Features

• Learn to prepare projects for film, broadcast, DVD, and the Web
• 4-plus hour training; work alongside expert, Evan Schechtman
• Topics include color correction; audio mixing; compositing; media management
• Teaches new applications of LiveType, Soundtrack, Compressor, and Cinema Tools
• Covers techniques used at Outpost Digital in professional TV and film editing

Reviews (3)

Poor amateurish job.
Yeah! If you are too lazy to read VERY GOOD documentation that comes with FCP4 and have ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA what NLE systems are, it is for you. Technically it is very poor, amateurish video. They should learn themselves how to use Final Cut , not to teach other. All recordings have a jumpy unbalanced and unabridged audio. In the first two lessons guys probably have played with some effects, to figure out what Final Cut is. The text on the package states that he is "professional editor", LOL. I would not be trust him to edit my vacation footage, the word "professional" n our time has many interpretations .
In the second lesson there is missing sub-lesson.
Video jumpy and poorly synchronized with sound. In some places it looks like a jock, the lips moves in almost second after the word was sounded.
The lessons are full with common bla-bla-bla, near third of lessons are "introductions" of any sort.
I found that FREE lessons on AVID website with approximation to FCP are more helpful AND WORLDS BEYOND PROFESSIONALLY.

Easy Quick Start to a Very Deep Program
Anyone using or wanting to use Final Cut Pro 4.0 should seriously consider investing in Magnet Media's tutorial series Inside Final Cut Pro. The DVD is packed with live video demonstrating step-by-step the basic operations, interface navigation and advanced techniques you'll want to use whether you are a hobbyist or professional videographer. I found the samples to be pertinent and the instruction straight forward.

The Video begins with an overview of the interface. Despite the fact that I've used FCP 1.25 through 3.0, I found new insights into how to better utilize FCP and its core features with this section. The lessons are taught by Evan Schectman, a professional editor and the founder of Outpost Digital, and I found him to be warm and without the arrogance and elitism of many editor/teachers. I understoood most lessons the first time through. Others, such as the concept of "nesting" and the Pro-audio features I have watched a few times through. Again, this is another benefit of this type of learning. You never have to reread anything. You simply replay the lesson as often as you need to. The learning feedback is simple and painless.

One tip-despite the fact that the DVD only runs on a Mac with a dvd drive-the files on the DVD are readable on a PC equipped with a DVD drive and quicktime (although trying to figure out which files are which can be a challenge) - I used this methed often to following along with Evan when things got complicated - worked like a charm.

Some other features covered are color-correction (fantastic overview with practical applications) compositing and animation, for those that wish to stay exclusively in FCP with out straying to the likes of After Effects or Combustion - Introductions to Soundtrack and Livetype, both new applications within the FCP 4.0 suite.

Overall I was impressed and thoughly pleased with my experience with Magent Media's Training. I believe this is the future of self-education in the video editing realm. Books can be cumbersome and time consuming. With Magnet medias Inside Final Cut Pro, you have an all-in-one instructor on a disc you can pull out for a refresher anytime you wish. And you never have to leave your house to get it!

-Craig

Great Training & Exceptional Value
This is an efficient and comprehensive way to get up to speed on Final Cut Pro 4. The instructor is clear and thorough and the examples are tremendously helpful. Best of all - it includes 7 hours of taining.

I learned more with this Inside Editing DVD than I have in many courses and weekend workshops I've taken.

I highly recommend this training DVD for anyone - from beginner to advanced - who wants to become a master at Final Cut Pro 4. ... Read more

Features

• Powerful photo manager for finding, organizing, and editing photos
• Create quality prints or Flash and PDF slideshows
• Instantly share pictures online or via cell phone
• Edit photos and convert file formats like a professional
• Print high-quality photos; keep photo collections safe

Features

• Nearly a million digital images for your personal use, on 8 DVDs
• Hundreds of thousands of fully scalable vector clip art images & illustrations
• nearly 400,000 images and graphics designed for the Web, andnow available to you
• 1,500 animations you can add freely to any Web page, presentation or other project
• Take advantage of Photo-Objects - the pre-masked set of photographic objects you can add with drag-and-drop simplicity

Reviews (2)

Good solid collection on DVD
This may be the only collection a smaller designer or hobbyist may ever need, as it's so dang HUGE. The interface is pretty good for searching through this monster, and automates the easy export to a wide variety of formats for various uses.

It's important to note that despite the "media" statement at the top of this page, this is on DVD, not CD-ROM; which is a good thing, as the 30GB of pictures would take up nearly 50 CDs, weight a ton, and need a much bigger box!

800K is enough.
Need clip art? Then get this. It has nearly everything it seems. I searched for "cabinet" and there were an amazing amount of cabinets. It is just a wonderful set of art for a small price. People who do web design will love this product. The search engine is pretty good. I needed to download the patch though, since the search engine kept crashing. ... Read more

Features

• Draw virtually anything -- the advanced tools make it easy to manage layers, construct advanced geometric shapes, and edit in a snap
• Sophisticated editing features and extensive text manipulation
• Multiple drawing shortcuts for making accurate drawings, faster than ever
• Extensive dimensioning and annotation features
• Compatible with files from other CAD programs such as AutoCAD, TurboCAD and CADKey

Features

• Import your new photos from any scanner or digital camera
• You can also import sounds in MP3, WAV or audio format, and add them to your memories
• Fix pictures to make them seem new with the restoration tools
• Easy storyboard mode and timeline tools make it a snap to turn your pictures into a story
• Use the design and layout tools to create your own chapter menus and create layouts, text and more

Reviews (6)

Looks easy to use, but it's not
At first glance this software looks easy to use: drag and drop your photos, and viola, you have a slideshow. But the software is not at all user friendly so you end up spending your whole time trying to figure it out. I spent my first 15 minutes just trying to find the browser button so I could upload some photos! Turns out it was a miniscule obscure button about the size of a fingernail sliver. The manual is useless because it tells you to consult the help section, and the help section is a copy of the manual. The "Create CD/DVD" part of the software is even more confusing. You end up resorting to clicking on everything in sight to see what happens, and then you have to wait and wait because the software is so slow. I started wondering if I was having problems with my mouse or computer, but no, it was the software.

If after all this work at least I had ended up with a decent slideshow, I would have given this a 3 star rating. But I wasn't able to get anything usable. There are tons of bugs in the audio, so that when you add backround music you end up erasing photos, eliminating the audio track of the videos, changing the times the photos are displayed, or the whole thing simply crashes.

On top of all of this, the software doesn't do what it advertises and what I bought it specifically to do: create presentations that can be copied onto a CD-Rom and seen on a computer. Turns out that in CD-Rom format you can copy the photos, but not the videos. And the sound tracks also don't copy as backround music but as separate tracks. Or at least that's what I think. I can't be sure because the playback software which automatically copies onto the CD-Rom is so incredibly confusing that I never did figure it out.

I have yet to try to make a copy of my presentation in VCD format for my DVD player. Maybe that will work out better, but I'm not holding my breathe.

I really regret having bought this, especially considering all the other options there are out there. Keep looking and buy some other software for your photo slideshows!

Pictures to CD & DVD
I was very dissapointed in this software. You can only aquire pictures from a digital camera or a scanner.I have several folders of pictures on my PC hard drive and I can't down load them into this program. 5 emails to Magix about this problem and so far they asked me to send them some of my pictures to look at "?". In there return emails not one gave me a way to down load from my hard drive. This would be a great program except for this one problem.

Terrible product!
I wish I had checked these reviews before I actually bought it. At first, the product seems easy to use. But adding music and aligning it with the photos is the first trouble. I have approximately 100 pictures in the slide show, which should not be too much for a video that I want to play on TV, but the software gets awfully slow. Saving the show resulted in an error message with a couple of hours of work lost.

I thought Magix was a brand name that I can trust. Be careful before you buy it!

Every Feature Has A Bug
This program is so full of bugs it's extremely frustating to use. Examples:

In addition to an upgrade, a separate CD burner patch is required to be downloaded to get a list of supported drives, with note that if your drive is not listed and not brand new, you're out of luck.

If you try to use the playback option while recording audio, i.e., dubbing your voice onto the track while watching the video as you record, you get a soundcard conflict. The only way to dub narration is to turn off the playback option so you can't see whats playing as you speak.

There are no options for volume, background music is too loud to hear narration.

In storyboard mode, the cursor sometimes gets out of sync with the preview, so you don't really know what clip you have selected.

Image editing gets mixed up, if you rotate an image, the next time you select it, it may preview rotated or not.

Rotated images used in the DVD menu don't retain the rotation.

The built in file explorer is difficult to navigate. If you open a directory containing MPG's, the explorer tries to scan through the entire file before displaying the file names. Gigabyte size files take forever.

If you listen/preview a music file with media player (external to this program), the program errors and terminates when you return to it, due to some soundcard driver conflict.

When you click around enough to get a music file selected in the file explorer to play/preview in this program, it sometimes goes into this buzzing mode, then inserts the music file into your project.

Sometimes when you select and drag a music file into your program, the built in windows file explorer jumps to the top of itself and imports a different file than what you selected.

Poor picture quality
After my recent vacation, I was excited to find this program and to share copies of my digital pictures with friends and family who could watch them on their TVs. The program had some nice features and seemed easy to use. Unfortunately, I spent too much time putting my slideshow together without testing the end result first. The pictures I took were high resolution (1200x1600) but the resulting quality when watching the CD on my TV was very poor. ... Read more

Amazon.com Product Description

iLife provides four multimedia applications in one package: iTunes for managing music, iPhoto for digital photography, iMovie for editing digital video, and iDVD for creating your own DVDs. They are all integrated so that they work together seamlessly.

Play, download, import, and do more with Apple’s premiere digital music player iTunes 3. It gives you instant access to your music library and playlists from within the other applications in iLife, just as they are in iTunes. And you can quickly sample your music too--a play button is included so you won’t have to launch iTunes just to find that perfect track. Do more with your digital photos with iPhoto 2. Organize, edit, share, and even set photos to music. Use the Retouch wand tool to make blemishes disappear like magic. And get access to your photo albums directly from iMovie and iDVD, and bring in music for your slideshows from iTunes.

The latest version of the digital video software that helped Mac users create a million movies, iMovie 3 brings several new features to your screens, including Skywalker Sound Effects and visual effects like Lens Flare, Fairy Dust, Earthquake, and the Ken Burns Pan and Zoom Effect.If you have an Apple SuperDrive, you’ll want to take advantage of all that iDVD 3 has to offer. Create DVDs with chapter markers, search your iTunes library and find music for your projects, and create instant DVD slideshows by selecting your iPhoto album, with dozens of new Hollywood-style themes to choose from. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Great Collection
This is a collection of iTunes 3, iPhoto 2, iMovie 3, and iDVD 3 that Apple offers on all their latest machines with Superdrive installed. All but iDVD 3 are available as downloads from the Apple website, but it is worth the $...or whatever to get them altogether and include the iDVD 3. The iDVD 3 is not available as a download because of its size (>1.3 gig) Each of the four programs is good, but the seamless combination of the four (five including iPod) makes this system an easy to learn combination. After looking for almost a year and a half at different software/hardware combinations for editing and converting (to digital for DVD), I decided on the Mac and the iLife package. There are certainly more powerful individual programs available on both the PC and Mac platforms, but this combination beats everything else that I looked at for ease of use and simplicity in learning. I am very pleased with my decision.

Worth four times the price
Where to start to talk about how amazing the latest offering is from Apple for the Macintosh? Let's take it one step at a time.

iMovie 3: Apple took their already great DV editing program and added so many new features it's almost mind boggling! Drag and drop from your iPhoto photo library. Drag and drop from your iTunes music library. Granted, you were able to do these things before in a somewhat clumsy way through the "import" command, but this makes it beyond easy. Chapter support (The ability to break up longer videos on DVD's to easily skip back and forth) for iDVD. Individual volume control for each audio track at any point in the track. One click access for all three of the other iApps. New titles, new transitions, the "Ken Burns" effect with stills. No other DV software available for ANY platform is as easy to use as this. Also if you download from Apple it's FREE!

iPhoto: Still mostly looks the same, but there is now support for the other digital lifestyle iApps built in. The "Retouch" editing feature works amazing well. Also if you download it from Apple it's FREE! If your into serious photo editing, you'll still want a companion program. Photoshop Elements is a good choice. 70% of Photoshop at 1/5 of the price.

iTunes: I honestly don't see much difference here. I'm sure changes were made to integrate it with the other iApps. Still a great program though. If you download it from Apple (deja vu) it's FREE!

iDVD: Some new themes, some new features make this a worthy addition to any SuperDrive equipped Mac. No other DVD authoring software I've seen is as easy to use and as intuitive as iDVD. AND if you download it from Apple it's....um....not available. iDVD can only be purchased as part of the iLife package AND then only installed if you have a Superdrive equipped (internal drive only and as far as I know ONLY if installed by Apple) G4 PowerMac.

Complaints: Yeah a few. iMovie crashed a few times while performing multiple operations (granted it was doing 4 "Ken Burns" and 5 transitions at the time) on my 933 SuperDrive G4 Quicksilver Tower. Also the Apple restricts iDVD to only those people who bought their SuperDrive equipped G4 computers. C'mon Apple! We bought the hardware. Let us configure it ourselves without penalties! Also, you must be running at least 10.1.5 or later (10.2 HIGHLY recommended). System 9 users are officially out in the cold for this product.

In conclusion: If you meet the hardware/software specs, this is a must buy! No SuperDrive? Find a fast online connection and download the other pieces.

iLife puts it all together!
If you're on a Mac, you've probably used at least one of these programs by now. If not, you're missing out on what Steve Jobs calls "The hub of your digital lifestyle."

iMovie - For the amatuer film maker, or somebody who just wants to edit their own home movies, this is a cakewalk. Once you connect your camera through a Firewire port, you import your video. Add titles. Add fades, transitions, etc... Add some background music. Then, download it back to your camera (or, with a bridge, to a VCR). Better yet, save it out and import the video to iDVD for burning.

iDVD - I can't begin to tell you how easy this is. Create a menu (or select one of the many theme menus). Import your video. Click burn to DVD. It is literally that easy. I made a DVD of our improv troupe for all the members' Christmas gifts.

iTunes - If it's a music file... mp3, aiff, wav... it can import to iTunes. Create a music CD. Burn it as a standard or mp3 CD with a single click.

iPhoto - You can set this up to open and import the images as soon as your camera mounts to the desktop. Organize the images. Edit them for color or size. Then, burn a CD, make a slideshow, or even order a personalized bound book with your images and text.

The one major flaw of these programs has been the lack of manuals (except through third parties). A small price to pay for this kind of quality. Also, if you have no need for iDVD, the other three are available for download from the Apple web site. ... Read more

Amazon.com Product Description

Picture It! Photo Premium's powerful photo editing tools and built-inwizards make it easy for everyone to improve their photos. Produce thehighest-quality results so your photos always look their best for sharing inprints, e-mail, and the Web. Included is a wide selection of high-qualityproject templates for photo cards, calendars, labels, flyers, and more.

Fix, organize, and print photos quickly using the Mini Lab and Gallery tools.Bring in a several pictures at a time, make them perfect, and organize them sothey are easy to find and use. You can use photos from just aboutanywhere--digital cameras, picture CDs, scanners, hard drives, the Web, or MSNPhotos.

Picture It! Photo Premium includes 1,500 pre-created templates for photo cards,frames, calendars, trading cards, magazine covers, Web photo albums, and tons ofother photo projects. You can also store and share your photos on the Web. Storefavorite memories on MSN Photos, powered by Microsoft Picture It! Share yourphotos with family and friends through online albums, prints, gifts, cards, andmore. ... Read more

Reviews (11)

Simple and does what I want!
I haven't used this software before this version (so will not comment on lost functionality from prior versions). I had previously used Adobe software. Anyway, I had wanted a photo editing program that was simple and not cluttered with tools that I didn't need. I also didn't need to pay for another program that created albums, etc.

My primary needs was corrections of photos from my Canon S40 digital camera. Since I use XP, I didn't need anything beyond:
* red eye removal - this program does a great job at fixing this.
* white balance correction - this program also does a great job at this.
* general levels correction - this program allows you to simply click one button and allow it to automatically correct the photos. I use this when I am somewhat lazy, but honestly it is pretty much all I need for most of my photos. You can also manually adjust contrast, etc. but you don't need to.

If you are like me - that is a person who needs a program that does some simple photo corrections on a program that is intuitively set out (thereby requiring no manual reading or prior editing knowledge), then this is the program for you. This program also installs easily and doesn't clutter up anything on my PC.
The main competition for this program is probably Adobe Photoshop Elements, although I think that program can do a lot more. The downside of that program is that it costs more, is more complicated and is not as intuitive to use. Actually, Adobe Photo Deluxe is more on par with this program, but Adobe stopped selling it mid 2002.

An OK Program
For the price...Picture It! is a suitable program that works well for the beginner.

There are few, if any, bells and whistles on it. For somebody who is just starting photo editing, that could be a plus: You have basic cropping and red eye reduction features.

The low points are that the selections of what you can do with the photos is severely limited: you can change a color photo into black and white or give it an antique look. This is nothing special as most digital cameras (see Hewlett Packard) come with software you can load that perform this trick. The antique look isn't sepia, just a washed out affair that makes you wonder why they even bothered giving it to you.

Picture It! came with my version of PUBLISHER, which happens to be an excellent program. So, if you got it as an add-on, explore it and learn the basics before you move onto a more sophisticated program. If your digital camera came with software for photo editing and printing, you'd probably be better off using that. This isn't a bad program - just one that does little but waste disk space.

A Loyal PictureIt User
I know people who spent a fortune on programs like Adobe Photoshop because they wanted "the best." But they end up using PictureIt! because it's just plain easier. Unless you're a professional graphic designer, you'll find that this program meets all your needs, and most importantly, it's EASY! I've used PictureIt! it since 2000 and it makes short work of scanning from digital cameras, cropping and adjusting photos, fixing red eye, compressing photos for the web, or creating fun projects like greeting cards. Can't recommend it enough.

Buyer beware
Have used Picture it for years and loved every version a little more with each version, until now. The Picture It Photo Premium in high tech terms [is bad]. Looks good, installs well. But it lacks a lot of the standard flexiblity in previous versions. I was expecting a lot more and got a lot less!!!

Frustrating
My new computer came with Picture It! I was used to using Addobe PhotoDeluxe, but you can't get it anymore. So, I decided to give Picture It! a try. Right from the beginning I was frustrated. The tools and commands are easy to use, but I had trouble saving my work. I tried over and over again to save and my system kept freezing. I lost 3 hours of work on the first night. Then I tried reinstalling the program. That helped, but I still kept getting "runtime error, abnormal program termination." I lost more work. I have also not been able to perform touchups with the "freehand painting" the way I want. For some reason, despite everything I try, I cannot get ANY tool or ANY custom painting options to give me a sharp, crisp line. All my painting looks blurry and airbrushed. I have tried my computer manufacturers support but they could not help. I am now trying Microsoft's help, but after several days of correspondence, they have not been able to help either. I've decided to dump Picture It! and see if I can get an old copy of Adobe PhotoDeluxe from ebay. ... Read more

Reviews (15)

Amazing program, the most powerful I've ever used.
First off, this is a great program, I don't know what I would do without it. It is so easy to trim video to exactly what you want, and the preview window usually renders in real time to show you almost exactly how the finished product will look. VED accepts almost any kind of video file and can render to just about any other format. Unfortunately, the included separate DVD writing software is crap, however, I can render to very nice MPEG 2 video and then use software like Pinnacle Studio (Much better for DVD than editing) to turn the edited video into a great looking DVD in no time. As for the included content, it's really not very impressive, but I use my own music and sound effects collection anyway, and some of the included stock footage is pretty good. I was thrilled that version 1.5 added a third video track as well as chromakeying (AKA Green/Blue screen). Some features I would love to see in future releases include reverse video and audio, rendering to different aspect ratios, and high resolution rendering (maximum now is 800x600). Still, VED is an awesome program and I wouldn't trade it for anything else I've ever used. Good job Nova!

Great Program
I had tried 3 different programs (including 2 Ulead programs) for editing videos before I bought this one. This has been the easiest to learn and understand. It's easy for me to transfer my DV movies straight to the computer and put them on VCD. I can adjust the sound, create overlays, add sounds, music, titles, and several effects; it's endless. I've also made some slide shows from photos that were scanned in. The best part is that once you create the movies/videos, you can save them in just about any format--this is great because anyone can watch the video without having to buy the software.

I can't judge the quality of the DVD writing experience, as I have yet to create a DVD with the Video Explosion.

Another video editor with A/V sync problem
I was hoping to get a video editor that does not have A/V sync problem that seems to plague all other video editors including Video Deluxe 2.0 and Pinnacle Studio 8.x. Unfortunately, this one has the same A/V sync issue if the video being rendored has lots of motion and scene transition. If the video has lots of transitions, the audio and video will lose sync and many video frames will be dropped (this is during the rendering phase which is NOT done in real time). This makes the software useless for me.

Navagation proves difficult.
Ok I have this program & have installed it & uninstalled it a number of times on my computer. I love all the cool effects it has, but I have had problems actaully trying ot use them!! I LOVE WMM2 & have found that VERY easy to navigate, but it doesnt have nearly the amt of cool effects as this does! If someone could help me out, I'd appreciate it!
I would love to continue making more BTVS videos, & hopefully get my $$'s worth out of this software!

Awesome video editing software
This software rules! I've wasted money on MGI Videowave, and Ulead Videostudio, but Video Explosion is better than all of these. It's incredibly easy to start making movies. I like the ability to use slow/fast motion in my videos, as lots of my video includes jumping off cliffs, surfing, stuff like that. You can choose what format to create your movies in, so its easy to make a short clip for an email, or a medium-quality movie for a CD-ROM, or a high quality DVD. I use a digital video camera, with a firewire (IEEE) cable to transfer video, and the end movie is just as clear as when I play it on TV directly from the camera. Its true that this software doesn't include a good DVD burning program, but I've been using 'Sonic My DVD', which came free with my Dell computer and it works great. All my family and friends think I should go into professional video production, but they don't understand how easy it really is. I haven't even begun to use all the sounds and short video clips that came with the software. If you're trying to edit home movies from a camcorder, then buy this software, you won't regret it! ... Read more

Features

• An integrated design environment featuring the industry's foremost design tools
• In-depth tips, expert tricks, and comprehensive design resources
• Intuitive file finding, smooth workflow, and common interface and toolset
• Single installer--control what you install and when you install it
• Cross-media publishing--create content for both print and the Web

Amazon.com Product Description

Get your photos out of your camera and into your life with Jasc Paint Shop Photo Album. Now you can quickly and easily make the most of your digital photos. In just two clicks you can get your photos from camera to computer. Then enhance, organize, and share those digital memories in a flash with Photo Album's fast and easy-to-use tools.

Create CD albums to watch with family and friends on a TV with a DVD player. Add an MP3 soundtrack and a variety of background templates for a complete audio-visual experience. Or you can archive full resolution copies of your favorite shots automatically when you create a Video CD. Also, easily send photos to friends and family with enhanced e-mail capabilities that automatically optimize photos for quicker download. Now Photo Album is compatible with the AOL e-mail client.

Take control over photo enhancements with the new Adjust Wizard that guides you through key correction processes to get the best color and exposure correction possible. Correct imperfections with flash and backlight controls that brighten only the dark areas of photos or reduce backlighting in over exposed areas. Add an elegant finishing touch by framing photos, applying creative edges, or adding artistic borders. Plus, you can personalize your workspace with adjustable thumbnail sizes and background colors. ... Read more

Reviews (17)

Does what I want to do fine
I use Jasc Paint Shop Album 4 to store my photos in albums, print photographs and create HTML files to display photos on my hosted space.

I like its red eye repair and crop tool. If quick fix will fix a photo that has minor problems thats great. But most photos are enhanced in adobe photoshop elements 2 ( the brush selection tool is fantastic). Together they do a great job.

The print capabilities are very flexible.
Pick a number of pictures to a page
or a given size picture on a page
or a combination print (various)
or lots of special sizes and paper I don't actually use

After the picture(s) is formatted you can select any one and zoom it in or out, grab it and move it around in the space(great feature).

40 +/- html formats for creating web galleries for your pictures. Many you can change background color, font, etc.
Elements and several other programs I have also create Web Galeries quite easily but I seem to come back to the ones in this program most of the time.

Great tool.

Beware of their REBATES
I haven't tried the product yet but I'm disapointed in their advertised rebates. They are quick to deny rebates and it took several calls for me to finally talk to the rebate person. It's a flat denial. I believe the person that talked about the Tech support because if they don't answer rebate issue it's probable true that they don't reply to Tech support questions. The email resolutions is probable not going to work, I had to call customer Svc at 800-622-2793. Just be aware of their REBATES.

Extremely Disappointed
Product support for this software is non-existent. Purchased Photo Album 4 specifically to record slide shows with audio onto CD's. It has never worked. I have e-mailed JASC technical support numerous times over the last several weeks without a reply. Very frustrating.

I love it
I love this product. It does exactly what I wanted it to do. I have easily organized all of my pictures. It took a little bit of time to get all of my pictures organized with the keywords, and description fields but now adding new pictures is a breeze. I love the easy email feature and since I already do all of my editing in Paint Shop Pro, it has become a very nice additional feature. I definately recommend this product

I can now organize and retrieve my photos.
Photo Album 4 seems to be a good value. It lets me see my individual images and how they relate to the rest of my collection. I can finally see the forest and the trees of my image collection. Moving images around is a snap. Organizing them with keywords is really cool. And the Titles and Descriptions that move around with the pictures make website building all the easier. Digital image software focusing on editing images as its primary thing just doesn't have the retrieval and organizational features Photo Album has.

Although it can be argued Photo Album is short on editing features, I didn't buy it as an editor. I bought it to organize my digital images and quickly create websites from this organized repositiory.

Photo Album seems to be about letting you, your family, and friends more easily enjoy your digital image collection. I really have had more fun with my images since I downloaded and installed it; especially old images I have rediscovered on my harddrive.

I will buy this at the end of my evaluation. ... Read more

amazon.com

Small-business owners can liberate themselves from the tyrannyof graphic designers and create devastatingly cool images withPhotoSuite 4 Business Edition. Its slick, simple interface guides evenvisual-art novices through the process of collecting, altering,organizing, and publishing images with little to no hassle. Users canwarp, crop, and rotate images, then create cool tapestries andpanoramic shots until their eyes give out.

Playing with photos can be addictive, whether adding a few inches to anannoying cousin's waistline or finding the perfect color balance for atapestry of products. Though these effects are neat, there just aren'tenough to compare to a powerhouse like Photoshop, but for theprice--and ease of use--it's hard to beat.

Once the fiddling is done, PhotoSuite helps the user organize photofiles in albums and projects, share them online or through a network,and print them on the desktop or via online services. Experiencedgraphics workers will be frustrated at PhotoSuite's limited scope, butthis package is aimed at small-scale or beginning users. The wizardsare all powerful here, and most people will be grateful for theguidance, though backing up out of processes can take a few steps. Thecontext-sensitive help is smart and useful--this is one of the rareprograms you can really use without consulting the manual (though, asalways, it does help).

For less than the cost of an hour of a graphic designer's time,PhotoSuite 4 Business Edition will help personal and business userswork magic on photos, Web sites, and advertisements. --RobLightner ... Read more

Features

• InDesign CS and Adobe PageMaker Plug-in Pack combined
• PageMaker-compatible keyboard shortcuts; PageMaker toolbar
• Template browser and professional template sets; graphics preview
• Story Editor, control palette; flexible table creation; multiple undos
• Standard Adobe user interface; extensive training materials

Reviews (1)

Very easy to use--does what it says!
I really used to struggle when emailing pictures to my friends and family. Now, it's actually fun! SendPhotos Gold takes away the hassle of having to deal with large attachments, and somehow makes all the photos small for sending in my email messages. The people I send photos to see them exactly as I send them--they don't have to open attachments or anything. Just open my email like normal. Very fun and handy! ... Read more

Features

• Create custom slide shows, cards, hard-bound photo books, and more
• A convenient calendar to find photos by date
• Revolutionary keyword tags to pinpoint the exact group of photos you want
• Quickly fix red eye, lighting, and other basic flaws
• Share your creations with anyone, anywhere--even on mobile phones and handhelds

Reviews (29)

The **Best** of all the digital Photo Edit & Mgmt. Products!
I have purchased and used every digital photo editing and management software product. I'm not from the software industry or write stories for PC magazines. I'm just a family man who loves his digital cameras and editing, playing and storing my digital output. Without a question, adobe photoshop one and two is the best product in the market. Its allows anyone, with GREAT EASE OF USE to upload their digital pictures, edit them, print and any other desire, and then store the pictures for long-term preservation. You all can save your time and money and avoid the other products in the market; just go with the best. On top of all this, the price is very reasonable.
My only complaint is I was not aware of the 2.0 edition coming to market this past week, althought I'm very happy it came out and the new features are solid and make alot of sense.

Not What I Had Hoped For
Let me start off by saying that I do photography professionally and I have some 30,000 images loaded in my computer of various formats. Many are RAW files, many are PSD, some TIFF, and a lot of JPEG files. Everything from weddings to portraits, to fine art for publishing. Take this for what it's worth, but I have yet to find an image editor that is beefy enough to handle that many images. They can all be put in, but speed suffers. Most of these file managers are intended for a few hundred images at the most in my opinion.

Now, on to Photoshop Album 2. I really like many of the features of this program. I did beta testing for Adobe on this, and the final release has some quirks that I'm not totally comfortable with. One of the big issues I have with Album is the batch rename. It might as well not be there. I do all my batch renaming in the browser that's in Photoshop CS. If you use Photoshop Elements 2.0, that batch rename is even better than the one in Album, although not as beefed up as the one in Photoshop CS. In both these browsers, there are more options for renaming your files than what Album offers. And from my point of view, a file manager should be exactly that....a place where you can do ALL your managing with your files. Not image correction, file management. There's a difference. If I have to leave my file manager to do renaming or some other file management function in another program, the file manager isn't doing its job.

Another annoyance is the thumbnail cache. The more you have, the slower it gets in opening them all up. Normal I guess, but annoying none the less. If you use Windows XP, you'll find that your thumbnails open quicker in Windows explorer.

The tagging idea is a good one, but I don't see the need for the collections option. It's simply another tagging function as far as I'm concerned. Other features like the EXIF data, captions, notes, etc. are handy if you're really anal about what you're doing. Again, any notes I have on files that I've edited are in Photoshop. But for someone not using Photoshop, the fact the capabilities are in Album can be a Godsend.

One thing I will give kudos to in Album is the red-eye correction in the "fix" function. This is without a doubt the single best "one-click" red-eye correction tool I've ever tried. Also, the automatic lighting correction feature is very good as well. It seems to work similar to the levels adjustment that's in Photoshop and Elements.

The greeting card thing, calendars, etc. I don't use, but I guess they're ok if you're into that. There's just not a lot of choices as far as designs go, but what is there is reasonable. The web page designs are good and the Atmosphere Gallery is a nice tool provided you have your own web site to put them on. The timeline can be handy if your sort your files by date. I don't, so it doesn't mean much to me.

Other than the above, I didn't find the program to be buggy, no crashes or anything like that. Overall, this is a decent program for the average shooter to manage their files with. It's really no better or worse than ACDSEE, Ulead Photo Explorer, or any of the others out there. The UI is clean and easy to work with. Once you learn to navigate your way around, it gets easier. At first, it can be a little disconcerting and frustrating, but you need to be patient. Sorta like you would need to be patient with Photoshop or Elements. We are dealing with Adobe here, remember?

So bottom line here is if you're considering Album as your file manager, go for it. Especially if you use Photoshop Elements since the two do work together. That would explain why Adobe saw the advantages of bundling them together in one package. Not to mention that it was a great marketing ploy. Anyway, if you take your time with it and learn the nouances, I think you'll be happy.

Lots of trouble
This program would be great if it did everything it claimed.

Full of Bugs
I would avoid this software. Download Picasa for free try out and see how it works. I have had nothing but problems with this version of photoshop album. I purchased it because I had used 1.0 and it worked pretty good. I have had lots of troubles with colors being different on the thumbnails fron the true colors. Lots of bugs and crashing. You must pay for support also - doens't seem fair.

Great concept, poor quality
I like Photoshop Album. The user interface is quite intuitive, it's reasonably fast and it has all the features I need for working with thousands of digital photos.

However, it wouldn't have hurt if Adobe had spent a few more QA cycles on it. I have updated to 2.0.1, but it's still pretty shaky.
Try to type european special characters via Alt+0xxx in the caption line - BOOM.
Try to import photos from a folder that also contains Quicktime videos (which my digital camera generates) - BOOM, and no workaround. There are now whole areas of my photo collection that I cannot view because I have accidentally imported Quicktime videos...
I don't use the "Creations" and "Online Services" parts of the program at all, so I can't say anything about them.

I'd give four stars if the quality was reasonable. Let's hope the next version is better. ... Read more

Amazon.com Review

Mixed-media professionals such as photographers, Web designers, and graphic designers will not be disappointed with Adobe's latest incarnation of Photoshop. While the major difference between this and earlier versions is that Photoshop 7.0 is Mac OS X compatible, this version also successfully addresses the issues of file management, easy photo retouching, and smarter output for the Web. In addition, new, improved tools such as painting and an enhanced brush palette allow Photoshop to build on its reputation as the leading tool for image manipulators. New-school designers of wireless applications will smile when they discover that Photoshop 7.0 finally offers support for WBMP-format graphics.

Photoshop 7.0's new file management system comes in the form of a Windows Explorer-like file browser that allows users to easily sort and locate their images within various projects. Users can now organize projects by name, date, resolution, and a number of additional parameters.

The enhanced brush palette allows users to create custom brushes and save them as a preset that can be accessed from the Tool options bar. Users can easily vary different aspects of the brush by changing the hue, opacity, or flow of the brushes for pastels, oils, and charcoal. Photoshop 7.0 also introduces a new Healing Brush and Patch Tool. With this tool, users can easily "heal" their images by removing scratches, blemishes, and other imperfections while also preserving shading, lighting, and texture attributes.

Adobe has taken great strides in revamping Photoshop 7.0 to be more Web-ready than ever before. With the help of its companion software, Image Ready, users can now easily create rollovers and complex navigation bars with selected state by using the new Rollovers palette. Additional Web-ready features include enhanced Web export functions that allow designers to preview images designed for PDAs and mobile phones in the WBMP format. Users can easily create a slide show of their images and post online using the new Web Gallery. For those concerned about posting their images online, they can secure their images with the new password protection feature before sharing them.

A long overdue spell checker has finally been introduced, with wicked multilingual spell-checking capabilities.A new search-and-replace feature allows users to search and replace across different layers in the same document.

While Photoshop 7.0 introduces an impressive array of features that allow photographers and Web and graphic designers to work more effectively with Web and wireless devices, Photoshop still remains the leading tool for anyone serious about digital imaging. No other software package provides users with the ability to create such high-quality images. --Rich Ting ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Expensive but Quality
I never had access to many Adobe products, with exception for Pagemaker, because of the high price. But at my high school we have what we they called an Academy of Graphic Arts and Design. There, with the financial help of a well known college, the academy was given a full copy of Adobe Photoshop 7.0!

I really enjoyed learning how to use Adobe Photoshop 7.0. I'm not one to read manuals or help menus and just like to play around. Learning how to use everything is fairly easy.

One feature I LOVED is what is called "layers". You can have a photo in the background and then open other files and drag and drop onto the first picture. Then you can choose to erase part of the pictures you placed on top. But not everything is erased...each layer underneath the one you are erasing is still visible! There are various erasers (shape-wise) too, so it can look blended or have neat edges.

I also liked the variety of "filters". These filters help change the picture. You can add texture to the picture, distort it, add light to a certain area, make the picture look like it on a stamp (as in rubber stamp)...the list goes on.

The one bad thing about this is you can't do "Undo except for the change you just did (meaning if you made a mistake and decided to try something to "cover it up", if you didn't like the outcome of the "fix" you can't go back and change the mistake) EXCEPT if you are layering, you go to the box where it shows each layer and go to the history where you can delete (or "undo") up until the mistake you had made is gone.

My point is, this program is Top Class. The best I have used (and I have tried a few) Although I'd like to try the Windows version, for those who have a Mac (this is the version I used and have experience with) GET THIS if you love photoediting. The possiblities are endless.

Now if only I could save up enough money...

Cannot pull myself away
Photoshop 7.0 is incredible. The new paint enhancement are mindblowing. Everyone should learn how to use this program. I have been able to do so many things, Edit and enhance my own artwork and comics, make custom t-shirts, make beutiful portaits and photo collages, just let my artistic mind run wild. This program has opened a world of opportunity, and it should for you to. BUY IT, worth every penny.

Adobe Photoshop Rocks
Adobe did it again. Not only did they make a product that runs great in OS X but they inhanced it and made it better with new features like the heal tool. If you have been waiting to upgrade to OS X because of Photoshop order both right now. ... Read more

Reviews (6)

Movie Star Obsolete No Tech Support No DVD burning
I was so thrilled to convert by VHS tapes to DVD until I discovered that even my 80 gig hard drive was not enough for a 20 minute video AND once I had the AVI video and tried to burn the DVD the software said I had to go to dazzle.com to PURCHASE a $100 upgrade. The hardware and bundle only cost $40! There is no tech support effective 10/24/03 for any Dazzle DVC 80 Movie Star v. 5. Therefore, you use up your hard drive and can't off load it anyway. What a waste! You have to delete the capture that took you 5 hours to produce. LOSER!

Movie Star 5 is junk
I've had nothing but trouble with this product. The XP version is very buggy and virtually unusable. Even with the latest patches, the software simply does not function. I cannot recommend this product to anyone.

easy to use
I like this software because it was easy to use. There is interactive help for it available online. There are a few issues with it,however. The titling and Intro screens are clunky and not good quality. The voice over requires a recording program, which I found online called Goldwave, which is EXCELLENT! The MPEG2 recording would not play on all CD readers and the write to CD function didn't work on my machine. For the money it's not bad, there aren't alot of choices out there for this kind of software at the consumer level.

Didn't work for me
I tried making SVCD's with this.... ended up with several coasters before I gave up. All of the SVCD's seemed to render and burn OK, but when I tried playing them in my 8 month old DVD player, they were unwatchable. The video was completely distorted with hundreds of lines throughout the picture. When I made SVCD's with Ulead and Sonic MyDVD product, they worked fine every time. I don't know how it works for DVD's, but based on my experience, I wouldn't buy this product.

Terrible
The only mode to capture video is in AVI format. The files become so huge after just a minute of recording that they are uneditable and you can't produce anything. A complete right off. ... Read more

Features

• Create and publish content for print and the Web
• Includes Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, and GoLive
• Also includes Adobe Acrobat 7.0 Professional software
• Create reliable Adobe PDF files; streamline review cycles
• Innovative Version Cue helps you find files fast, track multiple versions of your files, and share your files for creative collaboration

Amazon.com Review

Streamline 4.0 is an excellent bridge between the worlds of freehand drawing and resolution-independent graphics. At its heart, the software is basically a conversion utility, a tool for importingbitmapped (raster) images and exporting them as vector-based line art.But it's a disservice to the application to downplay what is so simplystated.

The value of Streamline becomes apparent after the firstconversion--it quickens the heart to see a hand-drawn, bitmapped imageimported into a program like Adobe Illustrator, where one can tweak thecurve and width of any line, and scale it up until it fills abillboard.

The process starts with a drawing or image being scannedin or photographed with a digital camera and saved out from a programlike Adobe Photoshop. It is then opened in Streamline (it works withmany file types, including native Photoshop) where the image isconverted to vector lines.

The options for conversion are numerous:control point density, smoothness, line width, stroke or fill, curvesmoothing. Additionally, areas of the original image can be selectivelyconverted, with each area using different conversion settings--some forsmoother, thicker lines, some for rougher, more edgy lines, andvariations thereof. Also, Streamline 4.0 now features a "convert to"command, for converting a roughly drawn shape into a standard shape;for example, a crude egg shape on a cocktail napkin could be convertedto a perfect circle, or four rough strokes into a smooth, evenrectangle. Streamline 4.0 also supports converting colors to vector-based areas of color. One can specify the number of colors touse and which color palette would best match.

Adobe-standard keyboardshortcuts improve one's efficiency with the application, and being ableto drag and drop across applications is a handy feature that anyone cangrow to love.

Freehand drawing on a computer is not as easy orstraightforward as taking pencil to paper--a natural quality islacking, a texture more felt than seen. But graphics software offersfeatures not found in "real-life" art, like the ability to scale animage up and down without losing the sharpness of a line. For anyserious digital artist, Streamline is a must-have. It is one of thosetools that is used the least, but appreciated the most. --MikeCaputo ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Useful tool, but could use more support
I purchased this tool for the purpose of scanning camera-ready Native-American artwork for touch-ups and digital prepress, and found it to work wonderfully well. In the two years since purchasing Streamline, however, I have found that the resulting quality degrades quickly with the quality of input. I still feel as though Adobe could have taken this software package one step further and provided a more robust support for conversion and covered a wider range of export options.

Great tool!
I primarily use this product to scan pen or pencil drawings into EPS or AI files for Adobe Illustrator. Works like a charm and is very simple. ... Read more

Features

• Create and publish content for print and the Web
• Includes Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, and GoLive
• Also includes Adobe Acrobat 7.0 Professional software
• Create reliable Adobe PDF files; streamline review cycles
• Innovative Version Cue helps you find files fast, track multiple versions of your files, and share your files for creative collaboration

Features

• Create impressive photo albums using the powerful editing tools
• Design yor own greeting cards with a variety of templates & clip art
• Jazz up your Website with great graphics and layout tools
• Fix those photos that turned out less than picture perfect