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What are alternatives to Nero?


ibe98765

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I find Nero to be a mish-mash of menus, parameters and sub-applications making it difficult for me to use effectively. Too many of the parameters don't seem to have any help associated with them, either context help or in the help file. There are numerous places where settings are not saved automatically (and there isn't any way to save them, so you have to keep resetting after every invocation).Just last night I discovered that I have nearly 1300 files in my media folder of the form:Name Size (KB)F:\Media\CA00.IDX 32F:\Media\CA0A.IDX 32F:\Media\CA0B.IDX 32F:\Media\CA0C.IDX 32toF:\Media\ST57.IDX 132I believe these are all from Nero but as usual, can't find anything in the help file that tells we what they are or why they are being created.I wouldn't mind trying something other than Nero. So are there any (other than Roxio) similar function alternative applications?If not, is there a pure Nero user forum somewhere? I couldn't find anything on their web page.

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Those are not Nero file extensions. Try this site here: http://filext.com/index.php It might help you track down what extensions they are from.Alcohol 120% would be an alternative to Nero. There are countless others out there, but those 2 are the best in my opinion. And the only ones I have used for about 2 years now. So I can not give you any other choices that I have used first hand.Do a google fo "CD Burning Software". The results should give you plenty of choices.

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B) OMG - alternative to Nero - I would say none myself, been using if for years and it works great. CloneCD is the only other piece of buring software on my system, besides MusicMatch for music.
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For all around best CD burning software, do not look past Nero. I've tried the other ones a while back, and they all made coasters once a while. The only real competitor is Roxio's EasyCD Creator, which was shipped with most CD burners a few years back (now, majority are shipped with Nero, so even the industry is swtiching to Nero as the norm). I dont understand your question, as Nero is quite easy to use in Wizard mode, and their help file does decent job of explaining all the settings if you want to fine tune anything. It's one of the few programs out there can can easily do many different multi-formats, and it was one of the first to have on-the-fly MP3 to Audio CD conversion. (i talked to some people that even just recently were still converting mp3s to huge WAVE files so they can record a music CD with an old version of Easy CD creator! :huh: )As the previous post, the only other program I have is Clone CD, which handles better copy protection duplicating than nero, IMO. But Clone CD doesnt NOT make normal CDs, just does copies.Another decent alternative if you're frustrated with Nero is Goldenhawks' CDRwin. I'd certainly recommend it over EasyCD Creator.

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Well, Nero is such a great product, so I don't really see why you should switch to alternatives.
Ha! I could write pages about the problems and shortcomings with Nero. Given that I have the latest release 5.5.x, it is hard to image just how bad Nero must have been in release 1. There are 4 separate programs - Burning ROM, Express, Cover Designer and Wave Editor. There doesn't seem to be any real linkage between them. All have different interfaces. All are missing various context help entries ("No help item associated with this control!"). Nothing is clear and everything is a jumbled mess. Want to rip a CD to MP3? You use Nero Express. When you open Express though, you only see options to BURN a variety of formats to a CD. You have to click on the "More" button to bring up the "Extended settings" control bar. Then click on the button marked "Save tracks to hard disk". That opens the "Save tracks" Window. Which then opens another Window for selecting the tracks. In this window, there are a number of buttons to choose from. You first need to access the internet to [hopefully] get the track listing, then need to press the "Selected tracks" button to get back to the "Save tracks" window.From this window you can choose all or some tracks to save. You can play tracks here to check which you want. There are only 5 formats that can be saved in - .WAV, .VQF, .MP3, .MP4 and AIF. There does not appear to be any support for Vorbis. I have the MP3PRO plugin. There is a button named Settings. Clicking this provides access to some parameters like encoding quality and constant or variable bitrate. Although there is a short discussion of constant bitrate, there is no mention of variable bitrate in the doc. Anyway, these settings are set by the factory and cannot be saved. If you change them, they have to be reset every time you load and rip a new CD.There is a path option. But after setting it, you cannot change it. If you click in the path field, you are not allowed to edit the path. If you click the "browse" button next to this field, you only get to select an existing folder, not create a new one.In the filename creation method filed, you can't add the CD title to the name. All you have to work with are artist name, song title, current extension & track number.After ripping a track, say you want to to massage it. Then you have to go separately to the Wave Editor. Tracks can only be processed here one at a time. It's a process to manually do each track. You may want to apply settings to all the tracks on a CD, but you have to do them one by one. This app is a real pain to figure out and use.Cover Designer is another mess. I'm still trying to figure this one out. I haven't figured out how to get the track list into this app, nor how to make cured text like they show in their illustration.In summary - Nero is poorly integrated, the help is verbose but not very helpful (much is just repetition of the same thing over and over), many controls don't have context help (that 's when you click on the that question mark in the title bar and then click back on the control. Something helpful should pop up). You can't save many parameters for the next go round and...If anyone thinks this is the best there is, then your standards are set way low or you don't really do much with the software. IMO, we have a long way to go...
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Yeah i agree with every one whoo all have voted for Nero........Clone CD .........Music Match Duke Box :( I just cant leave without them.....and about those temp files....when ever u burn cd's in nero dont forget to look for that option where in u ask nero to delete the ISO made on yur hardrive before its sent to the cd for burning........;)Just a though. :(

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Well I think you will find that Nero is far superior to anything out there, that's what makes it the best. For ripping I've always used CDex , a free great app that comes Lame preset ready (alt preset standard setting makes superb VBR mp3's). It also handles Ogg Vorbis and Monkey's if you are so inclined.At a time when most CD-Rw's were providing EZCD Creator, that could not even normalize volumes, Nero was a godsend (with 2 ways to auto normalize or individually thru the equalizer filter).

After ripping a track, say you want to to massage it. Then you have to go separately to the Wave Editor. Tracks can only be processed here one at a time. It's a process to manually do each track. You may want to apply settings to all the tracks on a CD, but you have to do them one by one. This app is a real pain to figure out and use.
You have to learn to use Nero's 'filters', with these a multitude of adjustments can be made to the tracks, either individually, to a few, or to all. The possibilities here are almost endless and infinately adjustable. I especially like the 'Stereo Widening' filter for my Trance cuts. Want different spacings/no pauses between cuts, easy. I've never really used the Wave editor, as any massaging I need is easily and individually or global accomplished with Nero's filters, far easier and more comprehensive than the competition. I'm not into cover printing so on this I have no experience.I've also found Nero to be far less problematic than Roxio's stuff on various rigs that I've worked on. Many times when people have had annoying glitches with Roxio stuff, installing Nero gets them running smoothly.And seeing as OEM versions of Nero can be found for less than $15 on the net, it's also a great bargain.I will agree that the help, various German translations, and the interface can be a bit confusing/non-existant, but nothing else even comes close to providing the options and control that Nero does.. You gotta work with it a while, but paired with a few free apps (CDex, QCD, and CDwave) I'm set.
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ibe98765 - Just curious, but why are you wanting to use Nero to create MP3 files? There are so many better programs that do this... Nero is great for burning CD's.... wouldn't use it for anything else though... My Advice, go find yourself a good MP3 ripping program (I use Musicmatch Jukebox).

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I agree, I wouldnt use Nero for making MP3s. It seems most of your quirks are with Nero Express and saving MP3s. I'm a firm believer in only using the software thats best for each task at hand. For burning CDs, especially Audio CDs (filters are amazing for it, llike normalizing and cross-fading tracks), NeroBurn is god. For duplicating, CloneCD outmatches neroburn, but Nero can hold its own for most copy protection schemes. But for making MP3s, stay away from nero express if its so troublesome. I dont use MusicMatch myself, thought I might try it out based on all the feedback its getting. I use AudioGrabber for ripping CDs into MP3s, but I barely use that nowadays (KaZaA might be the reason why :lol: )For fine-tuning wave files and such, above and beyond nero's filters, I recommend either CoolEdit Pro or SoundForge instead of Nero's Wave editor. and since we are on the topic of MP3s, anyone have suggestions for MP3 managers?I use Tag&Rename for editing Tags / mass renaming, and Dapyx MP3 for a nice way to find my MP3 and organize them. Anyone know better ones?

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Ha!  I could write pages about the problems and shortcomings with Nero. 
hehe.. i hear you on this, man. even though nero is the only good cd burning tool, its got its share of flaws. i think the german translation might have something to do with it, and most of its settings dont seem to be saved as defaults. i even despise its cheezy burning coliseum icon. :) but its as stable and solid as it is ugly :) i've seen nicer interfaces and help menus in Roxio's newest EasyCD creator, but its over 120mb to install and in the end, my first try with it made me a coaster because it incorrectly failed to slow down the recording speed on an 80minute CD. so its up to you if you want a good program that works or a complete and sexy looking help system. :) i can help you out with some of your questions though: never ever use that stupid mp3pro and variable bitrate option. just keep it simple. 192kbs constant bitrate, thats it. you start going into variable bitrates and mp3pro settings, you can easily run into incompatibilities with MP3 players in your car or portable players. besides, i dont believe half the stuff mp3pro claims to be. and stay away from WMA format. they have built in copy protection technology that bill gates will activate once he purges the world of the MP3 format :lol:
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While the subject of Nero is open, I would like to add that I also found Nero 5.5 when I first got it to be rather difficult to use after Easy CD Creator. I finally emailed Nero, and after much effort ended up with a fellow who worked for them in California, and he provided the answers to my questions at the time, since the "help" menu certainly didn't. However, one thing that continues to bother me is that with any continuing session data CD that I started in Easy CD Creator, if I make the mistake of adding anything additional with Nero, it makes that one addition and then renders the CD useless for adding any further data with either program. Does anyone know why that is and how to get around it? I have the close box unchecked in Nero and I can add stuff indefinitely with disks I started in Nero; it is just when I use a CD that was started with Easy CD Creator that I have this problem. Since I have the two programs on different computers, this has been a real problem if I download something on the wrong computer that I want to burn to a particular CD! Thanks. Karl

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Guest ThunderRiver
Well, Nero is such a great product, so I don't really see why you should switch to alternatives.
Ha! I could write pages about the problems and shortcomings with Nero. Given that I have the latest release 5.5.x, it is hard to image just how bad Nero must have been in release 1. There are 4 separate programs - Burning ROM, Express, Cover Designer and Wave Editor. There doesn't seem to be any real linkage between them. All have different interfaces. All are missing various context help entries ("No help item associated with this control!"). Nothing is clear and everything is a jumbled mess. Want to rip a CD to MP3? You use Nero Express. When you open Express though, you only see options to BURN a variety of formats to a CD. You have to click on the "More" button to bring up the "Extended settings" control bar. Then click on the button marked "Save tracks to hard disk". That opens the "Save tracks" Window. Which then opens another Window for selecting the tracks. In this window, there are a number of buttons to choose from. You first need to access the internet to [hopefully] get the track listing, then need to press the "Selected tracks" button to get back to the "Save tracks" window.From this window you can choose all or some tracks to save. You can play tracks here to check which you want. There are only 5 formats that can be saved in - .WAV, .VQF, .MP3, .MP4 and AIF. There does not appear to be any support for Vorbis. I have the MP3PRO plugin. There is a button named Settings. Clicking this provides access to some parameters like encoding quality and constant or variable bitrate. Although there is a short discussion of constant bitrate, there is no mention of variable bitrate in the doc. Anyway, these settings are set by the factory and cannot be saved. If you change them, they have to be reset every time you load and rip a new CD.There is a path option. But after setting it, you cannot change it. If you click in the path field, you are not allowed to edit the path. If you click the "browse" button next to this field, you only get to select an existing folder, not create a new one.In the filename creation method filed, you can't add the CD title to the name. All you have to work with are artist name, song title, current extension & track number.After ripping a track, say you want to to massage it. Then you have to go separately to the Wave Editor. Tracks can only be processed here one at a time. It's a process to manually do each track. You may want to apply settings to all the tracks on a CD, but you have to do them one by one. This app is a real pain to figure out and use.Cover Designer is another mess. I'm still trying to figure this one out. I haven't figured out how to get the track list into this app, nor how to make cured text like they show in their illustration.In summary - Nero is poorly integrated, the help is verbose but not very helpful (much is just repetition of the same thing over and over), many controls don't have context help (that 's when you click on the that question mark in the title bar and then click back on the control. Something helpful should pop up). You can't save many parameters for the next go round and...If anyone thinks this is the best there is, then your standards are set way low or you don't really do much with the software. IMO, we have a long way to go...
Perhaps you are right. I don't do much with the software.I do burning images and compiling data files 99% of the time. I don't use it to rip music, and I don't use the wave editor nor cd cover designer. It is not as user friendly as you think, and Roxio does offer you with quite some impressive GUI, but it can cause system unstability in Windows.My best suggestion for wave editor and cd cover designer is Microsoft Plus! Digital Media Edition. It has great GUI, and it is from Microsoft. Nothing more to say :D
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Although I have CDex and other programs, I'm using Nero for ripping because I have the MP3Pro plugin.Although Nero may be the best there is right now, imagine how good it could be if it were redesigned.I wouldn't use anything Roxio if you paid me.Isn't it great how much information this subject is producing?

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so true. best would be if Nero made its GUI like Roxio's, and gave up on its CD-ripping, audio-extraction and CD cover adventures, unless they bought out Surething CD Labeler and blended it into their program.Is your MP3Pro plugin just for Nero? Most codec encoders I use are usually available in all of my programs. Come to think of it, I'm pretty sure Cool Edit Pro has the MP3pro codec, I just never use it.I have one question to all regarding mp3 editing programs? I sometimes have a full track in one MP3 file. Whats the easiest way to split it into seperate MP3 files? What I do now is load it into Cool Edit and copy&paste new songs, but since it decompresses the MP3 into WAV and recompresses after copy&paste, its horribly time consuming. I heard and tried one program, Cool MP3 Splitter, but it was buggier than the current SARS outbreak. :ph34r: any others?

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Is your MP3Pro plugin just for Nero?  Most codec encoders I use are usually available in all of my programs.  Come to think of it, I'm pretty sure Cool Edit Pro has the MP3pro codec, I just never use it.
Yes, I brought the MP3Pro plugin from Nero for $20, I think.Can it be used in other programs?
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Prelude76

if a codec is listed in "Control Panel -> Sounds & Audio -> Hardware tab -> select Audio Codecs -> click Properties", then to the best of my knowledge, the codecs listed here should be available in all sound editing programs. I assume by paying $20 to Nero, it bought you license to encode MP3Pro format from anywhere.if it does show up in list of codecs installed on your computer, download some free sound editor that does encoding (maybe MusicMatch) and see if your MP3Pro codec is listed.good luck

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Prelude76

further to the MP3Pro question, here's some random clips from Hydrogenaudio sound forum. I know you already shelled out $20 for MP3Pro, but maybe reconsider how useful it is. I'm just requoting some peoples comments on MP3Pro coz i dont know too much about it myself, but judging by what most of these audiophiles are saying, for hi-quality, stick with LAME MP3 over 160kbs, and if space is important, like for music on portables, switch to WMA or wait until OGG-Vorbis becomes more popular. I know WMA9 claims hi-quality music at more than half size of MP3s, and many players support WMA now."Well, I tested (blind) some times ago a lame --preset 130 encoding and a mp3PRO VBR encoding that reached the same bitrate. LAME was the winner, especially on loud tracks (I don't know why, but mp3PRO is not really good on metal for example, but much better on low volume passages).I suppose that the overall quality a good mp3 at 130 kbps can't be reached with mp3pro, especially at 80 or 96 kbps."" You do realize that mp3pro is supported by hardly any portables, right? All portables play them back, but without specific mp3pro support they sound similar to a normal mp3 of the same bitrate.You could try wma. In a pinch it at 80-96kpbs it might sound relatively close to a 128kpbs mp3 Personally, even on my flash portable I use 128k abr mp3s as a minimum, and I can fit quite alot of music in my meagre 192mb space.""I've tested MP3Pro at 96 and it sounds close to MP3 128. MP3Pro 64 is NOT MP3 128 despite the claims. Interested to hear from others.""Make sure you play your MP3Pro files on an MP3Pro enabled application or it ignores the high frequncies and sounds really bad.""WMA is probably a better choice here. Its competitive at those bit rates and has more hardware support then mp3pro ever will. Not to mention its free.""Ogg Vorbis is a great alternative in low bitrates. I've ripped many cds for my Pontis SP600 in Quality 2 (about 96kbps - much better than mp3pro at this bitrate).Pontis and many other portables will support Vorbis soon!"

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Guess I should have posed the MP3Pro question prior to shelling out the $20 to Nero. Oh well ;) Not sure but I think I've heard that WMA has licensing stuff built-in that could be turned on in the future. This worries me about using that format.Nero probably doesn't support OGG Vorbis because they can't figure out how to make any money off of it.

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Prelude76

yeah, WMA worries me too. I think they call it DRM, Digital Rights Management. who knows, I could see M$ making a sound sample recognizer and patch it into their Player that would lock up any WMA that you play that arent copyrighted. :D i guess i'm just reluctant to swtich away from plain ol' MP3. Ogg Vorbis may be better in some areas, but so was Beta vs VHS format. :D

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Cluttermagnet
Guess I should have posed the MP3Pro question prior to shelling out the $20 to Nero.  Oh well  :) Not sure but I think I've heard that WMA has licensing stuff built-in that could be turned on in the future.  This worries me about using that format.Nero probably doesn't support OGG Vorbis because they can't figure out how to make any money off of it.
I don't know how on-topic this might be- I suggest you take a look at some of the great software in the dB Power Amp family. Most of it is freeware, including the great "dB Power Amp Converter" that will convert between several audio file formats; also the one called "Auxiliary Input". That one allows you to input any analog source, such as the preamp output from your stereo. You can thus record off-the-air radio broadcasts and even cuts from your prized old 33-1/3 LPs, if you are into that sort of thing. Music Match used to allow dubbing from LPs for free but later rolled that feature and many others into the paid versions only. "Converter" handles mp3, wav, and cda 'out of the box', and you can download other codecs such as WMA v.8, ogg vorbis, and others. Check it out.http://www.dbpoweramp.com/I have no ties whatever with that group- I'm just a satisfied 'customer'. It's truly amazing how much excellent software is out there as freeware. I like to 'mix and match' software, whether I'm working at text processing, music, or whatever. Often this enables building quite impressive capabilities into a Windows machine without buying any software at all. Nero is great, BTW, and can do just about anything in the paid versions. I notice that they have lately taken to disabling the direct copy CD-to-CD in the OEM versions that ship with a lot of CDRW drives. There are always any number of ways around that, including paying them to 'uncriple' that native ability- but there are freeware ways of performing that function as well.
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Why does Nero put a task in the HKLM/Run registry key pointing to C:\WINDOWS\system32\NeroCheck.exe (runs att bootup)? What is Nerocheck "checking" and why?

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I notice that they have lately taken to disabling the direct copy CD-to-CD in the OEM versions that ship with a lot of CDRW drives.
That could just be their way of getting better burn results, and less support hassles. Being from the old school I still always let it copy to the HD first, a few years ago that was about the only way to get consistant quality burns with IDE devices.
What is Nerocheck "checking" and why?
There are quite a few theories on this. One says it has to go with administrative burning rights. Another claims it's checking that all the various drivers/elements associated with burning are working properly. It doesn't show up in Task Manager/processes, so I let it be. Not like all the crap Creative decides to through in.
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Nerocheck.exe - Background Task installed by Nero’s CD Burning software. Straight from Ahead software : "The NeroCheck program looks for known driver conflicts with our Nero software. So that when a Nero Log file is printed, at the very bottom of the Nero log file you will find a list of drivers we have found on your system that could be causing conflicts, if you are running into problems.".Recommendation :If Nero is working on your system then you do not need NeroCheck to run. Disable it with Starter unless you experience problems with Nero, in which case re-enable NeroCheck to see what the log file reports.I found this info at http://www.answersthatwork.com/Tasklist_pa...es/tasklist.htmactually, i'm gonna submit it for Link of the Week. It has the best info on all auto-run process i've come across on the net.

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I use Nero for most CD burning needs, but was impressed with a couple of freewarwe programs,burnatonce is a nice basic burner program.CD Burner XP Pro is an interesting program still under development. The current version shows much promise - I think it aims to be like Nero.Also I highly recommend Exact Audio Copy to rip CDs to mp3 (or Ogg,Monkeys, etc.). It's "secure mode" ensures 100% accurate rips for best quality audio. :)

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