Nero 8 Ultra Edition

Previous versions relied on the front-end SmartStart interface to steer users to the appropriate component program. There were problems with it: you'd frequently head in the wrong direction and be forced to double back. The redesigned SmartStart alleviates some of the confusion by incorporating common functions. You can now rip audio files, copy discs, and burn audio and data discs without having to leave the navigation aid. On the downside, these are simplified modules with few available options. They're fine as long as you don't need to go beyond a narrow range of settings. Otherwise, you're better off with the full-featured components. Nero 8's chief competitor, Roxio's Easy Media Creator 10 Suite (EMC 10), integrates more of its common functions into the initial interface, though its up-front modules don't usually have as many settings for you to play with.

SmartStart now organizes its component listings more by function than media type, which should help reduce the false routings. Unfortunately, the toolkit utilities, such as Nero InfoTool and Nero DriveSpeed, are no longer accessible from this interface. The reasoning may be that technically proficient users should be able to find them using the Windows applications menus.

Because the new data-recovery tool, Nero RescueAgent, is a toolkit utility, it is also inaccessible from SmartStart. The program can recover files that were incorrectly or incompletely written to a CD or DVD. Through a bare-bones utility-like interface, you select the drive with the damaged disc, choose the files you want to retrieve, and select the directory to which you want to save them. With multisession discs formatted using a packet-writing UDF file system, you may also be able to recover older versions of the deleted data.


The 2D and 3D menu templates are part of the Nero Vision component, which helps you create and burn video CD and DVD projects. I found the 3D menus especially impressive. One superimposes your video files onto small 3D-rendered TV monitors that swing into place when you first play the disc. Another places video thumbnails onto toy trucks that quickly move into formation, accompanied by a sweeping camera pan and blowing auto horns. You can quickly preview how the 3D menus would interact with your video files by using Nero Vision's simulated remote control (which resembles the remote that ships with standalone DVD players). Even in tests on a single-core system, the 3D-rendered previews appeared instantly and played at their full frame rates.

Nero Vision is one of the suite's most powerful components, though—perhaps not unexpectedly—it can also be the most confusing to navigate. In some places, there's no back button, only a next button that gives no clear indication of why you can't undo the previous action. By contrast, the EMC 10 CineMagic component, although less feature-filled, uses a step-by-step structure that lets you track easily where you are in the process. Still, once you learn Nero Vision, you'll find that it has some terrific features. With the automatic chapter-creation capability, which I especially like, you can set the sensitivity and minimum chapter length so your video opus doesn't end up with too few or too many chapters.

The video editor in Nero Vision is fairly basic. You're limited to just one video and two audio tracks, for example. You do have two different views of your video: storyboard and timeline. The storyboard was the better choice when I had video clips with fades or other transitions in between, whereas the timeline was better when I wanted to add linear elements such as text or narration. You can quickly switch between the two views. This latest version of Nero Vision is also YouTube and MySpace friendly. Enter your log-in and password and you can easily import or export video files from within Nero Vision. Sending video files to your cell phone or portable media player won't be as simple. Unlike EMC 10, however, Nero doesn't offer a media manager for syncing media files with your mobile gadgets

Nero 8 Ultra Edition   (AlbDll.com)

                       

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