Digital Media Suites for
Mobile Media:
Nero 8 Ultra Edition and
Roxio Easy Media Creator 10
by Douglas Dixon,
www.manifest-tech.com
See also Nero 8 suite features
and visual tour:
Summary: Nero 8 Ultra Edition
See also Roxio EMC 10 suite
features and visual tour:
Summary: Roxio Easy Media Creator 10
Got media?
More and more consumers are facing growing
collections of media stuff -- music and
photos and video -- and facing the desire to
get organized, be creative, and share their
digital content. But there are some many
media formats, stored on a bewildering
variety of mediums, and so many ways to
share, electronic and on physical devices.
Thus the
attraction of digital media software suites
like Nero Ultra Edition and Roxio
Easy Media Creator, which have grown
from their origins in CD copying and burning
to add an array of tools for media
management, editing, and sharing, along with
more general data backup and archiving.
With each
succeeding generation of these media suites,
we also can see some of the strong trends
that are driving digital media for
consumers. In the previous releases, in
early 2007, these included the beginnings of
the next generations of video deliver:
high-def video, tiny video for mobile
devices, and user-generated content on the
Internet. And there was a strong emphasis on
networked sharing, both between devices on
the home network, and peer-to-peer across
the Internet.
But 2007 has
seen the maturation of many of these themes
(and availability of consumer-priced gear),
with new HD camcorders and associated video
formats, burners for next-gen Blu-ray and HD
DVD discs, portable media player devices
like the new Apple iPod nano and iPhone that
are video-enabled to take your content
beyond the home, and the explosion of
interest in Web video and sites like
YouTube. Plus, we've seen new processors and
PC platforms, and Windows Vista, of course.
The releases
of Nero 8 Ultra Edition and Roxio
Easy Media Creator 10 in late 2007 have
picked up on all these trends, building in
support for importing and editing new
formats, and sharing even more broadly
across discs, portable devices, and
electronically.
But all these
new features results in piling on even more
functionality to already-bursting suites:
Nero 8 now includes some 22 applications,
and EMC 10 has some 12 major applications
plus 18 additional utilities/assistants. As
a result, these new versions have also
focused on refining the user interface,
especially with the new look of Windows
Vista. They provide a main launcher /
control panel to help users choose the task
they want to achieve, and now build in
direct connections to the product websites
for information and updates.
However, all
this functionality also requires additional
Windows tasks and services to run in the
background on your system, adding to the
clutter that can slow down your system and
cause conflicts. These include startup
programs and services to check for updates,
verify you have legal software, continually
scan your system to catalog media files, and
maintain the UPnP network connection for
sharing media files.
For example,
the Nero suite includes NeroCheck, NBKeyScan,
Nero BackItUp Scheduler Nero Scout to track
media files, and InCD for packet writing
access to discs. And Easy Media Creator
includes RoxWatchTray and DMXLauncher for
Cineplayer, plus RoxMediaDB, Roxio Hard
Drive Watcher, Roxio UPnP Renderer, Roxio
UPnP Server, and LiveShareP2P. One example
of this complexity is that RoxWatchTray
caused boot-up to fail on my test system
until it was disabled. As a result, you may
want to use MsConfig to simplify your
startup by disabling components that you
don't need.
Roxio regards
EMC 10 as a substantial upgrade its flagship
suite of digital media applications, with
the focus to "enable consumers to quickly
and easily turn their photos, video and
music into impressive multi-media projects
that can be shared on CD, DVD, the Web, or a
range of mobile devices."
EMC also now
is Certified for Windows Vista, with the new
new Aero user interface, and provides
Gadgets for Windows Vista to capture
internet and PC audio streams.
The roots of
the Easy Media Creator suite are still
visible with Creator Classic for disc
burning, plus the core media editing
applications, Photo Suite,
VideoWave, and MyDVD. EMC is
particularly strong in these core
applications, with clean looks and
functions, good integration and consistency
between applications, and strong help and
on-line information.
But the full
suite does include a lot of stuff -- 12
major applications plus 18 additional
utilities, actually mostly mini-assistants
designed for specific focused tasks. While
you can launch the applications individually
from the Start menu, it's easier to start
with the Roxio Central control panel to
choose the task that you want to perform.
Roxio also has
released three lower-cost products with
subsets of the applications and utilities in
Easy Media Creator 10:
Easy DVD Copy 4 Premier,
MyDVD 10 Premier, and RecordNow
Music Lab 10 / Premier.
See
Roxio Media Products for Discs, DVD, and
Music
See also
Roxio EMC 10 suite features and
visual tour:
Summary: Roxio Easy Media Creator 10
See
earlier article on
Desktop Digital Media Trends 2007 --
with Roxio Easy Media Creator 9
Find
related
Sonic / Roxio articles in the
Manifest Tech Blog
Find
Roxio Easy Media Creator 10 on
Amazon.com
Starting off
in the main Roxio Central panel, the
Welcome screen displays the major categories
of applications in the left Project List
panel, and the right panel also displays
Frequent Tasks.
Easy Media Creator 10
Suite Roxio Central control
panel
The center
Project Window then displays choices and
operations for the currently selected task.
Some tasks like Copy Disc are built in to
Roxio Central, and the bottom Control Panel
displays the currently selected destination
disc or hard drive, information about the
active drive, and the action to be
performed. Otherwise, the control panel will
launch the appropriate application to
perform the selected task.
Or click
Applications to display a screen listing all
the EMC Applications and Utilities, to jump
directly to tools that you are already
familiar with.
Roxio provides
extensive built-in Help for EMC, plus links
to deeper online resources. The center of
the main Roxio Central screen displays a Web
page with updates and information from Roxio.
Then click Resources to display tutorials,
discussion groups, and contact information
for more help. Also visit the Roxio
MyMoments website for examples of how
users can "make the most of their digital
lives," with buying tips, step-by-step
guides, and project examples (www.roxio.com/enu/solutions/mymoments).
Easy Media
Creator centralizes the handling of all
three digital media types (audio, images,
video) into common applications for media
organization and playback plus media import.
You can then edit, enhance, convert, and
share media files using the media-specific
tools.
Use Media
Manager to organize and view media
files, with tools like smart views and
albums. And use Media Import as a
common tool to record and copy images,
audio, video, and DVD titles. EMC also
includes CinePlayer for dedicated DVD
playback, which now supports enhanced audio
formats including Dolby Digital EX 6.1
surround, Pro Logic, and Dolby Headphone.
Media Manager
EMC 10 adds
more support for mobile devices. Media
Manager synchronizes to -- and from --
portable devices. The photo tools correct
common problems from cell phone cameras, and
optimize photos for display on mobile
devices.
The central
audio tool in EMC is Sound Editor, to
record audio, apply effects, enhance, and
convert formats (now with VST plug-ins). But
the suite's real focus is working with music
to create music discs, with Music Disc
Creator to import tracks, clean and edit,
add song information, and then export or
burn music compilations.
The suite also
includes assistants for focused tasks,
including Easy Audio Capture, LP
and Tape Assistant to convert old media,
Audio Tag Editor with automated song
ID lookup, Audio Converter to rename
and transfer based on ID information, and
DVD Music Assistant to create
long-playing music DVDs with menus and track
lists (25 hours on a single-layer disc).
EMC 10
includes an improved AutoMix to
automatically generate playlists of similar
music, the new Batch Audio Converter,
and the new Multi-CD Ripper to copy
CDs in parallel from multiple optical
drives.
Working with
photos in EMC starts with Photo Suite
to repair, enhance, and share digital
photos. Or use Multi Photo Enhance to
edit a group of photos at once (resize,
rotate, adjust, effects, convert).
Again, EMC
includes focused assistants to help share
your photos, including Slideshow
Assistant to create photo slide shows
with audio and transitions (which you also
can send to VideoWave or MyDVD Express for
further enhancements). Use Create Panoramas
to combine multiple overlapping photos,
Photo Email Assistant to email photos or
slideshows, or Photo Projects Assistant to
create personalized calendars and greeting
cards.
For video
editing, the VideoWave timeline now
supports up to 32 overlay, audio and text
effect tracks, and you can now upload
projects directly to YouTube. Or use
CineMagic to automatically generate a
polished movie from video clips and photos.
For more focused tasks, use Video Copy &
Convert to copy entire DVDs, or to
create video compilations to files, disc,
and portable devices.
VideoWave
EMC 10 also
adds SmartSound automatic soundtrack
creation, sized to fit the length of your
production.
For authoring
productions to DVD, EMC includes the full
MyDVD, plus MyDVD Express for
quick burns of movies or slideshows to disc,
with customizable menu styles. Or use
Plug and Burn to capture direct from DV
tape to DVD disc. There's also Label Creator
to make disc labels, inserts, sleeves, and
case covers.
EMC 10 adds
more control over DVD menu styles, menu
navigation capabilities, and Fit-to-Disc
automatic encoding.
For disc
burning and archiving, EMC starts with
Creator Classic for archiving files to
CD and DVD, plus spanning large projects
across multiple discs.
Creator Classic
Then use
Retrieve to browse and extract files
from these archives, especially when split
across multi-disc archives or encrypted. Use
BackOnTrack for scheduled backups of
selected files. There's also a Disc Image
Loader utility to create and load
emulated discs on hard disk.
EMC 10 adds
more backup options, plus burning to single
and dual-layer Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD.
Top
Nero has
reworked the interface for consumer ease of
use, and focused on "extending content
beyond the PC" with "easy-to-use features
for the creation, management, and protection
of multimedia projects" -- To create and
edit, convert and share, rip and burn, and
backup and protect digital media.
The roots of
the Nero suite are in the deep Nero
Burning ROM application for CD and DVD
burning, plus a variety of helpful tools for
drive testing and information. But Nero also
has bulked up its suite of media editing and
disk backup applications. And it has
continued to emphasize media management and
sharing across a home network.
The suite has
core tools for media editing -- Nero
WaveEditor, Nero PhotoSnap,
Nero Vision -- plus separate tools for
related tasks, such as Nero SoundTrax
for audio mixing and Nero Recode for
video conversions. The result is a broad
suite with deep features and options,
particularly for disc burning, but sometimes
confusing inconsistencies in how you deal
with similar operations on different media
types -- viewing, editing, converting, and
sharing.
The suite also
specifically encourages the use of Nero's
flavors of MPEG-4 audio and video, called
Nero Digital (www.nero.com/enu/technologies-nerodigital.html).
These are versions of the MPEG-4 AVC/H.264
video and MPEG-4/AAC audio standards,
branded and licensed to enhance media
compatibility, and scaling from desktops to
set-tops to small portable devices to
high-def.
Nero offers a
15-day trial that you can download and test,
and promises continual free updates until
the next major release.
See also
Nero 8 suite features and visual
tour:
Summary: Nero 8 Ultra Edition
See
earlier article on
Desktop Digital Media Trends 2007 --
with Roxio Easy Media Creator 9
Find
related
Nero articles in the Manifest Tech
Blog
Find
Nero 8 Ultra Edition on Amazon.com
Get started
with the Nero StartSmart application
launcher, featuring a new cleaner interface
to help you get to work on your tasks.
StartSmart lists build-in tasks down the
left side, has tabs for major categories of
talks along the top, and a new bottom strip
with Internet newsfeed updates. Or click on
the bottom left pop-up menu to go directly
to the main applications and tools, and to
read the application manuals.
Nero StartSmart launcher - Main
screen
The new
built-in tasks on the left that run directly
from StartSmart are Data Burning to disc,
Audio Burning (audio CD, MP3 Jukebox Disc),
Audio Ripping (Wave, MP3, Nero Digital
Audio/mp4), and Copy Disc.
The category
tabs along the top then drill down to the
task you want to perform: Rip and Burn,
Create and Edit, Home Entertainment, and
Back Up. Each then lists different actions
for different types of media (photo, music,
video).
The suite also
uses the common Nero ControlCenter
application to check for updates and
configure the suite.
The Nero suite
has two main applications for viewing and
sharing media clips: the Nero Showtime
player to view photos, audio, video, and
DVDs, and the Nero Home full-screen
interface for accessing your media -- and
Internet radio and TV. The Nero 8 suite adds
TV viewing and recording though an adapter
card. There's also the separate Nero
PhotoSnap Viewer for reviewing photos.
Nero 8 adds
integration with Windows Vista,
including live icons to preview files
without opening them, and the Rich Preview
pane within Windows Explorer.
You also can
use the Nero MediaHome application to
share your media content with devices on
your home network using UPnP technology, now
including using the Xbox 360 or PlayStation
3 to stream HD video with surround audio.
The Nero suite also installs the Nero Scout
tool that runs in the background to index
media files and Internet sources to be
shared.
Nero Home interface
Nero 8 also
has a strong focus on mobile and Internet
video. You can convert content to play on
mobile devices, including the Apple iPod and
Sony PSP. And you can both share to and
import from Web sites including YouTube and
MySpace. Nero is also promoting sharing and
viewing from
MyNero.com.
While you can
rip and convert CDs with Nero Burning ROM,
and create audio and jukebox discs, the Nero
suite has two audio-specific tools --
Nero WaveEditor for audio recording and
editing, and Nero SoundTrax for music
composing and mixing. The suite is
particularly focused on converting audio to
MP3 and Nero Digital Audio (mp4/AAC)
formats, and creating music mixes and
jukebox discs on CD and DVD.
There's also
Nero PhotoSnap for editing and
enhancing photos, or use Nero Vision to
create photo slide shows.
Then for video
and DVD, use Nero Vision to capture,
edit, and author both video and DVDs. Or use
Nero Recode to convert and recompress
DVDs to various (but not all) formats,
including Nero Digital (MPEG-4).
Nero 8
supports HD video formats including AVCHD,
and you can burn HD video in Blu-ray BD-AV
and HD DVD (with plug-in) formats, including
capturing video directly from a camcorder to
Blu-ray discs.
The new
release improves converting for mobile
devices, Web import and sharing, and DVD
menu authoring and templates.
The Nero suite
features the deep Nero Burning ROM
tool to rip, burn, and copy discs of audio,
video, and data. You can also use Nero
Express for quick and easy tasks,
including burning jukebox audio discs (to
play on a PC, with MP3, WMA, or AAC files).
Nero Burning ROM
There's also
an impressive collection of disc tools --
InCD for packet writing (burn by drag
and drop from Windows Explorer), Nero
InfoTool to analyze hard drives and
optical discs, DiscSpeed and
DriveSpeed to improve performance,
ImageDrive for virtual drives, plus
Nero CoverDesigner to design labels.
Nero 8 now
supports burning to Blu-ray and HD DVD
discs, and adds a Nero DiscCopy
gadget for Windows Vista to copy discs with
one click. It also supports the SecurDisc
data protection technology for protecting
files on burned discs (www.securdisc.net).
Beyond
archiving files to disc, the Nero suite
includes Nero BackItUp to create
scheduled backups and disaster recovery
discs, and restore files from backups.
Nero 8 also
adds Nero RescueAgent to recover data
and restore deleted files from CDs and DVDs
damaged due to problems such as scratched
discs, interrupted recording, or poor
recording quality.
Manifest
Technology®
Copyright 1999-2008,
Douglas Dixon, All Rights Reserved
