15-Minute Reviews :: Media Resizer PRO v2.5

Hello all and welcome to another 15-Minute Review! Today’s application is Media Resizer PRO version 2.5 by Sibental, Inc. – An application for resizing images as well as extracting images from video files.

I have previously reviewed Media Resizer which is the lighter version of this PRO version; This version has the watermarking and the advanced thumbnail styles that were present but not usable in the previous review. (Sorry about the broken link in that article – I seem to have deleted the original image.)

Software Description

As Giveaway of the Day states:

“This powerful and flexible, yet easy to use utility will help you to resize thousands of your pictures. Media Resizer PRO quickly and easily prepares your image collections to be published on the web. Create thumbnails and scaled copies of all your images with this powerful and flexible, yet easy to use utility.

Ability to create video thumbnails makes this program unique. Creating image thumbnails has never been easier.”

Quick Pros

• Watermarks work pretty well (Text and image watermarks)
• Styles are nice – More styles would be nice
• Fast resizing, even with styles and watermarks
• Interface is simple and effective
• You can take images from a video
• Can’t find spotting issue that was present during last review

Quick Cons

• Can’t drag and drop entire folder (only files themselves)
• No ability to resize watermarked image
• Doesn’t resize videos, only takes an image from it

Expansion

There is very few differences between this product and Media Resizer when I last review. Essentially, this is the same version except this one does have the watermarking and styling features enabled instead of just being there to encourage you to upgrade. As well, with this version, I ran the application through the same folder as last time, and there was no spotting like mentioned in the previous review as well, which is good.

The watermark feature does run pretty well – There is a good choice of options for the text watermarking including font and such. The image watermarking is nice; However, with no option to resize the image within the application, you’ll find yourself using this application or your graphic editor to resize it, especially if you change thumbnail size. Definitely a bit of a downfall.

The styles are very nice indeed. Not only are there frames like I’ve pictured here, there is alo an assortment of cut-outs too (Surprisingly larger than the frame options.) They are all a lot of fun, and with ones like this can make your thumbnails look a little more professional (or fun) too. My only hope is that the software publisher brings our more frames, such as a white-border picture frame or similar.

As with the last review, the resizing process is very nimble – Even with styles and watermarks this time, it went through 183 images in matter of seconds. It wouldn’t be uncomfortable to do 1000+ with this application, which may make it a useful tool for professionals too. The interface is smooth and easy to use – It isn’t overwhelming, overcluttered or illogically laid out like some alternatives.

While the application indicates ‘media’ resizer, really, for videos, you can only take snapshots from a video instead of resizing the whole video; Not a big deal that it doesn’t resize video, but it is nice that you can take a snapshot from a video and does a pretty good job at it too.

Something I am not sure was present in the previous review (I can’t remember if I tested it,) was that you can only drag and drop files into the window – When I attempt a folder, I get greeted by the ‘No’ sign. It may be because I am testing on Vista today, but it is a bit of a quirk. I’d prefer to drag and drop a whole folder including its sub-folders to deal with it.

Final Verdict

As with last time, I think this resizing application is likely my favorite so far to date. While there are some weaknesses in the design of it, it is overall pretty effective. The addition of watermarks and styles over the standard version of Media Resizer is a nice bonus. If you are in the market for a thumbnailer/watermarker/etc you will definitely want to grab this application while it is free. As for $79, that price tag is definitely steep however considering standard is $29 ($50 dollars less) and does only offer watermarking and styles; This considering there is other (albeit a little more complex) software out there that does the same thing for free or cheaper. The price may be more fair around $39 to $49 with standard between $19 and $24.

Posted by BladedThoth on Tuesday, June 05, 2007