Customer Reviews

Nero 5.5 [OLD VERSION]

5 star:		(39)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(31)

 

 

First of all, let me say that I was very surprised just how easy and professional Nero software handled my CD burning tasks.

And Now, the plain truth,you know how it is! We all don't have 30 hours to read over the enclosed digital manual. Futhermore, with so many applications on my computer it will take me several years to really utilize the power of all my software suites. When I intially purchased my current computer: IBM 500 MHz P3, 256Mb,17HD windows 98. My Sony 4X cdwriter was bundled w/ Adaptec Easy CD Creator 4.

I have been using Easy CD4 for about 3 years without ever making a so called "coaster". However, I have only made direct CD copys or created a Audio CD from scratch. Again, never having any sort of problems. But when I was told by a friend that I could also make "mixed mode CDs" (A.K.A. Extra CD,Extended CD and CD Plus)I said what?? What is a mixed mode CD.

After diving into the Easy CD4 manual, sure enough there was the documentation and how to notes. After doing some reading and reviewing I finally said forget it. Too much toggling back and forth between the help file and the software. Later, while on the internet. I was reading a review about buring Video CD's and the like. I said WOW, I can do that with Easy CD4? Once again I dove into the manual but this time I couldn't find any documnetation with regards to burning Video CD's. Before I go on, some quick notes and review:

Some basic stuff you can do today with a CD burner: Create

1. CD-ROM - a CD with computer data

2. Audio CD - a CD with Audio tracks such as WAV or MP3 files. *If burned using a CD-R, Music can be played on a computer,a consumer DVD player and almost all Consumer CD players. *If burned using a CD-RW, Music can be played on a computer, some DVD players and most likely won't play on your consumer CD player be it Home or Automotive. - - *Applies only to CD's containing Wav. audio files/tracks.

3. Mixed Mode CD - a CD with Audio Tracks followed by computer data, such as a video file or web page. This is very similiar to some current music cds that will have an artist's music and a short music video - refered to as Enhanced CD

4. VCD or SVCD - a CD containg video files. "Video Compact Disc" "Super Video Compact Disc" The latter will contain video files in the form of the MPEG2 format. ( Better Resolution then Super Video Tape but less than DVD ) In addition, a SVCD can contain a slide show of picture files such as a jpeg file that you create and organize in any order.

5. Hybrid CD - a CD that can be played on a Windows OS or a Mac OS platform.

7. Etc.

Why?? You ask have I bothered to list all of these types of CD formats. Because, I think software engineers should design software and GUIs that enable the user to get the most out of their product. After all, we all shelled out the money. The last thing we want to do is have to pay again for an additional reference book, video tutorial or evening seminar. After 3 years of using Adaptec CD Burning software I was only using perhaps 80% of its potential worthiness. However, with Nero 5.5, new tasks with regards to CD burning was brought to my attention in less than 3 days while simply navigating through the software and wizard. Moreover, I was able to create all of the CD's listed above in less than 2 days. Many of which, Adaptic does not support. In short, Nero has a great little wizard that aids you through the CD burning process. then, when you become more of an audio engineer you can go it alone and utilze even more editing and authoring tools. This is just some of the stuff that made me smile within the Nero Burning software:

1. Recognizes both of my CD recorders and their properties.

2. I can now designate the pause time between audio tracks 2,3,4 5 etc. seconds between tracks.

3. You can burn CD text info onto your CD which many high end Home CD players recognize.

4. Several audio filters to manipulate your audio sound.

5. If you are a DJ and mix cd tracks so as to have no pause between tracks you can create a track list eventhough you have one long audio track. The track pointer can be put exactly where you want it.

6. You can fomart a CD-RW, then while working on your computer, if you want to write a file to a CD you simply Drag & Drop over your CD-RW drive and the file will be burned. Takes 2 seconds and you continue doing whatever.

7. Ever have this problem. You burned a audio cd. You listen to it and some tracks are either louder or softer in volume than others. With Nero you can make all tracks have the same volume

Finally, this list can continue for at least 6 more points. Without question Nero has won me over. My hat goes off to the German Software Engineers who designed and created this CD Burning software. Thanks......Nero

After using almost every different type of burning and decoding software on the market, taking the long way aroung each time, I ran into Nero. Nero is available as a demo on CNET's (...) for 30 days, and is just enough to change anyone's mind. With the aid of it's onboard decoder, all you have to do is click and drag your mp3 files to a seperate window, and they are automaticaly checked for errors, and converted to WAV format in half the time. Burning time also seems to be faster, regardless of the speed of your burner. You can also use the utility to print lables, titles, and even cd cover sheets. Amazon has a hit on it's hands, for the low price offered. It makes a great gift for anyone into internet music and entertainment. I give it a 5 star raiting because it is a time saver, and is relatively easy to get to know.

I really have to say the is the easiest software to burn cds with. I've been using nero for about a year now. I recently upgraded to a new computer that has xp, and i thought i would try roxio ez cd creator 5 platinum, nothing but problems. So i went back to using nero. What i love best about nero, is that it isn't confusing at all. You don't have to read through tons of manuals to work it. All you so is drag and drop, then press that little burn button. If your stuck between nero burning rom 5.5 and ez cd creator 5, and are an xp user, go with nero.

Word of advice, if you have Windows XP, and you have Roxio's Easy CD creator 5, it won't work. Most new computers and cd burners come with Roxio, but I had more frisbees than usual with Roxio. And with the addition of Windows XP Professional, it just got worse even with the updates. Another thing, I have purchased a cd burner from Sony for my other computer with Windows 98, and it came with their own software, what a joke!
I called tech support from Sony, and they basically told me to buy Sony CD-R's.

So, what was I supposed to do? I looked for some cd burning software, and I found Nero. Got a 30 day trial, and it brought new life to both of my computer's CD writers.

Now, I got the FULL VERSION of Nero 5.5, and it works GREAT!

So, if you recently bought a computer with Windows XP with Roxio, BUY NERO IF YOU WANT TO BURN CD'S, NOT FRISBEES.

After going around in circles trying to get Roxio's products to work, I finally caved in and followed some good advice: try the free download of Nero 5.5.9.0. Having been unable to burn a CD with Roxio (let alone produce coasters - see my review on Roxio CD Creator 5.0 Platinum) I gave this a whirl. Install was clean and easy. The inteface came up when I double-clicked the icon (somthing Roxio refused to do at first). The program recognized my drive immediately (again something I had to coax Roxio to do). It was pretty intuitive and straight-forward. I was very rapidly able to burn a 700 Mb backup CD of my files. I cranked up the write speed to 8x (something that I was never able to do with Roxio w/o getting buffer underwrite/overflow errors) and it not only worked, but it flagged me on a couple of things that I had forgotten. Pretty nice! Buy this! I did.

My Plexwriter 12/10/32A came bundled with Easy CD Creator. After making a dozen or so coasters, reinstalling the program several times and dialoging with tech support, I downloaded the free Nero demo 5.5 and became sold on Nero. It worked the first time. No coasters, and the CD's are burned fast, reliably and with excellent quality sound. The only drawback is the labeler is somewhat difficult to use, but a small price to pay considering the overall performance of the software. I am ordering the full version from Amazon.com, which includes the entire manual.

I have read other reviews of individuals having problems with other operating systems, such as Windows 2000, so please read their reviews. I have Windows 98, first edition. Like many people, I had little experience with burning CD's but wanted to get into making my own. I tried Easy CD-Creator, but could not get it to work with my Plexwriter 12/10/32, even though it shipped with the Plexwriter. After many emails and tech support calls to both Plextor and Easy CD, following the uninstall suggestions and patches, I could NOT get the software to work without freezing the system. I read the reviews on Nero and decided to download the demo from AHEAD software...BINGO..worked the first time. No coasters so far. It is intuitively easy for the beginner to start making CD's right away. I have found it to be a great program, and NO SCREEN FREEZES like I was getting with Easy CD Creator. I say...great program, go for it.

I laugh every time I read a review of this software and it's mentioned that it's tough to navigate, especially compared to the more popular Roxio Easy CD Creator. I wonder how many of these folks have Roxio stock. Nero is WAY easier than Roxio's CD Creator. I've used Roxio 4 and 5. I've never found it easy to navigate, and I've burned countless coasters. If you are wondering if you might burn a useless coaster - try the Windows Media Player's CD burn option. (If you didn't get it with your version of Windows, download the update.) Both are based on the same base. If you've made a coaster on one, you'll do it with the other. At least I have.

OTOH, Nero is incredibly easy. I don't know about its earlier incarnations. But it now has easy-to-use wizards, and is totally drag and drop. After you've decided what to write to disc, you can trim the mp3 if you want to rid a too-long fadeout or the dead air that happens far too often in creating mp3s. You can also blend songs.

Three things Nero doesn't do - it won't write mp3s unless you pay more [money], it won't easily back up your hard drive, and it can't combine two songs into one (like the Kings "This Beat Goes On/Switchin' To Drive", which should never be separated).

But you can write mp3s more easily with Music Match or several other programs, and back up your hard drive by creating several data CDs with a little intelligence. The song combining is useful for about 5 tunes (Sirius/Eye in the Sky is another). And despite the reviews, it's far more intuitive and doesn't require you to figure out which module of the program you need to use.

This is what Roxio Easy CD Creator should be. Unlike Roxio, you don't have to have your turntable connected to your computer to edit out pops from LPs. You don't have navigate through your Start menu to figure out which program to open to do any process - what a concept. Best of all, you can download and try it out for a month. For absolutely free! Try it out. Then buy it. (The box has some stuff not in the downloaded version.) ...

I recently got a HP 9700 Series CD Writer and it came with The Roxio / Adaptec software. I have had many problems with this software which caused windows to not run at all. After reading the reviews ofor Nero Burning Rom I finally decided to try the free download from ZDNet.
This is the full version that only works for 1 month. I have been very impressed with this software. Many of the reviews I read hinted at the difficulty of using this program. However, I found that it is complicated but not that difficult.
There are a few things that I wish to point out for other people lookig at this program. 1. It writes Both CDR and CDRW, I had a hard time finding this in the information on this site. As well as Music CD's, Bootable CD's and several other types eg. DVD 2. If you have trouble with Roxio / Adaptec software, Nero seems to work on those systems. While people having trouble with Nero seem to find Roxio more agreeable to their system. 3.Download the free demo from ZDnet first! I it doesn't work you aren't out much (Nero has a good uninstall program). 4. Many of Nero's features seem to be mostly fluff. If you have a program that works I would keep it. The label-maker is hard to use, the audio effects are pretty basic from and editing standpoint, but they do work. If you have burning software that works there are other programs that do these functions much better.
I for one am glad I tried it.

Don't be fooled by rubbish reviews of this software: it is simply the most powerful piece of CD recording software available. I'm slightly surprised that it appears to be largely unknown in the US, it seems to be far better known in Europe.

After using Roxio's Easy CD Creator 5 Platinum (and it's earlier, Adaptec incarnation) Nero is by far the more powerful of the two. I've never had any buffer underrun errors with it (you can even set the buffer limit manually which is extremely useful if you have a large amound of RAM in your PC as it virtually eliminates BURN errors) and despite other reviews to the contrary it's faster than Roxio's. Its worth shelling out a little extra for the MP3 Encoder (which includes both the standard MP3 and the superior MP3 PRO. Although you have to pay extra for it it it's not available at all in Roxio's software) and the Wave Editor. The Wave Editor is simply outstanding, it includes an oscilloscope - style display with all sorts of filters including hiss, click etc and you can edit any part of the sound file including cutting it, adding fade in/out etc and much else. The software includes full VCD/SVCD/Hybrid(mixed data/video) burning capabilities (Roxio will only burn VCD) as well as the usual standard Copy, make Data CD's etc. It also includes a VCD/Mpeg1 encoder as standard and theres even an SVCD/Mpeg2 encoder available (as an extra). Again, Roxio's doesn't have this capability.

The only reason I deducted a star is that although it's by far the most powerful it's not the easiest to use or understand piece of software. In short, if you're looking for a basic no-frills piece of software thats easy to use then buy Roxio's Easy CD Creator 5 Platinum. However, if you're a a serious PC user and want to get the maximum out of your PC and it's capabilities and are prepared to put in a little extra time and effort to get to grips with it's superior capabilities then Nero is an absolutely essential purchase.