Product Description

Get the most complete set of tools for creating and preserving personal video, audio, and photos. Roxio Creator 2009 Ultimate provides streamlined access to tips, tutorials, and tools. Easily work with discs, photos, video, and music. Advanced Blu-ray Disc authoring and new AVCHD video editing are also included. Creator 2009 Ultimate includes powerful audio tools like audiobook conversion for portable devices, audio mood mapping, and professional quality audio restoration.

Burn up to 50 GB of content on to 1 Blu-ray Disc Copy discs, including Blu-ray Backup your media from any iPod to your PC Import video from high-def AVCHD camcorders Upload video to YouTube Burn up to 60 minutes of high-def video on standard DVDs Convert audiobook CDs for playback on portable devices, complete with chapters and bookmarks Create party mixes with synchronized beat matching Import or capture music from virtually any source - CDs, LPs, tapes, the internet AutoMix - create a playlist based on 1 song Organize thousands of photos Calibrate your printer Minimum System Requirements Windows Vista Home Basic, XP SP2 (32- or 64- bit), 1 GHz processor and 512 MB RAM 1024x768 DirectX 9 compatible graphics card with at least 16-bit color setting, sound card, DVD-ROM drive Hard drive with at least 3 GB free space for installation

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2261 in Software
• Brand: Roxio
• Model: 242300FM
• ESRB Rating: Everyone
• Platforms: Windows Vista, Windows XP
• Format: DVD-ROM
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: .85 pounds

Features

• High-Def/Blu-ray Disc Plug-in - author high-definition video content on to Blu-ray discs, with 20 menu styles
• Back up your entire hard disk including the operating system, files, settings and programs
• BIAS SoundSoap advanced audio noise reduction software dramatically removes all types of unwanted noise from almost any audio, music or video soundtrack
• SmartSound SonicFire Pro - orchestrate sophisticated music tracks and create the perfect sound track for your video productions with Mood Mapping. Select from 1700+ music tracks
• Compress a 9 GB DVD video to fit on a 4.7 GB DVD

Amazon.com
New Roxio Creator 2009 makes it easy for family members of every age and experience level to transform photos and video from digital cameras, camcorders, and camera phones into awesome photo and video stories to share with family and friends--safely online on your personal Roxio web page, on DVD or Blu-ray Disc, or on-the-go--on an iPod, mobile phone or another portable player. Roxio Creator 2009 Ultimate includes everything in Roxio Creator 2009, plus over $300 in extras for just $30 more.

The ultimate in creating and preserving personal video and audio

Be Ready Before Disaster Strikes Back up your entire hard disk including the operating system, files, settings and programs and protect yourself against a system or disk crash, virus attack or other catastrophic failure. Click to enlarge.

Hear the Music, Not the Scratches BIAS SoundSoap advanced audio noise reduction software dramatically removes all types of unwanted noise from almost any audio, music or video soundtrack. Intelligent algorithms provide fast sound restoration. Click to enlarge.

Give Your Movie a Professional Soundtrack SmartSound SonicFire Pro lets you easily orchestrate sophisticated music tracks like a professional and create the perfect sound track for your video productions. Click to enlarge.

Get maximum impact from your HD video
The new, and easy-to-use, High-Def/Blu-ray Disc Plug-in for Creator 2009 gives users the ability to author high-definition video content on to Blu-ray discs! To get you started on your HD journey, we've included 20, high-resolution menu styles, covering a wide range of themes from family activities to sports and more.

Be ready before disaster strikes
Back up your entire hard disk including the operating system, files, settings and programs and protect yourself against a system or disk crash, virus attack or other catastrophic failure. Recover individual files or restore your PC even if the operating system refuses to start.

Hear the music, not the scratches
BIAS SoundSoap advanced audio noise reduction software dramatically removes all types of unwanted noise from almost any audio, music or video soundtrack. Intelligent algorithms provide fast sound restoration.

Give your movie a professional soundtrack
SmartSound SonicFire Pro lets you easily orchestrate sophisticated music tracks like a professional and create the perfect sound track for your video productions. SonicFire Pro is the first-ever music solution with "Mood Mapping". Select from 1700+ music tracks and adjust the mix and feel of the music to perfectly suit your videos and slideshows.

Keep your precious memories safe

Roxio delivers the industry's best and easiest burning and copying tools for protecting your life stories, digital media and files

Easily protect what you can't replace
Quickly back up your photos, video, music and irreplaceable data to CDs, DVDs, Blu-ray Disc, and even networked volumes/disks. Schedule unattended backups and secure your data with encryption and password protection

Copy everything, copy faster
Easily copy* data, audio, photo or video CDs, DVDs and Blu-ray Discs. Copy an entire 9 GB DVD movie onto a standard 4.7 GB DVD up to 60% faster.

Find disc files...even without the disc
Creator 2009 keeps you organized by automatically cataloging disc contents. Search for contents even when the discs are not in the drive.

Burn with confidence and ease
Roxio delivers the industry's best and easiest burning and copying tools for protecting your life's stories, digital media and files.

Edit movies and burn DVDs like a pro

Capture all the excitement and vivid colors of your videos shot with your standard, HD or AVCHD camcorder. Then, transform your footage into a splashy movie using Creator 2009's flexible video editing tools, perfect for all levels of ability and interest.

Movies magic--easy as 1-2-3
Create fun movies from your photos and videos automatically. Just pick the clips and pictures you want to use, select a theme and music, and let Creator assemble and produce a finished movie in minutes.

High definition without the high price
Burn up to 60 minutes* of HD video using your existing DVD burner and then play it on your HDTV using a Playstation 3 and other Blu-ray players. Choose from dozens of standard and high-resolution menu styles, covering a wide range of themes from family activities to sports and more.

High definition without the high price
Burn up to 60 minutes* of HD video using your existing DVD burner and then play it on your HDTV using a Playstation 3 and other Blu-ray players. Choose from dozens of standard and high-resolution menu styles, covering a wide range of themes from family activities to sports and more.

Free your HD videos from your camcorder
Capture your special moments with your standard, HD or AVCHD camcorder, then easily create engaging stories using your photos, video and music.

Give your life the soundtrack it deserves

Make the most of your digital music with hot playlists for any occasion. And, to keep everybody dancing, Creator's 2009 new beat matching feature will automatically synchronize the rhythm from song to song.

Enjoy CD audiobooks without the CDs
Convert audiobook CDs, complete with chapters and bookmarks, for easy playback on iTunes, iPod, iPhone and other portable players.

Create playlists to match any mood
Create hot music playlists for any mood or occasion. And, to keep everybody dancing, Creator's 2009 new beat matching feature will automatically synchronizes the rhythm from song to song.

Still love that old time rock and roll?
Digitize your classic analog LPs and tapes, and then automatically convert into a preferred file format for sending to your iPod or other mobile devices.

Name that tune...automatically
Creator automatically adds title, artist and genre information to your audio files-even those captured from Internet radio, LPs, tapes or streaming music services.

New Design Innovative design provides one-click access to frequent projects and tools. Get inspired and optimize your 'digital life', read "how-to" articles on key features, or view video tutorials that will lead you step-by-step through your projects. Click to enlarge.

Burning Roxio delivers the industry's best and easiest burning and copying tools for protecting your life's stories, digital media and files. Creator includes enhanced multi-core processor support for the latest CPUs. Click to enlarge.

Video Capture your special moments with your standard definition, HD or AVCHD camcorder. Then easily create engaging stories using your photos, video and music. Creator supports standard and HD video in the most popular formats. Click to enlarge.

Turn snapshots into fun keepsakes

Make every picture perfect with Creator's touch-up tools and effects. Combine today's photos and yesterday's memories into fun cards, calendars and other digital stories to share and enjoy with family and friends.

Unforgettable cards and calendars made easy
Turn today's photos and yesterday's memories into one-of-a-kind greeting cards, calendars, collages and more.

Create your stories online in minutes
Simply select your photos and add professionally-designed styles, themes, fun effects, animated graphics, and a musical soundtrack. Securely share your online stories on Roxio private web page.

Make every picture perfect
Make the most of every picture with Creator's touch-up tools and effects. Correct color and exposure, fix red-eye, erase wrinkles and blemishes, crop and straighten photos.

Put every photo at your fingertips
A picture is worth a thousand words, if you can find it. Tag, assign keywords and instantly find your favorite photos.

Share a lifetime of memories

Easily share the stories of your life with relatives and friends both near and far. Relive memories in the comfort of your living room, on DVD, on-the-go, or share with the world on YouTube or other popular destinations. The new Roxio Online service is now integrated into Creator 2009, so you can create and share basic photo stories right within the application!

Enjoy in the comfort of your living room
Relive your favorite events and travels with family and friends from the comfort of your living room. Create DVDs and Blu-ray Discs*, or, get your online photo stories on professional-quality DVDs.

Take your shows on the road
View your special events and memories on your iPod, iPhone or other portable player to enjoy virtually anywhere.

Share online with privacy and security
Choose from public or private sharing options on your FREE Roxio web page and only share your photos with the people you invite to see them.

Share with the world
What have you been up to lately? Let the whole world know by posting your photo diary to YouTube or other popular online sharing destinations.

Key Features

Burning & Copying

• New! Up to 60% faster DVD conversion; compress an entire 9 GB DVD video to fit on a standard 4.7 GB DVD disc
• Burn up to 50 GB of content on to one Blu-ray Disc
• Quickly back up to CDs, DVDs, Blu-ray Disc, even networked volumes/disks
• Schedule unattended backups, and even secure your discs with encryption and password protection
• Copy discs in a few clicks, including the latest Blu-ray discs
• Create virtual disc drives and load disc images
• Stay organized by cataloging disc contents--search for disc content even when the discs are not in the drive
• Span large files and projects across multiple CDs or DVDs
• Burn a disc and create a disc image file at the same time
• Backup your favorite audio, movies or TV shows from any iPod to your PC

Video

• New! Import video from high-def AVCHD camcorders
• New! Easily convert video, audio and now photos to your preferred formats right from your desktop, and send to portable devices
• Automatically create fun video stories from your photos, videos and music
• Add titles and scrolling credits to your video production
• Trim and cut video clips
• Timeline and storyboard views help you lay out your project
• Automatically fix video color, contrast and brightness
• Overlay multiple images, text or video clips; create picture-in-picture effects
• Capture and edit HD video
• Quickly and easily upload video to YouTube

Music Give your life the soundtrack it deserves with hot playlists for any occasion. And, to keep everybody dancing, Creator's 2009 new beat matching technology will automatically synchronize cross fades and transitions to be perfectly in sync from song to song. Click to enlarge.

Photo Combine today's photos and yesterday's memories into impressive gifts using your own photos. Create fun calendars, greeting cards, collages and other digital stories to share and enjoy with family and friends. Click to enlarge.

Sharing Easily share the stories of your life with relatives and close friends. Relive those special moments on DVD in the comfort of your living room, transfer to iPod or other portable player for on-the-go enjoyment, or share with the world on YouTube or other popular sharing destinations. Click to enlarge.

DVD Creation

• New! Burn up to 60 minutes* of high-def video on standard DVDs using your existing DVD burner
• Turn your home videos into striking DVDs complete with animated menus and fully orchestrated music
• Create compilation DVDs from DVD-Video, DivX and WMV files
• Produce Hollywood-style DVDs with motion menus and resizable buttons
• Enjoy stunning new standard and high-def DVD menu styles for all occasions
• Exercise full creative control over DVD menu options
• Go from camera to DVD in a few clicks with Plug & Burn--the fastest way to create a DVD from your camcorder video
• Control end-of-play action and link menu elements to specific files
• Add a menu overlay--change size, orientation, transparency and more
• Play any VCD, SVC or DVD-Video disc including Hollywood DVDs
  *Actual recording time varies depending on video content and DVD capacity.

Music

• New! Easily convert audiobook CDs for convenient playback on iPods and other portable devices complete with chapters and bookmarks
• New! Create smooth party mixes with synchronized beat matching between tracks
• New! Auto-trim silence in recorded music tracks to eliminate annoying gaps
• Create music playlists with cross-fades and export to portable devices
• Import or capture music from virtually any source, including CDs, LPs, tapes, and the internet
• Convert multiple audio tracks into a different format for payback on a broad variety of devices, in one step
• Simultaneously rip CDs from multiple drives
• Build an audio library by capturing Internet radio or any PC-based audio source directly from your desktop
• Convert audio and video files to your preferred format with the desktop gadget
• Rip music from CDs or concert DVDs*
• Use AutoMix to create the perfect playlist based on a single "seed" song
• Digitize your analog LPs and cassettes to add them to your MP3 player
• Automatically add title, artist and genre information to your music tracks--even those captured from Internet radio or streaming music services
• Span dozens of songs and compilations across multiple audio CDs
  *Does not rip or copy encrypted or copy protected content

Photo

• Organize thousands of photos & create custom views to find photos quickly
• Turn your photos into one-of-a-kind calendars, greeting cards, collages, and more
• Create dazzling standard or high definition slideshow photo stories
• Add a royalty-free soundtrack to your slideshows
• Easily correct color and exposure
• Fix red eye, erase wrinkles and blemishes, crop and straighten photos
• Use powerful editing brushes
• Edit multiple images and layers at the same time
• Adjust photos to match your mobile device's screen resolution
• Add effects like transparency and edge fading, and change color tone
• Add attractive mats and frames to photos
• Auto-fix your camera phone photos
• Show off any picture on your mobile phone, full screen, without borders or bars

Mobile

• Synchronize digital media from your PC to your mobile device
• Queue up files to transfer to your mobile device even if it's not connected to your PC
• Create a custom profile for your mobile phone
• Seamlessly integrate with Windows Vista media folders
• Easily transfer digital media from camera phone to PC via Bluetooth or USB cable
• Send audio mixes to iPod, PSP and other players to enjoy on the go
• Convert audio and video files to popular formats to play on most popular mobile devices

Disc Label Creation

• Create personalized disc labels, DVD case inserts and booklets
• Choose from professional-quality templates or create your own
• Add a photo index to your disc label or insert to locate your photos
• Calibrate your printer to take the guesswork out of printing disc labels

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Customer Reviews

Takes advantage of better pc speed and power
For me version 8 was the ultimate. It brought me into the digital media world and I've been archiving and organizing my media. My dad had a bunch of old home movies on vhs. I decided to get Ultimate 2009 with a video converter. The converter is very small, like a thumbdrive. Before I started I used the new roxio utility to backup the hard drive. I know there are a lot of programs that do this but since it's included I won't slack off about backing up.
Starting the conversion wasn't very hard. Whatevers playing on the vcr shows in the roxio creator window. After I found this out I freed the vcr from the tv and moved it closer to the desktop. It captured video in 720 x 480 resolution. My next step was editing down the video. The video programs are so much better than the one in 8. I think it is worth getting the hang of videowave even if its more difficult than cinemagic. It does a lot more and I had tighter control over the cuts.
Next step was making a dvd. Old tapes didn't have HD quality so I didn't use that feature. I made a virtual disk first so I could make another copy easilly. I chose the dvd-vcr format to make it work in the dvd player. The dvd menu selection is also much better. Even my dad was able to use it like a store bought movie dvd. The virtual disk made the extra copy creation fast.
Just using a few features I can see that there are many improvements from version 8. I didn't use any versions in between so I can't say anything about them. I'm happy that I could make an archive of the videos so easily.

List of features...My opinion...and problems
Let me break it down...

(I've had this for about 3 months now, and I thought I'd revisit my thoughts on this product (Feb. 17, 2009). In this first part I wanted to cover the features for those wondering what this thing actually does)

Media Import - is one of those organizer things. It detects and organizes your different files

Audio - Rips and converts CD's to MP3, WMA
Records Internet radio
Converts Audio Books to MP3
Tags audio (artist, title, composer, etc.)

Sound Editor - You are able to import and change audio

Create Music Discs - Create CD or DVD with MP3, etc.

Photo - Edit photos (crop, red eye, add text)

DVD - Copy DVD's, put video cam videos on DVD, add titles
Change file formats (ex. .MOV to . MP4)

Data Discs - Put data from your computer on a disc

Movie player - Watch movies on this

Sound Soap (Ultimate) - clean up hissing audio on audio and video tracks

Soundfire Pro (Ultimate) - Mix tracks according to BPM (I think) Mix audio tracks to put over your video (So basically, you could make a music video)

Bluray - (Ultimate) I think the Ultimate comes with the Bluray plug-in, but the box says you must purchase it in one section. I'm pretty sure it comes with it. One interesting feature concerning Bluray is that you can use your existing burner to burn Bluray, and if I'm reading the box correctly, burn Bluray onto regular DVD's?

Disaster Recovery (Ultimate?)- Back up your hard drive

Other stuff - If you want to work with .MOV, you have to download Quick Time from Apple,

Product comes with a 250 page booklet which is a nice touch, although the deeper features of the product are not covered

You can take recorded Tivo and convert the files to be watched on DVD or mobile device

If you have the right hardware, you can import old LP's, VHS and cassettes and manipulate them (I think you can clean up the audio with SoundSoap)

You can make calendars, greeting cards, etc.


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My Opinion (after threee months)

The good - you get a good sprinkling of decent apps all in one package. It's user-friendly, and lets you prepare stuff with tags for big names like YouTube, PSP, iPhone etc. without having to be bothered by file types etc.

The bad - Some of the functions are for things that a basic Windows OS already does.

Is it worth it? - It's a little pricey but some of the programs are pretty nice.

Sound Editor could be cool for making ringtones, etc. or editing audio to put in your productions

Movie Player - Do I really need another movie player?

Photo Editor - (Why buy, when GIMP is the nicest freeware out there?) The user friendliness of Roxio makes it easy to touch up a photo or remove red eye, but lacks more sophisticated functions.

Making Slide Shows and videos - MS Movie Maker does a good job, but lacks file support for MPEG-4 so Roxio is now my preferred video editing software. (Some functions like rotating video 90 degrees, Roxio doesn't have and MS MM does. The two combined are great)

So is it worth it? - With the amount of features it has for manipullating media, I'd say it's worth it, now that they've fixed some of the bugs.


Video files supported -
Input (dvd, WMV, DivX, HD DivX, DMF,DVR-MS,MPEG-4, H.264, MP4 (PT. 2),DV-AVI, 3GP, .TS, TiVo, MOV
Output (DVD, WMV, DIVX, 3GP, 3G2, MPEG2, MP4 (PT. 2), MPEG-4

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After using the programs:

burnt a DVD movie in something crazy like 15 minutes! (Impressed with this) Importing the DVD breaks it down into chapters, etc. so you can just import Ch 3 of a given movie.

Converted a medium sized file from DVD to MPEG-4 and it took a few hours (longer than I expected given the fast speed of the DVD burn)

burnt an MP3 disc in about 5 minutes

Uploaded a file to YouTube, all I had to do was enter my screen name and password into Roxio, and it did it for me.

Edited a video using VideoWave. It does a good job adding titles etc. (like Windows Movie Maker) but is better than Movie Maker because it supports MP4 format. Video wave is a fun way to make videos! It easily imports and converts multiple files.

Converted a Quicktime video to DVD and burnt it to a DVD for play on a TV. It has a program that creates a DVD menu for your video and puts all the videos into chapters. It looks nice.

Burnt a few discs with LightScribe. They look good, but make sure there's a picture on the preview of the disc. If it's all black, you might need to restart your software or your computer.

Converted video files to watch on my phone. They look good

Used SoundSoap - From what I've read about this program, if you can isolate a sound (like a hiss or buzz) this program is great. I tried to take out some of the vibration from a loud concert, and there wasn't much the program could do. It seems like a good program though.

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PROBLEMS - (I've experienced many crashes and other stuff earlier, but recent updates have addressed these problems (I think))

**I spent several hours in the past trying to convert videos for play on my cell phone, and only got the sound and a black screen. The problem - I now know - was with Vista and my ATI (GPU) drivers. Updating the ATI patch from Microsoft (and I think .NET update has something to do with it too???) helped Roxio to reconfigure the video settings, and I am finally able to edit videos!

One note to people using VideoConvert. For some reason if you open a file, close Video Convert and later try to access the same file, the program crashes. (VideoConvert has stopped working) A work-around is to simply rename the file, but this can become tedious if you're trying to convert files chapter by chapter.

I haven't experienced this in a while, but in the past kept receiving the message "Roxio VideoConvert has stopped working" and the program would crash. (update - some things still crash, but not as bad as before, and most of the software will work by just re-starting it)

Tried using SoundSoap, but it crashes when I try to edit video in it (The problem with this was my fault. I tried importing an MP4 h.264 video from my Sony
Webbie (camera). I guess the Sony "wrapper" on the MP4 file is not recgnized and made the program crash. Using VideoConvert, I converted the file to MP4, and it worked in SoundSoap)

Another annoying occurance - tried converting a video file with a thing called SyncIt! The nice thing about this feature is that you can select a device that you want your file to go to (ex. mobile device) and it is supposed to convert the file so that the device can play it. First of all, the whole SynchIt! window is tiny (about the size of two desktop icons) Why it's so tiny, I don't know, because SynchIt! will use 90% of your processor, so it's not like you'll be doing anything else with your computer during the mean time. Next, it took an hour to convert the file. During that time, my mobile device went to sleep. Instead of asking me to wake it up, or saving the file, it just said something like, "process cannot be completed" and shut down. So I wasted a few hours of my time, and maxed out my processor during that time....for nothing.

Tried to burn a movie but accidentally put a coaster (bad disc) in, and the burning program tried to burn for like 10 minutes before recognizing that the disc was bad.

Program (home screen) won't fit to screen and you can't drag the sides to make it smaller. The result is that I can't see the bottom of the page. How can a program not fit right on a screen?

[...]

The big icons and clean look take a way a lot of the functionality of drop down menus. It's so spartan that there are no menus to check on settings for things like setting screen size or what drive is linked to a certain program.

Lightscribe drivers weren't installed, and had to go online to find a program to find it. I put the link before, but Amazon removed it.

Music Disc Creator doesn't tell you how much free space is left on the disc when importing, so you either have to guess or add it up yourself

Still reliable and innovative
When I got Creator 8 I needed the dual layer burning feature. Now I need HD video burning, better music and video features, and portable device conversions. That's the reason I upgraded to Creator 2009. Like others I wonder if anyone is confused with the dropping of the version numbers and using the year to name the suite. I also got the Ultimate version this time to get the tape converter device.

I agree with others that the interface is much easier to use. With so many programs it's a big deal to be able to navigate around. IT still has user-friendly burning programs. Even making an HD formatted disk on a dual-layer dvd standard burner was straight forward. It also doesn't hurt that it's a way to save money on disks, especially in these uncertain times.

The music features have been pumped up. Ver. 8 did not have custom music tracks like 2009. Sometimes a well known song detracts from video/slide shows so some background music is a good feature. Another new thing is the playlist can be generated from one to many songs and then transferred to the ipod. It supports other devices but I only have an ipod to try it on.

In the video program arena there is no comparison. The programs are much easier to learn and have more tools. It is also helpful that it takes cell phone videos and photos since I have a lot of them. Both the photo and video programs work in layers so you can make one change and save or delete as you work on the same file.

I saw a list of video converters that work with the program and it is extensive. Since I bought Ultimate Roxio has there own brand included. My mom wanted to take a bunch of home video tapes to the drugstore to get them on dvds. The price though would have been outrageous. I took over the chore myself. Once I started the conversion I could go on to other things and cut off the file whenever. All the tools are in the suite to edit the video, label it, back it up, add a soundtrack, add titles.