Are Do-It-All CD/DVD Packages Worth It? : Do-It-All Or Do Less With More?
1. Do-It-All Or Do Less With More?
Be sure to read the sidebars Adobe Production Studio Premium, Why We Didn't Test On Vista, Bonus or Bloat? and Do You Really Need Another Decoder?. Sidebars follow the Conclusions section.
The packages we will look at are used for creating, compiling and burning CDs and DVDs: whether to create the ultimate mix, to immortalize home videos, build looping slideshows with music and voiceovers or simply to keep ancient vinyl or tape recordings alive. As far as we can tell, the race is on between Nero and Corel/Roxio to take the top spot in this latest go-round of "Clash of the Titans." Fortunately for consumers, this kind of battle offers tremendous value and lots of outstanding capability for a relatively small amount of money.
Neither package is particularly large nor impressive, but both include tons of useful functionality inside.
Product Summaries
Though we hesitate to suggest, let alone claim, that the information in the following table does justice to the extensive capabilities of either product, this data does capture the high points of both Nero 7 Premium Reloaded and Roxio Easy Media Creator 9. That said, we still have plenty to say about both products - and many alternatives that at least some readers will already own, if not be willing to consider - as they decide if these products offer capabilities that they want or need.
| Category/Item | Nero 7 Premium Reloaded | Roxio Easy Media Creator 9 Suite |
|---|---|---|
| Price range | $50-100 | $60-100 (Deluxe $120-150)
$20 rebate currently available |
| Download size | 190.61 MB | 492.51 MB |
| Audio | ||
| Surround sound | 5.1 & 7.1 recording, editing, mixing | 5.1 & 7.1 recording, editing, mixing |
| Mix and edit | Yes | Yes |
| Capture Internet music, radio | Yes | Yes |
| Looping library | Yes | Yes |
| Video | ||
| Burn & copy to CD & DVD | Yes | Yes |
| Support for Lightscribe drive labeling | Yes | Yes (Labelflash also supported) |
| Keep or remove audio tracks, titles, subtitles | Yes | Yes |
| DVD decode | Yes | Yes |
| Photos | ||
| Photo editing & digital retouch | Yes | Yes |
| Photo index & organizer | Yes | Yes |
| Create slideshows | Yes | Yes |
| Photo cards, calendars, etc. | Yes | Yes |
| TV | ||
| TV capture | Yes, with suitable capture card | Yes, with suitable capture card |
| Convert DVD movies, video (transcoding) | Yes | Yes |
| Batch encoding for video | Yes | Yes |
| DVD creation | ||
| Import formats | DVD±VR, DVD-Video, SVCD, VCD, DVD-1 | DVD±VR, DVD-Video, SVCD, VCD, DVD-1 |
| Auto-create chapters | Yes | Yes |
| Manually create chapters | Yes | Yes |
| DV time code scene detect | Yes | Yes |
| Pre-defined DVD templates | Yes | Yes |
| Split and merge titles | Yes | Yes |
| Create DVD menus, buttons, text credits | Yes | Yes |
| Download & burn MPEG-4 movies to DVD | Yes | Yes |
| PC Backup | ||
| Complete backup solution | Yes | Yes |
| Calendaring & scheduling backup jobs | Yes | Yes |
| Shadow copy for verified backup | Yes | Yes |
| Backup to disc image | Yes | Yes |
| Create bootable restore disk | Yes | Yes |
| Disaster recovery support | Yes | Yes |
| Multi-play features | ||
| Blu-ray, HD-DVD playback | Yes | Yes |
| Playlists with pictures, music, video | Yes | Yes |
| Time-shift TV | Yes | Yes |
| Streaming music, video, images to UPnP gear | Yes | Yes |
| Specialized media search | Yes (Nero Scout) | Yes |
| Media download to mobile devices | Yes | Yes |
| Extras | ||
| Automatic updates | Yes | Yes |
| Repair option for installs | Yes | No |
| In-place updates | Yes | No |
| VoIP application | Yes | No |
| Create custom ring tones | No | Yes |
| Analog video capture card | Works with third-party offerings | Dazzle included with Deluxe edition |
| Input formats | ||
| Video | DVD-Video, miniDVD, MPEG-1/2/4,VOB, DV, VCD, SVCD, AVI | AVI, DV, HD-V, DV-AVI, MPEG-1/2/4, MPEG2-HD, IFO/VOB, DivX, DivX HD, XviD, DVR-MS, TiVo, ASF, MOV, WMV, QuickTime, 3GP, MPEG2 transport stream, H.264, OpenDVD |
| Audio | MP3, MP3Pro, wma, VQF, AIF, OGG, ACC, MPEG-4, Dolby Digital AC-3, LPCM, numerous third-party plug-ins available | MP3, WAV, WMA, Dolby Digital AC-3, OGG, FLAC, MPEG-1/2, M4A, AAC, Playlist (WPL, M3U, PLS, XSPF, HighMAT, MPB) |
| Photo | JPEG, PNG, TIFF, BMP, GIF | Ditto |
| DVD | DVD+VR, DVD-VR, DVD-Video, SVCD, VCD, DVD-1 | Ditto |
| Output formats | ||
| Video | DVD-Video, miniDVD, MPEG-1/2/4,VOB, DV, VCD, SVCD, AVI | AVI, DV-AVI, HD-V, MPEG-1/2/4, MPEG2-HD, DivX, DivX HD, WMV, WMV-HD, H.264, MP4, 3GP |
| Audio | MP3, MP3Pro, wma, VQF, AIF, OGG, ACC, MPEG-4, DTS, numerous third-party plug-ins available | MP3, WAV, WMA, Dolby Digital AC-3, Ogg Vorbis, FLAC, MPEG-1/2, M4A, AAC, Playlist (WPL, M3U, PLS, XSPF, HighMAT, MPB) |
| Photo | JPEG, PNG, TIFF, BMP, GIF | Ditto |
| DVD | DVD, VCD, SVCD, Mini DVD | DVD, VCD, SVCD, Mini DVD, BDAV |
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