Surething CD Labeler Deluxe 4.0

I'm writing this review as a cautionary tale to other unsuspecting customers of Surething. I purchased a Lacie drive 3 months ago which came bundled with the Surething Labeler software. I bought the drive in order to be able to use the cool new Lightscribe technology.After buying the product I tried to install it on my Windows Vista 64Bit OS but found that it would not install. I thought it was likely due to me having Vista installed in 64bit mode because many apps were reported to have issues on 64bit so I reinstalled Vista to 32 bit. I then found the software still didn't work.I attempted to contact lacie for support but they simply ignore my request for about a week. SureThing at least replied but said; sorry you'll have to buy another version of SureThing. One would think that SureThing would do right by their existing customer base and offer a patched version of SureThing 4 for Vista . No Vista update or fix for whatever shortcomings their Version 4 had. Just more money. After several emails the best I got was a weak analogy from their tech rep about bad parts in Toyotas but no useful help. Thanks SureThing.Be warned about the poor customer experience you're likely to receive from SureThing & Lacie.

There were several problems with Version 3 that made me give it a 3 star review. And those things have been fixed. Thank goodness!1) I can type a playlist, save it as a text file, and import it easily. I don't mind typing a bit...that way I get the format I like. But importing a txt file is a big improvement.2) Aspect ratio is retained when scaling an image. It used to require a sure eye and care to keep the aspect image.3) And now images can be imported directly from the interface--I used to open an image program, copy from there, and paste into the label. No more.4) More flavors and more flexibility in editing layouts.5) Creating a text frame is much easier...I make a lot of compilation CDs, and want to place text where I want. Much easier to do now.6) Some simple image editing is included...very nice. If I imported an image and couldn't make it fit, I had to go back to my image program and fix it, then re-import. Not major stuff, but enough to fix small problems nicely.There are others, but these are the issues I found most annoying with the old version. And they are gone.One more thing. I have put these labels on several hundred CDs since about 2001 or so. I have never had one not play as a result of the label, or never had a problem withthe label peeling off or obstructing the player in any way.Works great--worth the money for a simple, superior product.

I've used many labeling programs over the years and SureThing wins hands down. The best thing about SureThing is how many pre-printed stock labels it supports. No matter what brand of CD labels, insert cards, etc that you buy, chances are SureThing has a template for it right there in the menu. One of the things I find most frustrating with other programs is the lack of out of the box support. Sometimes a certain label stock gets discontinued or becomes hard to find and you're forced to switch. Other times genertic labels that are just as good are much cheaper than some of the known brands, so to have a program that supports almost everything will cut down on the frustration time. SyreThing is also updated regularly. Very good especially the support for new labels that come out. If you're connected to the net you can check for updates from within the program and download them from the SureThing's web site.The interface looks very attractive and more importantly it's very functional and easy to use. Another labeling program I used has a great looking interface but it was very slow, even on my Pentium4 2.0 GHZ system with 1000MB of RAM. The built-in selection of background images that comes with SureThing are very nice. You can have quick professional looking labels with just a few clicks. Also all the images can be used on every single template, which is great if you want to create a set of labels that actually match. I've noticed other programs will give you template images for a CD, but you can't use that same image for the case without losing quality. All in all, this is the best labeling software I've used, and well worth the price. SureThing has a fully functional 15-day free trial version of the program available for downloading at their web site. Try before you buy.