Nero 7 Ultra

Applications that reproduce media discs are getting wider and wider in scope all the time, each trying to support more of the process than the previous. Which, I guess, is the name of the game with most applications, however, Nero 7, I believe is a good example of why sometimes it's not necessarily a great thing.

Nero 7, while being an incredibly powerful application, and does almost everything a person could ask for, has, in my opinion, now become incredibly cumbersome to the point where if it's somebody's first experience with the program, it could be incredibly difficult to use. I personally have used applications like this since they were first created for consumer use, and it still gave me a few "where the hell is [insert feature here]" moments.

Before moving on with the normal review/overview stuff, I have to give a bit of technical info about the application requirements. It has a wider range of OS's it supports than many applications these days, requiring Microsoft Windows 98/98SE/Me, Windows 2000 (Service Pack 4 or later), Windows XP (Service Pack 2 or later), Windows 2003 Server (Service Pack 1 or later), MCE 2004 / 2005. LightScribe is only available for Windows 2000 (Service Pack 4 or later), Windows XP, Windows 2003 servers or MCE 2004 / 2005. And you must have Internet Explorer 4.0 or later. The app needs at least a 1.6 GHz processor (down to 800MHz for some of the simpler features) and 128 MB of RAM. 600 MB of disc space is needed for the standard install with up to 9GB suggested for audio and video file temp storage and such. 24 or 32 bit color resolution is recommended from the video card.

On With the Good Stuff

Far be it from me to smack on an application for doing too much, I think the scope of this program, and the quality with which it does all these things, is very good. My main problem with Nero 7 is usability. There are so many choices of things to do and so many ways to do them, it's very convoluted at times.

Take a look at the portal for Nero 7 called "StartSmart". This is a link to most every feature and function that Nero 7 has to offer. This is where the "too many features" gets to be sort of a problem. Like I said, I have a hard time saying an application does too much, but when the launch menu is this big, it gets hard to find what you are looking for. Just to burn a DVD from a VIDEO_TS and AUDIO_TS folder structure I already have on my hard drive it took me a good 10 minutes of messing around looking for what I needed to do it, and also cost me one failed disk due to choosing wrong once. I think the user is best off getting to know other ways of getting around to the tools available because StartSmart will just drive people crazy.

In addition to the standard imaging and burning features that any application of this type should have it has also has these:

• CD/DVD label and jewel case design and printing
• BackItUp backup tool with job scheduling including backup security encryption, FTP backup and backup verification
• Support Blu-ray technology
• Audio creation, editing and production tools including surround effects, surround processing up to 5.1 and 7.1, sequencing and more supporting up to 32 bit
• Video editing and production tools including support for high-definition video, 5.1 encoder integration, slide show creation and video exporting
• DVD authoring including menu creation, DVD image creation, support for DVD audio and more

That by no means is an all-inclusive list of features but it does show that Nero 7 has went far above and beyond what is commonly expected from a CD/DVD burning application.

Bundled Applications

Nero 7 comes with loads of applications that perform many more functions, some of which seem very logical to be bundled with an app of this type, others which seem sort of out of place, but for a creative person on a budget, it may be a great thing.

The following applications are a part of the Nero 7 Ultra package, but be aware this is not a complete list, just highlights of the coolest:

• Wave Editor 3, SoundTrax 2 and SoundBox - Good, basic level audio recording, editing, processing, beat making and mixing applications which each support up to 7.1 channels and include easy bouncing back and forth between the two.
• Vision 4 - Video capturing, editing and burning software including menu chapter creation, HDV support, up to 5.1 audio encoding and burns to DVD-Video, Video CD (VCD), Super Video CD (SVCD) and miniDVD standard formats.
• Recode 2 - Recodes non-protected movies and can compress movies to fit into a small disc by removing unwanted components and converting 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround into space-saving 5.1 Nero Digital™ audio format.
• ShowTime 2 - Digital media player
• PhotoSnap - Image editor
• PhotoShow Express - Slide show and digital image organizer
• CoverDesigner 2 - Label and jewel case designer
• BackItUp 2 - Data backup and recovery application
• InCD 5 - Packet-writing application

Some of these applications fall outside of what is conventionally thought of as a standard tool for this type of package, and some are light versions of other applications, but all will find a use for somebody.

Performance and Usability

I must say, of all the Nero features I have used so far, once I found them and worked my way through their various features and options, they work admirably.

The burning and imaging is pretty easy straight forward, as it is in most application. The creation of disc images is, as expected, a simple case or browse, select, drag and drop. Then creating the disc name and selecting the various options for the burn depending on the media type you are burning. Really nothing, new, exciting or different to speak of in these procedures, but then, it's really not that sophisticated of a feature in the first place. Bottom line, it does its job well.

The jewel box and label creation is as expected, nothing great or new, just some simple design and printing features. The one thing I found rather annoying about the jewel box creation is the way they print off. The jewel box insert prints the front and back as two separate pieces rather than as one piece that folds in half. I have to admit I found that rather odd, and when I had to print off a dozen covers for a project of mine, I find it downright annoying having to cut two pieces for what should have been one.

The photo editor is a very basic photo editor, no image creation at all. It comes bundled with a good selection of commonly used photo enhancing/fixing tools such as color and contrast balance, red eye fixing, cropping, rotating and other common tools. In addition there are some fun things like lens distortions, noise, glowing, embossing, aging and other fun, but generally less productive effects. All in all it's cool as a quick-fix image tool, but will never replace any dedicated image editor.

The DVD recoder is pretty cool, it scans and can reauthor a DVD allowing the user to remove things such as other language audio, subtitles and other things that are put on to DVD's. This is often useful if a DVD is too big for a standard single layer 4.7 GB blank DVD. Cutting out the frivolous stuff can sometimes shrink it enough allow it to fit on a standard blank DVD. However, be aware that this application will not reauthor copy protected media, but then, that is what DVD Shrink is for I guess.**

The wave editor, is more than a basic, entry level wave editor as it is very up to the task of the most common needs. It will open a large selection of file types including wav, mp2, mp3, mp4, aif, ac3 and much more. It will save files as mp3 (with either PowerPack LAME or mp3Pro encoder), mp4, wav, wma or aif. What puts this editor up over the likes of other free, low-cost or bundled alternatives is that it does support DirectX plugins, in addition to its bundled effects, as well as support surround sound, which is highly uncommon in audio apps in this market space.

BackItUp was a tool bundled with Nero that I wasn't even aware of at first, but that I also needed. I had tried a few backup utilities but they had all had problems of their own. This tool, based on my usage so far, is quite impressive. The use of one-off backups and the task scheduler seems to work very well, the very granular control available regarding what exactly to back up is very cool and the interface is very logical and easy to use. While I don't believe it really fits in the scope of this sort of application, it is surely a welcome addition and makes creating regular backups quite simple...which is something everyone should get in the habit of.

Conclusion

Overall I have to say that Nero 7 is a great application bundle. The "StartSmart" feature is a big waste of time, and the user is most likely benefited by not using it at all, but rather knowing which application does what and just getting around all the features and functions that way.

Everything the collection of applications does do is impressive and really does set a new standard for media burning applications as it is more of a media production application now.

For more advanced users of audio and video production I would surely not recommend throwing away WaveLab, ProTools, Sonar, Premiere or any of the other high end tools, but for entry level use these are actually pretty decent tools to get your feet wet or to handle simple production tasks.

** - Of course, it has to be said that HRC does not in any way support or condone the copying of any copy-protected media, even though there are tools out there to do it.