5 comments about Corel DVD MovieFactory 6.0 Plus.

1. I purchased this software along with Video Studio 11 Plus. It did get the job done but advanced DVD menu options would lock up the program even after a fresh install of Windows XP Pro (So all of my Menus are text based). Another issue that didn't exactly win me over was after editing my videos in Video studio 11+ I attempted to import them directly into Movie factory 6.0+. This seemed to be the most logical step, and even though they both work from the same extention DVD Movie factory will not open the files. I ended up converting the videos to Mpegs then back to Corel files. That added an hour to each DVD.



2. I used this product for a month on the recommendations of a video forum group. It was for the specific purpose of burning HD-DVD compliant videos onto standard 4.7GB DVD's using a standard DVD burner.
   
   The biggest problem with this product is that importing files take a long, long, long time. Whether you choose your desired file from a dialog box, or drag and drop it onto the open Ulead DVD Movie Factory window, the program basically locks your computer up for the next hour. Note that this is BEFORE you do anything with the file.
   
   It's not just with high definition videos either. Standard definition files also take a long time to load.
   
   Technical support from the Corel website is basically non-existent save for some FAQ's and a users forum. Even if you click on the so-called "Technical Support" link it takes you directly to the FAQ's. You can't even get email support. I at least got that with Microsoft.
   
   Looking through those forums I realize that others who use this product with Windows Vista have the same issues. The label on the box says "Works with Windows Vista", just not how well.
   
   Hopefully I'll have better luck with Nero.



3. I purchased Canon HG10 about one month ago. I took some movies and played them back via HDMI output of the HG10. The quality of the movie is supper.
   
   The biggest problem I am facing is when I edit my movie with "DVD MovieFactory 6 Plus" and burn edited HD file into SD DVD disk and play them on my HD DVD player Toshiba HD-A2, the movie quality drops down to almost SD level.
   
   I hope that MovieFactory 6 Plus can output edited file in ORIGINAL HG10 FILE FORMAT. So, I can transfer them back to the camcorder and play them with original movie quality.
   
   I couldn't find any way to send this question via Corel website or email.



4. Corel/Ulead DvD Factory is fairly easy to use if you just wish to do simple editing. Trimming, adding chapters, combining clips are all more intuitive with this program than the stripped down version of Nero. Unfortunately for half the price of Uleads VideoStudio, this program is lacking in more than half of the options. The creation of menus for a dvd restricts the user to only a few possibilities. This I found to be really frustrating. I searched for updates/enhancements on the corel/ulead website but this program seems to be the forgotten stepchild. After spending considerable time to get the movie just right, one then has to settle for some pretty awful menu options. So if you are just starting out at editing your videos this program will empower you through your first 6 projects but after that you will be forced to rehash the same menus and themes that were rather tacky in the first place.



5. Bought item to make a copy of a very important dvd we had made. The product worked well. Would recommend to anyone who wants to make a copy of a dvd.

No comments about Adobe Photoshop Extended CS4 Upgrade [Mac].

1 comments about Garritan Personal Orchestra ( 3rd Edition ) - Windows / Mac DVD.

1. This software program is amazing. With it you can create or edit any type of music imaginable, on almost any instrument imaginable. The scope of possibilities is endless, and the music you can create, from a perfect solo to a full orchestra, is limitless. This is a professional program, however, and almost requires you to have a strong background in music to use it. It takes a long time to learn your way around and a lot of patience to create your masterpiece. But once you do it is certainly worth it.

No comments about Adobe InDesign CS4 Upsell from Pagemaker.

1 comments about Total Training for Dreamweaver CS3 Essentials.

1. I own many Total Training program and have a couple of their CS3 suites which are absolutely amazing and have helped my production and web design tremendously. I have great things to say about the Total Training suites but had to point out the Dreamweaver CS3 specifically. Janine Warner is a fantastic teacher in this video and really knows her stuff. She taught me so much about creating websites, doing different things to make it look great and give them a professional touch. I feel like a pro web designer now. Thank you Janine and Total Training for such a great training product!

No comments about Star Wars Battlefront II.

1 comments about Ms. Pac-Man Quest for the Golden Maze.

1. First of all I purchased the game at a NEW price, as I selected from the items available, but received a used one. The case was cracked and upon loading the game found initials of players high scores on the score screen. The game itself is slow, out of balance, (re: the "pac-man" icon is way too slow to outplay the "ghost" icons. They are set way out of the normal speeds for the game to be played with any enjoyment. It is playable if you like to play out of sync. Not happy with the seller or the product.

4 comments about IK Multimedia StealthPlug USB Audio Interface Cable.

1. I planned on using this equipment instead of carrying around an amp while traveling. The stealthplug itself works fine. Has a little hiss to it. But the software that comes with it does not work. I have tried several whys to fix it including tech support. The drivers do not seem to be Vista compatable. In short, if you are wanting to use the effects advertised, be wary.



2. I have been using this now for about 2 months. Sometimes when I open Amplitube 2, the sound is all distorted. I can usually fix this by changing the sampling rate on the setting menu and opening and closing the software again. There is something funky about the software. I'm still trying to figure this part out. You should have the recommended half gig to run the software. Once the sound is working, I have no complaints. The sound is really good thru the speakers on my computer and the supplied patches are great. It works great with my bass and guitar. I find the loop feature a big help to figure out how to play some of the licks in songs. Using the mouse to control the amp settings is also a little funky. I would buy this again if I had to do it all over. It's a very easy way to interface your guitar to your mp3 files and play along with them.



3. Stealthplug with Amplitube 2 Live and a plug-in for Garageband works really well. No latency ever on my MacBook. The software is easy to use and the amp models and effects are not only really accurate, they have taught me a lot about Marshall and Fender amp settings as well as a half dozen historic stomp pedals. I bought one for my son to use and he loves it to. With a guitar (I have a Strat), gig bag and a small computer bag, you are ready to plug into a house system or external speakers and play. An advantage to physical amps and pedals is that you can store the settings you like or use the many presets that come with the product. Also, it has a great tuner and the ability to play along with MP3s that you drag into the software and allow you to change the tempo without changing the tone. The Garageband plug-in also works very well. This is a tremendous bargain for the price, especially for traveling musicians, parents who don't want big amp sounds in their house etc.



4. This is a rather convoluted review, because it involves a long back story.
   
   I bought this thing early this year (2007) after being burned by the M-Audio Fast Track USB device. The M-Audio thing, I was told, wouldn't work with XP Media Center Edition. So, before I bought this Stealth Plug, I called them and specifically asked if it would work with XP MCE and the sales people assured me it would.
   
   So I get it home and guess what? It didn't work! I went round and round with their tech support and never got a definitive answer of what was wrong.
   
   Jump forward eight months to November. I wiped out my hard drive and installed XP Pro so I could use music hardware and software that I couldn't under MCE. Anxious to actually hear my Stealth Plug through the Amplitube software that came with it, I installed it and guess what? It did exactly the same thing as before!
   
   I contacted Tech Support and got nothing at all from them. I called, left messages and nothing. Pissed off now, I did some deep research. That is when I found out that this product does NOT work with Windows, at least not like it's supposed to. It was only because of a review posted in December 2007 that I found out that though Amplitube is supposed to be able to be played stand-alone, the only way to get it to play through a PC is to plug your computer speakers into the headphone output of the plug, or run a patch cord from the headphone output to the microphone input of your sound card!
   
   What kind of crap is that? How can it be stand-alone when it won't play through the sound card without a patch cord? Of course, it took a lot of tweaking to get it to sound right in my sound card since the headphone to microphone impedances are not quite a match. I haven't tried plugging directly into my speakers yet, but don't like reaching around behind the computer and messing with the jacks all the time.
   
   It turns out, the ONLY way to configure Amplitube so it will work, is with the ASIO Stealth plug as the input AND output. There is no option to make the input the Stealth, and the output your internal sound card. Supposedly, Windows will not allow that. Is that dumb or what?
   
   I was at Guitar center the other day, and the guy told me he heard rumors that IK was coming out with a major fix for this problem sometime in January, yet it that's true, nobody is saying anything about it at IK Multimedia.
   
   So, what does it sound like? Well, after much tweaking to get a clean sound out of my sound card, I was able to play around with Amplitube. It has clean American, British, and Bass amps. The simulations are pretty good and you can tweak the knobs and get different sounds. There is also a variety of stomp boxes including distortion (of which there's enough already just from the sound card), phaser, phlanger, etc. The stomp box that doesn't make much sense to me is the wah. How are you supposed to play and manipulate the wah pedal with the mouse at the same time? There is auto-wah, but that gives little control.
   
   So, it seems this system is designed for MAC's because in the PC world, Mr. Gates and crew do not allow multiple ASIO sound devices.
   
   As I was typing this, I finally got a return call from IK Multimedia! The service tech confirmed the problem with the PC. He also said there is no fix coming because the problem is a Windows problem and they have no control over it.
   
   So, this is not just a plug and play device like it's implied. And nowhere in the instructions does it say you have to run the headphone jack directly to your speakers or the microphone input of the sound card. Or, if it does, it is not very well stated. Tonight, I'm going to go back and read the instructions again, just to make sure.
   
   Though there is a workaround for the PC, this thing should be advertised as a MAC device, as far as I'm concerned. Yes, you can get it to work, and Amplitube does a good amp simulation, but it is NOT just plug and play. After I try recording with it, I'll edit this review with the results. This device has a lot of potential, it just doesn't live up to it, yet...

2 comments about Adobe Creative Suite CS3 Design Standard [OLD VERSION].

1. If you are considering any desktop publishing project, then you really don't have any other choice, nor should you look for one. People whose software experience does not include Adobe products are like someone who has never had chocolate. The experience is unlike any other.
   
   The four major tools in the suite - Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, InDesign and Acrobat allow creation of any document up to large books with full color pages in any color profile you choose. There is not time in a short review even to mention specific capabilities of this wonderful set of tools, so I will just say that if you want to do any type of graphic design, typesetting or photographic output you need these tools.
   
   One caution about using Adobe tools is that if you are not capable of learning on your own, then plan to spend a LOT of money on support. Four calls to the support line are included with the purchase, but after that there is a fee. So spend some money on books and plan to spend time to learn these rich, quality tools. You will be rewarded.



2. I run it on my Mac, I run it on my PC. For years I used copies from work for take-home work use, but when I started making money from freelance work, I bought CS1 for myself and I've upgraded ever since.
   
   InDesign is the star in this package. It's like a pagination program and illustrator combined. The command keys are more intuitive across the whole Adobe interface. Designate your own for functions that you use often. When you start using InDesign you'll find more reasons to love this program all the time.
   
   QuarkXpress and PageMaker users: Once you make it through the painful (took me 8 hours over one weekend) process of converting yourself to new working habits, you'll work faster and more efficiently than you did with QuarkXPress. (I used QuarkXPress from '96 to '03 and hated every minute of it, but it was industry standard.)
   
   Because of constant updates that you won't receive otherwise, a paid copy of CS is way more stable than a cracked version. If you have CS2, you need this upgrade because CS3 runs smoother on Intel chips than CS2 did because it doesn't have to be interpreted through Rosetta.
   
   If you're trying to get paid for design work and you didn't go to college to learn the trade (a.k.a. desktop publisher) and you're working in Microsoft Publisher, Freehand or Word (God help you) do the rest of the design community a favor and either buy a copy of CS3 and learn how to use it, or remove yourself from the industry.

5 comments about Datapilot Pix'N Tunes.

1. Program was a little tricky, but after about 5 minutes of messing around it was very easy to use. Comes in very handy and worth every penny i spent.



2. The Pix n' Tunes can deliver neither! The phone-end connector is poorly designed and looses connection easily if moved slightly.
   The software goes through endless installations of drivers and still does not "find" the phone (Verizon LG-VX5300), or rather it will at times identify the phone but then refuse to communicate with it.
   I would expect better from a piece of shareware.
   You would think that with so many camera phones out there that somebody would have a workable transfer solution?



3. I suppose if your phone is supported by this product it would be fine. I can't really say because my phone didn't work with it. Although I was under the impression that it was supposed to. After it didn't work, I went directly to their website and downloaded the version that was supposed to work with my phone and so far it hasn't worked either. I can't even get the program to launch. I've tried to email them about the problem and haven't recieved anything helpful. The one message they sent to me didn't help. I haven't had a chance to call the service phone number yet due to lack of time, but that is my next step.
   
   If you buy it make double sure that your phone is supported first. Otherwise it is a waste of time and money.



4. What I sucky product. Installed the software, did an update and my phone was not listed in the software even though it was on the website. I emailed techsupport and it took the, 5 days to get back to me. They said to do another update so I did. This time my phone was on the list, selected it, it was detected and said it was ready to go and that my phone supported both features of the software. Then when I tried to transfer an image or whatever or a song to the phone and it says that my phone is not supported. I decided to to look into a refund and find out that they charge a $9.95 processing fee to refund the download-able version!! I only payed 16 for it, what an awful company and an awful product. Stay Away!!!



5. I bought the data cable, and then downloaded the software from their site. First of all, the photo downloading software doesn't work. It starts to download, then fails and tells me to reboot my phone. It does this over and over. The only reason I bought the product was to download photos, which it will not do. Second of all, AFTER you buy the software they tell you that they will charge you $9.99 to return it - even the downloaded version. I am going to return the cable and dispute the charge on the software, because it's a defective product that doesn't work.