Face-off: Nero 8 vs Ashampoo Burning Studio 8

CD/DVD burning is generally associated with Nero due to its long history in the business. Most of the companies offered Nero burning suite with their CD/DVD writers which further increased the market share. But other companies have risen to the task and have brought out competitive softwares to the Nero.

One such example is the Ashampoo Burning Studio which is a versatile burning suite that gives tough competition to Nero. It is light-weight and does not use too much system resources like Nero. Lets look at both of them side by side and decide who wins the dual.

Installation and Interface

The installation process of both the software is pretty much similar and straight forward. Both have a wizard interface to guide you through the setup process.The installation process of the Ashampoo burning suite takes considerably less time as compared to Nero. But Nero offers much more features than Ashampoo.

The interface of the Ashampoo is very similar to what is offered by Nero Express. This translates to a low learning curve for people shifting to Ashampoo from Nero. Nero has other software such as Nero StartSmart and Nero Burning ROM for completing the task, which is an added advantage.

Data DVD burning

We now low into the aspect of data DVD burning, which is probably the most commonly used feature of a burning software. Both the software offer a wizard interface to complete the data DVD burning process. Also Blu-ray disc burning is supported by both software.

When you first start the Ashampoo software, you will find the pop-up interface, which pop-ups tasks when you hover your mouse over an option. After selecting the Data DVD burning option, you get a box where you can add files which also supports drag n drop. Ashampoo has a combined interface to all CD/DVD/Blu-ray and decides which disc format to burn to, based on how much data you have added. This does save a bit of time as you have to select one less option in the beginning.

In the next step it allows you to insert any compatible media on which the data can be written. After inserting the appropriate disc, Ashampoo throws up a new screen in which you can set further options including write speed, verification etc , to customise your media being burnt.

That is the last step before Ashampoo starts burning the data on to the media showing you step by step progress. The amount of RAM used is much less as compared to Nero 8.

With Nero 8, you can either use Nero Express, Nero StartSmart or the Nero Burning ROM to accomplish the task of data DVD burning. Using the Nero Express is almost same as that we just explained for the Ashampoo burning studio 8.

Nero StartSmart is a simpler and easier to use solution for DVD burning. It starts up with the data burning interface which can be used to burn CD/DVDs by adding files by drag n drop or otherwise. To keep it extremely simple, Nero has put the Burn button on the same page itself. So this is a no-frills data disc burning solution as you do not have to other about settings and media can be burnt via a single click.

Nero BurningROM is the traditional interface that Nero used to offer in its earlier versions. It gives you complete control over the data your are burning by customizing every possible setting. It does support drag n drop feature apart from the tree structure which can be used to add files.

Overall Nero offers three interfaces for data burning which cater to beginners, amateur and professional categories.

Image burning

Image burning is an important aspect of a burning software due to various types of images and the complexity involved in them.

Ashampoo supports burning of ISO, CUE/BIN and ASHDISC image files. Most of the images are in ISO/BIN format but there are some other popular image formats which Ashampoo does not support. After selecting the burn image option from the pop-out , you need to give the path where the image is stored. After specifying that, it asks you to insert the appropriate disc, burning starts after you press the write button.

In Nero 8, you can either use the Nero Express interface or the Nero burningROM to copy or burn images respectively on to the disc. Again in Nero BurningROM you have full control over the options for the image being burnt. Nero Express is similar to what Ashampoo has to offer.

Video CD/DVD burning

Burning a Video CD/DVD isn’t the same as just burning the movie files to the disc. Not all players support data discs and all formats. So this task first requires converting the movie to a compatible format and then burning it on to the disc.

Nero has a separate application to handle this task called Nero Vision Express. Nero Vision Express has the ability to handle a lot of formats and convert them successfully to .dat/.vob files that are written to the disc.

Ashampoo for that matter can not encode the files to the required format and you need to do it via another software designed for the purpose. That is a major drawback of Ashampoo and if you need an all-in-one burning suite then you should consider Nero.

Final Verdict

After having looked at both in detail, one can easily make out which is the winner among the two. But the important thing to note is that Ashampoo is just a 31.5 MB download compared to monstrous size of Nero which extends into few hundred MBs. Also Nero 8 is heavy on the system resources and Ashampoo does the job even on a low-config system.

So if you need a complete burning solution without having to depend on other software, then Nero is the perfect burning suite for you. Also Nero comes with a hell lot of other utilities such as a media player etc.

But if you need a simple and light-weight burning solution then Ashampoo fits your bill perfectly. It has all the major features that you might use. Also it works with less amount of system resources.