4 comments about DTV4PC.

1. A close friend, known for his parsimony and greed, raved about his purchase of DTV4PC - he absolutely couldn't understand how anyone would not give a superlative rating to this product - hence, I've tagged 5 Stars above even though I haven't even received my order confirmation from Amazon yet. "Why?" - you ask! Because if you order by the 29th you get a 15 dollar rebate that's why... but if you hesitate and pay "full" price -- you'll still be well rewarded with the quality and performance of this product according to my friend's raves. I've never gone wrong following his advice and neither will you, gentle reader!
   Also - I checked competitors on the web and there is a representative number.. I chose DTV4PC, though, -- because Smith/Micro is the developer and Smith/Micro is a trusted name in software development. Happy Viewing!



2. This product is misrepresented. You do not get access to local channels, but you get old broadcasts. For example, I bought this hoping to see some NHL playoffs, but the best chance of seeing any games was through CBC sports channels (2 of them). It has been showing the same game every time I check it (Toronto vs. Barrie minor leagues 3-0 in the first period) for the past week!!! The same is true for the other CBC sports channel. ESPN never connects successfully. The "Hockey TV" channel in USA is also showing the same game over and over, but it is a different game (Michigan vs some other team).
   
   DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY ON THIS!
   
   Other channels have the same issue. The best I saw was a news station that was always broadcasting 1 day behind.



3. no local channels,a few good movies and a lots of 2nd rated movies ,reruns of TV showes, like bones etc. some channels are very clear and others channels are fuzzy but i would buy it again,you can not beat the price. ***graboid (www.graboid.com)comes with it or you can down load it on line for free. its a pay per month movie channel which I thing is cheap for what you get.you can pick from 1000's of movies.not bad if you do not mind watching movies on your computer.it free for the first month. they charge by the size of the movie for more info check out the web site.



4. I've gotten this software to work only twice. My hardware and firewall meet the requirements for this product and seem to be set properly. It will not update either. I've tried contacting customer service, however they remain unavailable... Waste of time and money.

5 comments about Microsoft Plus! for Windows XP.

1. If you want lots of themes you can try TGT softs Style XP.
   Style XP gave me lots of themes and can be found at http://www.tgtsoft.com/



2. I purchased this item thinking it would be lovely to have an aquarium. There are only 3 fish and one plasters itself to the left side of the screen so its head is not visible and stays there. If you want more fish you have to buy another $20 item and still only 3 fish at a time on the screen. The blurb on the additional software says you can have 7 fish at a time but that is not the case you can choose 7 but only 3 will appear on the screen at once, which is deceptive in my book. The lack of complexity and detail is extremely disappointing, themes on 98 were much better IMHO. If you are into the media player then this is a great item, but the games are kind of boring in their sameness and the biggie is dancing people. I'm not into dancing people nor the media player. I am not at all happy with this item.



3. While the idea behind this product is great, it just doesn't come out that way in the end. I recently upgraded my video card to GeForce 4 MX 5200, and now the Plus! screensavers (i.e. the aquarium and others) do not display correctly.
   
   The games are okay, but only the Labyrinth is worth playing. There is a link on Microsoft's website to download for free more bonus levels for Labyrinth, but everytime I download the free upgrade, the levels never get installed into the game. The download .exe file is a self-extractor, so there's no way to control it. I have tried to get the extra free levels three times now, and it NEVER works!
   
   If you want the aquarium screen saver, buy the boxed version from SereneScreen! It is EXACTLY like the one in Plus! and only costs $19.oo! This is what I did last week, and the SereneScreen aquarium screensaver works fine on my computer with the new graphics card!
   
   Someone in another review said that Microsoft Plus! was a good example of "bloat-ware". I agree 100% -- lots of pretty packaging, lots of hype, lots of teaser write-ups on the box, but in the end there just isn't much to the package.



4. I don't get this, in Plus 98 you get a whole bunch of themes and other stuff - in Plus XP you get nothing - well you get a couple of thems! I cannot believe I paid for this - I uninstalled this and returned it for store credit - this is not worth $19.99 or $12.99 it is worth $1.99 - if you want some more themes for Windows XP look around on the internet for FREE ones and save your money!



5. This is so poor, it shouldn't be given away. The screen savers are excellent but require heavy use of the CPU. The games are only partial and require further investment for the complete version. Quite a rip off and disappointment from an otherwise satisfied Microsoft customer.

1 comments about TurboCad Deluxe V 10.0.

1. This cad program is fine if you are a pro at using cad programs but I would avoid it if you are a novice. The makers tried to incorperate too many functions in single modes thus making it harder to use. Since I can't return it I purchased the 9.2 version which I believe is a easier program to use than this one. I uninstalled this program and reinstalled my 9.2 version and glad I did.

5 comments about Adobe Photoshop Album.

1. I would advise anyone considering buying Adobe Photoshop Album to visit Adobe's website. A look at the forum section will give you an idea of the MANY problems users are having trying to make this buggy software work properly.
   
   I installed the Starter Edition to see if I wanted to buy the full program later. My experience with Starter Edition was very positive. The full version is another story altogether. It simply won't install on my computer. The program claims to support WIN98 SE, but during installation I get a message telling me it won't support my operating system, which is, you guessed it, Windows 98 Second Edition.
   
   Another reviewer here mentioned that he had the same trouble and had to do an exhaustive search through the Adobe user forums to find a solution. Its pretty sad when a software comany's user base has to assist each other to use one of its products.
   
   Adobe has a good reputation, but this clunker is not up to their usual standard. Avoid it!



2. Album delivers all of the basic features you would expect from such a product with some minor weaknesses and some nice surprises. The Fix function is a bit weak, even compared to some free programs. Specifically, the lighten/darken feature is a bit weak and AutoFix does not seem to make any significant improvements to photos. The backup feature is very easy to use but it requires a new CD each time, even if you are doing incremental backups and only bakcup a small number of files. This is wasteful and is a weakness. The photo Move and Rename features also add a lot of value and work well.



3. I am very displeased that when you pay for a program and you receive a 10 page book on how to use it and have a questions that Adobe wants to charge you 40.00 to answer a question. I thought I had a great program to use for our church pictures, but I was mistaken. Money down the drain! I called and they said that is there policy. They will be glad to answer installation problems, but not on how to use their product.



4. I have used Photo Album versions 1 and 2, and have created CD slide shows of my bicycle tours. It is never easy to do. When you first import photos into the program's "well" they are large enough to see what's in them. When you go to the next stage (the "create" stage) -- where you can sort and re-arrange the slides -- the photos are way too small and you can't enlarge them. Also, I create title pages in Photoshop and import them, and in the "create" stage, you can't make out the words to figure out where to place them. Also, I have prepared complete slide shows and gotten to the point where I was previewing them (as happened today) and the program would freeze, and I lost hours of work. Not good! Now we know why Adobe has stopped selling the program and is just providing a simple version for free.



5. I am writing this because of all the negative reviews stating that this program is weak for editing or making DVDs, etc. This program, which I have used for many years, in my opinion is intended ONLY for storing photos in a logical way. First, it does not contain the photo images, only a pointer (shortcut) to those images which are stored elsewhere on the computer. You can store them in categories and sub-categories or you can access them by a simple time-line for when the photo was taken. If you want to edit the photo, you should use a photo editing program - of which many good ones exist. Once the photo is edited, the "fixed" version is now what you see in the PhotoShop Album program. I use Windows "My Pictures" file to store all my GOOD photos and PhotoShop Album to store links to the BEST photos - further, this program is what my iTunes (and my iPod) link to. It's a great cataloging program - just don't use it for editing and say you're disappointed.

5 comments about Nero 7 Ultra Edition [OLD VERSION].

1. I run a older version of Nero software. It is still upgradeable (according to them). I bought one of their plugin pkgs (downloaded). I installed it and it promptly broke my Nero version to the point I had to uninstall both the new pkg and my Nero version and then completely reinstall the previous Nero pkg.
   
   I got NO help from their customer support.
   
   I GOT A REFUSAL to refund my money.
   
   So, BEWARE, you might get screwed too.



2. Full of bugs, lack of technical support-CD and MP3 files skip-can not burn CD's without clicks. Impossible to to fix. Don't waste your money!



3. This program has wasted SO MUCH of my time, rebooting, trying to figure out what I am doing wrong (only to find it wasn't me), and scouring their website forums for help. I still use the DVD authoring portion, as I am still trying to get familiar with the Vegas Video DVD Architect program (which appears to be much better), but even the DVD authoring portion of this seems designed for gradeschoolers as it is very limited in the variety of layouts/buttons/etc. it will allow you to use. The forums are usually of no help, as it is populated with aging Nero lackeys trying to tell you that what you want to do with their limited software is a flaw in your creativity, not their software! The CD-rom itself is not sealed within the package, so MAKE SURE YOU WANT THIS before you buy it since the disk isn't sealed and never was (I got mine as a gift that I changed my mind about--the store we got it from had it on the shelf with the security tape already breached by another customer who apparently brought it back and my significant other didn't notice this before taking it off the shelf. When we tried to return, they wouldn't accept it back because the disk inside was also not sealed).
   
   If video quality is important, again AVOID--this program tends to want to re-encode just about everything you throw at it--it's definition of DVD-compliant is a very narrow one and you may end up waiting hour after hour for a re-encode to take place, only to find a big red error message when you get up in the morning--a message never deciperable or vague at best (could not insert file. Click OK). thanks.
   
   I hope potential buyers of subsequent editions read these reviews before purchasing ANY of the Nero products. Skip this lemon and go right to Vegas Video and Vegas DVD Architect for your DVD-authoring needs.



4. Buggy bloat. And I thought Microsoft was bad. Nero used to be the best through version 6. Not anymore, stay away. You will find your windows corrupted, bugs in every module, $1.29/minute "support" by phone (you are supporting their mansions), and the program is very difficult to completely remove. Roxio or one of the free burning programs is a far better choice.



5. I cannot download this product to my computer because it is not compatible with windows vista.

2 comments about DVD Architect Studio 4.5.

1. Email support is very good. The software only allows one to do minimal editing. I am disappointed. I will be upgrading to ADOBE Premiere Elements 4



2. This program does not come with a fancy video editor nor is it a suite of tools. That's why you get more bang for the buck. If you already have other tools, such as Sonic EMC or Premiere Elements you get video editors and other tools, but neither of those create the DVD as well as DVD Architect.
   
   For example, Premiere Elements allows you to create automatically chaptered movies by allowing you to but chapter marks in the movie editor, but it does not allow you to create a DVD with more than one movie. It has a nice video editor, but a very weak DVD authoring tool. Sonic EMC allows multiple movies and slide shows, but does not create chapter marked movies.
   
   DVD Architect allows both and a lot more. You add setups for sound tracks and easily create a tree of menus of practically any structure you want.
   You can access DVD virtual commands in a limited way through the scripting tool. It could be better in that area.
   
   If you buy Vegas Pro 8, you get DVD Architect with it and you have a great deal more power than any of the lowest price Video/DVD authoring combos.
   
   I chose Vegas Pro 8 with DVD Architect because I was looking for a mid-priced tool (half the price of Premiere Pro), which is far more versatile than the low end packages. Although it may not be as powerful as Premiere Pro or Mac's Final Cut, it does a great job and you don't have to pay $800 for Premiere Pro.
   
   I would have liked Premier Pro, but it was too expensive for me PLUS it does not yet support AVCHD files from my camcorder.
   
   Sonic advertises support for AVCHD in Roxio Creator 2009, but what they really did was add a converter, which converts all the clips from your camera to mpg files, since the video editor "VideoWave" has not been changed to handle native AVCHD. Each step of conversion is a loss in quality. Sonic EMC also does a very sloppy job of batch processing the files so you can't walk away and just let it convert everything. You must select a folder every time it finishes a clip. Having 30 years of programming experience, that could have been done better by simply modifying the batch loop.
   
   I still like the Sonic suite because it has a lot of useful tools that are not included with these other programs.
   
   If you have an earlier Sonic Video Wave or EMC 8 or 9 and don't want to spend the money, you might find an AVCHD converter online for free or very cheap, which essentially accomplishes the same thing.
   
   Bottom line: You get what you pay for and when you hold your budget, you have to compromise one thing for another.

1 comments about Digital Giggles.

1. Great game. Easy to use, lots of fun. Can change your hair styles, makeup, add accessories, all kinds of neat things. Wonderful and fun for all ages.

2 comments about Color Efex Pro 2.0 for Mac and PC.

1. Wonderful filters & plug-ins. Really speeds up the processing and creativity in Photoshop. Highly recommend for beginner to advanced PS users. In fact, this makes it so easy you don't have to learn PS like a pro. You just have to have a good eye for making settings adjustments with all the slider options, etc. This won't make you a great photographer but offers potential to make good images look great and save you lots of time doing it. Not always perfect selections for every photo, but so nice to use various ones (and in combinations) when you need it.



2. I use this every time I process photos, it is much better than the version 1.0. I am impressed with the ease and power of the Nik family of tools and highly recommend them. It speeds up the workflow considerably. I highly recommend this tool.

2 comments about Adobe Contribute CS3 Upgrade [Mac] [OLD VERSION].

1. If you design website with Dreamweaver (works with non-Dreamweaver sites, but without Dreamweaver's integrated templates capability that locks portions of the page) that others will need to edit...AND you don't want them to break it, then Contribute is the product for you!
   
   Allows you set user permissions that control what a user can edit, how they can edit a page, how they (and if they) can add images, whether they can publish or their draft needs reviewed, and saves rollback copies so any damage can be undone!
   
   The user interface is easy and user-friendly - the user browses the site they wish to edit (and have permission to do so) and then edits the page. Simple.
   
   This works best for the editor of a site created and maintained by Dreamweaver. And, it will make every Dreamweaver designer happier, healthier, and allow for the opportunity to spend your time making money designing a new site as opposed to the drudgery of continually editing an old site.
   
   This is a great solution for non-profit clients who want to be able to update at will, but have too small a budget to afford a full web application design or can't afford to pay a web designer to continually make changes and updates to the content.



2. Not bad for ease of connecting and editing. the WYSIWYG is not always accurate and sometimes takes several attempts to make it come out right, and you should check your final product on all browsers, IE, Firefox and Safari. Still a little clunky to format, and tricky to work with pictures. In fact the new version seems to have more steps to get a final product, and some features that made sizing and placement easier are gone, or more difficult to do. But this version is more stable, haven't crashed it nearly as often. It's ok, and certainly much more professional than some other web page editing products I've worked with.

No comments about Parallels Desktop 3.0 for Mac.