Fireman Review

Fireman is a disk burning application for both CDs and DVDs. It is very well laid out in terms of functions and function types, such as data, audio, video, and backup for the different types of disks you can make. Under these are options that differentiate DVDs and CDs. Here are the different functions of each section:

Data:
Make data CD
Make data DVD
Make audio and data CD
Make bootable CD
Make bootable DVD

These are very thorough options to choose from. Data CDs and DVDs are initially for backups, or storing files and folders on them for transfer between computers, but are not saved in such a format that they can be played in a consumer CD player. Audio and Data CD I had problems with, in the sense that I could not get ANY of my files to load on there, text, audio, jpeg, wmv, etc. until having to consult the user guide, which told me that only WAV and MP3 files can be added to the disk. This did not benefit me in any way, seeing that my audio files are all in WMA format, and this should be supportive of it.

The name was very misleading, though, because I thought that what it meant was to solve a hassle that I often had, and that was to put both backups as well as music for playing on a CD player, all in one CD just so that I wouldn't have to waste a second disk to do so. The bootable disk options, however, I find to be extremely useful seeing that many disk formats are not seen as bootable for options such as rescue from viruses that move system files to hinder bootup (I know... extreme geek language... I'll stick to what you can understand!)

Mind you, the audio and data CD disappointment isn't THAT much of a setback, because remember, we are still in the data section of the software. There is still an audio section, that covers much more of what we expected from this option.

Audio:
Make Audio CD
Make MP3 CD
Make MP3 DVD
Make WMA CD
Make WMA DVD
Make Audio and Data CD
Import Audio from CD

Ahh... what's this? The audio and data CD option emerges again, but this time in the audio section. This definitely foreshadows complete recovery from our previous quibble. Unfortunately, to no avail. This is one of the things I find confusing about this software, but let's focus on the positives of this section. The make audio CD function is a disgrace; once again only WAV and MP3. My saviour is the make WMA disk options, because I, along with many other people use mostly WMAs, so this software has redeemed itself into my good books.

The key here is also that MP3s and WMAs can be made into not only CDs, but also DVDs. This, I feel is a revolution. Many people have stopped using standard CD players such as Walkmen and boomboxes, and used their DVD player to read the disk, with their TV's speakers to hear the sound. Using this, however, by playing regular CDs, they are limited to the 750 megabytes that a CD can hold, but seeing that a DVD can hold about 7 times that amount, you can put a whole box set on a WMA or MP3 DVD, so you don't have to constantly switch disks! This also helps if you're using them on your computer and don't wish to store them on your hard drive. Finally, you are able to import audio from other CDs to your computer's hard drive, showing that this isn't just burning software, but ripping software too.

Video:
Make Video CD
Make Super Video CD
Make DVD
Burn DVD-Video folder

Soon as I saw the first option, I knew that this was a Swiss Army Knife for media production. Making video CDs are a much cheaper and more economical option as opposed to video DVDs, if you are only burning less than 750 megabytes of video, it will still work on any DVD player, but the main purpose other than conservation is the fact that some older computers do not have a DVD compatible disk drive, but since the data is still there, the operating system can still recognize it as video, on a storage format that it can read. Of course, the make DVD function does the same thing, but burns to DVD, so the storage capacities are about 7 times as great.

Backup:
Backup Files
Restore Backups

Backup. Sound like a familiar word to you? The thing that you see and hear everywhere. Antivirus software, popups, the newspaper, computing magazine, etc. You're supposed to make backups once a week, you know it, but you never do it, and keep putting it off. And off. And off... Until it occurs to you that you have NEVER made a backup, and, actually, don't even know how to. You're not alone. But if you're really bored one day, have a few extra blank disks lying around, and realize that you should really make a backup, “just in case even though it'll never happen”, Fireman's backup utility offers a comprehensive step-by-step backup process, that even a 5-year-old could use, and a just as easy to use backup restore utility.

Utilities:
Erase CD
Erase DVD
Disc Info
Make Label or Cover
Photo viewer
Make image
DVD Player
Burn image

This is where all the good stuff is, especially for my fellow ubergeeks out there. We'll start with the erase utility. You know those free trial AOL disks that you get in the mail but do no good to you? Well, by erasing them, they become blank, and if you don't care about “6 MONTHS FREE INTERNET” being on the cover of the CD, you have yourself a free CD! You can do this by erasing old DVDs that you don't care about too, and use them for backups, etc. However, only certain types of CDs are erasable, so be careful to make sure that your disc format is compatible. Disc info provides information about the disc currently in the drive, such as its erasability, its total space, free space, and its type (CD-R, DVD-RW, etc.) as well as options to refresh status and eject.

Make Label or cover is for making the visuals for the disk, so you can insert images, and it will show you exactly how it will appear on the disk, in terms of sizing and obstruction from the inner circle, etc. The cover option is to make a cover that will fit on a standard CD case, so you can insert images and text there too. To print the label, you have to have either stickers to print on, peel off and then put on the disk, or printable disks, and a compatible printer to print them directly onto. Photo viewer, I'm not even going to touch. It's a stupid feature, because not only is it disk burning software, but also, Windows XP, as well as Vista has a built-in photo and fax viewer, so what's the use? Unless you're running a previous version of windows that doesn't have this, this is a useless feature.

Make image, isn't what you think it is. An image is an exact copy of a storage device, so, if, for example, I want to copy a music CD to my computer, then I can do so with this utility. To burn an image, which would be used for copying data from one device to another (this is commonly used to illegally copy DVDs, and write-protected DVDs are usually prevented from making images of) you just take an image from your hard drive, and burn it onto a disk. You can cross-image in the sense that you could copy data from a hard drive onto a DVD, or from an MP3 player, USB drive, etc. Finally, this program has a DVD player, which, in my opinion isn't much of an improvement over Windows Media Player, so I say it should just remain a pyro, and specialize in burning.

Wired: Easy to use, simple interface, takes a little warming up to. Comprehensive “wizards” to complete common tasks. A Swiss Army Knife with many different tasks that it can complete, for a variety of purposes, and very useful utilities.

Tired: Interface I didn't feel was exactly “welcoming” the first time I used it. Misleading names for certain tasks. File formats are limited. They try to cover too many bases with one piece of software with useless features like Photo Viewer and DVD player.

Bottom line: Requires some advanced knowledge of software. If you have this, get it. If you are a very simple user, this software is not for you.

Next Steps: Give the interface "Curb Appeal" so that it looks good, and easy to use right from the start. I would recommend giving it a quick launch list for the most common tasks. Add more formats to save in, change the names to be more direct and less complex. Develop more on the basic features until going to advanced ones, such as audio and data CDs, or don't bother at all, and like I said above, SPECIALIZE.