Microsoft Plus Digital Media Edition - Old Version

• Aperture 3 helps you refine images, showcase your work, and manage massive libraries on your Mac
• Features new ways to organize your photos by the people in them and more robust GPS tools for mapping images
• Apply or remove adjustments and effects to selected parts of your images with nondestructive, edge-aware brushes
• Instantly give your images a custom look or emulate a variety of camera types and processing styles
• Create stunning slideshows that weave together photos and HD video clips, complete with text and soundtracks

If you keep in mind all that's included for the price, you really can't complain. XP's visual interfaces have always been appealing, and the components of Plus! DME are all nicely done and easy to use. I bought it mainly because I was interested in Photo Story, and now that there is a free online upgrade available (Photo Story 2), you can save projects to edit later. That makes this program much more sensible. It allows final saving in only two formats: "medium quality" (240x320) and "high quality" (480x640). There are also two quality choices for audio. Happily, saved "stories" (WMV format) can be imported into Movie Maker and rendered as full DV-AVI with good results.

The audio capture program is also simple, straightforward, and wizard-based. It lets you trim unnecessary parts before saving. I used it to capture audio in order to make CDs from language lesson tapes. It worked great. I haven't tried it on a wide variety of music, but it worked fine with the music I did digitize. You cannot do any fancy editing, but for importing analog music into your PC, it couldn't get simpler than this.

The Alarm Clock integrates nicely with XP, and I use it often. Plus! DME also came with many new transition effects for Movie Maker which are pretty cool.

There are other features, which are mainly just "toys" to me, but even without them, I feel that the price is fair enough for only the goodies I've mentioned above.

Although I confess that this will not satisfy those who prefer high "tweakability" and professional results, I feel that Plus! DME is worth its price for what it does and will please those who want a simple solution to a few digital media tasks.

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OK, my major complaint with the last version of Plus! was that it gave you little to nothing; mostly demo and watered-down programs. Well, although this version seems to be heading in the right direction, it still offers little in the way of usable add-ons. First, I'll address Picture Story, since it seems to be the fan favorite. While I love it's ease of use, the truth of the matter is, you don't need it. Windows Movie Maker, (included in XP and ME), does the exact same thing and offers greater customization and more special effects options. Best of all, it's FREE, and offers ME users the opportunity to create "picture stories" as well (Plus! is now only available for XP). Plus! DME does offer some additional Movie Maker content, however it's only compatible with version 2 (another XP exclusive). Other than Picture Story, there is really very little of value here. The analog recorder seems like a good idea for cleaning up old LP's, however I haven't owned a turntable since the late 80's, so I really can't comment on it. The CD label maker is OK; comparable to the versions supplied with your average burner software. It's a good solution for those who opt to use Windows XP as their default CD-R/RW burning software. The media player add-ons are OK, mostly new skins and a few security features to keep others from listening to your music, (although the only use I can immediately think of is maybe keeping the children from listening to anything you might have containing questionable lyrics). I don't plan to convert my MP3's to WMA, so the converter is useless to me. The dancers and alarm clock lose their novelty after the first 5 minutes. I own a Pocket PC, so the synchronization tools are welcome. It makes converting media files easier and allows you to download media content from the web (although I haven't yet felt the need to do so). All in all, it's "ok". It's nowhere near a "must-have" item. I would only suggest it if you catch it on sale. P.S., like all MS products, it also requires activation and is limited to one computer. Just thought that was important enough to add.

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The software on Media Edition has one real gem Photo Story.

You install Photo Story version 1 that comes on the Media Edition disk then get the free upgrade that comes with the ver. 2 Digital Media Edition download upgrade. Photo Story Ver. 2 lets you edit your story until you get it right.

Photo Story allows you to easily build a moving jpg slide show with added non-copywrited windows media file music. It writes a wma movie file which you can be transferred to a VCD. It will not write your photo story to a DVD. You can convert your wma movie file to a DVD file with other software. I used MyDVD that came with my Sony DVD writer. MyDVD does a direct conversion from Picture Story's WMA to a DVD. The songs you buy from Music Match for 99 cents are copyrighted and will not work with Photo Story.

Here are some examples of Photo Story...

Photo Story is the way to go until you are ready move to industrial strength slide software like Memories to TV. I doubt I'll ever need anything better that Photo Story.

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I don't really use most of the programs in this package...except Photo Story. Photo Story is incredible! I have done video CDs for my parents' wedding anniversary, seniors graduating from high school (we have two seniors in our private school and will use the stories at graduation), a teacher appreciation banquet, etc. Just hook your DVD player to a projector, and voila! You're ready to go. The ability to add music really makes the stories moving. My only complaint is that you are limited to one music track, so if the story is long, the song just repeats itself over and over. Hopefully, with the next upgrade, they'll add the ability to use more than one music track. That's the only improvement I see that it needs. Great for creating memories for your family and friends!

It's ironic that a software package that costs only $20 could still be termed "a poor value". While the intentions behind Plus! Digital Media Edition were probably to enhance the XP experience, these features should have been included with Windows XP as a patch given the price of XP and the limited features of Plus! DME.

For example, we have Plus Dancer. This program puts a small, pre-recorded dancer on the bottom of your screen who moves with the music selection that you currently have playing. After about 5 minutes my amusement with this feature was gone. Some of the other features are useful if you are into photo or music editing, but there are far better tools out there, and many are free.

The only feature that I have ended up using was the Alarm Clock. It is moderately useful as I prefer choosing an MP3 track to wake me up, rather than a buzzer or an annoying early morning DJ.

If you are hardcore into photos and music and need something cheap to enhance your projects, this MIGHT be worth picking up. Otherwise, just hit the Net and look for some decent share.ware