The free download is a trial, it doesn't need a serial number. Though a key from Nero will keep the trial from ending at the end of the trial period.

Yes, Nero 6 will work, then so would Nero 5. Things change and products move on. I'm using Nero 7 and don't find any problems with it. There was a few minor bugs at the outset, but there is a new update and the problems appear to be ironed out. That was the standard procedure with Nero 6; update, bugs, fix, update...

People speak of Nero 6 being bloated, so that is a lame argument against Nero 7. The suite is intended to be comprehensive. How much space would it take to load separate apps for all the things the apps in Nero 7 can do? If the difference in space is a problem from Nero 6 to 7, then the user shouldn't be working with Video files, which are notoriously large.

Nero has guides to assist those who haven't learned to utilize the different functions in the suite. If the user has problems with the number of functions, the possibly they should try Sonic's Creator suite (Roxio), which is intended to be more user friendly. Nero was intended to be more for the power user and didn't "dumb down" the interface.

My impression of Nero 7: It's a comprehensive burning suite intended for the power user. Most of the needs a user will encounter are served by this suite. "Big", but I like one stop shopping. It's a good suite of apps and I like it.

One has to remember this is a beta program. It utilizes CCE and AviSynth to do a superior job of encoding movie files. As of now, the program does not do multi angle movies. If one pays attention, they know that before trying. However, multi angle support is planned. RB with CCE is the best application I've found for encoding movies and I've seen and used quite a few. The quality of the DVD movie backups produced is astounding.