Software and Hardware Reviews

MediaOne Gallery Review

by Louis Vitale

MediaOne Gallery by InterVideo is software for the mature multi media world. Multi Media used to mean that you had both pictures and music on your computer. Now there many new sources of content, digital cameras, Video cameras, picture phones, digital music stores, scanners, email, and of course the internet. One statistic says the average PC owner takes 600 digital pictures a year and downloads one mp3 every day. So where do all those ones and zeros go? On that new 80 gigabyte hard drive, where else.

Of course after a few years you can't find Aunt Tilley's 50 th anniversary pictures, or those reunion pictures taken back in 2002. In fact you have no idea what is on that drive. There are now dozens of software packages that what to help you solve this problem. Some are better than others, but MediaOne is excellent. It combines search and organizational tools with content distribution functions. It can find your pictures and video files, and it can burn them to a disk in any of a dozen ways. And it can do the same for music and data files as well.

Installation is straight forward, but the only issue I had was the requirement to install QuickTime. I personally don't like software that wants to take over your computer, so I limited its file association to just QuickTime videos. Once installed, you simply tell it to scan your computer for content. If you are like me you will be amazed.

It located 6580 pictures and 1193 documents. I literally spent an hour looking at pictures I had not seen in years, many of which I had completely forgotten. The interesting thing was that the content was organized by date.

I now had 6580 thumbnails listed by the year created. This is the default search. You can also organize the content by size, file type and “tags” that you apply.

With your content located you can now organize it any way you want. Create folders, apply tags, and then organize by subject, color, or any criteria the meets your needs. A Google Desktop Search function is included so it locates any content on your drive. This powerful search function is also available to browse the net; and once matching content is found, downloading is drag and drop.

The Google Desktop search will also find any document or text content just as it would on the net. So you now have a way to search your files for words and phrases, dates or any key fact. Sounds pretty sneaky to me.

A unique feature is “Scene Match 2.” This search function lets you match pictures based on background and color. Just drop the picture you want to match in the search bar and matching pictures will be listed. This is just a hint of what's coming given the computing power we have on our desk top.

MediaOne has serious Device Management capability. You can now plug into your PC, Mobile Phones with cameras, web cams, Digital TV's, USB HD's and MP3 players and of course digital video and still cameras. All these devices can be accessed with this one software package, and all are listed under one tab in the menu bar. Things just got simpler.

There are more ways to burn CD's, and DVD's than I ever knew possible. You can create something called a HighMAT DVD, or an Enhanced DVD to just name a few. So it is not only easier to get content into your Pc, it is easier to get it out.

Many other features are included, such as web Photo Sharing, Virtual Drive capabilities, DVD play back, Smart Backup, DVD copy and a disk label maker. I counted at least 9 separate software functions available from one interface. I have not tried all these functions yet but all those I have used worked as advertised. In fact I may need a lot more content to fully utilize the capabilities of this software.

The stated system requirements are low, such as an 800 MHz processor, and 256MB of memory, but I would not use this without at least 1.5Gig processor and 512 memory. You will need a good Graphics card and an up to date burner, plus Windows 2000 or XP.

I think MediaOne Galley is a keeper. It will take a while to explore its full potential, but out of the box it will replace many different programs I use now. It really is an all in one Digital Media Solution, and all for about $65.  Visit the InterVideo website for more information.