Burn, baby, Burn! (Nero 6.0)

Member Name: macutmore

Product:	Nero 6.0
Date:	27/01/04 (5052 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: updates and support, easy to use, fast

Disadvantages: Some reservations on the quality of MPEG encoder

With Nero 6, Ahead Software presents the follow-up to the famous and very popular burning solution Nero Burning ROM 5.5. It is basically now a whole suite of many applications wrapped around a central project launcher called Nero StartSmart.
Many people live with their burning software, most likely it came bundled with their new add on drive, or simply was already installed on their computer. Indeed Windows XP already has limited burning software already included as part of the operating system itself, so why should one install a product like Nero?

Well there are a lot of useful and powerful and fun applications included in Nero 6, you can manage all your CD and DVD burning tasks, burning DVD-Video, Photo, Data, Audio or BackUp. There are also various applications to edit audio and video, mix multiple audio tracks like professionals, watch VCD, SVCD and DVD movies, listen to music, design covers, and also optimise your drive´s performance. I understand that Nero is also one of the few applications that can burn to multiple drives (great for duplicating houses)!
Although most people I know have heard of or already use Roxio?s ?easy CD creator? (and this seems to be bundled more nowadays), ahead Software claims to be a market leader with Nero 6. I confess that the only reason I ever tried Nero at all was because at the time it could burn SVCD?s where easy CD creator could not! (That?s all changed now). With its many useful features, Nero 6 easily meets all my requirements when it comes to burning CDs or DVDs.

How ahead have combined many complex utilities into an easy to use program is quite ingenious. I have found that in terms of simplicity and ease of use nothing actually matches it. Everything is handled in a step by step process, It doesn't seem to matter if you are a beginner or an expert, since Nero has different start up modes that guide one well through all the necessary burning procedures quite quickly and easily.

Ner
oVision Express 2 easily leads you through the whole process of making video CDs, Super VideoCDs or high-value DVDs. This means that one is able to develop a perfect home video without any difficulty. Nero Cover Designer also offers a huge number of ways to create covers and labels and I have found this extremely useful and have designed some very professional covers for my discs. A range of templates simplifies the task but still leaves plenty of space for creating. Graphics and images can be created directly, per file or even imported via scanner. The program can also be adjusted to print onto pre-cut labels of various manufacturers- although I found little point of this, since ordinary or A4 papers can be used and then cut to the borders which are printed ready to cut.

Nero ShowTime is a DVD player offering you vibrant picture quality for all DVD formats with MPEG-4 (Nero Digital) compatibility. I found this very similar to Win DVD but could find no TV out function.

With Nero SoundTrax, you can mix your own special audio CD compilation and change it at will. Instead of simply playing a list of tracks one after the other, this program makes it possible to fade the tracks into each other and adapt the speeds to create an optimum mix. You can be your own DJ, but as yet, I have found no use for this at all.
Nero SoundTrax also has several assistants to make recording from tapes and records child's play. In a few easy steps, the complete old collection can be digitalized and available forever in top quality.

A brand new feature integrated in Nero 6 is a mature backup program called Nero BackItUp. Apparently you can spontaneously start complete backups of defined areas of the hard drive with Nero BackItUp or plan them as regularly recurring jobs. I found this a bit complicated, and as yet have stuck with my Windows ?restore function?.
The software not only supports complete backups but also incremental, differential and updating s
torage. The backup files are directly burnt on CDs or DVDs. When complete securing of data has been chosen, the restore function permits the selective repair of individual files in the safeguarded data set. Not just individual files but also entire hard drive partitions can be saved to disk. I?ve yet to even attempt this though.

Nero StartSmart serves as the central starting point and command center for all tasks in order to make work with the Nero family of programs as simple as possible. Whether in newcomer or expert mode, you choose the tasks that need to be performed and Nero StartSmart will automatically launch the appropriate program. Depending on the task, the correct application will be started with the appropriate Wizards ? or already in normal mode with the relevant settings- very cleaver!

The best thing I have found is that Nero is supported very well indeed. Updates seem to be released monthly, and the program gets better and better all the time. The only reservations I have are in the quality of the MPEG-2 encoder. I believe that other DVD burning applications (although much more complex and more difficult to use), can produce better quality visual results, having said that, they are certainly not supported like Nero.
I highly recommend giving Nero a go, if burning is a task you think you could learn more about. Like me you might be converted!

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