Sonic's MyDVD is now published under the Roxio brand. Running the software presents you with a launcher program that arranges tasks into various categories. It's the same interface used by Roxio's disc-burning suite Easy Media Creator and, with Creator Essentials already installed on our test PC, the two packages nestled in the same launcher. Sadly, Creator Essentials didn't seem to like its bedfellow and its CD-burning module packed up completely. For the purposes of this review, we uninstalled both programs and reinstalled MyDVD.
Roxio's task-based approach blurs the lines between the different programs in its suites, but MyDVD Premier includes much more than just MyDVD. VideoWave takes care of video editing in its usual clumsy way, while the excellent Media Manager pops up when importing files or can be launched as a standalone application. We usually don't have much patience for bundled browser programs, but this one is fast to use and catalogues media files in various meaningful ways.
MyDVD is easy and fun to use, but it's a little light on menu templates. Although there's reasonable scope to customise them, you can't get away from having a clip thumbnail for each button. We had no problems importing a range of video formats and resolutions, including widescreen footage, but MPEG4 isn't supported. Disc-navigation options comprise creating menus and submenus and filling them as you please, but the menu structure is strictly hierarchical. Slideshows are handled elegantly.
With high-definition video on the horizon, Roxio is keen to be at the forefront of this technology, though the next-generation DVD formats, Blu-ray and HD DVD, are yet to become available. For the meantime, MyDVD can edit HD footage from HDV cameras, HD TV broadcasts (which have only recently become available) and DivX HD files and burn the results to DVD-ROM in DivX HD. This is a shrewd stop-gap for those desperate to watch footage from their new HDV camera on their new HD TV, though hardly any set-top players support DivX HD; we found 15 at www.videohelp.com's database of players, including Buffalo's LinkTheater PC-P3LWG/DVD, which is available for around £160. We'd recommend running edited HDV back to tape and plugging the camera into the TV until HD DVD and Blu-ray players, drives and authoring software become available. We'd recommend using other software to edit HDV, as VideoWave is basic and slow. It seemed unwilling to generate DivX HD at 25 frames per second (fps), defaulting to the US standard of 30fps.
For sophisticated DVD authoring on a budget, nothing comes close to Sony DVD Architect Studio 3, which is bundled with Vegas Movie Studio 6 for around £75. If MyDVD Premier's suite appeals, Easy Media Creator 8 might be better; this bundles MyDVD, VideoWave and Media Manager with backup software, basic photo editing and more for £60 including VAT. For friendly, low-cost DVD authoring, try Ulead DVD MovieFactory 5.
DVD-AUTHORING SOFTWARE Requires Windows XP SP2, 1.6GHz processor, 256MB RAM, 1GB disk spaceAuthor: Ben Pitt
Roxio MyDVD 8 Premier