Nero provides .mp3 encoding from audio cds as well using mp3pro or standard mp3 encoding. This is locked to encoding only 30 times to give you a feel for that part of the software however you may purchase the plugin from www.nero.com to unlock this functionality. Australian users should be delighted to know however the Comm-Unique, being the good sports that they are have included the full encoder in the box for you to use immediately which I thought was outstanding service from this company. Some users may not understand why it is locked however Nero do not own mp3 encoding technology, it is licensed to them for a limited use by their customers. So when you purchase the plugin you are merely paying the royalty for that part of the software. Perfectly understandable. However, I do repeat that if you are an Australian user of this software, then there should be an extra disc in your box with the full encoder.

I must confess that this was my first time playing with the mp3pro format and I was impressed by it. For those not in the know, mp3pro files are the next generation of encoding music files. As a rule of thumb, standard mp3 files are 1/10 the size of the original music file, normally recorded to the hard disk as a .wav file. It's a great way to store multiple albums on a single cd. mp3pro files take that to the next level and are able to lower the bit rate again on the mp3 file to almost halve it from the average mp3 file size. As a rule when backing up my music however, I do encode at a minimum of 192kbps, so even with the advances made with mp3pro, I was too fussy about sound quality and won't be using it too much just yet. For those of you who are happy with 128kbps, make sure you do invest in mp3pro as it does create music files at 64kbps that you would swear were encoded at 128. Even now they are working on supporting higher bit rates which is excellent news indeed.

A nice touch with Nero when converting the other way (from mp3 to cd audio) is that you can highlight your selection, right click, select properties and then change the amount of silent time between tracks (you can also do this with .wav files) to 0 seconds so that the music flows from one track to another. I've found over time that many cds actually have the start of a song on the end of the track before it. This method of allowing 0 seconds between tracks means no hiccups. It's useful for making backups of cds that you play constantly so that you don't risk scratching up the source material. I make backups of my cds, then put the original someplace safe where the kids can't get it. Having access to both a car stereo that plays mp3s and standard cd audio, this is perfect for me.

Nero also helps you make Video CDs (VCD) that you can view home movies on either your PC or a compliant DVD player. Using this function is ridiculously simple: Tell Nero that you want to make a VCD, choose add files and then drag and drop almost any media file into Nero. It will then be encoded into VCD format for you, it is the sheer simplicity of this procedure that is a joy to use. There is also the option to make Super Video CDs which are greater quality again and the average movie will span two of these CDS to account for the greater quality. To access this part of the software you will need to purchase the SVCD plugin from Nero.

During this process I must confess that I had problems with my home videos and converting them to VCD. I had transferred them to my PC as PAL mpeg2 files and when I dropped them into Nero, it flipped them and also mirror imaged them on the final product so everything was back to front which was most annoying. This may have been something I was doing however, as I have put a number of other files that I have downloaded from the internet through the process and they worked out just fine. I have sent a CD with the problem files to Nero in California, USA and when and if we get some results with those problems, I will be sure to update this review.

Nero also has the ability to produce hybrid CDs that will work with both Mac OS and PC's. Whilst this was not tested in depth, the few discs that we did produce worked just fine on both machines and certainly could be read by both operating systems.