Nero 9 Reloaded

For years Nero has been the big name in disc burning. It is supplied with lots of computers and CD and DVD drives bought separately.

That is the basic version of the program, though. The full edition includes tools for ripping music CDs, copying discs, creating and editing sound and video files, and more.

The starting point is Nero’s Startsmart page, which appears when the program loads. All the components can be loaded from here by clicking the task buttons along the top of the window.

In each category (Rip and Burn, Create and Edit, Home Entertainment and Back Up) is a list of tasks that can be selected, each of which starts the appropriate Nero program. If you know what program you want you can access it directly from the Nero folder in the Start menu.

Still, it’s not always easy to find the right program. Confusingly, the Back Up section doesn’t include the file backup application. Instead it’s under Autobackup on the left of the main window.

Usefully, there is also a list of common tasks down the left-hand side of the Startsmart window, so if you want to burn a data disc, for example, or rip a music CD, you can do so directly without having to load another program.

The main application, Nero Burning Rom, hasn’t changed much for years, but it still works well, and includes the cover designer so you can print labels and inlays for CDs and DVDs you make. The Nero Vision application can be used to make video DVDs and Blu-ray discs.

Historically, Nero hasn’t been much good at working with pictures, and the same is true here. There is a picture viewer and editor, but the tools are very basic and not up to, say, Adobe Photoshop Elements.

The audio editor is better and allows for recording, fixing and chopping audio clips. There’s a basic video editor too, but again it’s quite basic. On the other hand, there are two excellent tools for converting both video and audio files, which are worth a significant part of the purchase price on their own.

There are also some nifty tools such as Rescue Agent, which can recover files from corrupted memory cards, and Showtime, which is a DVD film playing application.

Nero 9 Reloaded isn’t an all-round media program – serious photo and video editors should add dedicated programs for those purposes – but for creating discs of all kinds, as well as copying discs and converting files, it’s superb.

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