Buying old Nero Software -- Good Idea?

RGW · Oct 23, 2007

After trying for weeks, I haven't been able to burn a VCD or SVCD with any freeware programs. I tried the free demo of Nero and liked it a lot, but $100 is steep. I don't have a DVD burner, thus I have no need of most of the new features. I'm thinking about buying some older models of Nero through Amazon or eBay...is this a good idea? Does anyone see any potential problems with this? I can get the programs I need at a more reasonable price, but I'm afraid that I might be in trouble if something doesn't work.

plodr · Oct 23, 2007

Before you buy something older, make sure your burner is supported.
My favorite burning program (because for me it just always works), is Adaptec v4. (This is before Roxio bought out Adaptec. I wanted to put it on another computer but the burner wasn't supported. I bought Roxio v6 and I'm very unhappy with it. I burn data CDs then discover that even if I close the session and let the CD open, I can't add files to it. I finally just removed it. I must be too stupid to figure out how it works. I don't burn any data CDs on that computer.

dlb · Oct 24, 2007

Before you lay down some dough, lets find out what format the files are in that you're trying to burn. I like Nero alot and use it all the time, but there are free programs that can pretty much substitute for anything Nero does. Some good ones are CD Burner XP Pro; the name is a bit misleading, you don't have to be running Windows XP to use it (at least with version 3). Another good free burner is Final Burner. For images, try ImgBurn (ISO images, BIN images, etc). Burn At Once is another. All are free and available here at MajorGeeks. There's lots more too. Look here: http://www.majorgeeks.com/downloads3.html and look here: http://www.majorgeeks.com/downloads32.html If you decide to buy Nero, try to get version 6 (actually 6.6.0.19b is my favorite after trying several releases of versions 7 and 8); the newer ones seem a bit bloated, and I've heard version 8 is buggy, though I didn't have trouble with it for the 4 days that I had it....

RGW · Oct 24, 2007

Okay, I've tried Finalburner, Bwgburn, Burnatonce, DP Cd DVD Burner, VCDEasy, CD Burner Xp 3, and a few others. Also tried TMPGEnc for coding and it wouldn't work. What I'd like to do is burn a VCD or SVCD to play in a DVD player.
One of the reasons why I couldn't get some of these to work is because I couldn't get the Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0 to install. It would download but I only get server errors when it tries to install. To say that I'm frustrated would be an understatement.
I'll try some of the ones you mentioned. Does anyone have any thoughts on what I might be doing wrong?

plodr · Oct 25, 2007

I don't think NET is needed. I don't have .NET 3 installed on any computer and I can burn things that will play in DVD players. (of course, I'm not burning them as VCDs). You need .NET2 installed to be able to install .NET3
I also saw this

some DVD players will not play VCDs.
Click to expand...

So maybe you aren't doing anything wrong. You might just have a DVD player that won't play VCDs.

IMHO, you might do better spending your $$$ for a DVD burner rather than for an old version of Nero.
Then try the free software for burning DVDs and you might succeed.

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Buying old Nero Software -- Good Idea?

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plodr MajorGeek Super Extraordinaire Moderator Staff Member

dlb MajorGeek

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plodr MajorGeek Super Extraordinaire Moderator Staff Member