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Community Q&A with Patrick Peeters of Nero |
posted by ken1701 at 1 year ago
Cdfreaks had a Great Q &A with Patrick Peeters , General Manager EMEA, Nero
Please Check out www.cdfreaks.com , if you haven't done so .
I find this site to be up on all the New Tech, and just plain Great when it concerns information for the average User and Pro user base.
Cdfreaks Forums are some of the Best, and if you need more help with a Wide Variety Of Questions, they Can Help .
www.cdfreaks.com (Check It Out)
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________
Patrick Peeters of Nero (INTERVIEW At CDFREAKS) 
Patrick Peeters is the General Manager EMEA, Nero
Questions and Answers for Nero
1. What does Nero think about Blu-ray and HD-DVD, do you favor any of the formats?
Different from some of our competitors, Nero does not favor any of the 2 mentioned formats. Nero supports them both.
2. Who do you consider to be your biggest competitors and how do you differentiate from them?
Seeing the functionalities and possibilities of Nero 8, we have many competitors.
We first have the companies targeting 1 application like photo or video editing, CD/DVD burning, backup software, …
Then we have companies trying to offer a similar package like Nero, covering a full spectrum of multimedia applications. En then last (but not least) we have Microsoft offering some basic multimedia functionalities in XP or Vista.
Nero differentiates from its competitors, to always offer new features and formats/standards in the fastest possible way. The user can then obtain them free of charge within the same version.
3. How many people use Nero worldwide?
Seeing the fact that Nero software is bundled with leading Optical Disc drive and PC manufacturers, and the best sold multimedia software in Retail and Online, there are several hundred million Nero users worldwide.
4. With Nero , which group is your target? is the advanced user or the family and beginners?
Nero 8 targets both the entry level as well as the advanced user. In several of our applications, the user can choose the “basic” or the “advanced” version.
5. A lot of users switch to different software because Nero has too much features, functionality, different applications, is this a problem for Nero? Any solutions for this?
By offering a full range of multimedia applications, we try to give the user the best price/performance ratio. If a user wants to buy all the functionalities that Nero 8 offers, he/she needs to spend over 200€. For 69,99€ for Nero 8, they get more than 20 advanced multimedia applications; or around 3€ per application. This is the best value available in the market.
6. Why can't Nero make a easy to read tutorial? Nero makes it so complicated, I can't even understand it.
We are constantly improving our documentation and tutorials. For Nero 8 for example, we took the feedback of our users from Nero7 and implemented this in Nero 8 (documentation, software and tutorials).
But any suggestions that can improve the software and the manuals/tutorials, are very welcome. This is the only way for us to give the user an even better experience in the future.
7. What does Nero think of free burning software, for those who only want to burn a CD/DVD what does offer Nero more?
In order to be able to offer some key technologies for the users like Dolby or MPEG, we need to pay royalties to the patent holders. Free software can never offer these key technologies, and therefore they can only offer a very limited functionality.
8. Why does Nero not allow to make backup’s of movies that people have purchased but which contain a copy protection?
Nero fully supports anti-piracy and copyright laws, and the fact that it is illegal to remove or work around any type of copy protection. Nero allows the copying of any type of content that is not copy protected.
9. What is the strategy behind Nero? What is your aim to achieve? Becoming the largest downloadable all-round application?
Nero´s main strategy is to offer the user the best multimedia experience and the best price/performance multimedia software in the market. If these efforts result in market leadership, then this is an asset, but has never been a target itself.
10. Why are you forcing Nero indexing, Nero Scout to be installed, when people don't want it?
Nero Scout is currently required for some of our applications such as Nero MediaHome and Nero Home to properly function. The indexing services running in the background are also necessary for creating and maintaining the Nero Scout multimedia database, making it more convenient for a user to stream or playback content from an indexed database than it would be to search the system for content. It is also less time consuming and much more user-friendly, especially if the user has their PC configured to run as a media center. Nero Scout is simply a database and is therefore not system stressing or resource consuming, nor does it require much storage place. We have significantly improved the performance of the indexing services and we have implemented them to run only when the system is idle. As soon as there is any user activity, the services become inactive. There is also an option for deactivating Nero Scout and the related services completely. For future versions, we will evaluate other possibilities regarding Nero Scout and its services. I have to say, this type of question always amuses me, since I do not hear many people complaining about iTunes or its services, which are far more system stressing and invasive than Nero Scout.
11. Why won't NERO8 automatically install LightScribe? NERO7 did
There have not been retail versions or web demo versions of Nero 7 that installed the Lightscribe API automatically. The Lightscribe API always had to be downloaded and installed separately. Only a few OEM versions, which were bundled with Lightscribe drives, did the installation automatically. The reason is pretty simple; we want to make sure that users install the latest available Lightscribe API, which we provide on our website, guaranteeing the proper function of Lightscribe features.
12. Are you concerned that many advanced users have not 'upgraded' from Nero 6?
I don´t understand where this information comes from.
Seeing the sales figures of Nero 7 and now the new Nero 8, and the number of users upgrading from previous versions (also Nero 6) I can only conclude that the above statement is not correct.
Additionally, I can state an anecdote that I had this year at the IFA in Berlin. I had a chance to talk to a 65 year old person that was already using Nero since version 3, and told me he is so satisfied with Nero software that he has been upgrading every single new version that has come out, and he told me he will upgrade to Nero 8 as soon as it is available. I can assure you that these kinds of conversations give me a tremendous satisfaction and show that the products we offer really offer something to the people.
13. Why does Nero not issue details of the changes made from version to version. With the large file size having to be downloaded each time, I would like to know if the problems I am having have been fixed.
Nero publishes release notes after every update, and we have been doing so for many versions over many years. Of course we present only the most important changes in these release notes, which can be found on our website.
http://www.nero.com/eng/support-nero7-release-notes.html
http://www.nero.com/eng/support-nero8-release-notes.html
14. Why is support so slow? With most of my software I can get an answer within 24 hours. Nero takes a week if you are lucky.
Our aim is to give feedback within 24-48 hours.
I can not judge individual case-by-case why sometimes it would take longer (I can only imagine that this could happen when it concerns very complicated questions or during the release of a new version. Furthermore, let me point out that we try to provide our customers not only with answers, but with solutions. We provide responses which should solve the problem so that the user does not have to call or write again. Other software companies’ support departments give canned answers just for the sake of a prompt response. We do not believe this is effective technical support.
15. Does Nero 8 have the ability to transcode video files from PAL to NTSC and vice-versa? If so, what element of the product suite offers that feature?
Nero Vision 5, like its predecessors, has the ability to convert PAL to NTSC and vice versa. Nero Recode will be able to do that during encoding procedures to MPEG-4 with the upcoming Nero 8 update.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________
Great Information,
And Thank's Again to www.Cdfreaks.com for this interview and indepth look into Nero Common Q &A.
"This is the unedited version of the interview that was published on Cdfreaks.com "
posted by L. Lukacs 11/12/2007.
Good information is hard to find, CDFREAKS ***** 5 Stars
Thanks To Everyone at cdfreaks and to there community forum !!!
And Thank you to Patrick Peeters Of Nero!!!
"This show's Nero's Interest in the Community and Users of Nero’s Product's "
Ken
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Biker-Ed wrote at 1 year ago
I am new to Nero
Ken,
There are two things that I wish my Nero 8 Ultimate did.
(1) I wish I could change the default directory where Nero Saves its projects. I really would like to beable to create different directorys for music, pictures and movies.
(2) I use Nero manily for making Jukebox CDs which I play in my Truck and on My motorcycle. I wish that Nero had an auto level function which could be used when making a Jukebox CD so that the so that I wouldn't have to mess with the listening volume to compensate for differences is recording settings.
I would appreciate any help that you could give me.
Thanks
Ed
UncleDave wrote at 1 year ago
I wonder
....what Patrick thinks of the comments on this site! I am starting to feel like I shouldn't be coming here any more as all I ever do is moan! The problem is that I have good reason to moan, I think in the new year I'll put together a "what works" for me blog. In another life I am an IT development manager and I know what it feels like when the only time you hear from your users is when something goes wrong!!!
artman2112 wrote at 1 year ago
absolutely :-)
A Merry Christmas to you and your's as well Ken
Happy Holidays ......
Art
ken1701 wrote at 1 year ago
Agreed
Yes, I do agree, the Interview was a nice way of at least letting the users know that Nero is there and is watching.
And as for answers, well I really do believe he answered to the best of his knowledge, and in terms of what kind of play it might be in terms of words, I guess we can all look at this in our own way. Nero has said that they do have some problems and are really working hard to correct the issues that have hit them hard within the past few months.
I can say that I do feel they are making an attempt and a good one at that, For some time I and a few other’s have tried to get interviews with the Roxio team, they all declined a Q&A.
I do have to give a company allot of credit for at least making an effort to express the way they see things, it also gives the users another way at looking at the way the upper administration see itself, sometimes blinded as it may be, and sometimes not the individuals fault, they too have people that report to them.
This type of communication allows the user to see the other side, and then we can come forward with the way we as users, have to deal with the problems and service issues, and thus making them aware of the user’s struggles. What’s so wrong with really wanting a product to work the way it was intended to do so, and this Interview was a good start in breaking down the walls of communication, An open dialog is what we want.
It is so unfortunate that the cost of software is based more on the intellectual copyrights of others, Nero, as with Sony Software, Microsoft, Roxio, Pinnacle, Adobe… All software packages of any type, have to pay a license fee to use encoded technology within their product.
Take for instance DOLBY, the licenses is Copyrighted, If you encode or Decode with this feature, Use any type of surround Sound for more than 2 Speakers’, and would like to hear your full range of audio you must Pay a fee to DOLBY to use that feature and to have it included in your software package.
Microsoft paid Roxio (SONIC) millions of dollars for the use of their MPEG2 codec to be placed in the Vista Premium and Vista Ultimate Editions of their Software; most users don’t understand that they have already paid for the use of the MPEG2 encoder/decoder when they bought the software from Microsoft,including another dozen or so codec’s licensed by other companies, these fees are already added and paid for By Microsoft, and the cost is just added into the final retail purchase price.
Problem, you can only use the Encoder Decoder from Microsoft/Sonic with 3 Programs In Vista, that’s it, you can’t carry it over to any other programs.
There is allot of technology that is used and improved upon by Nero and other Software Developers that might be considered a joint collaboration between two or more companies, it is just the way that it is looked at…
Years ago, I found it hard to understand how a Company could use another product not made by them and then call it their own, understanding the example bellow cleared it all up.
Example: The underlying code is developed by another company or programmer.
So as a business, I like that product they have developed, so I go into a partnership with them and buy their underlying code base,
With the understanding that I will improve upon their existing code, and I have all the rights to what I add to it, they have no right at all to use what I Added or developed to their base product unless I agree to let them use it for a Fee.
Now I paid them for the work they did with their base coding, I added on to it, I Improved it and now I call it my own, but I still need to pay them for what they wrote in code before I Added to it.
As with everything, if it is not confusing, it wouldn’t give the lawyers something to argue about.
The only problem is that the average user is not aware of how goes into a software product, One mistake in not paying a fee for something someone has a line of code at the patent office, could cost a company Millions of dollars, And then that brings us back to Licensing patent activation and ownership rights of the original code writer or patent holder.
"End of Part 1 (ONE)"
Art & NeroDude,
Thank you for your responses, I will be adding more Soon, I am Compiling a list to send to Nero and Ask some more In-depth Question’s and Voice the General Concerns of the Community.
Peace to All.
Happy Holiday’s
Ken
I am new to Nero
I have Nero Ultimate 8. There are somethings I would like to do but cant.
(1)Change the default directory where Nero saves its projects. I would like to be able to create different directories for music, pictures and movies.
(2)I would like to be able to use auto level when I make a jukebox cd so I don't have to fiddle with the volume control as I listen to the CD.
Any help you can give me would be appreciated.
Biker-Ed