simply a so-so experience.
The Good Stuff
That all said, time to leave you with a refreshing minty flavor. I can't say that everything about this program is terrible because it would just be a lie. When it works, it works like an absolute charm. Everything is super-simple, so no matter whom I sit down at the console, they need about a 2-minute briefer course and off they go burning their own CD's. And aside from the crashes, burning data CD's goes off almost without a hitch. Another feature I love is how it will download CDDB information about music CD's you copy. For backup purposes, of course. You can also make a CD-R or RW act like a standard disk drive by going through a simply procedure. The Audio Spin Doctor also nicely cleans up mp3's and wav's to make your CD's sound professional. If you've used CD Creator in the past, all the good elements are still present, with a ton of great features. The package in all is good, a tad pricey, but for the most part runs well.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
DuffMan
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Member: Evan McGee
Location: Allston, MA
Reviews written: 12
Trusted by: 8 members
About Me:
Bum.
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