5 comments about Pyro 2003.

1. After having a bad time with Roxio EZ Creator 5, I went to the Pyro 2003 and had a pleasant surprise. It works! It might not be as fast or in some cases as easy as the Roxio was, but at least the damn thing works.



2. As a support person for over 200 PC's, I got sick and tired of the enduser's complaining about Roxio EZCD 5.
   The only thing EZ about it was how "easy" it was to cause me
   more grief.
   Upgrading to EZCD "Platinum edition" fixed most of the enduser's complaints.
   But the EZCD that came with the CDRW drives was supposed to "save us money". [Meaning that we bought a certain cdrw drive which provided a copy of EZCD, supposedly saving us the price of buying a cdrw software burner package.Instead we had to buy upgrades, meaning the Platinum edition, which isn't cheap].

   Having seen the problems with EZ, I bought Pyro for my own use.
   I have used Pyro 1 and now Pyro 2003.

   The only thing I did not like about Pyro (which is an issue with the maker of pyro, Cakewalk) was their upgrade polcy.
   A lot of companies will let you upgrade to the latest version, at a reduced price.
   The price for previous owners was basically the retail price.
   No decent pricebreaks for previous owners.




3. I won't lie to you it took me about an hour to get it.Im the typical male who wont read the instructions to anything. But even so I got it down in about an hour or so.Im use to the Roxio burner, and Pyro is day to night to that burner. But once I got eveything down it was smooth sailing from there. Of the recordings I have made I have had no problems at all. Pyro lets you fade, volume control etc. The only drawback is that it is a little slow burning compared to Roxio. Great for those new to burning also.



4. All the reviews indicated that this software was easy to use. I found the opposite. Maybe I'll get used to Pyro but I doubt it.
   I should have bought something else.



5. Wasted money,too complicated,dont use it anymore

3 comments about Printmaster 10 (Jewel Case).

1. This is fairly good for simple projects. It is very user friendly. In fact, Printmaster will even walk you through some projects. What I don't like is the limited graphics. Some of the graphics really don't print well.



2. This program is good if you're just starting because it's easy to use. As you get more advanced it feels like it kind of grows with you. I have done a wealth of projects using this simeple program. I plan on purchasing the update version soon.



3. This purchase was to replace a broken disc. Although this is an old version, I still use it and love it; it's quick and easy; very user-friendly.

5 comments about Nova PhotoImpact Pro 8.5.

1. I bought a Canon PowerShot and wasn't thrilled with the software I got free. Very limiting. So I got Photo Impact Pro, and it's just head and shoulders above what I had. I could spend months and still not uncover all the cool features in there ... it's just overwhelming the number of things you can do. But at the same time it's very easy to use. I'm a retired machinist with only 18 months experience even using computers, and it's a cinch for me ... so that says a lot. :-) A friend of mine turned me on to Photo Impact - a guy in our users' group - and he says it's more sophisticated than Photoshop Elements (the other program I was considering). From what I can see, he's right. I use Photo Impact to edit and print the photos I take. And I've added captions and some effects. Haven't made a CD slideshow yet, but I expect to. I hope this review is helpful to you. I don't think you can go wrong with this program.



2. After reading what other reviewers said about this product, I couldn't wait to get it. Well, it didn't take long after installation for me to realize what a total idiot I am. There's a whole lot of great effects that are fun to work with, but the basic editing tools seem unbelievably complex to me. It comes with a nice thick manual which is also as clear as mud to me. A good basic glossary would be helpful. I have been humbled, and will return to my simple Picture It and Adobe Photo Deluxe where I can crop a picture and adjust the tint without feeling helpless. I am sure this is a wonderful program, and will probably use it more when I have several free weeks to devote to clicking and dragging.

   Several weeks after writing this review, I feel compelled to edit it to note that in response to my initial review, I was personally called by a Nova Development representative to offer technical assistance. I still haven't mastered the program, but am very impressed with this kind of customer service, enough to upgrade by rating by a star.




3. After working with PhotoImpact Pro 8.5 for over 6 months I have decided that it is much smarter than this education specialist. I have been a photographer for over thirty years, am computer literate and considered a better than average math teacher of over 18 years, but this program is more difficult to master than any secondary school child could ever be :) I purchased PhotoImpact thinking that it would replace my Adobe Photo Deluxe edition, Picture it, and two other simple digital photo programs. I am somewhat disappointed but do not plan on giving up. I am going back to "school" after having this program sit on the shelf from frustration and hope to become a "master" graphics and photo developer by sheer determination.



4. First off, let me tell you that I'm not a pro at computers, or softwares. I'm just a regular person who likes to take pictures of my family and friends. I have been using Microsoft Digital Image Pro, and felt the need to move on to bigger and better things that allowed my creativity to grow. On various scrapbooking websites and magazines, I'd been hearing about Photo Impact. I took a chance and paid $70 bucks for it. After loading it on my PC, I was mortified. It's nothing like Micrsoft Digital Image Pro. It's way complicated! I couldn't even crop a photo in it. I know this is a great program, but it's too hard for regular people who found Adobe difficult to use. I've searched all of my scrapbooking sites for tutorials, and they're hard to find. Micrsoft Digital Image Pro, Jasc Paint Shop Pro, and Adobe have a lot more help for newbies. Right now, I'm using the Video Tutorial that comes with it, and I'm also reading the manual. Give me about 2 years. I'll get the hang of it eventually.



5. This software is fabulous! It takes a little research of the accompanying manual, however well worth it! I have used this software to make web graphics, edit photographs, make flyers, just about everything you can think of...The effects, layering and also the compression of a large picture is an excellent little extra for putting large pics on the web for quick loading! Unfortunately, now using Windows Vista it is not compatible...and I have to upgrade! Thanks Amazon for keeping this software affordable!

No comments about iPlayMusic Guitar Lessons 3 DVD Value Pack with Play Music Together and Levels 1 & 2.

No comments about Native Instruments KORE 2 Software and Hardware System.

4 comments about DVD Copy.

1. This software makes it easy to make copies of DVD movies. It can convert and copy a DVD-9 disc onto a single DVD+/-R disc with just two or three clicks. The only drawback is that you have to use a ripper/descrytor to get rid of the copy protected encrytion and put the image onto the disk first. The ripper/descrytor that I used is "DVD Descrytor" which is a freeware. The picutre quality is great.



2. I was intrested in this program for the Divx copy features. The more I read about it, the better it kept sounding. I download the trail version and it worked ok. DvD copy was on sale at the local software store so I bought it. After installing it, it did not work and froze my system up.

   1. If no DVD is in, the program will start up and after putting a DVD in it will freeze my system except for the mouse.

   2. If a DVD is in on the startup, program will freeze.

   I went to the website for patches and there was none. There are 4 other programs on the web site that they say the software needs to run. It is beyond me how a trail piece of software will work and the full version will not.

   I would have taken this back, because I never had software behave so badly before, but like a idiot I wrote the serial # on the cd with a marker.

   My advice is make sure you shop around other companys software and try a trail version first. Although this did me no good. And make sure you like the interface before you buy.

   To be fair, I have not called (Toll call) the support line or emailed support about this problem. So I cant comment on the companys responce on fixing it.




3. I have been playing around with my new DVD burner (as probably a lot of people have been) and have created a number of DVD's from home movies. I bought this product because it claimed you could just pull off the chapters you wanted from a given DVD. I thought it would be a nice way to create some "greatest hits" DVD's for the grandparents instead of re-creating and recoding the raw AVI files.
   The product installed fine. I grabbed a DVD off my shelf and it said that it was copyrighted, so I couldn't do anything with it. Well, that was fine. That wasn't why I bought it. Then, I put in one of my homemade DVD's. The product continually crashed whenever any homemade DVD was in the drive. Now, my six year old DVD player doesn't have any issues with the DVD+R's I've burned. Every time I pop one into my DVD drive on my PC, the DVD player software kicks in. And I'm pretty sure I didn't put Macrovision on our Christmas footage. So what gives?
   The product came with a short booklet (I loved the quick paragraph on how to defeat the copy protection part of the software) and I did read it and look at the website quickly. That's not to say I didn't read everything that has to do with the product I bought, there just wasn't much to read and no patches, no potential fixes, etc.
   So, I have a $50 program that doesn't work on copy protected material, but doesn't work on non-copy protected material either. Kind of defeats the purpose of owning it.



4. I don't know why people are griping so much about Intervideo's DVD Copy. This is a great, user friendly program for burning DVD's. It's sole purpose is to copy DVD's to DVD, VCD, SVCD formats. But, and there's always a but, you need to decrypt most DVD's first before ripping them.
   
   If you own an extensive DVD library like me, you want to use copies of your very best DVD's that you watch most often instead of the originals. These are often copy protected. Most people understand that you need to decrypt a copyrighted DVD first before burning/ripping it.
   
   The best tools for decrypting are DVD Decrypter for straight across decrypting of 4.5GB DVD's or less in size or DVD Shrink for DVD's that use Dual Layer technology to get up to 8.5GB's out of the commercial DVD. Most commerical DVD's now come in around the 7.2 GB to 7.9 GB size and are rarely larger than this and usually smaller in most cases.
   
   If you want something to author your own DVD's, DVD Copy isn't for you. This is really just a compression copy or straight copy DVD program to put your movie on a DVD, or onto CD's using VCD or SVCD format or DivX if you really feel the need to use that format.
   
   When I purchased the program I knew what I was getting and I got exactly what I needed. I did my research first. Regardless of what others have written here, take my word for it, it's easy to use and won't disappoint but you need to have an understanding of the DVD ripping technologies first before embarking in the DVD backup of your DVD libary.

No comments about Christmas for Windows Fun Holiday Software,Screen Savers,Fonts,Music,Games,Icons,Clip Art,Activities,Fun Stuff For Thanksgiving and Halloween.

5 comments about Macromedia Dreamweaver 8 Win/Mac [OLD VERSION].

1. I'm an amateur at website design/building, so understand that I'm not very "deep" in Dreamweaver's abilities. However, I got the program to switch from Adobe GoLive CS2 which had many quirks, bugs, and frustrations. (One example - while you upload your changed files to the web server in GoLive, you can't do anything else in the program. Single tasking!?!?!) After just 30 minutes or so of working with Dreamweaver to update my site, I'm already sure I've made the right decision! I have a long way to go in learning what it can do, but my first impressions of the product are excellent.



2. Face it. If you want the best Web design software, get Dreamweaver. Sure there are other products that will do the job, but you will not find one that does so much, is so easy to use, and has so much support available in terms of books and Web forums. When I say it is easy to use, I am talking about knowing how to use it and then using it correctly, of course. You can do a little or a lot, depending how much effort you want to put into learning it. For Web design, this program is tops. Now that Adobe owns it, it will continue to get better.



3. For an amateur in web design, Dreamweaver 8 helped me along without having to learn all the numerous coding that goes into creating a webpage. I would have liked if the program had basic templates available to use, at least for the layout of the page. Perhaps it does and I just haven't been able to figure it out. It is hard to create fancy designs if you aren't a web design professional, so the page I've been working on thus far is pretty basic and not very flashy. Other than that, the software is very easy to learn and I enjoy using it.



4. If you are familar with the Macromedia line of products then this one is not a surprise -- it's a good ide. This version comes with support with most of the web programming languages out there -- including xsl stylesheets. The application loads quickly with rare crashes, has standard and secure ftp support, database connectivity tools, and common web elements. Using it just for code editing is also great.
   
   I would suggest buying a suite that includes this one versus purchasing it
   solely.



5. I upgraded from a much earlier version. This one runs just fine on my new iMac with Leopard. It is easy to use and powerful. I am getting ready to upgrade again to the CS3 version soon.

5 comments about Microsoft Visio Professional 2003 Upgrade [Old Version].

1. Visio has always been an excellent solution for technical diagramming. Version 2003 is no exception and improves upon its predecessor with support for the web and integration with other Office applications. The program still lacks certain elements of Microsoft Office which I feel concerned about. Users are able to import Native Auto CAD drawings directly into Visio, and use the Visio tools to further customize and edit drawings to their hearts content. You can create custom stencils save them and share with other Visio users over a corporate network. You can export diagrams as a webpage so that users who don't have Visio installed locally on their machine can View diagrams through web browser at different resolutions with ease. The program enables IT Adminstrators to create Diagrams for Active Directory role outs for Windows 2000 Server and Server 2003. SQL Server or other third party database products such as Oracle and IBM DB2 can use the Visio functionality to outline a companies storage of data through active digrams that automate how data is stored and used. You can create simple project management task, and also export other Visio digrams to PowerPoint and further edit within PowerPoint or Word.Other features include searching for stencils online in the program, which makes it easy for you to find that particular diagram. Visio still lacks certain elements such as native support for WordArt. Overall, this upgrade is a must have for existing Visio 2000 or 5.0 users, but some 2002 users might not see any need for some of the functionality and might wait first to see if their diagramming and network infrastructure needs demand the new functionality and technology that Visio 2003 has to offer.



2. I have been using the Visio diagramming software since the 2000 version. In my mind this upgrade is the best I have purchased.

   The interface with the rest of the Office XP 2003 Suite is vastly improved. I can now take a diagram created in Visio and drop it into Word documents, PowerPoint Presentations and e-mails without having to reformat it. In the past the transfer was never clean.

   Once the diagram is embedded, I can emphasize and clarify key points, gather input from team members and even share documents using SharePoint services. This is a huge timesaver for me.

   If you embed your diagrams in other documents, you will love this upgrade.




3. I just purchased this thinking that "of course I can upgrade to Visio 2003 Pro from Visio 2003 Standard". Nope. This is just plain silly. I still am trying to figure out if I can even upgrade my Visio *2003* Standard version to Professional.



4. I found this upgrade to install easily and well perform as expected. Help function is good but lack of hard copy manual or availabilty of one is a disappointment.



5. Disappointed to find out that you cannot upgrade Visio 2003 standard edition with this product. You have to have an "older"
   version of Visio 2000 or 2002. Why Microsoft doesn't allow this
   upgrade is makes no sense but at $200 for the standard version and $250 for the professional uograde and now another $429 for the full professional version, I guess it does make cents after
   all

No comments about Total Training for Flash CS3 Pro Essentials.