Help, newbie with too many choices.

[terrys]

My new computer came with Nero 5.5 for the Samsung CD-RW; Pinnacle Studio 8 for the ATI AIW video card; and Roxio Easy CD& DVD Creator 6 for the Plexor 708A. I read on this forum that it's not good to load too much unneeded or duplicate software...but, I don't know which is unneeded. Are any of these junk I should just trash, is there something better? I just want to edit & burn to DVD some miniDV videos (kids sports) and maybe backup a few DVDs.

There is so much good information here on the site, I'm even more confused. Based on the recommendations here, I downloaded DVD Decrypter and DVD Shrink. Finally, do you recommed Nero or Alcohol 120% for burning? Sorry for any stupid questions. Thanks.

[teegee420]

Depending on whether your version of Nero supports DVD writing, decide for yourself if you prefer Roxio or not. As for Alcohol or Nero, I use Nero for all my data, audio and (S)VCD discs when I already have a compliant mpeg(never use it for actual encoding). I use Alcohol for burning other image formats like .cdi, .img, .ccd and for creating perfect images of my own discs(cd-rom, and (S)VCD).

From the looks of things it doesn't appear you are very cluttered at all. I'm a veritable software pack-rat by comparison.