Ahead Nero 8 review

Nero 8 has come a long way from the original Burning ROM.

Instead of being a disc-burning package, Nero 8 can turn its hand to just about any media task you care to mention, organising your photos, videos and music tracks, as well as editing and authoring videos and music. It can also look after TV recording and double as a media centre interface on your TV. For only £47 including VAT, this program is great value.

The installation process was lengthy, taking over 30 minutes and two reboots. Once it had finally completed, we had a new Start Menu entry with no fewer than 16 entries. Nero will try to associate itself with almost every type of media, so you'll need to untick anything that you want to keep associated with another application.

Although the list of programs is daunting, there's a SmartStart icon on the desktop. This is the best place from which to approach this enormous suite. It's split into five sections: Start Page, Rip and Burn, Create and Edit, Home Entertainment and Back Up. RSS feeds at the foot of the window let you see the latest news from Nero. Alternatively, you can set your own feeds by going into the options.

This new interface gives a much more unified feel than the one in the previous version. However, it's a little odd that there are options for burning data and audio discs, ripping CDs and copying discs always visible on the left-hand side.

In total, there are 14 applications. Under Rip and Burn, you'll find short cuts to Nero Express and Burning ROM tasks such as copying or burning discs, as well as jukebox discs, which are CDs or DVDs filled with MP3, WMA or Nero's own MP4 format audio files. Create and Edit includes options to edit photos, create a slideshow, make disc labels and convert audio or video files. The Author, Edit and Capture Video icon launches Nero Vision 5, which is where you will find most of the new features.

Nero Vision 5 is powerful, allowing you to burn movies to Blu-ray, HD-DVD (when writers become active) and DVD. It also lets you import AVCHD footage. Both this and burning to HD discs are features that are missing from Roxio Easy Media Creator 10 (What's New, Shopper 239). You can also upload edited videos straight to YouTube and other services.

If your PC has one or more TV tuners, Nero 8 can act as a PVR. There's also Nero Home. This is an alternative to Windows Media Center and can stream media from any networked computer. Nero 8 provides several plugins for streaming Nero-format media, as well as burning different kinds of discs directly from the Windows Media Center interface.

Add in backup features that allow you to recover your PC from a disk failure, and you've got a comprehensive suite. Updates for Nero 8 are free, but you need to uninstall the current versions of the applications to use them.

The price is the biggest reason why Roxio Easy Media Creator 10 is still our favourite, as you can now buy it from www.amazon.co.uk for just £34 including VAT. If you are going to take advantage of Nero's Blu-ray and AVCHD support and media centre functions, though, then this is still a great choice.