Comments

BillyBoy wrote on 7/24/2004, 10:19 PM
It used to be talked about rather often over at www.videohelp.com. I haven't used Nero to burn for awhile so off the top of my head I can't recall specifics, something where you could override settings so you could create a out of specs disc. Which can be what you want sometimes, but not the way to go if you selling stuff to others even if its just some wedding CD or something because you never know what kind of DVD player or VCD player they got. If I remember right I seem to recall that Nero allows overburn which can put more on a disc but it opens a whole can of worms, again on SOME players.
TheHappyFriar wrote on 7/25/2004, 6:30 AM
I had problems with Nero 4 (many many problems) but since that one I haven't (currently on 5.5). But like BB said, it allows for many extra options. AND, sometimes the help file doesn't load correctly, andyou can't find out what that means (i finaly found out what "book type DVD" means 2 weeks ago!)
johnmeyer wrote on 7/25/2004, 9:40 AM
Nero is a great way to burn DVDs. DVDA has had all sorts of problems, including only being compatible with a few burners, and also not being able to burn with some burners (like my Pioneer A05) at top speed. The very latest release of DVDA solves some of these problems. However, because of all of its problems, I long ago got into the habit of preparing in DVDA, and then burning with Nero (I use the 5.5, not the newer 6.x version, and I have the latest patches). The only knock against Nero that I'm aware of -- having read lots of posts at DVDRHelp, Doom9, and many other forums -- is that about eighteen months ago, disks created with it had problems playing on some xBox DVD players. That was fixed long ago.

The other thing I like about Nero -- and this is what will keep me using it -- is that it DOES let you create disks that are theoretically non-standard, but which I am all but certain will still play on anything. I am talking about Nero's ability to let you add additional folders beyond the AUDIO_TS and VIDEO_TS folders defined by the DVD spec. I often inlclude full resolution still photos, liner notes, additional audio clips, and much more in one or more folders. I have distributed enough DVDs by now that if this was going to be a major problem, I would have heard about it by now.

Finally, DVDA is a terrible resource hog, and brings my PC to its knees. When it is running and doing anything, everything else is sluggish. By contrast, Nero is a well-behaved citizen. Yesterday, I used two copies of Nero running simultaneously. I burned a DVD in my DVD burner while burning -- at 48x -- a CD on my CD burner. While both these things were going on, I surfed the net and answered emails, and the response on my browser and email program were exactly the same as if nothing else was going on. By contrast, with DVDA, I would have had to wait for several seconds after each click before anything happened.
FuTz wrote on 7/25/2004, 12:00 PM

While we're at it, can somebody give us a comparison between DVDA and Nero DVD authoring app?
I just learned my way thru DVDA but don't know a damn about Nero...

thanks!
johnmeyer wrote on 7/25/2004, 2:52 PM
FuTz,

Sorry, I only use the older Nero 5.5 app, not the 6.x that has authoring. Someone else will have to chime in.
riredale wrote on 7/26/2004, 10:38 AM
I've worked with regular Nero, but now I exclusively use the much simpler version, "Nero Express," which I believe is bundled along with the full-strength version. Express does virtually everything I ever need to do, and it does it without requiring me to wade through arcane menus. Want to burn a DVD? Select the drive, then "DVD Video files," then drag your VIDEO_TS folder to the window, then hit "Burn." Done. Similar situation for creating audio CDs.

Either in the 5.5 or 6 versions, Nero Express has never given me reason to want to explore other options.