MaximumPC 2004 12

Reviews

M

ore than a year after suffering

a devastating +/ at the hands

of 2oxio’s Easy CD Creator

6 , Ahead is back in the ring with the

disc mastering suite we had expected

from the initial release of Nero 6.

Like Easy CD Creator 6 , Nero 6.6 is a

wildly comprehensive suite of appli-

cations and utilities—1 of them, in

fact—capable of a wide array of tasks,

including data backup, Video CD

creation, audio disc mastering, and

DVD-Video construction.

The heart of the system, naturally, is

the burning engine. We hesitate to get

misty-eyed over a requisite like basic

software stability, but after the horribly

buggy initial Nero 6 release, we were

relieved to not experience a single crash

or so much as a hiccup throughout our

tests of Nero 6.6 , even though we regu-

larly rode it hard and put it away wet.

This is particularly reassuring now that

we’re dealing with tasks that involve

expensive single- and double-layer

recordable DVD media.

Even better, Ahead continues its

tradition of fine-tuning the engine and

expanding its capabilities. Nero 6.6 , for

example, now offers the option of set-

ting the “book type” for certain kinds

of media. Also known as “bit-setting,”

setting the book type to DVD-2/-

may increase compatibility with certain

set-top DVD players. Even if it doesn’t

work with your DVD player, this feature

certainly doesn’t hurt.

We appreciate the streamlined,

gimmick-free interface provided by

Easy CD Creator 6 , but Ahead one-up’s

2oxio with a mature “SmartStart”

front-end that neatly displays common

burning tasks. This front-end can also

be customized to display other modules

you’d prefer to see. /f course, you can

still launch Nero through the traditional

application interface, which we prefer.

The Nero Vision Express module, now

at version 3, whisks you through the

process of authoring your own DVDs

quickly and efficiently. It supports ani-

mated backgrounds and video buttons

for menus, and transcodes Div8, 8vid,

and W-V files to -PEG-2. We found

it odd, however, that while you can

adJust such minutia as the direction

of the light source on shadowed text,

you can’t import your own button

frames or other menu assets made

in Photoshop.

Nero Vision Express 3 also lets you

copy non-protected  DVD-Video discs,

and can even squeeze the contents of a

double-layer disc to fit onto single-layer

media in Just over 12 minutes
 9ou

have complete control over this pro-

cess—you can delete extra disc features

and foreign language tracks you don’t

need, and then specify the amount of

compression to apply to the remaining

portions of the disc. .VE3 also lets

you Juggle compression ratios while

keeping the overall file size below a

specified maximum—exactly the kind

of background administrative work we

expect software to perform.

Another module called Nero Recode

compresses video using a proprietary

codec based on the -PEG-4 standard,

which Ahead is pushing hard to have

widely adopted in consumer elec-

tronics. As fast and sharp-looking as

this codec is, we simply do not see a

pressing need for yet another codec.

Nero 6.6 offers more audio disc mas-

tering and sound editing features than

Easy CD Creator 6 , but these features—

from simple drag-and-drop crossfading

to support for professional VST audio

effects—are distributed throughout

several different applications that aren’t

well integrated. As an example, while

we could easily create a mix audio CD

with elegant crossfades in SoundTrax ,

we couldn’t normalize the volume

among the tracks within the same

application. Sadly, the SoundTrax

“documentation” is little more than

an incomplete summary of the mod-

ules capabilities.

We’d still recommend Easy CD

Creator 6 if you want a more sophisti-

cated video-editing application than

the one offered in Nero 6.6 Ultra Edition

Reloaded , but we think most power

users will be better off with Nero. The

suite is a phenomenal value for the

price, nailing the essentials of disc

mastering with honors, and developing

secondary features that approach the

scope of full-fledged applications.

— LOGAN DECKER

Nero 6.6 Ultra Edition Reloaded

A massive new version of the disc mastering suite packs in all features—

great and small

Extremely comprehensive disc mastering suite,

stable, and packed with useful features.

FIGHT CLUB

BUMFIGHTS

Skimpy documentation for secondary features,

and sound editing apps are poorly integrated.

$100 boxed; $70 download, http://www.nero.com

MA XIMUMPCVERDICT 9

110 MA XIMUMPC DECEMBER 2004

Longtime users will recognize the traditional

Nero Burning ROM interface (top); beginners

and experts will find much to appreciate in

the Nero Vision Express DVD-Video creation

wizard (bottom).

A colossal disc mastering suite,

Nero 6.6 Ultra Edition Reloaded

buffs up with a smarter interface,

improved DVD authoring, and

oodles of sound editing tools.

A colossal disc mastering suite,