Amazon.com Product Description

Discreet's cleaner 5 is a tool for importing, authoring, encoding, and delivering interactive streaming media using popular streaming formats, including RealVideo, QuickTime, and Windows Media, as well as MPEG-1 and MPEG-2. Web designers can produce video that drives Web content by adding interactivity to streaming media like links and hot spots.

Get interactive authoring with EventStream technology that lets you create video that drives Web content. Add interactive features like "Buy Me!" links and hot spots. cleaner 5 software has plenty of advanced features, but the settings wizard makes it easy for even beginners to create crisp, clear streaming video.

Discreet's cinestream, designed for a broad range of video communicators and Web developers, combines DV editing and streaming media production software to deliver quality, interactive, dynamic media that synchronizes video and HTML for a new Web browsing experience. ... Read more

Amazon.com Product Description

XPlay brings the power of the Apple iPod to Windows users. Just plug your iPod into your Windows computer and XPlay makes it easy to load it with MP3 music and other files. If you like, XPlay will automatically synchronize your iPod with your PC music collection when you plug it in, so you are always ready to take your favorite music with you. Thanks to the included MacDrive technology, XPlay even makes your iPod appear as a normal hard drive on your computer, so it's a great way to take your data files and documents with you anywhere. Explore and manage the music on your iPod from Explorer and My Computer, just like any other folder in Windows. XPlay guides you through naming and configuring your iPod when you plug it in for the first time. While your iPod is plugged in, you can listen to your music through Winamp, MusicMatch, Windows Media Player, RealOne, and most other media software. ... Read more

Reviews (13)

The original solution for old iPod on Windows 98SE
Note: The new iPod has both Mac and Windows support.

I like XPlay. It does what it says and it does it well. You can even use it to update the firmware on your iPod -- just like you can with a Mac. The only thing it's missing is an MP3 encoder to rip CDs directly. You'll need separate ripping software.

But that's a small inconvenience when you consider XPlay takes something that is Mac-only and makes it work seamlessly with your PC.

Pros:
Makes the old Mac-only iPod work with FireWire enabled Win98 and WinME PCs
A good plug-n-play solution for iPod and Windows
You can use your iPod with a Mac, too!
Allows you to manage music collections
Edits ID3 tags
Creates playlists

Cons:
No CD ripper to make MP3s
You need FireWire (IEEE 1394, iLink) on your PC (you may need to buy a FireWire card or a 4-6 pin adapter cable)
Apple has released iTunes for Win2K and WinXP as a free download
The new iPod has both Mac and Windows support built in

The bottom line is you can download iTunes for Win2K and WinXP for free. But, if you have a Windows 98 or ME PC, XPlay is a good solution that is much less expensive than a new Windows license.

A Joke
No one should have to pay money for this.

iPods for Windows should be 100% compatible or else return it.

Don't pay money for this software; it's a joke.

xplay or musicmatch
i used music match for the first 9 months of owning my ipod and i liked it alot, but i noticed that when trying to save some songs or add some songs to my ipod, it would select some of the songs and not move them. it also would mess up the way the song was written so the ipod wouldnt be able to read it and play it. xplay has worked flawlessly as just a program for adding songs and removeing them. it does not change the format of the song and it does not make my ipod skip songs the way music match does. music match messes up the ipod, thats all there is to it!

Needs improvement - not necessary at all with new iPODs
If you just bought or are thinking of buying a new model iPod , save your money - you dont need this at all. A lot of people have touted XPlay as better than Musicmatch but I disagree. Most people try Musicmatch and don't bother to download the tutorial files which show you in detail all the great options available in MM. I have both and to be fair, xPlays only advantage with the older iPods was that you could use a Mac iPod on windows pcs with XPlay. Now that Apple has introduced the 30 gig and smaller iPod, its not necessary as there is not a Mac or seperate windows Ipod anymore. Whatever you computer you use, Apple has included both iTunes and MM, and the newest ipod recognizes the computer you plug it into, eliminating the big need for xPlay. So since the MM and iTunes come included free with the iPod I recommend saving your money because there is no real need for xPlay unless you have an older Mac iPod that you want to use on a Windows pc. That is the only good reason for purchasing xPlay. Please take the time to learn Musicmatch - the supertagging feature is great and there are a lot of neat features I haven't listed as well. Enjoy your iPod and see my review of the newest 30 gig model.

What this product could really do
I'm a PC user. Don't hate me. It's what I work with and the platform I develop for. I'm using a new XP laptop at home and have been dumping many of my CDs onto it to listen to. The format I chose to save them as is WMA. It sounds great and creates files that are half the size of MP3s, saving drive space and making file management easier.

Numerous products (MP3 Players, iPod-like Jukeboxes, etc) are accommodating WMA format. I realize that this is a proprietary Windows format and it doesn't make sense for Apple to support it on the iPod. But why make a product like XPlay.. which should enable me, the Windows user, to use an iPod.. without supporting my habits?

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems this product doesn't offer the ability to convert WMA files to MP3 on-the-fly before transferring them to the iPod. That would be truly useful. That would be a product made for the Windows user. THAT would encourage this PC-user to buy a Mac product. The iPod is cool. I'd love to have one. My PC has FireWire so I could take full advantage of it. It, and this software, just unfortunately don't meet my needs.

I'm looking at a Creative Labs Nomad Zen instead, which doesn't feature the PIM software that the iPod does, but is cheaper too. It would be nice if the iPod could support my Outlook Contacts and Calendar as well. I haven't seen anything that says whether or not this is definitively true. (The PC Support on the iPod site is 1 paragraph long)

UPDATE: I use iTunes. ... Read more

Features

• Everything you need to compose, play back, and print your music
• Full MIDI features; on-line videos demonstrate key functions
• Notates as you play; over 30 predefined score templates
• Share your music on the Web
• Designed for the performing musician

Amazon.com Product Description

MusicMatch Jukebox Deluxe is the ultimate MP3 solution, featuring an MP3 encoder, MP3 Player, CD player, and integrated CD ripper. Record and MP3-encode tracks from your CD library or from online sources in a single step, creating CD-quality MP3 files at speeds up to nine times faster than normal play speed. A powerful database library makes it possible for you to sort and search your music by artist, title, track, or music genre, then create a customized song list by simply dragging and dropping selections from your library to your play-list screen. Deluxe features include a six-foot stereo-patch cable; 10 colorful display themes; and 50 free songs from RollingStone.com, epitonic.com, and emusic.com. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

Big Bug
I installed this program twice on my computer to make sure and in both cases it caused big problems. I am still working to fix them.

The Best Digital Music Organizer/Player/Recorder
I purchased a Diamond Rio and quickly realized I needed quality software to collect and organize mp3 songs (I've since switched over to a Nomad II and since Music Match has plug-in's for both I can use all the mp3 music I had organized for the Rio immediately with the Nomad II). One thing you find out when you start to accumulate a lot of mp3 files on disk is that the disk directory structure and directory and file names is important if you ever lose your database or want to move the files around on disk or to another disk (especially if you are going to "rip" a lot of CDs so you have them available to quickly download to a mp3 player). Music Match allows you to create a very organized disk directory structure to hold all your songs. For a given mp3 file ripped from a CD, the file is stored under the artist folder, then the album folder. This is more important that one would at first realize because it is often necessary to move the files around and then re-import them back into the music database. Music Match makes this trivial and it's easy to find your music on disk even if something happens to the Music Match database, you can just start over and import all or some of the files within minutes. This became very useful when I started to fill my hard drive and decided to use a re-writable CD in my CD burner to hold some of my music files. In a few minutes I was able to copy several complete artist directory structures to the CD, and re-import the songs back into the Music Match database. I guess I appreciated this all the more because I started off with Real Jukebox which stores all the mp3 files in a single directory by default and the original track order of a CD was lost once the CD was ripped so moving the files was tedious and retaining the original CD track order required creating a playlist for each CD (too much work!). Once you load the music to disk, Music Match lets you sort your songs by artist, album and original track order among others.

It's also very fast at ripping CDs and you can also burn new custom CDs from a playlist of mp3 files if you have a CD rom burner. This program really brings it all together. You can collect mp3 files either by download or ripping CDs. It's then easy to create playlist of any order to download to a mp3 player or burn a custom CD. This program is all you really need.

Great piece of software
This is the tool for creating MP3s! It couldn't be easier and can do a whole Auido CD in around 10-15 minutes depending on the length of the CD. You can also access the web so you dont have to type in the track listing - this works really well.

The Recorder works and the player is good but is no Winamp. A nice thing about the player is that is has a lyric sheet for songs if you want to put the lyrics in (as well as a bio).

There is also a database for organising your songs and what I liked was the ability to convert Wave to MP3 and back again. I found this very useful when I wanted to integrate waves in other applications.

A very recommended product. Loses out on 5 stars as I still use Winamp as my Default player - but then Winamp does rock!

Music Match beats the Real player Jukebox
After testing both this program and the Real player jukebox, I found this one to be the better of the two. The sound quality you get from this program beat the real player in almost every test. The recording speed is twice the speed of other programs and the net radio is the best I have heard. Plus any mp3 portable can be used with this program. I suggest you go to the music match website and check out all the specs. I dont think you will be disapointed. ... Read more

Amazon.com Product Description

Turn you home PC into a full-featured karaoke machine and host your own karaoke party right from the comfort of your own home. You control the volume, pitch, and tempo of your song selections, while your guests sing along with all their favorite tunes. Invite the gang over to your place this weekend--for karaoke! ... Read more

Reviews (3)

this product is exelant it deserves five stars
soft karaoke is a very good product it is entertaining joyfull and is very educational as it has a wide range of songs for any age and helps young children red and learn these different songs and type of music overall im very happy with this product.

A Software tool for all Ages
Kids will love this. So will you. This teaches kids melodies and lyrics of 100 party favorites. Lyrics appear on screen. They choose songs from lists. Then they sing along to the musical tune. They can use the included karaoke mic, too. They control the Volume, Pitch and Tempo.

excellent for beginner readers
Excellent tool for children who are having trouble with their reading. The live interaction and music make the reading fun versus reading a book. ... Read more

Features

• Create up to 31 virtual CD-ROM and DVD-ROM drives, for running several CD & DVD programs simultaneously
• Read CD-ROMs at up to 200X speed
• Corrects mistakes in the regular bit patterns, with the Bypass EFM error function
• Included support for buffer underrun technologies like BURN-Proof, JustLink, Power-Burn, SafeBurn, Seamless Link
• RMPS(Recordable Media Physical Signature) burning and emulation allows a drive to automatically read the physical signature