Ok, you gurus, you. Or at least those of us who have a burner. Which is the software of choice these days?

With my hardware, I got a free copy of Adaptec EasyCD4, which I already absolutely hate and refuse to use, much less upgrade. It's constantly tossing up errors and doesn't work with WMA to make an audio cd, not to mention the audio cd thing runs like a pig on my machine. It seems to need an enormous amount of CPU just to idle.

I just downloaded Nero and the WMA plug-in to create audio CDs from WMA. I have only used it once, but am very pleased. For some reason, I couldn't get the adaptec plug-in for Windows Media Player to actually work with wma. But Nero worked fine with wma and mp3.

I'm probably going to plunk down 50 bones for the full version of Nero, but I wanted to check with someone else first to see if there's a better solution (read: cheaper).

What do you guys say?

Side note: having a burning utility as a native part of my OS is very nice, IMO. The burning and firewall utilities are probably enough to make it worth my while to upgrade to XP, assuming they both work well.

For power use I use Nero 5. For my everyday work use I use Prassi Primo CD Plus software. Both are extremely reliable.

Nero is the best choice if you have to burn difficult copy protected CD's.

I definitely do NOT recommend EZ CD Creator, any version. One of those apps that just seems to get worse and worse with every new version, like pcAnywhere. Sigh.

CloneCD is essential if all you want to do is copy discs. Beware, Safedisc V2 does make it impossible to copy protected discs unless you have VERY specific CD hardware.

CloneCD if your drive is lucky enough to support it fully. You can copy ANYTHING.

http://www.zombo.com

Anything is possible at zombo.com

I'd recommend nero as well - i have many burnt cds that work to testify as to the goodness of this product.

Do be careful about doing other things at the same time too (depending on hardware). If you want a faster and more reliable burn, you can also up the priority of the burning program through task manager in windows 2000. Don't think it's possible in win9x/winme, and don't know about XP.

i don't think i could recommend any software other than Nero for your average, everyday 'burning a cd of mp3's, pictures, etc' .. it works, and works well.

if your whole idea is finding a program to copy l33t h4x0rz 0-day warez, you'll want to look elsewhere. Nero has never catered to that market, and likely never will. probably a very good move for their business interests.

- mike - consider this my 2c micropayment -

Thanks guys... except for you, Aszurom.

I spent 5 minutes at zombo.com waiting for the flash intro to stop. ;) That was cute, no idea what it means or where you get this stuff... weren't you the one who posted that porno game link not too long ago?

j/k looks like Nero is it for me.

hah, that Adaptec crap wont burn audio cd's for me either. I can usualy burn data and copy cd's but when i try to burn audio it crashes just before finishing rendering the cd useless (cant access the files i tried to burn or burn with the cd again.

Ill try that nero thing too.

Yeah, I've had that happen on occasion, too. That really sucks.

I used Feurio! for my last audio burning session and it worked great. Converting mp3s to wavs before burning etc. It is the most dialog filled program around but it apparently uses the the best mp3 codec (Frohauer?) to decode mp3s. The trial version is nagware but amidst the other popups warning you of things that will cause you buffer underruns etc. you hardly notice.

You can grab Feurio! here.

I still use Adaptec for data mostly. It has the most straight forward interface IMO.

for those interested in actually BUYING a copy of nero... here's a link to a place selling OEM copies: http://www.accessmicro.com/productinfo.php3?ProductId=SOFAJ00NERO5.5

screwy thing was, they had it listed as $9.95 last night and now its listed as $15.00. $5 S&H.

better than any of the purchase/upgrade options on the Nero website. a little more expensive than a :cough: ser#gen, but hey. :)

- mike - lurking -