Mrs. Mecomber's Scrapbook Talking technology, computers, and the Internet… for the average computer user

I’ve been in search of some video editing software that could manage my .MOV files that my Kodak camera creates. It’s been a very loooong search, almost a year now! I’ve tried all sorts of free (and purchased) video software and video converters– about a dozen, total. I was just about ready to buy a used Apple Mac so I could edit these videos– I was at wit’s end and could find nothing for my PC that could handle the .MOV files with ease.

Until now.

I have found the software of my dreams. It’s Roxio Creator 2010. (Lisa, thanks for mentioning it to me– Roxio totally rocks!!) The astute folks at Roxio had noticed my blogging lamentations about video editing software, and said they had what I needed. Honestly, I kind of doubted it at first- I’d tried so many other programs with no results. So Roxio sent me their product for a review. It was a bold move on their part, I believe. I’m pretty fussy and nothing had worked up to this point. I was shopping for used Mini Macs on eBay…. but I installed Roxio Creator on my PC, and….

:jeeters: HOLY COW!! I am very, very impressed with the software. It works it works!!

OK, now for the details.

Roxio Creator 2010 is a hefty chunk of software. It installed well on my Acer Aspire X3200 (AMD Phenom X3 at 2.1 GHz, 4 GB RAM) and my HP Pavilion a6720y (AMD Phenom X4 at 2.2 GHz, 6GB RAM), but it would not install on my Toshiba Satellite notebook (AMD Athlon X2 at 1.7 GHz, 2 GB RAM). I didn’t even try it on my computers with Celeron processor cheapies. So be watchful of your PC specs when getting the software. It requires a hefty machine.

Roxio Creator is touted as a “multimedia software suite.” Among its many capabilities, it can:

• Burn CDs, DVDs and Blu-ray discs. It has a cute desktop widget where you can drag and drop your files for burning right on your desktop. It’s a very nice feature for someone like me, who already has a dozen applications open…
• Copy and convert video files, and data, audio, photo files. The conversion process is a breeze. I love this feature because so many recording gadgets record in native Apple formats (AVI, MOV, etc) and Windows seems to have a hard time managing them.
• Edit photos. You can create slideshows, greeting cards, panoramas, etc from your photos. I haven’t yet tried this feature out. I use Paint Shop Pro for my photo and graphic designing; if I need to make slideshows in the future, the Roxio tutorials make the process look very easy.
• Manage audio files: rip music from CDs, digitize and clean up LP records and cassette tapes, and record Internet radio or music. You can create playlists and compilations.
• Edit videos and movies with Roxio’s VideoWave. This is by far the best thing about Roxio. You can record, capture, and edit videos in a zillion different ways. When you publish your video, you have a long list of formatting choices. And each formatting choice tells you the output video quality (normal, better, best) and general size (small, normal, 320 X 320, etc). I love this feature.
• The software comes with a big instruction book and some built-in video tutorials. Nice!

The software is extremely intuitive. I can’t rave enough about it. I am SO HAPPY that it works with my Kodak’s .MOV format!! I had such a hard time finding anything.

Let me elaborate on that a little– I have two video-recording devices, my Kodak Z1012 (which is a digital camera but it takes phenomenal videos) and my Samsung MR10X camcorder. The Samsung takes nice videos, but the Kodak is far superior. It was the Kodak videos that I wanted to work with. I took two videos comparing the quality. These videos were taken under same light conditions (poor indoor lighting) at the same time. You tell me what looks better!

(You can tell my daughter needs a nap, can’t you?)

But now you know why I was so eager to find software to manage my Kodak shots. Kodak’s clarity and color are better, although the zooming is poor and Samsung does a better job with that.

On to Roxio– Roxio VideoWave starts up with a GUI similar to what I’ve worked with on Windows Movie Maker, but it has more options. This is just a portion of the screen image. There’s a large media selector to the right, and a detailed storyline section below the video preview window. You can see more and better screenshots here.

But there are multitudes upon multitudes of choices and video editing candy. I could spend a week toying with them. I liked the media selector; and I love the previewing capabilities of the media, transitions, and overlays– view the clips and transitions before you put it in your storyline! Very smart.

The audio capabilities of VideoWave are incredibly impressive. You can edit the native Audio of the clip/movie, or add narration, or add effects and music. I LOVED it!

Another very cool feature is that VideoWave comes with a music media library, called “SmartSound” with music clips of varying lengths to add to your production. Here’s a quick movie I filmed of my sons– this was my first experience with VideoWave, and I spit this out in about an hour. The quality of the video diminished a little because Viddler compresses it, but it still looks outstanding.

So I think Roxio Creator 2010 ROCKS! This is high-quality software at a very affordable price. It sells retail for $100, but there’s a special promotion going on with a $20 rebate.

I will have you know that Roxio sent me this software to review, free of charge. This is my honest opinion and results of the software. I personally highly recommend Roxio. Even if I had purchased it myself, I would still be THIS excited about the software. I have never before had such success with video-editing software. I think Roxio is well worth the cost for anyone wanting to make quality videos and audio. Look no further– Roxio rocks!!