Nero 8 Ultra delivers a refurbished digital media suite that's still as comprehensive as they come, though now in a more polished wrapper. The installation file is massive; also, once Nero is on your machine, it consumes a hefty serving of memory. Considering all it can do, though, we can only complain so much.

CD- and DVD-burning is still Nero's core; welcome shortcuts for burning and ripping CDs and DVDs are now accessible from the new StartSmart GUI, which is now adorned with a programmable RSS reader. Authoring and burning high-definition CDs and DVDs are added features, and so is the ability to export video files made and edited with Nero to YouTube, MySpace, and MyNero.

Nero 8 Ultra introduces RescueAgent, a tool to recover data from damaged disks, and a gaggle of Vista features, including a one-click desktop gadget for copying CDs.

Despite the cosmetic alterations, Vista support, and enhancements, particularly to Nero Vision, the dramatic changes are slim. However, Nero Ultra 8's significantly faster application launch time and improved usability make the audio, video, photo, data, and home entertainment workhorse that lets you edit MP3s, capture and edit video, record and playback TV, create slide shows, back up data, convert audio files, check your hardware specs, and design disc covers with ease well worth a try.

I used Nero a few times. Before Nero, I was always using Roxio Easy CD. I know that the newest Roxio I am using is the Suite and it takes up half of a computer, but I still found it a bit more reliable for me. I think one of the times I was using Nero, I had to burn images, and whatnot... I just found that Roxio was a little more user friendly. On the other hand, I noticed that some Nero programs had a few more options. I am getting a bit prudish now that I have updated stereo systems that allow information on music data. I can have my song and album and whatnot on the screen with my Roxio.... don't think the Nero provided that. That is probably where I am way too perfectionist. But I would have to say that Nero could be my #2... and that is still good for me, because there are a lot of annoying programs that are not Nero and Roxio.

i think that nero isn't !that! good but some other programs don't have an option so you can set burning speed but it has all other applications that are !very! useful to people like me

I remember I was using Nero, mainly for the Nero Burning Rom, to burn CD's and etc. But the Nero package got bigger and bigger, it had a lot of different software to, play video and etc. I and I think most of people main objective from Nero is to burn a CD, DVD or etc. even though Today CD's are getting not as popular as they used to be, most of cars are equipped with an audio system which is able to play from a flash usb key and there is no need to burn mp3 or audio CD's anymore, you can just put the music into your Flash disk, Today even when you loose your usb key, most of people don't get sad, due to they got so cheap Even audio systems at home or music centers and etc, are able to read flash disks, I mean usb keys.. I don't even burn DVD's with my collections of downloaded music or movies, due to those CD's/DVD's when you have over 100 of them, just takes space in your room and usually you don't need them and you just need to clean dust from them, ~monthly?

If somebody things that Nero is to expensive or to big and all they want is to burn CD's, try CD Burner XP: http://cdburnerxp.se/

Nero 8 isn't bad, but it's too much software that is organised in a too confusing suite, even burning a simple audio-cd is a pain in the ***. I'm happy with CDBurnerXP Pro and Deepburner, it's does everything it has to do