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Possible alternate to Nero – Quick Look at Ashampoo Burning Studio 7

As the CD Writer came to the market, apart from Windows, there is another software which became a must install software for any PC.

The Ahead Nero.

Nero 5 was the version which had made the way for its successors. Nero 5.5 or rather the 1st Nero Express version was one of the favorite burner by most of the Windows users.

Ahead as a company, almost took a monopoly over burning software segment by bundling Nero with any burner sold.

What is the problem with Nero ??

Undoubtedly, Nero express 5.5 was the most preferred and liked software from Nero family, however as the company released updates and made new versions the popularity started coming down.

Though as said before, although, Nero almost had a monopoly over burning market, as strong as, most people didn’t even knew about Windows own burning utility, but still the newer versions started making people thing for alternative.

One of the primary reason is the resource hungriness of the newer versions. Nero 7 and now the latest version 8 is quite heavy of system memory.

Alternate ?

Today I would be having a quick look at one of the possible alternate to Nero. I am using word possible because, though, nero is resource hungry but still its one of the versatile burning software supporting almost all type of recording formats, media and burners.

One software which can replace the Nero for you would be Ashampoo Burning Studio. The software is priced at USD 40 compare to Nero 8 which is USD 80.

Let us take a quick look at Ashampoo Burning Studio, from a point a view of a Nero user, as how is this software performing for most of our day to day burning needs.

Test Setups

My test setup includes

• Popular available external DVD burners, like, SAMSUNG / SONY / ASUS / LG
• Integrated ones of different notebook vendors like, Lenovo / HP-Compaq / Acer.
• Sony / Moserbare / Clarion / Lasertras Media.

The Installation

Straight forward, wizard is simple enough to guide you with the installation and activation process.

Application startup window

Very Nero like appearance, which is good for those who would be or want to shift from NERO. Basic actions are listed on the main screen, mouse hover would offer action options.

DATA DVD Burning

The process of burning is really made easy with Wizard based interface which is very nero like, so those who would be shifting from NERO express or have used nero express would be very comfortable with Ashampoo interface also.

Start up the Application from Start menu, in the main screen the top most option is given for DATA burning, hovering the mouse upon which gives the option for either to start burning a media (DVD CD Bluray).

You get the option to add content by browsing your hard-drives, notice few change from NERO, the application do not ask you to mention which media you wish to burn, rather as you keep adding data it calculates the size and checks off the inappropriate options.

As you proceed further in burning TAB by clicking next, if you have no disk in the DVD/CD burner or have a CD and writable data is more than the size of a CD, it would ask you to insert an appropriate disk.

As you enter an appropriate media, the wizard would check and would offer next set of configurable options (note, the Change Options button is now active).

Options are too not so complicated, basic functions are given to control the burn speed, burning method, and an important feature “Copy data to HDD“. For example when you add any content from Network or any USB device, some time chances are there to face a disconnection issue with those external storage. In this case when you turn on the option, it would copy all data to a temporary folder 1st in your physical HDD before starting the burn process.

That’s it, as you start the burn, an graphical window would show you the process, once again you may find it very similar to nero express.

It requires really low amount of RAM compare to Nero 8.

Burning time is same with all burning application as it depends more on hardware than application it self.

Image burning

We download many application or software which comes as an ISO image file, like Linux distro, Windows OS, or any software purchased via “Internet download”. To use them one needs to burn the ISO as image burning to view and use the extracted form of the ISO file.

Ashampoo supports ISO burning with simple wizard, just as described in previous occasion.

After you select, image burning option, all you need to do is point ashampoo towards the image location present on your HDD, and click burn !!

Video DVD / CD (VCD) Burning

There is some thing which needs to be lighten up before I explain this process.

What exactly is Video DVD burning ?

Suppose you have downloaded an office or school training video, which your trainer have provided you via internet which is in codec XVID / DIVX (AVI) or may be in MP4 or may be you have purchased some music video or movie via online which is in AVI format with codec XVID or DIVX or may be MP4 / WMV.

Now you wish to burn them so that you can enjoy them on your normal DVD player which may not have support for XVID / DIVX. Please note, this process is no longer just burning a Video CD (VCD) or DVD. Before burning the data needs to be converted to burning compatible DVD or VCD video format.

With nero, when you try to do it, you may see the application which is used to archive this goal is not Nero burning rom or nero express, it is Nero vision express.

What nero burning rom / express can do is burn a compatible DVD (.vob) or VCD (.DAT or MPEG-2 files) file as video DVD or VCD. Same can be said with Ashampoo also.

Where as if you need to convert an AVI (XVID / DIVX) file and burn it as DVD / VCD video, then you may need another software from the company which is Ashampoo Movie Shrink & Burn 3.

Other Basic Functions.

It wont let you miss your NERO, interface and options are pretty much similar to it. erasing re-writable media, CD to CD / DVD to DVD / Media to ISO image all options which we use in our day to day burning process is present and works just fine

Few Negatives

• No bundle options available with DVD drives or Branded Desktop / Notebook PCs
• Price is bit high as it would be best if they can include basic converting feature for videos to burn them as video DVD /CD would be really nice.
• average User Interface, no fancy graphics.

Positives

• Wont let you miss the NERO anymore.
• Less resource hungry.
• Just 25 MB download compare to 10 times larger Nero 8.
• Archives all day to day burning needs with ease.
• Nero like Wizard based interface makes is easy to migrate

Verdict

Over all this is a good software and quite capable enough to replace Nero as burner. If you are having problem with NERO, this is a perfect application for you to make the switch.