Good (but Not Perfect) Media Creation
Every fall since 1995. Nero and archrival Roxio have come out with new versions of their media creation suites. Since these suites made their debuts, many of their functions have been incorporated into operating systems or are available as freeware. Nero 9 is the better of the two titans this year, but the question still remains: Is either of these monstersuites still worth its price?
One capability in Nero 9 that you can't get in Windows or Mac OS X is B1u-ray authoring and burning, although I did encounter some problems during testing. You can also burn ISO disc images, and you get data recovery along with the Nero Live TV-watching software. Nero has also added some subtle changes to its interface with this version. including the ability to play. rip, burn, copy, and back up content right from the main window. without launching another of the suite's applications. Vision, the suite's video-editing component, has a simpler, more workflow-oriented interface, which aggregates the whole process of adding videos, transitions, effects, and text overlays with the process of authoring and burning a disc. For DVD burning, there are several ways to go about this, and Nero's burn time for our test image was 18 minutes, far better than Roxio's 35. Nero has also added Gracenote support for finding song and artist information tin music files, along with a Music Grabber
feature to capture soundtracks from videos and add diem to your MP3 library. Some downsides to Nero are that it crashed a couple of times during testing and that the setup is cumbersome and time-consuming.
The Nero suite also includes PhotoSnap and PhotoSnap Viewer, the latter of which duplicates existing viewers in Windows and Mac. Its Edit button takes you to the full Nero PhotoSnap, which lets you do things like crop images and fix red-eye and lens distortion. A couple of nice extras are the hot pixel fixer and the JPEG Artifact Remover. And the RescueAgent file recovery tool can back up either to local storage or to Nero's online service (for an extra fee). So while Nero wins over Roxio this year. I did not award either an Editors' Choice, because neither is as polished as it should be for the money-Neil Rubenking
PC Magazine January 2009
NERO 9
NETWORK MAGIC PRO 5.0
No-Sweat Home Network Management
Home and small-office networks have spread like wildfire. But users attempting to configure, secure, and maintain those networks may too often feel as if they're battling a blaze in the Santa Ana wind. That's where Network Magic comes in. Though it doesn't yet succeed in its toughest challenge, making security effortless, it's still a valuable tool for the home or business user who isn't a tech expert but needs to manage a network of up to eight computers—along with attached devices like printers and NAS appliances.
If you are already a Network Magic user, the first thing you'll notice in this version is the improved control dashboard. The graphical interface displays a map of your network with pictorial representations of all the connected devices. Which the utility finds automatically. You can point and click to connect devices, control Internet access, and track online activity Sharing connections, files, and devices such as printers is is just as easy.
Every time you make a change—or more important, someone else does—a pop-up notifies you of the change, so you know what's happening at all times. Network Magic even finds and reports wireless devices that aren't broadcasting an SSID, so you'll know if someone is trying to connect clandestinely. Then you can isolate any unknown machines and mark them as intruders. Having this level of visibility is as usefttl as installing security software.
Unfortunately the product's most serious failing is in its most important new capability: the Change Wireless Protection (CWP) feature. through which Network Magic can enable WEP or WPA encryption on supported routers. In testing. CWP failed to work properly with my supposedly supported business muter, the Linksys WRVS4400N. As a result of the bug my testing uncovered, Cisco has, for the moment, taken business routers off the list of devices supported by CWP. Cisco's consumer routers, however, will still be supported. Although this is bad news for businesses, home users (especially networking novices) can still benefit greatly from Net work Magic.—Mario Morejon
PC Magazine January 2009
Adobe Premiere Elements 7
HD and SD video editing for novices and hobbyists alike
NO, YOU DIDN'T BLINK and miss versions 5 and 6 of Adobe Premiere Elements. Adobe skipped a few numbers to bring the version number in line with its Photoshop Elements sibling. And with Premiere Elements 7, Adobe has also brought the $99.99 program more in line with the features of midrange video-editor competitors like Sony Vegas Movie Studio 9 and Corel VideoStudio X2. It's in no danger of harming sales of the $799 Premiere Pro CS4, but it no longer feels as if it was intentionally held back to ensure that it doesn't.
The program now imports video in AVCHD format, supporting newer HD camcorders like Canon's Vixia HF100, in addition to standard-definition and HDV high-definition video. The interface is easy to use, whether you're new to video editing or an old hand. For a quick video, simply drop video clips onto the sceneline, drop in transitions, and render the results.For more control, switch to the Timeline view, where you can work with up to three different video tracks, narration, and a soundtrack, making precise edits and adding advanced video effects.
As with previous versions, there's a good selection of professional-looking video
filters, transitions, and titling options for manual editing. New to version 7 is the InstantMovie feature, which does a surprisingly good job of taking selected clips and creating a movie from them in just a couple of steps, complete with titles, effects, transitions, and credits. Though there are 20 InstantMovie templates. we'd like to see more variety. For example, there's only one birthday template and two travel templates, so if you use the feature often, your videos will lack variety.
Other new features include Videomerge, an automatic compositing filter that creates a slick combination of two clips by replacing any solid-colored background with the second
clip, and SmartSound, which generates a musical soundtrack to match the length of your video or scene exactly.
Premiere Elements 7 works best when paired with Photoshop Elements 7; Adobe bundles the two programs for $149.99. They share the same Organizer database (listing all the videos, sounds, and stills in your library). and you can send still frames to Photoshop for editing or send slide shows to Premiere
Elements 7 for incorporation in an InstantMovie. The Organizer has been significantly optimized in this version. in Premiere Elements 4, if you had a large library of photos and videos it was nearly unusable, as it was so slow. Now it's a useful tool for locating and organizing video clips, particulary if you take advantage of the software's tagging functionality.
As with Photoshop Elements 7, Premiere Elements 7 works together with Photoshop.com. You get 2GB of online backup storage of your videos and photos for free (not much when
you're dealing with video) and the ability to view your backed-up clips and movies from any PC. In addition to 20GB or more of storage, Adobe promises new tutorials, themes, sounds,
and special effects on a regular basis for those who purchase a $30 Plus membership. Photoshop.com doesn't have public movie galleries, however, so you'll have to rely on YouTube or a personal Web site for sharing.
Once your video has been created, you can burn it to a DVD or Blu-ray disc, publish it directly to YouTube or a personal Web site, or render it to a file. You can create videos in the Adobe Flash Video. AVI, MPEG, Windows Media, and QuickTime formats.The AVI function supports additional codecs that you
install, such as DivX. Premiere Elements 7 can also create files for the iPhone, iPod, PlayStation Portable, and Zune; for 3rd
Generation Partnership Project-compatible cell phones; and for a number of other devices.
You'll want a powerful PC to use with Premiere Elements 7, particularly if you're editing HD video. The program will take full advantage of dual-and quad-core CPUs to speed up rendering,. You'll also want plenty of memory. On our 2GB test system, we got occasional warnings that Premiere Elements 7
was running low on memory. We also had a few crashes when rendering HD video, though we were working with a prerelease version of the program.
Premiere Elements 7 strikes an excellent balance between ease of use and flexibility. The only real frustration is the lack of variety in InstantMovie templates. We hope to see regular additions to the template selection for Photoshop.com Plus members; additional templates would make membership even more appealing. -Denny Atkin
www.adobe.com
Computer Shopper January 2009
DRAGON NATURALLYSPEAKING 10 PROFESSIONAL
Talk to Your PC
Say the words "speech recognition software" and most people think of Dragon Naturally Speaking. Dragon has ruled the roost for years, partly because it's a perenially great piece of sotware, and partly from lack of competition. Event though Dragon now has rival products to contend with, it has secured its positions as the leading voide-recognition software with this new version. Here you get new automation tools, improved hands-free navigation, updates to the interface, and increased accuracy and speed.
Most general-purpose versions of the product include an Andrea NC-19 monaural headset, but the $349 Preferred Wireless Edition subtitutes a slock little Calisto Bluetooth headset from Plantronics. Dragon requires considerable PC muscle: a 1-GHz CPU and 1GB of free hard drive space at minimum, as well as 512MB of RAM. DUring setup, you create a user account, which involves choosing a language (U.K., U.S., Australian, Indian, or SE Asian English), a regional accent, and a microphone connection type. A vocabulary option lets you specify General, Command Only, or Teen. The Setup routine also requests that you read some of your e-mail and word-processing documents. All told, the installation process took me about 45 minutes.
I was very impressed at how accurately and quickly the program transcribed my test script, showing only occasional blips even when I spoke without pauses between words. You can actually decide on how much speed to trade for accuracy using a slider-a handy feature. But is Dragon better than the free translation feature in Vista? With straight forward text both were identical, but on more difficult materal Dragon made fewer mistakes than Vista. The more significant difference is that Vista shows a delay before producing text; Dragon was more prompt. Both programs let you launch other apps from the Start menu by speaking the command "Start Menu." For subsequent commands, Vista was more intuitive, but with Dragon, you also get time-saving Voice Shortcut.
Despite some problems-for example, typing while Dragon is running sometimes slows your system down- and an interface that's not polished as Vista's, Dragon is a serious dictation tool that beats Vista in accuracy, speed, and customization options, thus earning our Editors'Choice.-Michael Muchmore
PC Magazine November 2008
NORTON INTERNET SECURITY 2009
Norton's Powerful Protection Won't Slow You Down
Most users love the protection security software gives them but hate the way it drags down their daily activities. Good News: Norton Internet Security 209 affects performance less than any suite I've tested. Most security tasks happen in the background during idle time. My performance tests confirm that Norton slows systems less than the rest.
The big independent antivirus testing labs all certify the efectiveness of Symantec's antivirus technology; those who have tested the 2009 edition find it improved. It scans files on demand, on access, and during idle time. A full scan took 50 minutes on my standard test system, but the Norton Insight feature reduced that to 5 minutes on later scans.
Norton scored better than other suites in the malware removal test, and it was unusually thorough. In th emalware blocking test it elimidated all but one of the malware samples before they launched. Overall it did better than all of the other suites and standalone antispyware products that I've tested with my current collection of malware. Norton's phishing protection works the same as of the 2009 edition and continues to be extremely accurate.
The firewall is hardened against malware, and it easily passed my barrage of Web-based assaults. and when I attacked a stest system using the Core Impact penetration tool, it blocked all the sample exploits.
The Network Security maps shows all the devices connected to your network and reports whether your wireless network is secure. From th emap you can remotely monitor other computers on the network that are also running Norton. And you can lock out specific devices by setting their trust level to restricted.
Spam protection, however, is useless. In testing, it tossed more than a third of my valid personal mail into the spam folder and missed nearly 30 percent of undeniable smap. Don't rely on this feature.
Norton's Itentify Safe is a password-protected way to store credentials and log in automatically. It also fills web forms with your predefined personal data, all protected by a strong master password.
This is definitely the slimmest, most unobstrusive Norton ever, yet its protection is top-notch where it counts. Despite a few weaknesses, it is the best all-around security suite I've ever seen: I'll be installing it on my own system.-Neil J.Rubenking
PC Magazine November 2008
