Nero 9 review

Nero has come to resemble a multimedia Swiss army knife over the years, as it goes well beyond simple disc authoring. This latest version's extensive suite of tools can help you create, organise, burn and share your music, video and photo files.

Nero 9's task-based SmartStart interface is attractive and responsive, but it takes a while to load. In fact, long load times and unexpected pauses when switching between applications are common across the suite. This is frustrating if you need to switch between tools regularly.

The interface divides tasks according to theme. Some, such as ripping, burning and copying discs, are available directly from SmartStart, while selecting a more complex task such as photo or video editing launches the appropriate application. Nero's backup tool, BackItUp 4, is missing from SmartStart, but is included on the disc.

The central disc-burning application is Nero Burning ROM. This supports every disc format we can think of, but then so does the free CDBurnerXP from http://cdburnerxp.se. Burning ROM offers many more options for ripping CDs and converting audio files than the SmartStart interface. Alternatively, the more streamlined Nero Express makes knocking out MP3 CDs both quick and easy.

Nero ShowTime plays DVDs and media files that are either stored on your PC or streamed over a network. However, free players such as Windows Media Player do a fine job of managing and playing media files, and Vista Home Premium users have the excellent Windows Media Center. WaveEditor 4 provides useful tools for recording audio from external sources, but it can't automatically split LPs and tapes into tracks.

If your PC has a TV tuner installed, you can use Nero Live to watch and record TV. The interface and EPG are well designed, and it supports a wider range of standards than Media Center, including Freesat DVB-S broadcasts. If your version of Windows doesn't include Media Center, Nero Live is a great alternative.

Nero Vision is compatible with the latest HD formats such as AVCHD and enables you to import and combine video using a variety of transitions. You can quickly arrange a soundtrack and add basic special effects and titles. Nero Recode converts DVD and video files for viewing on handheld devices. You can write HD video to Blu-ray discs, but for full authoring - including menus - you need to download the Blu-ray plug-in, which costs an extra £5 including VAT. DVD Flick (from www.dvdflick.net) is a free DVD-authoring tool, although it lacks Nero 9's support for Blu-ray and mobile devices.

Nero Vision is also handy for composing slideshows with transitions, text and music. You can use the PhotoSnap viewer to prepare your images first. Despite the name, it's a little clumsy for viewing photos, but it provides a useful range of touch-up tools. However, Google's free Picasa (from http://picasa.google.com) is just as good.

Nero includes capable software for watching TV, editing video and authoring DVD and (as an optional extra) Blu-ray discs. However, equally good disc-burning and file-organisation tools are available for free. There's little here to persuade Nero 8 users to upgrade, although HD video editing may attract owners of older editions. Overall, we narrowly prefer Roxio's Creator 2009 Ultimate.