User's Guide Nero Express www.nero.com Copyright and Trademark Information The Nero Express User's Guide and all contents are copyrighted and the property of Ahead Software. All rights reserved. This User's Guide contains materials protected under International Copyright Laws. No part of this Guide may be reproduced, transmitted or transcribed without the expressed written permission of Ahead Software AG. All brand names and trademarks are properties of their respective owners. The product and material in this manual is subject to change without prior notice and does not represent a commitment on the part of the manufacturer, who assumes no liability or responsibility for any errors that may appear in this manual. Ahead Software accepts no claims beyond those in the warranty. Ahead Software accepts no liability for the correctness of the contents of the Nero Express User's Guide. The contents of the enclosed software and the Nero Express User's Guide is subject to change. All trademarks are for information purposes only. Unless you own the copyright or have the permission of the copyright holder, the unauthorized copying of discs can represent a violation of national or international laws and may result in serious penalties. Copyright © 1995 -2003 by Ahead Software Copyright © 2002 ­ 2003 Ahead Software AG REV 1.0 Table of Contents 1 Introduction.......................................................................................... 5 1.1 1.2 Welcome to Nero Express ..................................................................5 OEM vs. Retail Versions of Nero Express .........................................6 2 Installing Nero Express....................................................................... 7 2.1 2.2 2.3 System Requirements .........................................................................7 Installing Nero Express.......................................................................8 Uninstalling Nero Express ..................................................................8 3 Getting Started..................................................................................... 9 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.3.1 3.3.2 3.3.3 3.3.4 3.3.5 3.4 3.4.1 3.4.2 3.5 Opening Nero Express for the first time!...........................................9 Go Nero! Button.................................................................................12 More Button........................................................................................13 Configure .............................................................................................13 Save Tracks To Hard Drive .................................................................13 Erase Disc ...........................................................................................16 Disc Info...............................................................................................17 Cover Designer....................................................................................17 Nero Toolkit........................................................................................19 Nero CD-DVD Speed...........................................................................19 Nero DriveSpeed .................................................................................20 Nero Wave Editor (Retail Only).........................................................22 4 Data..................................................................................................... 23 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.3.1 Creating your first data disc .............................................................23 Bootable Data Discs ..........................................................................30 For Advanced Users ..........................................................................33 Hide Files.............................................................................................33 5 Music .................................................................................................. 34 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.4.1 5.5 Music...................................................................................................34 Creating your first audio disc ...........................................................35 Creating a disc with audio and data.................................................40 MP3 .....................................................................................................44 Information mp3PRO encoder plug-in .................................................47 WMA....................................................................................................49 Nero Express Table of Contents · 3 5.6 For Advanced Users ..........................................................................53 5.6.1 Image Recorder ...................................................................................53 5.6.2 Audio Properties ..................................................................................54 6 Video/Pictures.................................................................................... 60 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.4.1 Video/Pictures....................................................................................60 Creating your first video disc ...........................................................60 Creating your first super video disc ................................................66 Advanced Users.................................................................................71 Video and Super Video Properties ......................................................71 7 DVD ..................................................................................................... 73 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 DVD .....................................................................................................73 Selecting your recorder ....................................................................74 Creating your first DVD disc .............................................................75 Creating a DVD-Video disc from DVD-Video files...........................76 8 Copy Entire Disc ................................................................................ 78 8.1 Copy Entire Disc ................................................................................78 9 Disc Image or Saved Project ............................................................ 83 9.1 9.2 9.3 Disc Image or Saved Project ............................................................83 Creating a disc from a disc image ...................................................83 Creating a disc from a saved project ...............................................87 10 Preferences ........................................................................................ 91 10.1 10.2 10.3 10.4 10.5 10.6 10.7 10.8 10.9 Preferences ........................................................................................91 General Tab ........................................................................................91 Cache Tab...........................................................................................93 Language Tab ....................................................................................94 Sounds Tab ........................................................................................95 Expert Features Tab ..........................................................................96 Database Tab .....................................................................................97 Ultrabuffer Tab ...................................................................................99 Dialogs Tab ......................................................................................100 11 Technical Support ........................................................................... 101 11.1 1.1 F.A.Q.'s .............................................................................................101 Contact .............................................................................................103 12 13 Glossary ........................................................................................... 104 Index ................................................................................................. 116 Nero Express Table of Contents · 4 1 Introduction 1.1 Welcome to Nero Express Welcome to the world of CD burning! Thank you for your purchase of Nero Express ­ one of the easiest and most reliable CD recording packages to help store your data, music, and video on CD or DVD. With our state-of-the-art technology and nonstop drive for improving our software, we are continuously implementing the latest know-how, to do our part in making sure that your burning experience is easy and trouble-free. As you read this step-by-step instruction guide, it will assist you in creating your first disc ­ whether it is Data, Audio, Video, or SVCD. You will soon see how easy the process can be and you will shortly be on your way to making your first disc! Ahead Software realized that not everyone is a long time user or an expert their first time burning a CD and many users needed a little help with their first recording. So with this understanding, the User's Guide was created with the very new users in mind. Nero Express is a new and innovative wizard based recording application based on the main application Nero. With the main essentials included such as data, audio, copy, and video, it will also work with the DVD-RW, and DVD+RW drives. You are able to record MP3's, archive your favourite photo's, among the many features of this software. If you are a user of Nero, Nero Express is automatically integrated. For details about Nero, please see the Nero manual. Nero Express Introduction · 5 1.2 OEM vs. Retail Versions of Nero Express OEM stands for Original Equipment Manufacturer. It basically means that the Ahead software that was bundled with your burner is a smaller version of the Retail package. It will not have as many features and you would need to upgrade in order to have full functionality and take advantage of the great new features! If you are an owner of the Nero Retail version, the following options are included: Virus checking before burning Crossfading option Use of two burners simultaneously Nero Express Introduction · 6 2 Installing Nero Express 2.1 System Requirements Your system should come with a pre-installed operating system or you may choose to upgrade your operating system to the latest. Below you will find a list of those that Nero Express support. Please check to make sure that you have one of the following operating systems: Operating System Windows 95 Windows 98/SE Windows ME Windows NT 4.0 (service pack 6) Windows 2000 (service pack 2 or higher) Windows XP Hardware Your PC must have a 500 MHz system or higher recommended. Please refer to the PC manuals that came with your system for system configuration information. You must have at least 64 MB RAM memory. Generally, more would be better. The hard disk access time should be less than 19 milliseconds Graphics card with 8 MB or higher (for video). We recommend that Nero Express will be most comfortable to work with in a screen resolution of 1024x768 or greater. 700 MB of free hard drive space for drive images recommended. Generally, more would be better. Nero Express Installing Nero Express · 7 2.2 Installing Nero Express Step 1: Insert the Nero Express CD-ROM into your CD/DVD drive on your PC. If you have a feature called "Autorun" activated, this will start your installation process automatically. If you do not have "Autorun" activated, you can go to My Computer > Click on the drive letter of the CD/DVD drive > click setup.exe Step 2: Follow prompts until you are finished installing the software. Step 3: Restart your PC 2.3 Uninstalling Nero Express Step 1: Go to Start > Control Panel > Add or Remove Programs. In some operating systems, you will find - Start > Settings > Control Panel. Step 2: Select Nero Express in the Add or Remove Programs window and click "remove". Step 3: In some cases, you will find that when removing software, there will be one or two files that the operating system will ask if you want them removed since they may be shared by other programs. If you are unsure, always opt to keep these files. Nero Express Installing Nero Express · 8 3 Getting Started 3.1 Opening Nero Express for the first time! Now that we are ready to start recording your first disc, let us begin by opening the program Nero Express. Depending on the version, you can open up the software program as follows: a. Start >(All) Programs > Nero > Nero 6 > Nero Express. b. Start >(All) Programs > Nero > Nero 6 Ultra Edition > Nero Express. c. Start > (All) Programs > Nero > Nero OEM > Nero Express. F.Y.I.! The path how to open Nero Express described above can differ in some versions. Nero Express Getting Started · 9 Step 1: As the window o ...