have Nero; do Roxio Easy Creator's cd tools offer advantage?

[Matt_]

Hi

I have a quick question that I hope someone won't mind helping me with. I am new to everything -- have a new ThinkPad and on the day after Thanksgiving due to a Fry's sale and rebate was able to buy Nero Ultra Edition for $ 15.99
Here is my question about Roxio. I try as much as possible to research a product thoroughly through magazine and message-board reviews and opinions.
I had read great reviews in PC Magazine and PC World about Roxio Easy CD/DVD Creator 7 and thought I was making a great blind buy when I was able to buy it for $ 19.99 (the box is still unopened).
Then I read the message-boards.....
At cdrinfo.com, cdrlabs.com, cdfreaks.com, this site, and hometheaterforum.com the opinion about the stability of the product, about the potential for system conflicts, and about the DVD components of Roxio seem to be universally negative.
As I mentioned, because I am new to everything (and also have Nero but haven't had any time to learn/try any of it) I don't know enough to be able to get a handle on whether Roxio would be worth keeping for the CD components of the software.
I tried my best to do a search through the different message-boards that I named, and on at least this board there are a small number of people who had positive things to say about Roxio's CD components.

Thank you for any help you can offer

[jimmalenko]

Well, my experience has been that Nero has always worked fine for me, and ever since Adaptec became Roxio, they've put out nothing but shite IMO. A long long time ago I used to use Adaptec Easy CD Creator 4, and it rocked. As soon as V5 came out (and a name change), I had no end of problems with stability. So much so that I will never go near another Roxio product again, despite its reviews. OTOH, Nero has been fine all along.

YMMV.

[Matt_]

Hi

Thank you for the reply. It sounds like as a beginner that Nero will be a great starting point for me. And after spending some time browsing the past threads on this forum, it looks like that when I get far enough along and need a specialized tool to do something a little better than Nero that there are a number of great programs (both freeware and others that are inexpensive) for those purposes.
What also had me concerned were two other issues:
1) The buyout of Roxio by Sonic ( https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=233179&highlight=roxio ) and what the people on this board think that will mean for Roxio
2) The fact that there have been reported problems of conflicts between Roxio and the Windows CD components (apparently written by Sonic ?) such as Windows Media Player and the rudimentary packet writing.

[Skith]

I would recommend NOT installing any packet writing software (INCD is Nero's packet writing software), unless you absolutley need it. Packet writing software is often buggy, and can cause more problems than it is worth.

I have always used NERO, so I cannot say much about Roxio, other than I have read about alot of incompatabilities. This does not mean NERO is perfect. NERO Burning ROM is great, the additional programs in the NERO suite are not perfect. (Based on what I have read, I haven't bothered to install/try them.)

Some people consider the additional programs in the NERO and Roxio suites "afterthoughts," something slapped together to entice people to buy their product.

If using NERO, I would recommend upgrading to 6.3.1.25 - the 6.6.0.x versions seem to have a lot of problems. Unless, of course, you already have a 6.6.0.x version.

NERO is a great burning application - just don't expect the world from the other bundled apps.

Ditch Windows Media Player, I would recommend MPC (Media Player Classic), or VideoLan Client (VLC). I also use TCMP (The Core Media Player). All of these are free, but TCMP requires a $10 registration fee to enable DVD (MPEG2) playback. You can find links to these in the "Tools -> Media Players" section of this site.

Also, check out http://club.cdfreaks.com - the forum of www.cdfreaks.com - which is an excellent resource (in addition to this site, of course). There is a lot of technical info on how to set up a system (hardware and software) for best burning performance/results.

Good Luck!

[Matt_]

Hi Skith

Thank you for your help.
I'll address the second half of your reply first.
Ever since I'd come across some information in an issue of PC World that there are alternatives to QuickTime, RealPlayer, and Windows Media Player, I've been wanting to look into this matter

PC World
October 2004 issue
page 86
The RealPlayer media player fro mRealNetworks added far too many icons to my desktop, and it constantly asked me if I wanted to change my media-file associations. RealPlayer also displayed lots of ads and pop-ups. And my firewall frequently alerted me that RealPlayer was trying to phone home.
The FIX: It's easy to dump RealPlayer -- and Apple's equally insistent QuickTime video player -- and replace them with an app that is absolutely free and does just as good a job. First, uninstall RealPlayer and QuickTime via Windows' Add or Remove Programs applet in Control Panel. Then go to find.pcworld.com/43610 ( http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file_description/0,fid,23205,00.asp ) to download Real Alternative, which plays RealAudio and RealMedia files, and has plug-ins for Internet Explorer, Opera, Netscape, and Mozilla, so you can play music and video right off the Web. (There's also a QuickTime Alternative.) If your media-file associations go wacko, visit find.pcworld.com/43816 to read Lincoln Spector's instructions for reassociating your file types.

PC World
October 2004 issue
page 100
Instead of Windows Media Player, you could use Quintessential Player and save yourself from having to del with the constraints of digital rights management.
The Quintessential Player ( find.pcworld.com/42800 --> http://www.quinnware.com/downloads.php or http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file_description/0,fid,23066,00.asp ) can play any video or audio file format.

I took a quick look at the comments at download.com for Quintessential Player, and your suggestions sound MUCH better than the suggestions that PC World offered. What sounds really great (after a cursory read) about Media Player Classic (I haven't had a chance yet to investigate your other two suggestions of VLC and TCMP) is the fact that it sounds like it will play RealPlayer media, QuickTime media, and also Windows Media Player media. I've never liked the interface for QuickTime. And Windows Media Player has too many annoying things that are ENabled by default.
Three quick follow-up questions about Windows Player Classic. Are there web browser plug-ins so that if I visit a web page with video clips I can play them there ?
Also, what I've read so far about Windows Media Player is that, while you can't adjust the burn speed (4x, 12x, that kind of thing) it will let you rip a whole CD to MP3. I assume that in not installing Windows Media Player that I wouldn't be missing out on that because there are alternative software programs that offer that kind of feature ?
Also, in the comments section for Windows Player Classic someone said: "plays a good number of codecs...HOWEVER, you must have these codecs already installed...not like videolan player which has built in codecs..."
How/Where can I learn about installing these codecs ?



With regards to the first half of your reply:
I haven't had a chance to check out what the versions are of the software components on the Nero CD I bought, but I appreciate the forewarning. So, if by luck the CD has 6.3 stick with it until they fix the bugs in 6.6.0.x ?

And I appreciate your advice on packet writing. I had been giving a little bit of thought about what my immediate needs are for CDs. And for right now I guess I just need to be able to do two things: back up my data (currently I only have a few hundred megabytes) and, since my father bought an iPod for my mother for Christmas, convert some music CDs to mp3's. So I guess as far as backing up the data that, in light of what you're saying, that it would be a whole lot easier to just schedule regular periodic backups onto a CD-RW, i.e. when I'm ready to back-up again just re-format the CD-RW that I used for the previous data-backup and write over it again.
When you were referring to bugginess with packet writing, I remember reading that there are some considerations to make. A person has to pick the right UDF standard and also if a person packet writes some data to a CD that he/she wants to give to someone else, that person has to have the same packet-writing software on his computer to be able to successfully read it. But were you implying that as far as bugginess that there can also be potentially some conflicts with other system software ?

Thank you again for your help

[Skith]

First: the two media players I use are - MPC and The Core Media Player (TCMP). Additionally, I install the following codecs; DivX (be sure to get the non-pro/add free version), Xvid, QuickTime Alternative (if needed), and The Real Alternative (if needed). Links to all of these codecs can be found in the Tools -> codecs section of this site.

TCMP also installs support for Ogg/ogm vorbis, and Matroska mkv files (optional with the "custom install".

There are options in each programs configuration to set it as "default player" when specific file types are launched - regardless of whether it is through a web browser, or windows explorer.

It is my understanding that MPC has codec support for many of the common formats built in (like VLC). It is not as up to date as VLC though.

Another advantage of MPC, there is no installation, it is a completely self contained program. It can be run from an external HD, a CD/DVD, etc. To remove it, you just have to delete the one file mplayerc.exe.

Regarding codecs, the best place to learn about them is on forums like this one. Others include www.afterdawn.com and http://forum.doom9.org.

As for packetwriting, it can cause conflicts with other software and devices, as well as picky about compatabilty (from what I have read).

As for CD-RW (and other -RW types of media) - they are not good for long term (archival) storage.
I would not trust a disc for more than a few months at a single time. A disc can last longer, its just data degrades faster due to the type of technology used. Discs do eventually go bad, and must be replaced.

Hope this helps, good luck!


Optionally, whe

[p_l]

Well, my experience has been that Nero has always worked fine for me, and ever since Adaptec became Roxio, they've put out nothing but shite IMO. A long long time ago I used to use Adaptec Easy CD Creator 4, and it rocked. As soon as V5 came out (and a name change), I had no end of problems with stability. So much so that I will never go near another Roxio product again, despite its reviews. OTOH, Nero has been fine all along.

YMMV.

What he said.

[hech54]

I have Roxio 5 Platinum and no Nero. I've heard of conflicts between the two as well. My burner came bundled with B's Recorder Gold which I oten use to burn DVD Folders with. I also use TMPGEnc DVD Author for folder burning and DVDDecrypter for ISO Image burning.

[Matt_]

Sorry for the couple days it took me to reply. Got busy with the holidays.

First, I appreciate everyone's help/comments regarding Roxio. I returned it to the store and am looking forward to checking out Nero.

I hope that my previous post didn't have any trace of sounding like I was asking for help without trying to doing any homework on my own. I always do try to do my best to research something before posting.
This was a case where I was 100% unaware of being able to download/install codecs and alternative video players; so this thread has been a big help!
MPC was the first thing I installed, and I love how it does one thing well: play media and be easy to use. Windows Media Player has too much fluff, and I was just reading tonight about apparently how difficult it is to uninstall. Right now the only thing about MPC is that most of what is in "View > Options" (particularly "View > Options > Player > Formats") is beyond me. But I'll keep spending some time here and at your other suggestions of doom9 and afterdawn, and I'm sure I'll find all the information I need.

Another advantage of MPC, there is no installation, it is a completely self contained program. It can be run from an external HD, a CD/DVD, etc. To remove it, you just have to delete the one file mplayerc.exe

That's very cool. I didn't realize that about MPC.

And thank you for the push in the right direction on RealAlternative and Quicktime Alternative. Those were a cinch to install and play media in websites just fine.
And MPC has also enabled me to play streaming media from websites. The only thing that seemed to have a quirk was when I wanted to play streaming Windows Media files while using Firefox. There were one or two websites where this didn't work, and I had to try that website again in Internet Explorer.

VLC was one of your earlier suggestions, and after I installed MPC the reason that I gave VLC a try next instead of TCMP is that
apparently my ThinkPad's optical drive is pretty difficult to get to play non-Region 1 DVDs, and someone in that thread brought up VLC. I installed it, and it plays my non-Region 1 DVDs perfectly. I haven't had much time to spend with it, but the only tiny thing that suprised me is that when I clicked the fast-forward button, say, twice, the only way that I could get it to resume playing at normal speed was to click the slow-forward button twice.


One area where I wanted to follow-up on is the potential for coflict.
When I comes to media players, I don't know enough to know how many different types I can install before encountering conflicts. I have MPC & VLC installed along with the QuicktimeAlternative and RealAlternative codecs, but I also have the InterVideo WinDVD player that came pre-installed on my IBM ThinkPad.

As for packetwriting, it can cause conflicts with other software and devices, as well as picky about compatabilty (from what I have read).

As for CD-RW (and other -RW types of media) - they are not good for long term (archival) storage.
I would not trust a disc for more than a few months at a single time. A disc can last longer, its just data degrades faster due to the type of technology used. Discs do eventually go bad, and must be replaced.

Your warning is very timely, esp. since I had setup a JVC-DRM10S DVD recorder for my family and had thought that anything that was recorded onto DVD-RW's would be safe on there for a long while.
I feel a little bummed though that CD-RWs once used have such a short life. For one thing, I don't know now what I can/should use that I can count on to back up data. I'm planning on setting up an external hard drive to use, in part, as an additional medium for data backup, but hard drives can fail.
Also, I don't know if you've been in this situation, but sometimes there's someone in your family whom you want to help with something, but that person might not be receptive sometimes to help. My dad's been using an OEM Nero to packet write to CD-RWs for awhile for his financial stuff, and I'd hate to see him get into a mess if those CD-RWs are going to have such a short life.

I appreciate the suggetsions in hech54's post. I've been planning for a long while to buy a Pioneer A08 and am looking forward to getting into all the DVD-related stuff.

Thanks again for all the help