AOpen has once again turned to Nero for their software bundle. The CD that comes with the DSW1812P contains the PhotoShow Express and the Nero 7 Essentials suite which includes Nero Express, Nero Vision, Nero Recode, Nero ShowTime and InCD.
Nero Express 7 - With Nero Express, Nero has taken the features and performance people have come to expect from Nero Burning Rom and combined them with a user friendly interface. Redesigned to maximize ease-of-use, Nero Express gives users the ability to quickly and easily burn audio, data and video to CD or DVD.
The version of Nero Express that AOpen included with their new DVD±RW drive is 7.2.3.3. You can download the latest version of the software from Nero's website.
Nero Vision 4 - Nero Vision 4 is the latest version of Nero's video authoring application. Thanks to a user friendly interface, Nero Vision makes it easy for users to capture, edit and then burn their favorite videos to VCD, SVCD or DVD or export it to Nero Digital format.
Nero Vision also lets users add things like transitions, custom backgrounds, animated menus and text effects. You can even use it to turn your photos into custom slide shows.
Nero Recode 2 - This program from Nero can copy unprotected DVD videos onto recordable DVD media. If the source disc is larger than 4.7GB, Nero Recode 2 has the ability to remove unwanted material and compress the contents so that it will fit onto a single blank DVD disc.
Nero Recode 2 will also let you convert your DVD movies to Nero Digital. Using Nero's own MPEG-4 audio and video encoder, an entire DVD movie can be compressed so that it will fit onto a CD. Better yet, Nero Recode 2 does this without any loss of quality.
Nero ShowTime 2 - Nero ShowTime is Nero's software DVD player. Along with support for DVD's, ShowTime can be used to play back VCD's, SVCD's and miniDVD's as well as any MPEG, AVI or Nero Digital files you might have on your hard drive.
InCD 5 - InCD is Nero's packet writing software. Like Roxio's Drag-to-Disc or Sonic's DLA, it allows a person to use their CD-RW or DVD±RW drive as a big floppy disk. The person can then drag and drop files onto a CD-RW or DVD±RW disc. Many people consider InCD to be one of the best packet writing tools because of its simplicity and performance.
PhotoShow Express - AOpen's's new drive also comes with Nero's all in one photo suite, PhotoShow Express. This software can do a number of things including edit and touch up your photos and organize them into various albums. PhotoShow can even be used to create musical slideshows. These slideshows can then be burned to disc or published to the web.
While affordably priced, AOpen's new DVD+RW drive offers a good number of features. The DSW1812P supports all major DVD formats and sports some pretty impressive specs. The drive is capable of 18x DVD±R, 8x DVD±R DL, 8x DVD+RW, 6x DVD-RW and 12x DVD-RAM writing speeds and a maximum DVD read speed of 16x. AOpen's new drive also includes features like Super Link buffer underrun protection and a great software bundle from Nero, but lacks support for bitsetting. Even then, the AOpen DSW1812P scores a solid 8 out of 10 for its features.
