The best just keeps getting better. Several years ago, when I got my first CD burner, Easy CD Creator (EZCD) came in the box with the burner. It was not the latest version, but it didn’t take me long to realize this was to be a software package that I would become very familiar with. Because I had that older version of EZCD that came with my burner I was qualified to buy the upgrade, which I did, the same day I got my burner.

I put off purchasing my first burner for quite a while, mainly because of the cost, and also because it was a whole new world of computing that I knew nothing about. But they don’t call it Easy CD Creator for nothing. Within 5 minutes of installing my first version I had burned my first CD. Now that’s EASY!

Suffice it to say that Adaptec, which I guess now goes by the name of Roxio, has always tried to make EZCD your one stop shopping for CD burning software. And with version 5 Platinum they’ve gotten enough software to let you do things on CD that you probably never thought you would or could.

As I indicated in the title, this is more of a summary than a review. Here’s what you get with Easy CD Creator 5 and some of the things you can do: 

• Easy CD Creator 5 Platinum (of course – but hold on to your hat!) Easily creates data, audio and multimedia CDs on your PC.
• SoundStream 2 Enhances the sound quality of MP3 files or records from analog (phonograph, tape or microphone) or digital sources while filtering out the pops, clicks and hisses. Loudness balancing for tracks from disparate sources. Save CDs to HD to create a virtual jukebox of compressed CDs on your computer.
• Direct CD Save directly to a CD as if it were a hard drive. Previously, this type of CD could only be read by another CD burner using Direct CD but now it will automatically "make-writable" on eject so that basically any CD reader can read it.
• Take Two Use your CD-R/RW Drive to recover from hard disk disasters.
• Spin Doctor Turns your scratchy LPs into Digital quality CDs (nearly).
• CD Copier Copy directly from one CD to another, but remember… if you don't own the rights, copying commercial CDs to sell or give away is illegal. Recordable CDs created with such material should be for personal use only.
• VideoImpression Easy to use video editing features such as trimming, combine, text overlay and transitions to video clips. Includes MPEG 1 video encoder to save video in the correct format for VideoCD Creator.
• Photo Relay (which includes Photo Album and Video Postcard ) Make your own photo albums adding sound and narration or email video postcards that any PC can view without any special software.
• VideoCD Creator Become a Hollywood director and make your own videos with your very own multimedia studio. You can edit video clips, add text or apply transitions between scenes.
• CD Label Creator When you’re all done creating, make your very own labels to cover your newly created CDs and CD cases.
• Sound Editor You not only have the ability to edit video but audio as well.
• Session Selector You don’t have to burn a CD all at once any longer. Start it now and finish it later by starting a new session.
• Web-CheckUp With EZCD you’re always assured of having the latest updates. Just go to the website and give yourself a check-up.

You can also download Internet music, including MP3 tracks, and record to your own CD's, create MP3s from your own music CDs, back up important files such as spreadsheets and financial data (or other important files), and free up valuable hard drive space by moving large files such as audio, graphic and multimedia files to CD.

These are only some of the things you can do with EZCD Creator. For $99 street price ($49 upgrade), it’s hard to beat Roxio’s Easy CD Creator 5 Platinum. If you haven’t tried it, try it. If you have, then it’s time to upgrade and burn, burn, burn! u