Sometimes the shorthand of articles and headlines just doesn't convey the whole story. Case in point: Nero 6 Ultra Edition from Ahead Software. Strictly speaking, the headline here is that Nero, the most reliable choice for CD burning, now has much enhanced support for DVD burning as well.

Of course, it does that with its usual efficiency. But the $90 bundle includes an impressive range of 15 new or improved applications:

• Nero Burning ROM 6 -- the core burning software. This latest version extends the reliable, "no-coaster" capabilities to DVDs and can handle the latest generation of higher speed, multiformat drives.
• Nero Express 6 -- a simplified interface for burning. It is useful for managing simple jobs such a burning a music CD.
• NeroVision Express 2 -- for editing, recording, and burning videos to DVD. I found it relatively easy to use, and has enough features to let the typical user produce good quality video disks.
• Nero BackItUp -- a backup utility.
• Nero Cover Designer -- disk and package label creator.
• Nero Wave Editor -- This sound file editing tool is one of the few now available with MP4/AAC (a new music compression format made popular by Apple's iTunes Music Store).
• Nero SoundTrax -- software for recording from vinyl records, tapes, and the like.
• Nero Image Drive -- a handy virtual drive tool that lets you "burn" a video to your hard drive and test it before committing it to a DVD disk.
• Nero ShowTime -- A DVD player.
• Nero Recode -- software (still in beta) to let you strip "extras" from existing DVD so you can fit the contents on recordable media.
• InCD 4 -- Packet-writing software that lets you use rewritable CDs or DVDs as ordinary removable data drives, transferring files via standard Windows Explorer drag-and-drop.
• Windows Media Player 9 Plug-In -- to burn with the Nero engine instead of the Roxio software Microsoft includes with the player;
• NeroMIX -- a new media player application that is one of the few to support MP4/AAC as well as MP3 and Windows Media. This has the potential to be a very good player, particularly given its ability to use Nero ripping, encoding, and burning technologies. Unfortunately it lacks a "library" feature, which makes managing your music files difficult.
• Nero Toolkit -- diagnostic and tuning utilities.
• Nero StartSmart -- a central interface to integrate all of the above.

With that many components, some inconsistency is inevitable. The backup applet is just adequate, for example, while the Wave Editor has a lot of capability, such as sophisticated fades, for a bundled app. Overall, the package covers most of the bases needed for managing CD and DVD content as well as burning.

If anything, the problem with Nero 6 is that Ahead was perhaps a little too ambitious and seem to have released the initial version of the software a little sooner than they should have. After installing the released CD version, I had a lengthy list of bugs needing a fix. Nothing earth shattering, but still annoying. Subsequent patches and updates fixed almost all the problems. There is still one outstanding issue -- Nero Video Express is not working properly with my ATI All-in-Wonder card, but that is pretty specific to my system.

Tip: When you buy the boxed version, update it immediately after you finish the installation. And, since one of the bugs is that the StartSmart doesn't always connect you to the right update site, take note of this URL: http://www.nero.com/us/nero-up.php

That is the update page for the U.S. version, which differs from the English-language version sold in the rest of the world, so be sure you get your updates there. That's, of course, for U.S. readers; those from the rest of the world will want to access: http://www.nero.com/en/nero-up.php

Once patched, Nero continues to maintain its position as the power user's choice for CD, and now DVD, burning.

(c) 2004 Al Gordon.

In addition to his computer interests, Al Gordon is a principal in the Boston-area strategic consulting firm, Mary Fifield Associates, www.maryfifieldassociates.com.

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You can reach Al Gordon at:

al@tnpcnewsletter.com

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