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It’s like Cavaliers and Roundheads; with disc-burning software suites you usually belong to one camp and not the other.
Half the time it really depends on what you’re used to or what upgrade scheme you find yourself in, but to compete for your attentions both Nero and Roxio have crammed more and more features into every release.
This year’s versions are no different, though Nero 8’s improvements and extras are perhaps more subtle than you might expect.
Teetering dangerously close to being bloatware, Nero has always had a tendency to unload a fairly packed roster of applications and utilities onto your hard disk during installation, and most of these remain the same as in Nero 7.
Burning Rom is still the main venue for copying discs and burning, although simple jobs can be done within Nero Express or the all-new Startsmart window. The full range of creative multimedia tools that came with Nero 7 have returned; Nero Vision for video capture and DVD authoring, Photosnap for image editing, Wave Editor and Soundtrax for audio capture, editing and mixing, and Nero Recode for converting and encoding files. Also back are Nero’s media player, Showtime, and Media Center-style application, Nero Home.
None of the returning applications appear to have changed much since their previous incarnations, though in some respects this is no bad thing. With the exception of the slightly clumsy Nero Home, all Nero’s main features remain practical and easy to use.
Nero 8 also offers tighter integration with Vista - not that this is necessarily the most engaging reason to upgrade. Nero 7 was already fully Vista-ready and the only major difference users of Nero 8 will notice is that the look and feel of new suite is more in line with that of Microsoft’s latest OS. For example, the Startsmart window mimics Vista’s Start button with a similar round icon in the bottom left-hand corner that launches a list of individual components.
Fans of Vista’s Sidebar may also appreciate the Nero Disc Copy gadget, which allows for drag-and-drop desktop disc creation. The new Rescue Agent utility is a welcome addition. It can extract data from damaged discs and worked surprisingly well in our tests.
As you might expect, all the latest media formats are covered. You can create files for portable devices such as iPods and Playstation Portables as well as stream media to games consoles. Those with HD equipment will be able to capture and edit in high definition and even output to HD-DVD or Blu-ray disc with the appropriate burner. At the other end of the scale, users of Youtube or Myspace (or even Nero’s equivalent, My Nero) can output video clips directly to the online community of their choice.
Perhaps the biggest improvement in Nero 8 is the makeover that has been given to the Startsmart console. In previous versions, Startsmart was something many users ignored, but the new, larger interface is laid out more logically, with tabs corresponding to groups of similar tasks and individual icons for the tasks themselves. Basic tasks such as audio ripping and data disc burning can be performed within the Startsmart window itself by clicking on the appropriate icon on the left-hand side of the screen. The Start Page, meanwhile, can be customised to include icons for frequently used applications.
It’s not massively different to its predecessor, but Nero 8 has some useful utilities.
See also:
A basic collection of tools at a reasonable price 24 Aug 2007
A multimedia suite that goes for the bigger picture 19 Jul 2007
A quick and easy way to create and manage your audio and video 16 May 2007All Desktop ToolsTags: Utility Software
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