Most new computers and DVD burners come with a version of software typically referred to as “LE” Limited Edition, “LT” Light Edition, “SE” Special Edition, or some other often less than full featured software bundle. The software included with the burners is adequate for most basic tasks, but often lacks the power and full features available on the complete versions of the software. Concerns about burning hardware – software compatibility are virtually moot, as burners and software have become substantially compatible, meaning that almost all new burning software will work with almost all new DVD and CD drives.

If a user wants to edit DVD video, edit audio, backup a hard drive to DVD, or perform additional sophisticated tasks, the typical software bundled with the drives is often lacking those advanced features. A quick review of local stores shows that there are several titles of burning software available from such companies as NTI, Roxio, Nero, Sonic, InterVideo, and others. Software can be purchased a’ la’ carte, where separate burning, editing, and backup titles can be purchased individually, or the software can be purchased in a suite containing multiple functions, often at a significant savings to the user.

I have tried several of the suites available, and all did an adequate job as advertised on their boxes. All performed the basic burning functions on CDs and both formats of DVD very well, and all offered some form of video editing. Most contained some form of backup utility to enable the user to make backups of his hard drive to CD, DVD, external drive, or other media. Some offered audio editing and dubbing, CD ripping, slideshows, and other features. For most users, any of the suites would be adequate.

In the trials I conducted, one particular suite stood out above the rest, NTI’s “CD & DVD MAKER 7 TITANIUM” (www.ntius.com). This suite, which retails for about $80 (street price around $60), was one of the easiest to use, most compatible with a variety of drives, and most comprehensive suite available at any price. It can perform almost all of the tasks that DVD and CD burners are capable of doing. Using a USB2 external TV tuner connected to my TV cable, I was able to use this software to view and record shows. While trying to burn more MP3 music files to a CD then the single CD would hold, the Titanium’s disk spanning feature offered to organize the music, and burn it to multiple CDs.

In the years I have been writing this column, I have been a strong proponent of frequently backing up hard drives. One of the cliché’s used to explain this concept is referred to as “Murphy’s First Law of Computing - A properly backed up hard drive will never fail, but a hard drive not backed up will always fail at the most inopportune time.” Titanium contains a full version of NTI’s renowned “Backup Now” software. I have used Backup Now for a few years, and have been very happy with it. It is capable of backing up hard drives to almost any media, from CDs, to DVDs, to an external hard drive (my personal choice). Backup Now can perform full backups, selective backups, or incremental backups. My recommendation is to do a full backup periodically, and frequent incremental backups. This process is fast and efficient, because incremental backups only backup files that are new or modified since the last backup. If a restore is needed, files can be selected individually, or entire directories can be restored. In the event of a catastrophic hard drive failure, a full restore will write all of the files to the new hard drive.

Some of us take too much video with our digital camcorders. In order to make the video reasonably viewable, it must be edited, and Titanium has a fully functional video editing utility, which uses a story board format to edit videos. With a little practice, a user can produce professional appearing DVDs complete with titles, special effects, and other details to improve the viewing pleasure.

Sometimes the audio on a CD or video is not as we want it. This software has a wave editor, which uses an oscilloscope type image to easily enable cutting, inserting, fading, echoing, and other audio editing to provide the audio desired.

For the professional appearance, Titanium also has a jewel case and label maker which can produce professional appearing inserts for standard jewel cases, and print labels directly to the disc or appropriate label paper.

For under $80, NTI CD & DVD MAKER 7 TITANIUM is a very worthwhile addition for any user of a DVD or CD burner.

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