Monday, November 12, 2007
Nero 8: A Buggy Mess Best Avoided For Now
Posted by Jason Dunn in "SOFTWARE" @ 08:00 AM
On Friday I downloaded a copy of Nero 8 Ultra Edition, figuring I'd take it for a quick spin and write about the experience. I got a lot more (and less) than I bargained for.
Installation of the 538 MB installer was about what you'd expect: a lot of disk churning, a Vista security prompt, and then it was underway. They pimp the ASK.com toolbar, which is insulting to a paying customer - I strongly dislike this new trend where commercial software vendors are promoting third-party toolbars. I can understand why companies distributing freeware would need to underwrite their costs, but companies selling commercial software should be above that sort of thing. Thankfully, selecting NO bypasses the install of the toolbar. I did a custom install and selected the programs I wanted to install: Nero StartSmart, Nero Burning ROM, Nero Vision, Nero CoverDesigner, Nero WaveEditor, Nero SoundTrax, Nero ShowTime, Nero Recode, and the assorted tools. I declined installing Nero Home, Nero BackItUp, Nero MediaHome, Nero PhotoSnap, and InCD. This is definitely a full-featured package with an amazing number of programs - but not every program included is the best-of-breed when compared to other programs on the market, and I don’t needlessly install programs onto my system.
Nero's media player can open a dizzying array of file formats, including 3GPP (.3gpp), AVC Blu-ray Disc Video Format (.bsf), Flash Video (.flv), MPEG4 (.mp4), DVD VOB files (.vob), DVR-MS (.dvr-ms), Quicktime (.mov), and many others. I was hoping not to have it require a reboot after the install (reboots are so 2000), but no such luck.
After the reboot I started up Nero StartSmart to take a look, and was given a "Language File Missing" error. It told me that the language file I wanted to use is not installed on the computer, and that it was probably deleted. This was confusing because during the install the only language selected was English, and it was greyed out so I couldn't de-select it even if I wanted to. Clicking "Use English" got me past the error and into the software. The new StartSmart setup is radically different than before, and it's a big improvement: on the left side you're given options that are easy to understand: Data Burning, Audio Burning, Audio Ripping, and Copy Disc. Up top there are tabs: Start Page, Rip and Burn, Create and Edit, Home Entertainment, and Back Up. Everything is easy to find, and more task-based than program-based. This is a good approach for Nero to take, because their software suite has so many applications it can become confusing trying to remember which applications do what. I fired up Nero Recode, and was given another language error - this was getting tiresome, and it happened again after I selected English then re-started Recode. This time I tried clicking on "Install Language" thinking maybe I needed to toggle it as the default - no such luck. English was the only language installed, and the only language selected. I sighed and hoped this language glitch was fixed in an update.
There's a menu item for checking for updates, and clicking that triggers a Vista UAC security prompt, then a Nero ControlCenter prompt asking me if I want to apply changes. What changes? Clicking Yes brought me to the update checker, where it doesn't automatically check for updates until I click Check For Updates. Baffling! After clicking Check for Updates, there's a prompt that appears stating "Nero Control Center is checking for Nero products update" - but nothing happens until you click OK (making the prompt misleading). Clicking OK kicks off the update routine (which triggered a Windows Vista firewall prompt), which found updates to several programs. After clicking OK again, and authorizing the Firewall to let the program through again, it finally started to install the updates. A few windows closed and opened, then after a few minutes of downloading I was informed that in order to install the latest updates it was necessary to uninstall the old version, which might require a restart of the system.
Did I mention I downloaded this software directly from Nero the day before I'm writing this? My system rebooted, and after logging in I waited for Nero to resume the update. Nothing happened. I noticed a security icon in the system tray, and sure enough, Nero's update installer was blocked by Vista's start-up security. After authorizing it, I waited for the 188 MB (!!) download to complete - which took quite a while. Nero's update server was only giving me about 200 KB/s download speed, which isn't much considering I can pull down 1500 KB/s from a faster server.
After the update completed, Windows Defender alerted me to a change - I checked, and Nero BackItUp was trying to add itself into the start-up routine. I didn't even install Nero BackItUp! I glanced at my desktop, and sure enough, there was a shortcut to Nero Home, another program I never installed initially. What had happened? The update process installed the entire software suite rather than just installing the updates for the software that I actually had installed. I was livid - I purposefully didn't want many of those programs installed on my video editing machine. I looked for some sort of uninstaller from within Nero for removing certain components, but I couldn’t find one. I then went into the control panel and initiated an uninstall of Nero 8, hoping it would give me a modify install so I could remove the programs I didn't want installed. No such luck - clicking uninstall actually uninstalled the whole damn suite and prompted me for a reboot. After the reboot Nero 8 was gone off my system – and so was Nero 7, so I was worse off than before.
I took two hours out of a Saturday afternoon to review Nero 8 (and away from my Zune review), and Nero gave me back a horrible user experience. I've been a long-time Nero user, and generally prefer it to Roxio's product, so I was pre-disposed to like Nero 8. You’ll notice this “review” of Nero 8 doesn’t talk about the features and functions of the various programs – I wouldn’t know how they work because my two hours of testing the program were spent fighting with it instead. The whole Nero update process is clunky, unfriendly, and simply ridiculous.
Nero needs to go back to the drawing board again - the scary thing is that they just did that with version 7.0, because the old version was even worse. So while the new update process is better than the old version, it's still nowhere near good enough - Nero needs to look at how an application like Picasa updates itself to see how a simple, user-friendly update works. There's simply no excuse for software this dysfunctional. I’d suggest giving it a wide berth for a few more months and hopefully someday soon they’ll fix their buggy updater and I can actually use their software.
UPDATE: I managed to fix all of the problems I was having after a short conversation with staff at Nero and some experimentation on my own. Read about it here.
Jason Dunn owns and operates Thoughts Media Inc., a company dedicated to creating the best in online communities. He enjoys mobile devices, digital media content creation/editing, and pretty much all technology. He lives in Calgary, Alberta, Canada with his lovely wife, and his sometimes obedient dog. He wonders how companies can screw things up so badly sometimes.
Installation of the 538 MB installer was about what you'd expect: a lot of disk churning, a Vista security prompt, and then it was underway. They pimp the ASK.com toolbar, which is insulting to a paying customer - I strongly dislike this new trend where commercial software vendors are promoting third-party toolbars. I can understand why companies distributing freeware would need to underwrite their costs, but companies selling commercial software should be above that sort of thing. Thankfully, selecting NO bypasses the install of the toolbar. I did a custom install and selected the programs I wanted to install: Nero StartSmart, Nero Burning ROM, Nero Vision, Nero CoverDesigner, Nero WaveEditor, Nero SoundTrax, Nero ShowTime, Nero Recode, and the assorted tools. I declined installing Nero Home, Nero BackItUp, Nero MediaHome, Nero PhotoSnap, and InCD. This is definitely a full-featured package with an amazing number of programs - but not every program included is the best-of-breed when compared to other programs on the market, and I don’t needlessly install programs onto my system.
Nero's media player can open a dizzying array of file formats, including 3GPP (.3gpp), AVC Blu-ray Disc Video Format (.bsf), Flash Video (.flv), MPEG4 (.mp4), DVD VOB files (.vob), DVR-MS (.dvr-ms), Quicktime (.mov), and many others. I was hoping not to have it require a reboot after the install (reboots are so 2000), but no such luck.
After the reboot I started up Nero StartSmart to take a look, and was given a "Language File Missing" error. It told me that the language file I wanted to use is not installed on the computer, and that it was probably deleted. This was confusing because during the install the only language selected was English, and it was greyed out so I couldn't de-select it even if I wanted to. Clicking "Use English" got me past the error and into the software. The new StartSmart setup is radically different than before, and it's a big improvement: on the left side you're given options that are easy to understand: Data Burning, Audio Burning, Audio Ripping, and Copy Disc. Up top there are tabs: Start Page, Rip and Burn, Create and Edit, Home Entertainment, and Back Up. Everything is easy to find, and more task-based than program-based. This is a good approach for Nero to take, because their software suite has so many applications it can become confusing trying to remember which applications do what. I fired up Nero Recode, and was given another language error - this was getting tiresome, and it happened again after I selected English then re-started Recode. This time I tried clicking on "Install Language" thinking maybe I needed to toggle it as the default - no such luck. English was the only language installed, and the only language selected. I sighed and hoped this language glitch was fixed in an update.
There's a menu item for checking for updates, and clicking that triggers a Vista UAC security prompt, then a Nero ControlCenter prompt asking me if I want to apply changes. What changes? Clicking Yes brought me to the update checker, where it doesn't automatically check for updates until I click Check For Updates. Baffling! After clicking Check for Updates, there's a prompt that appears stating "Nero Control Center is checking for Nero products update" - but nothing happens until you click OK (making the prompt misleading). Clicking OK kicks off the update routine (which triggered a Windows Vista firewall prompt), which found updates to several programs. After clicking OK again, and authorizing the Firewall to let the program through again, it finally started to install the updates. A few windows closed and opened, then after a few minutes of downloading I was informed that in order to install the latest updates it was necessary to uninstall the old version, which might require a restart of the system.
Did I mention I downloaded this software directly from Nero the day before I'm writing this? My system rebooted, and after logging in I waited for Nero to resume the update. Nothing happened. I noticed a security icon in the system tray, and sure enough, Nero's update installer was blocked by Vista's start-up security. After authorizing it, I waited for the 188 MB (!!) download to complete - which took quite a while. Nero's update server was only giving me about 200 KB/s download speed, which isn't much considering I can pull down 1500 KB/s from a faster server.
After the update completed, Windows Defender alerted me to a change - I checked, and Nero BackItUp was trying to add itself into the start-up routine. I didn't even install Nero BackItUp! I glanced at my desktop, and sure enough, there was a shortcut to Nero Home, another program I never installed initially. What had happened? The update process installed the entire software suite rather than just installing the updates for the software that I actually had installed. I was livid - I purposefully didn't want many of those programs installed on my video editing machine. I looked for some sort of uninstaller from within Nero for removing certain components, but I couldn’t find one. I then went into the control panel and initiated an uninstall of Nero 8, hoping it would give me a modify install so I could remove the programs I didn't want installed. No such luck - clicking uninstall actually uninstalled the whole damn suite and prompted me for a reboot. After the reboot Nero 8 was gone off my system – and so was Nero 7, so I was worse off than before.
I took two hours out of a Saturday afternoon to review Nero 8 (and away from my Zune review), and Nero gave me back a horrible user experience. I've been a long-time Nero user, and generally prefer it to Roxio's product, so I was pre-disposed to like Nero 8. You’ll notice this “review” of Nero 8 doesn’t talk about the features and functions of the various programs – I wouldn’t know how they work because my two hours of testing the program were spent fighting with it instead. The whole Nero update process is clunky, unfriendly, and simply ridiculous.
Nero needs to go back to the drawing board again - the scary thing is that they just did that with version 7.0, because the old version was even worse. So while the new update process is better than the old version, it's still nowhere near good enough - Nero needs to look at how an application like Picasa updates itself to see how a simple, user-friendly update works. There's simply no excuse for software this dysfunctional. I’d suggest giving it a wide berth for a few more months and hopefully someday soon they’ll fix their buggy updater and I can actually use their software.
UPDATE: I managed to fix all of the problems I was having after a short conversation with staff at Nero and some experimentation on my own. Read about it here.
Jason Dunn owns and operates Thoughts Media Inc., a company dedicated to creating the best in online communities. He enjoys mobile devices, digital media content creation/editing, and pretty much all technology. He lives in Calgary, Alberta, Canada with his lovely wife, and his sometimes obedient dog. He wonders how companies can screw things up so badly sometimes.
