Roxio Easy CD and DVD Creator 6 beta is the latest edition of one of the best CD-recording packages on the market.

It is a powerful software tool that allows you to create your own CDs, web photo albums, video CDs (to use just like DVDs) and video postcards but also includes a photo editor and media player, all of which can be accessed using an extremely neat interface.

It allows you to construct photoslide shows and web page albums of favourite photos, add music and special effects and then put them on a CD for storage.

It is even possible to take video files and transfer them to CD, saving masses of valuable hard drive space.

The photo editor is basic though and, while it can handle cropping, cleaning up images and the like, it is no substitute for Photoshop Elements or Paintshop Pro.

DVD Builder allows users to put movie clips on to a timeline with a soundtrack and then burn to DVD media in a similar way to Windows Movie Maker.

Rating: 8 out of 10. Price: £49.99. Contact: www.roxio.com