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 From the Editor |
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| Bring Your System Back to Life |
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| Better DVD Playback with CinePlayer |
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| Making Panoramas |
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| Get eWired & Get a Buzz! |
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| Crunch Portable Video |
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| Blurring the Photo/Video Line |
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| Fill Your iPod for Free |
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| Musical Chairs |
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| Ask Roxio |
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| Hot Topics |
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| Quick Links to our Most Popular How-To Articles. |
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| Getting Started with BackOnTrack |
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| Printing Disc Labels with Creator |
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| How to Record TV Shows to DVD |
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| Making DVD Slideshows With Creator |
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| Online Discussion Groups |
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| Did you know that Roxio has online discussion groups, where users help each other out? Get answers to your burning questions fast. |
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| Join and Enter the Discussion Group |
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| Blurring the Photo/Video Line |
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Most digital cameras and camcorders these days can take both still pictures and video, but there’s still a big difference in their function. Camcorders can take relatively low-resolution photos, and still cameras can capture short video clips in a pinch, at much lower quality than regular videocameras.
Soon, however, the line between cameras and camcorders will start to disappear. Sony just announced prototype digital picture-sensing technology that can capture 6-megapixel images at 60 frames per second, which means that you could take any still frame from the video and print it out at high-resolution. And the video itself, at about 3000-by-2000 pixels, is even higher-definition than HDTV, which is only 1920-by-1080! You’ll need a computer monitor to appreciate it.
We can hardly wait. We’re just worried about how much disk space all this image wizardry will occupy. Time to invest in a 50GB Blu-ray recorder!
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| Digital Media Picks - Fill Up Your iPod for Free! |
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| Want the latest tunes for your music player at no cost, all perfectly legal and DRM-free? Stop worrying about the RIAA and get MediaCatcher, the new ad-supported music clipping tool that lets you search the Web for Internet radio tracks, then use time and place-shifting technology to listen to them elsewhere. Think of it like a TiVo for music.
The tool currently works within FaceBook, where you can not only "catch" your own music searches, but see what your friends are searching for too. It’s a great way to share your favorites legally, by letting your friends perform their own searches and clips. Some targeted advertising may be included in your clips in the future, just as you would hear on the radio, but that’s a small price to pay for free and legal music that you can listen to anywhere.
Learn more |
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| Q:What are DVD region codes, and why do I need to worry about them? |
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| A: Region codes are used to identify the particular area of the world a commercial DVD can be played in. Theoretically, you are not supposed to play a North American disc in Europe or vice versa. There are six regions, and set-top DVD players are also tied to this system. So a region 1 (North America) disc is not supposed to play in a region 4 (Australia & Central/South America) player.
Home-made and non-commercial discs are normally region-free, or region 0, although burning software does allow you to set a region if you want. A disc can also be authorized for multiple regions, such as 2/5 (Europe and Russia/Africa).
But this system falls down a bit with computers, which are often carried around the world, so DVD drives usually have the ability to change regions, but only a few times, so be cautious about using this capability.
Check the back of commercial DVD cases to see what the region code is. If it’s not 1, you may have a problem playing it on US DVD players.
Learn more about region codes |
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| Have a question about using Roxio software? Have a tip to share? Have an interesting story about how you use Roxio software? Send them to us at
editor@roxio.com, and we’ll address as many as we can in this space. Questions and tips should be of general interest. If we use your tip or story, you’ll get a special gift in return, so include your mailing address. |
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| Important Note: if you have a specific tech support question, please contact the tech support line, we cannot provide personal answers here. Please use the following link. |
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| Go to online technical support |
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| We welcome your comments and suggestions for future issues of the Roxio Digital Media Report at: editor@roxio.com |
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 From the Editor
Have you upgraded to Creator 10 yet? PC Magazine calls this brand-new version "highly polished and often indispensable," and gives it the coveted Editor’s Choice award. Written from the ground up to support both Windows Vista and XP, Creator 10 adds a slew of must-have features like HD video editing, Blu-ray/HD DVD recording, and thorough support for mobile devices like cell phones and iPods. Check out Creator 10’s Greatest Hits on MyRoxio.com for more.
Tip of the Month: Have a lot of photos and video from various sources to put onto your new smartphone or media player? Creator 10’s MediaManager can automatically convert all your media to designated formats for each device. |
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 Right now, this minute, what would happen if you had a hard drive or system crash? Are you backed up? Could you recover all your family photos and financial records? If the answer is no, you need BackOnTrack 3. This brand-new protection suite lets you return your system to any previous state, letting you recover from system crashes in seconds, no boot disc required. Your registry, system files and installed apps will all be restored, and virus damage repaired. It also backs up all your important files to any destination, such as a network drive or DVD. It can even back up your entire PC with disk image technology and an easy one-step wizard.
Protect your precious data and save at the same time! Get the new BackOnTrack 3 Suite for just $39.99, a $10 savings. Choose from download or boxed versions.
Download BackOnTrack 3 Suite for only $39.99.
Get a physical copy of BackOnTrack 3 Suite for only $39.99.
Learn more about BackOnTrack 3 Suite
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 Not all DVD players are created equal. Sure, almost every PC these days has a DVD drive, but there’s playback and then there’s playback. If you want a true home-theater experience, with Dolby Digital Surround Sound® support, InterActual® content playback, and Pro Logic support, Roxio CinePlayer Surround is the only option.
Included in the Easy Media Creator 10 Suite, and available separately, CinePlayer Surround maximizes video quality for your computer screen, and even supports Dolby Headphone playback, for a virtual surround experience using any headphones – perfect for viewing movies on long plane rides!
Other features include remote control support, navigation controls that automatically show and hide themselves, and the ability to display the extra PC-based interactive content on many discs (something no set-top player can show). If your PC has S-video output, or your TV has a VGA input, you can even connect your PC to your TV set and enjoy CinePlayer’s features on the big screen!
See screenshots and learn more about CinePlayer Surround |
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Want to make your travel or landscape photos more exciting? Or simply provide more compelling pictures of your house for sale? Try making a panorama. Panoramas can turn a humdrum scene into a stunner, simply by virtue of scale and composition. And Creator 10’s PhotoSuite provides the stitching software. All you need is a camera and a few tips:
• Use a tripod to keep the horizontal planes level, and to make it easy to turn the camera on one spot. Or find a handy rock or table to rest it on. For pro results, a special panorama head can eliminate parallax.
• Start taking pictures at one side of the scene, and gradually turn the camera so that each picture overlaps about 30-50 percent with the previous one. The more overlap, the better.
• Make sure you are not positioned too close to any large object that would fill the frame as you turn toward it. Also keep the main subject off-center, so it doesn’t focus your eye on the middle.
• You can stop whenever you want, anywhere up to 360 degrees, although circular panoramas work best with special viewing software.
Getting Started
Shooting Tips
Inspiration |
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| Got a large video or photo file to send? Don’t email it, eWire it! Now there’s a solution to sending big files that doesn’t require setting up a complicated FTP site. And it’s completely private, unlike YouTube or Flickr.
Roxio has partnered with YouSendIt, the No. 1 digital delivery company on the Web today, to create Roxio eWire. With eWire, you can send, receive and track multiple files easily and reliably - a great service for sharing those holiday videos and photos with the whole family!
Start Your Free Trial
Edit Web Video with Roxio Buzz
 Don’t want to fire up a full-fledged editing tool like VideoWave just to snip up some clips for YouTube? For a super fast and easy way to make basic edits and post the results to Web video sharing sites, try the new Roxio Buzz.
With Buzz, you can make quick edits, add tags and descriptions, and upload the results directly to your YouTube or GoFish account without ever leaving the application. It automatically optimizes video file size and quality for you, and you can even mix in music tracks and photos! |
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 Want to put your movies, TV shows and home video on your cell phone or media player, but don’t know where to start? Confused by all the new formats like H.264 and MP4? Let Roxio Crunch do the heavy lifting.
With Crunch, the whole process is reduced to just three easy steps. You simply choose the video source files (in nearly any format), choose output presets optimized for your device, then sit back and convert! You can Crunch as many files as you want in one batch, making it a snap to encode entire movie libraries for your new iPhone, iPod Touch or Apple TV.
See Crunch in action |
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 We’re all for recycling used CDs, but we’re guessing this CD lounge chair made out of thousands of discs must weigh a couple hundred pounds. We’re also guessing it leaves red impressions all down your back and legs as you sit.
Check out the AOL CD chair for another take on optical seating.
Got an idea for Humor Corner? Send it to us at editor@roxio.com
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