Up until the release of Nero 9 there was little difference between Nero and Roxio's comaprable product, Creator 2009. In fact Creator 2009 is a very good DVD program.
Best DVD Software
So, if you are looking for the best DVD software you would be looking for a product that covers all of those functions. In fact there is only one product currently on the market that does cover these features.
The Best DVD Software
This is a list (probably not complete!) of the features that should be present in good general purpose DVD Software:
#1. Nero 9
We now have only a handful of major DVD software players in the market and even less that specialize in specific DVD actions.
First there was an era of explosive growth and development followed by a period of consolidation of both the types and functions of the software and the companies producing them.
DVD software has been around for quite a while now and has changed a lot from where it all began.
First there were many DVD software programs, each catering to a specific function such as DVD burning, DVD ripping, DVD copying etc, etc.
As the development of these products continued, DVD software and DVD software developers followed the same pattern of most industry models.
This is the ideal situation for you, the consumer, because you have two major players fighting it out for domination, a handful of specialists players snapping at their heels and a market big enough to keep everyone interested in playing the game!
Navigation Menu
Click here to take a look at Nero 9 (opens in a new window) at the Nero website.
| · | DVD Burning. The ability to burn both data and video DVDs including the creation of the correct file structures and menus. |
| · | DVD Copying (Ripping). The ability to copy any DVD (taking into consideration the legal points) for the purpose of back up and archiving or further manipulation. |
| · | DVD Conversion. The ability to take the extracted DVD files and change them into different formats for use on computers, handheld devices or uploading on to the internet. |
| · | DVD Authoring. The ability to take video files and projects and correctly prepare them for burning on to a DVD. Also to create simple or complex DVD menus for those video projects. |
| · | DVD Editing. Although a slight misnomer this would be the ability to take the existing video files from a DVD and re-edit those files prior to burning back to another DVD. |
| · | DVD Data Recovery and DVD Repair. The ability to correct or recover from a range of errors generally encountered with DVDs such as unfinalized DVDs, DVDs with data corruption or damaged DVDs. Actions described on this page DVD Disc Repair. |
| · | Merging or Combining DVDs.*(See special note below.) The ability to take the contents of two or more DVDs and combine them on to a final DVD excluding those features or contents that you do not want. An example of this would be recording your favorite TV show and later cutting out all the unwanted bits to create a DVD. |
| · | DVD Playback. I don't think I have to explain this one. |
However with the release of Nero 9 that all changed. Nero 8 previously held a very slight advantage to Roxio Creator 2009 because of some little known data recovery features hidden deep within Nero. You can see some of those on the DVD Disc Repair pages of this site.
With the release of Nero 9 all that changed. They have introduced a separate and very powerful data recovery module called RescueAgent that can not only recover data from "lost" DVDs but also CDs, hard drives and solid state media.
You can take a look at my full rundown of the features of Nero 9 on this page:
Nero 9 Full Review
Nero 9 Full Review
* Merging or combining DVDs can fall under two categories. First, it can as described above, simply taking bits and pieces of two or more DVDs and combining them into one. The second scenario is specific to merging or combining two, three or more DVDs into one full DVD but at the same time retaining the original menus and quality. You can read about specialist software for that here: Merge DVDs.
To give you an indication of just how much more effective Nero 9 has become, last year I had 7 separate types of DVD software on my computer for various purposes. Now I have Nero 9 and two others...that's it.