Any improvement in Nero 9?

[lubczyk]

I've just checked the site of Ahead Software and saw that they have released Nero 9. Are there any improvements in Nero 9 in H264 encoding over what they offered in Nero Recode 3?

I've been using megui for all my encodes and have found it faster, easier to use with better quality output than whatever Nero Recode offered.

So, any reason to pluck down money on Nero 9?

[Dark Eiri]

I think it's the same old Ateme implementation they licensed a while ago. So stick with x264. It's free and it works amazingly well.

[writersblock29]

I plunked down money on Nero 9. I wish that I didn't. Don't get me wrong: I loved Nero. I've been using it since version 5, and it's been my burning software of choice. But there's a couple of things that are about to make me an ex-user. First and foremost, I dislike having to buy plug-ins for any reason. While trying to view a blu-ray on my system, Nero informed me that I needed to buy the Blu-ray authoring plugin. It was only $10, so with a shrug I did it. After doing so, I discovered that Showtime *still* wouldn't allow blu-ray playback--I had to open the disk and chose an .m2ts file, which I could have done in Windows Media Player without buying anything extra from Nero. I wound up paying Arcsoft for a copy of Total Media Theatre to have a way of playing blu-ray the way it's supposed to be (I dislike Powerdvd, and the trial of Windvd wouldn't even open on my system). But that's neither here nor there. If you're still reading this paragraph, however, I'd like to take a moment to plug Arcsoft: They make a good media player. Did I mention Nero also wants you to buy a DTS plugin? I'd have had to have done that, too, if I wouldn't have decided to look around for a better software player.

The Recode function is still pretty much the same as the last update to Nero 8, but the much-rumored added upscaling functionality is absent. (But it is mentioned in the downloadable user's guide. How sweet.) Sure, you can type in higher values manualy... but you could do that all the way back to Nero 6. The quality of the encodes is still very good, but with H264 AVC, you can get away with a lot and still wind up with decent quality. Speed-wise, it's still the fastest I've run into... but I'd still rather wait an extra fifteen minutes and have a better quality encode. Nero digital doesn't allow much for user flexibility, as well--at least, once you've been spoiled with freebies like MeGUI, AutoMKV, and Ripbot264.

Everything else about it is bloatware. Nicer looking, but still bloat. Nero's trying to be a jack of all trades, and walking away with having tons of programs that are limited in function. I miss the days when they did one thing, and did it better than anyone else.

Nah. Save some money.