I've had mixed experiences with Nero software in the past so was cautious in installing this. To start off I uninstalled all previous versions and rebooted to give it the best chance of a clean install and was very pleased that it did so - and in just 21 minutes on my rather slow and elderly XP machine. It tried to install the unwanted 'Nero Ask' toolbar which I managed to stop in time.

Upon completion I then downloaded the updates which also includes the video themes, picture-in-picture templates - be warned if you have only a slow internet connection because they amount to 987.44MB, although you can select only the components you actually plan to use. This took over 4 hours on our 8MB broadband connection so I left it to continue overnight. If you have only a slow internet connection the the updates and 'Creative Collection' content pack can be purchased on a DVD for £6.99 - but my feeling is that the content and themes etc should be included automatically with the package so that only patches and updates need to be downloaded, not such a significant portion of the software itself.

Nero 10 also includes a whole host of useful programs accessed via the initial 'Start Smart' menu including:

MUSIC: Playing, organising, ripping CDs, converting LPs and audio cassettes to MP3, recording and editing music. I couldn't test the LP and cassette conversion as I have neither to connect to my PC but every other feature worked well. Editing the waveforms using Nero Wave Editor was fun and I experimented by changing the pitch of some pre-recorded tracks I have, adding reverb and adding effects to just small sections. Throughout, the program was stable with not a single crash or freeze.

VIDEO AND PHOTO: My main interest is video production so I tested the video editing suite, ie Nero Vision Extra, first. This was extremely stable and in a long 19 hour video editing session using a mix of video formats (WMV, MPEG, MPEG4) and photographs, it didn't freeze, stall or crash once - which is impressive. Further it didn't hog my PC's resources unlike many other programs which grind my system to a halt. While editing, I continued to run Firefox, email, Word and a few other programs with no problems at all whereas too often my PC struggles to cope with even minimal HD video editing.

The program itself is quite intuitive - import photos, video clips, audio files etc and drag/drop them onto the timeline which is all very straightforward and I was pleased to see not only a range of templates but also 24 audio backing tracks, all of which were usable rather than being the weird obscure sounds found in some packages. Adding effects was just as easy once I'd worked out these have to be dragged onto their own video track as an overlay rather than directly onto the clip/photo itself. The only area where I did have to refer to the help files was applying Picture in Picture.

Exporting a finished movie was just as easy and stable with a variety of output formats, which can also be uploaded direct to hosting sites such as YouTube. Rendering was surprisingly fast too. My PC isn't equipped with a Blu-Ray drive so I couldn't test this but every other feature of the video/slideshow worked well so I have no doubt that Blu-Ray wouldn't live up the the mark either.

The Media Hub feature allows photos to be tagged for archiving and rapid retrieval. It can be tedious going through photos individually to so this but, if you don't have hundreds of thousands of pics, then it's probably time well spent. Media Hub is also used to quickly produce slideshows - just import a selection of photos, select a theme and Nero does the rest, including adding transitions, a backing track and pans/zooms to the photographs. It's quick and easy and it works but, best of all, unlike some packages, Nero 10 allows you to take some control by changing pans, zooms and transitions to your own personal preference, just as you can also change the backing track or re-order slides.

DATA: I tend to use Acronis for backing up data and Nero isn't going to replace it for me. Instead, this is more suited to backing up working files or an external drive rather than your system and can be set to do automatic backups. It's very flexible. Individual folders and directories can be selected so that your backup can be tailored specifically to your needs - eg in my case I could back up just my daily working files including websites, accounts, photos and videos rather than my entire PC. It works reliably backing-up data in the background while you do something more interesting and provides peace of mind. The Restore Agent is then used to restore data in the event of a disaster eg disk failure or other data loss.

DISC TASKS: Other functions include disk authoring, copying and burning along with cover and label design functions.

I've used previous versions of Nero but generally given up with them fairly quickly due to clunky poor performance, clumsy user interface, freezing and general frustration but this has been a revelation. I've never known Nero to work so well. I'd say Nero's got it right this time with its Multimedia Suite v.10 and, for once, I'm impressed! Well done, Nero - and at a fair price too for such a powerful and versatile package! However, I have deducted a star from my rating because I feel the product themes and templates etc should be included with the program not via an almost 1GB download or chargeable DVD when buying the top of the range 'platinum' version.

There is nothing really wrong with Nero 10 Platinum, it certainly covers ALOT of ground, from video editing, recoding videos to other formats, burning discs (including Blu-Ray). The main problem is, it seems to have lost it's focus somewhat, it's a huge behemoth of a suite, with applications for pretty much everything you could ever want, the problem is, there is so many applications, it's hard to know where to look for what you want to achieve.

Fortunately this is where Smart Start comes in, it categorizes applications by task. It's worrying when you need an application to tell you what application you need!

The problems don't really stop there, the problems are there from the outset, the installation is nothing short of horrific, needing pre-requisites and then a reboot before you even get to the real install, which takes near on an ice-age to install, gobbling up massive amounts of your disc space on applications or themes you may never even need. At the end of the traumatic install, you are then prompted to reboot again, and then you are in for the next treat (if you have an Internet connection), another 1GB of updates to install.

It's also shocking to find it installs a Ask Toolbar in IE, which for a pay-for product in unforgivable, haven't they already got enough money out of their users, and want toolbar install revenues too?

That's all the bad points out the way, the good points are that the applications themselves are solid and they certainly do what they advertise. It was pretty simple to get very effective looking Hi-Def videos from the video editing package (Nero Vision), and burning them was also a doddle. The number of themes, layouts and effects in Nero Vision is also very impressive.

I also used Nero Recode to re-encode some video content for my Android phone without too much bother either.

It's a shame this product has lost it's focus, as it could be a 5 star product, but as it's is, it's hard to give it any more than a 4, and with the traumatic install and bloat, it's more realistically a 3.

This is Nero's latest multimedia suite and builds on Nero Multimedia Suite 10 by adding long overdue HD support. I was disappointed with Nero Multimedia Suite 10's lack of HD support, and also surprised at how such an important feature could be left out. Well now we know why, Nero deliberately saved the HD feature for this, its latest product, Nero Multimedia Suite 10 Platinum HD.

The software comes in a very plush looking silver box that very much gives the impression this is Nero's flagship product. Inside is the installation CD, the serial code, and a quick start guide to get you up and running.

Installation of the Nero suite is unfortunately a little tedious and time-consuming, encompassing a whole range of pre-requisite VC redistributables to be installed first, culminating in a reboot. After this reboot the installation then resumes and completes. Another irritant is that you are asked if you want to install the Ask toolbar, which then also takes over your homepage. The option is given to decline this but installing intrusive 'extras' like this has become an unwelcome trend amongst vendors of late.

Once the suite is installed, if the first thing you like to do is check for updates then be prepared! These updates are extensive and include a whole range of additional Movie ThemePacks. Whilst it's reassuring that Nero is making a big effort to keep the product up to date (and the extra ThemePacks are a nice bonus), it does mean the updates add up to over 1 Gigabyte which take quite a while to download and, annoyingly, also require yet another reboot.

Once fully installed and updated, 6 new icons are created on the desktop which are Nero StartSmart 10, Nero Vision 10, Nero MediaHub 10, Nero Burning ROM 10, Nero BackItUp 10, and LightScribe. The starting point for any multimedia project is Nero StartSmart, and this displays tabs for Music, Video-Photo, Data, Tools, and Knowledge Centre. All of Nero's multimedia functions can be accessed from this friendly front-end and the GUI is very easy to navigate, even for new users.

All multimedia management is carried out from the Nero MediaHub. The MediaHub locates and organises all music, photos and videos on your machine, making them easily accessible, and includes the ability to import from Windows Media Player and iTunes libraries. It's also a great media player that will play more or less any kind of format, with Blu-ray playback being excellent.

The MediaHub is actually quite a sophisticated application and allows you to easily transfer media files to any recognised mobile device. It will automatically transcode the file into a format recognised by that particular mobile device. I threw as many formats as I could at this, transferring a whole a range of media files to my iPhone. There was the occasional crash, but generally conversions to the iPhone were first rate. The icing on the cake of this feature is that it's also possible to export Flash videos as well, nice touch.

All movie editing and authoring is handled by Nero Vision Xtra. You can have loads of fun here as Vision Xtra includes an extensive toolkit of effects and editing tools, enabling some very professional enhancements to be made to your home movies. A timeline is displayed allowing you to add or edit audio tracks, manipulate the video and add opening menus to your video, including animated menus. The editing tools have some advanced features that should keep video enthusiasts more than happy, though newbies may find some of it a little complex, a bit of reading of the help will be required. After your movie has been created it can then easily be burnt to a whole variety of different disk formats including CD, DVD, and Blu-ray.

Nero Multimedia Suite 10 Platinum HD is a superb multimedia suite that should cover all your multimedia needs. There's a huge amount of functionality included that will suit both casual and more pro multimedia users. If you're looking for a complete multimedia solution then look no further than this.