Product Description

Nero 8 Ultra Edition gives you a suite of easy-to-use tools to meet your digital lifestyle needs. You can record live TV, convert non-copy-protected DVD files to play on your iPod, capture high definition video, share your photos and videos online, mix your music, edit your videos and photos, backup your files or system, burn any media and playback all popular formats from the Nero StartSmart interface which provides One-Click functions, efficiency and speed for completing your tasks. Have fun creating and editing music in popular formats, mix songs, and add professional sound effects and transitions Burn your content into AVCHD format and experience High Definition on your PC with Nero ShowTime 3, in Blu-ray Disc players and on the PlayStation 3 Edit and enhance your photos (redeye correction, crop, rotate, adjust, enhance) Create, Share and Burn entertaining slideshows with special effects, templates, transitions and music Import and share your digital content from YouTube, My Nero and My Space Convert your audio and video to MPEG-4 (Nero Digital) by compressing and converting your media files to your preferred formats Stream content to your Xbox 360 and stream Internet TV and radio Integrated TV, DVD, music and video streaming, recording and playback Turn your PC into a PVR with integrated time shifting, TV recording, picture in picture display and watch one channel while recording another Support for DVD-R Dual Layer format and DVD+R Double Layer Restore files after a system crash the way it was in the event of a complete system failure Backup options to disc, hard disk, image recorder, LAN or FTP Recover your data from damaged discs with integrated SecurDisc technology

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #35 in Software
• Brand: Nero Inc.
• Model: 800087
• Released on: 2007-09-01
• Platforms: Windows Vista, Windows 2000, Windows XP
• Format: CD-ROM
• Dimensions: .94 pounds

Features

• Organize and manage all your multimedia files and create/edit new digital content with ease
• User-friendly and intuitive StartSmart interface; One-click Rip, Burn and Copy functions
• Easy export and share to YouTube, MySpace and My Nero; Stream to Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3
• High Definition format support
• Backup files to CDs, DVDs, HD DVDs, and Blu-ray Discs

Amazon.com
Welcome to your digital life. Nero 8 Ultra Edition, the newest version of the world's best-selling multimedia suite, brings the digital world to your PC. Now it's easy to organize and manage all your multimedia files, as well as create and edit new digital content. Nero's sleek design and user-friendly tools make completing projects fun and enjoyable.

View the Nero 8 Ultra Edition Video Tour.

StartSmart lets you directly access features and perform one-click functions.

Give your pictures a touch-up with tools that let you make improvements, add visual effects, and much more.

The Ultimate Solution for your Digital Life

Nero StartSmart makes creating projects fun and simple
Nero StartSmart, the project launcher for Nero 8 Ultra Edition, lets you directly access features and perform one-click functions. The intuitive interface makes creating and managing digital projects easy and enjoyable. Optimized for use with Windows Vista, Nero StartSmart even has an integrated newsfeed system.

Nero 8 Ultra Edition is the solution for your multimedia projects
Nero 8 Ultra Edition has the tools to help you handle all your multimedia projects. Whether you plan to create a music mix with MP3 files, edit vacation videos, touch up digital photos, make a slide show, or convert content to play on a mobile device, your results will be professional and dynamic.

Nero 8 Ultra Edition takes home entertainment around the house
Organize and manage all your multimedia files with Nero's home media center. Nero 8 Ultra Edition lets you use your Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 to stream High Definition video content and surround sound audio files to enjoy in the comfort of any room in your house.

Nero 8 Ultra Edition offers increased data security
No more worries over losing data! Nero 8 Ultra Edition has back up features that let you rest easy knowing your data is safe in case of a complete system crash or a damaged disc. Recover your data quickly and easily and create discs that are password protected. SecurDisc technology gives you peace of mind.

Create and Edit

Video
Your last vacation, your brother's wedding, your daughter's graduation--do you record every memorable moment on video? Now get more from your camcorder recordings. With Nero 8 Ultra Edition you can easily edit High Definition content in AVCHD format with professional results. Insert chapters and menus, and even enhance videos and slide shows with background music. Enjoy your favorite TV shows without interruption simply by editing out the commercial breaks.

Audio
Are you a music lover and want to keep your favorite songs close at hand? Convert your music collection to MP3 format and experience listening pleasure at home and on the go. Impress your friends at your next party by mixing and editing your favorite songs with professional effects and tools. With Nero 8 Ultra Edition, you get crystal-clear audio for your video files and up to 7.1 surround sound.

Photo
Do you have hundreds or even thousands of digital photos saved on your hard drive? Give your pictures a touch-up with tools that let you make improvements, add visual effects, and much more. Surprise your kids by presenting a family slide show on your television set! No more searching through tons of files for the images you want. With Nero 8 Ultra Edition, it's easy to organize your photos!

Convert and Share

High Definition
Do you have High Definition video content but no blue laser burner? Convert HD content easily into AVCHD format, and compress content without losing quality. Your HD content can then be burned to a normal DVD and played on a Blu-ray Disc player or PlayStation 3 for the ultimate blue laser experience.

Video Conversion
Want to bring your video content along with you? With Nero 8 Ultra Edition, you can simply convert DVD content to play back on an iPod or PSP. Use the world's fastest MPEG-4 encoder to compress DVD content while maintaining optimal quality, then burn to a CD or save to a USB stick, Flash memory, or an SD card.

Music
Nero 8 Ultra Edition offers unlimited MP3 support. Convert your audio files to MP3, the world's most popular audio format, and enjoy your favorite songs at home or on the go.

Internet
Share the latest news of your life with friends right over the Internet! Post your best videos and photos with easy upload to online communities like My Nero, YouTube and MySpace

With Nero 8 Ultra Edition you can easily edit High Definition content in AVCHD format with professional results.

Plan automatic backups to regularly secure your data and receive e-mails confirming your backup.

Home Entertainment

Media Center
Turn your living room into a real media center and experience home entertainment like never before! Stream live TV to an Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3. Connect your game consoles to a TV and enjoy your favorite shows in any room in the house!

Television
Don't miss another episode of your favorite series! Use your PC to record all your favorite shows. The EPG support in Nero 8 Ultra Edition makes selecting and recording broadcasts easy! Even if the phone rings while you're watching TV, with the Time Shift feature you can take your phone call, and then resume watching your show exactly where you left off!

Music Streaming
No more wasted time changing CDs at your next party. With Nero 8 Ultra Edition, you can create playlists and stream music from your PC to your stereo for uninterrupted tunes all night long!

Rip and Burn

Rip and Burn
Born2Burn? Rip audio CDs and non-copy-protected DVDs quickly and easily with the world's leading burning engine. Burn audio files or data to CD, DVD, Blu-ray Disc, or HD DVD. Want to burn movies to DVD? With DVD-R Dual Layer and DVD+R Double Layer support, you'll get more data on a disc than ever before!

Nero DiscCopy Gadget
The Nero DiscCopy Gadget is optimized for use with Windows Vista and lets you copy a disc with just one click from the Vista Sidebar!

SecurDisc Technology
With Nero 8 Ultra Edition and a SecurDisc-compatible drive, you can burn CDs and DVDs with password protection against unauthorized access, or add a digital signature to ensure that your sensitive data remains unchanged. SecurDisc increases the readability of data even on damaged discs, and also lets you know when a disc is nearing decay, so you have time to save the data to another disc. The SecurDisc Copy Protection feature prevents unauthorized duplication of confidential PDF documents.

Back Up

Data Protection
No more worries over lost data! With SecurDisc technology, you can back up files, drives, and entire systems to internal or external hard drives. For maximum protection, create a bootable CD to recover an entire system after a crash. Need to access your data even when you're on a business trip? Create backups over the Internet to an FTP server and access important data from anywhere you go! Plan automatic backups to regularly secure your data and receive e-mails confirming your backup.

SecurDisc
With the SecurDisc technology within Nero 8 Ultra Edition, you can ensure increased readability of your data even on a damaged disc. In addition, the early warning system in SecurDisc examines CDs and DVDs to determine if an aging disc is in danger of decay, so you have time to back up the data on another disc.

Customer Reviews

high quality photos cannot be rendered in slideshow
If you shoot stills with a quality high resolution camera, Nero8 cannot do anything with them but a big blurr! Do I want to resize all my photos? forget it. I just wasted my money. Joyce

A Good Product, but hardly worth the upgrade price
Nero 8 Ultra Edition is the next submission in a long line of upgrades to the venerable line of cd/dvd editing/authoring software. If you have a high def. video camcorder or other more recent hardware, the upgrade price may be worth your while to upgrade--for me I have found it not worth it. Perhaps it is worth it for more Vista compatibility though, even though I don't use the special Vista features.

Pros: You can do a little of just about any type of DVD/CD/VIDEO editing with this software--but don't expect Pinnacle Studio or Sony Vegas Studio features. Greater Vista compatibility with some Vista features. There is a slight improvement to the user interface. Directly upload to YouTube and other video sharing websites.

Cons: Requires you to buy more licenses for more than one PC even if not used concurrently. Jack of all trades, but master of none--lacks the high end features in most cases that advanced users crave. Downloading updates for the boxed version essentially turns it into the download version of Nero 8. The main drawback to this is that your documentation (which is poorly done at best) is whiped out rendering you help button and drop down useless. If you want to consult a manual you have to download each one and open them separately. There is no printed manual to speak of included in the boxed version, and for a $100 peice of software I find that unacceptable. I also was inelligible for upgrade prices because I'd previously purchased the download version.

Conclusion: I find the fact that updates whipe out my help menu totally unaccepatable. I doubt I will upgrade to the next version. If you're running XP and have version 7 the price for an upgrade may not be worth the price of admission.

Nero 8 Ultra good features but very slow to load
I have been a staunch Nero user since v5.5. Most recently I had Nero 7 Ultra installed on my Core-2 Duo, XP Pro system with a SONY DVD Writer. Being very pleased with Nero 7, I upgraded to Nero 8 Ultra. Big Mistake!
I recommend that if you are on Nero 7, don't upgrade unless you absolutely have to.

Nero 8 Ultra's GUI doesn't resize correctly when used with a high resolution monitor mode (I use 1600 x 1200) and leaves out some areas in the GUI. If they have the buttons in that area, then you're toast.

Any of the Nero applications take an inordinately long time to load. Having loaded, some take some more time before they can start working. [this on a fast system with terrabytes of SATA-II drive space and 4 GB fast DDR2 RAM and a Core-2 Duo 2GHz processor]

I am particularly annoyed with Showtime that takes a half minute to load and another half minute before it will play any media file. All the time performing a rather cheesy and irritating count-up several times in the video window regardless of whether you are playing audio or video media.

I won't even go into the other issues I had as they seem to be covered by other reviewers here.

On the flip side, there are a great many fundamental improvements that get lost under th really bad user interface. The burning ROM and express perform very well and are fast and I have had a 100% success in burning all my CD's and DVD's so far.

Even Showtime, when it does play does an excellent job at playing back video. There is a noticeably cleaner video and HD video playback is supported as well. You can also watch MP-4 and FLV from You Tube, etc. If you have any clips left over from before they started blocking downloads.

The Recode function also does very well. I used some old You Tube music video FLV files lying around my drive to create a DVD and I was amazed by the quality of the video. My Camcorder video also turns out very well.

There is a pretty good editor for both Audio and Video provided [I have AvidFreeDV and Pinnacle for video and SONY sound forge and acid for audio as well so I don't use those parts much]

Both the editing features still have some way to go before they are comparable to other commercial or even open source pure editing softwares. I must say that you do get a whole bunch of powerful features, although the user interface and flexibility of those features leave much to be desired.

InCD works and could read my old CD/RW and DVD/RW from the previous version.

Couldn't use the Home entertainment section as my capture cards or TV tuners are not compatible. I don't really care about that part anyway.

In short, Nero 8 Ultra adds some great features. However, those features come at a steep price. Slow to load applications, slow loading of media files and not very flexible user interface.

I tried to keep this review as balanced as possible even though I am furious with Ahead for letting us long time Nero users down. Hope this review helps you make your decision.