I feel the need to share my thoughts on this:

First of all, I have to say that Mausau is doing a great job with these plugins. BUT...

I think those plugins should have been made a long time ago and not by someone from the outside, but from the Ahead developers. I see it like that: Mausau is doing the work, that the Ahead developers are being paid for! Nero is a commercial software product that you have to pay for, so I would expect that the developers do something for the money. I don't think that Mausau sees anything from this money. The plugins they did (mp3pro, aac...), you have to pay extra.
And what about the legal thing. As I understand it, there are patents used in lame, mpc. Isn't the use in Nero violating those patents? (I have to admit I don't have a clue about those legal things, so please correct me) And of course the GPL of the code used in the plugins. I don't see the sources nowhere.

But to come back to Nero I have to say there are some things that piss me off. First of all, the updates come out very often. That would be a good thing, but... Take Joe Average. He is sitting at home and sees that a Nero update is out. He thinks: Hmm, what's new? But there is no chacelog! So he downloads the ~15MB on his 56k modem. He installs it and guess what. The audio plugins are still not there. The option to set default 0s pauses between tracks is still not there. The problems with multisession CDs are still there. Joliet file system is still not there. Even such simple things like checking the finalize check box after you choose no multisession is still not there. The DVD burning problems are still there.

And so on... So in the end, what was the download good for? Yeah right, nothing. You have a software full of bugs and flaws. Oh, and what about the CloneCD-like features that other burning softwares are implementing? You can guess...

I stopped using Nero a long time ago. There are better (and free) alternatives. And as for Mausau, I think he should devote his time and work efforts to a project where other people don't get the props and profits he deserves.

Sorry for the long post, I got a bit emotional

All i have to say is WHY, WHY, WHY must you stick to this grunt??
Ahead gave people the BEST thing, the SDK, now people can do whatever they want!!
So why complain and complain about why they didn't do it before and this and that on and on and there are better alternatives and whatever?
A software full of bugs and flaws?
What?? And how did you get to this point, what does it have to do with plugins now?
What is WRONG with people? Why is there so much negativity against Ahead i'll never know. I consider all they do GREAT.
They obviously CARE about their users!
I don't know what more to say, it seems kind of hopeless.

Ah, SK1 gave his opinion, what a surprise...
But seriously:

I stated the facts, if you don't see them, I can't help you. Nero could be much better. And due to the plugins it got better, but it's not the effort of the Ahead developers but thanks to somebody outside of Ahead.

Any recommendations? I use Nero currently and I'm pretty happy with it, but I like the idea of free alternatives.

Yes, i gave my opinion, i thought opinions are good.
What are you talking about? Not Ahead's effort? Non of this could have been without Ahead's efforts, without the SDK! Maybe you don't appericiate this, and think those who are really to thank are only those who make the plugins. Ahead made the big effort of creating the SDK for the users, now it's up to people to do what they like with it. If you think writing a plugin/s is harder than creating the whole SDK, you better talk to some developers.

Actually i am also interested in free alternatives. I have tried various cdrecord frontends, and currently tried the so much recommended (in Nero forums, go figure) Burnatonce...

Arggg, the thing is parsing lines with cmd or something? A little compìlation of some 50 to 100 files in different folders each or so, and it started complaining about a comand line too long >_<

I suppose i should try XDuplicator some more...

It would be nice if Burnatonce could have the VCD functions of VCDEasy, or VCDEasy had the functions for normal data and audio discs.

Of course, compared to some of the nasties in Nero i have found... Ah well, so is the life of open source, but at least we know open source can get fixed, eventually...

I agree with Gambit 100%, why - because I make a freely avaliable converter with SDK, yet have to still write every single codec on my own (exception is Darren with Ra encoder and bwf codecs).

<Sigh> Nero really does not deserve someone doing their work for free.

@ Gambit!
"Burrrn" added to my web page www.ogg.prv.pl/wypalanie.htm

Agreed 100%. Nero is updated so damn often, but most of the major issues are never addressed.

As for the plugin issue, its pretty obvious that Ahead is only putting R&D money into mp4. Some may see that as 'evil', but its just a business reality. The fact that they released the sdk is actually alot more than they had to do, so no complaints here on that front.

In case you don't know, Ahead's new MP4 video/audio codecs will be FREE.
Basically what allows Ahead to make it free is that they'll be able to make a lot of money from relicensing to other companies.
So while DivX will be availible for you in 3 "flavours", 1. free, very limited. 2. adware/spyware supported not feature limited video codec. 3. $30 not feature limited video codec (only, no audio codec), Ahead will have a free MPEG-4 video codec and MPEG-4 AAC audio codec. Is THAT "evil"? Well no, it's just one business reality. Ahead could have easily chosen to not make it free. But i definately think they're making the right choise, and users again, will be happy.

Spoon, it's not about whether Ahead "deserves" anything or not. People don't make the plugins for Ahead, they make them for themselves and other users of Ahead's software. If authors of OTHER CD/DVD burning programs will have an SDK that will enable their users to create their own plugins for the software, that's cool. And why would i mind? I'd think that's cool no matter if i use the software or not, really!
I can really understand your frustration that people don't use your SDK. But i don't see at all what that has to do with Ahead not deserving having plugins made for their software. If someone said that you don't deserve it either, i wonder how that'd make you feel.

What was that about not being able to set gaps to 0s? That's been working, at least for me, for ages now.

Your definition of free and my definition must be different. To encode such files you need Nero burn, which costs $69 USD. It is not free in that if I was to make my free program compatible with it, I am 99.999% sure I would be sued.

I don't think you need Nero for encoding, if the free codecs are directshow filters, like the rumor says..

Nero's changelog

yep

Up until 0.96 burnatonce has had to pass path lists as switches to mkisofs (on which there is a limitation). The reason for this is that certain bugs existed in the mkisofs code (win32 only?) which prevented the use of pathlist files (don't ask me how other programs do this - I don't use 'em) until recently when one of my forum members submitted/fixed the bugs.

Therefore the data cd part of burnatonce was only meant for folders and a few files... 0.96 will have proper explorer style mastering using pathlists...

Jamie