Nero 9 Reloaded

The installation in the Reloaded version is much quicker than that of its predecessor, taking closer to 20 minutes than the hour required by the non-Reloaded version. Also note that you can download a free 15-day trial version.

This starting interface of the suite is less intelligent than that of the Roxio suite, which populates the home page with your most-frequently used apps and is less cluttered, but I like how this one disappears and returns when you open and close sub-apps. And all the actions listed on the left can be done inside this start app.

Most of these choices simple bring up Nero Express, the lightweight burning app.

Nero's easy disc-burning app handles just about every kind of burning project in an easy-to-use interface.

Here's where you access video and audio editing.

Gone is the Nero Live app for live TV watching on your PC (presuming you have a TV tuner attached to your PC.)

This is the player for video and audio. Note you can also subscribe and listen to podcasts in it. The controls are not as slick as more modern ones like CyberLink's.

Instead of launching Nero's ShowTime, you can play a file right from the StartSmart launcher, and even full screen it. The full screen controls are actually slicker than ShowTime's, but you can't hide them.

I'm not even sure why Nero kept this tab, since the Autobackup choice on the lower left is real backup, while this is really just disc burning and file recovery.

The suite now includes the backup from Nero's BackItUp & Burn. This offers online data protection, though you just get 1GB for three months free: after that, you have to pay $25 a year for 5GB or $55 a year for 25GB.

The pun lives on in this full-featured disc burning software. Most tasks can be handled using the friendlier Nero Express, but if you need to change the file system or change the write method from track-at-once to, say, Disc-at-once/96, this app lets you.

The suite lets you create covers for CD cases, as well as buring labels on to LIghtScribe discs.

This is the suite's photo editor, which has fallen far behind even free options like Picasa or Windows Live Photo Gallery.

This app creates DJ mixes with up to 7.1 surround sound. Note the virtual phonograph for mixing and tempo changing. There are also LP-to-CD and Tape-to-CD wizards.

Nero 9 lets you be a virtual DJ, where you can scratch to your heart's content!

Here's where you can actually edit a wave sound file, doing things like cleaning noise and adding effects like Chorus.