A Brief (but Detailed) History of RecordNow
Many years ago (at least in terms of DVD technology), the now-defunct company Stomp made an excellent burning program, which would burn DVD-Video discs to perfect compliance -- unlike Nero Burning ROM and Easy CD-DVD Creator. It used a unique burning engine known as the PXengine, created by the then-defunct Prassi, which was a big change from the Nero/Adaptec burning methods.
Stomp was acquired by Veritas, RecordNow turned into RecordNow Max, and the company continued the trend of producing excellent burning software. It just burned -- it didn't try to convert video, convert audio, cook your breakfast, etc. It was a tool with a single task, and it was awesome at that task.
At that time, Nero was in version 5, and was unable to properly burn DVD-Video with IFO/BUP gapping. Nero still has this flaw, even a decade later.
Adaptec Easy CD-DVD Creator was even worse than Nero. The program would later be part of the software division spun off by Adaptec, known as Roxio. Most people quit referring to the software by the long-to-type/long-to-say "Easy CD DVD Creator" and therein often refer to it simply as "Roxio" (similar to "Nero"). Then Roxio was bought out by Sonic Solutions. Sonic was then bought out by Rovi (which now owns MainConcept and Divx). Phew!
Before the Roxio purchase, Sonic had also bought RecordNow from Veritas (which was itself merging with
Symantec). For a short time, the RecordNow name was used on a new burning program, which skipped from RNM version 4.x to the new RecordNow 7 -- seemingly skipping several versions. Sonic also maintained updates for the PXengine, adding new burners, such as the Pioneer 109. However, the new RecordNow wasn't really the same program. By all accounts, it appeared to be a new burning program entirely, simply using the RecordNow name, even though it used the PXengine. It was massively disliked by former RecordNow users, with many of them defecting to the then-new Prassi ONES (unrelated to the old Prassi company), which was based on the same PXengine.
But ONES was considered somewhat pricey at roughly $100, considering that all it did was burn discs. RecordNow has been about half that cost. ONES was also somewhat buggy in the early days, leaving many RecordNow Max users still dissatisfied. (Note that Prassi is now a defunct company, and ONES is no longer officially available.)
After the UK programmer "LightningUK!" abandoned
DVD Decrypter, he focused on creating the effective DVD-Video burning freeware
ImgBurn. For the past few years,
ImgBurn has been the de facto burning program preferred by many amateurs, hobbyists and professionals alike. It's free, it's works perfectly, and it's an all-around perfect burning tool. Between bugs, price, and this new freeware, Prassi ONES became obsolete.
RecordNow still exists, though it's even more divorced from the burning tasks that earned its popularity. As Nero and Roxio (then Sonic) had been doing for many years, the software was further turned into a lousy "all-in-one" type of tool, and is currently marketed heavily towards consumer music recording. It's now sold under the Roxio brand by Rovi:
See RecordNow 10 at Roxio.com
Why Use RecordNow Max for Burning?
Honestly, you probably shouldn't!
RecordNow Max is abandonware -- abandoned because the companies that made it are gone, and the fact that it's so dated as to be almost useless for most people. Only users of old hardware would ever have interest in it -- and even then, it's been supplanted by newer freewares.
RecordNow Max is limited by the PXengine in use, which was (to my knowledge) long ago abandoned by Sonic/Rovi in favor of whatever it uses now. So unless your burner happens to be from 2006 or older, then
you're better off using ImgBurn. Unlike RecordNow, ImgBurn also properly burns DVD+R DL to DVD-Video format, with proper layer breaks and file gapping.
ImgBurn is available at the official mirror:
http://fileforum.betanews.com/detail...n/1128426215/1
I've also attached the current version to this post, for your convenience.
Download / Installation
To download the files, simply
register for the forum (it's free!), and then login and download the file below. That's it. Your e-mail address is not sold (no spam!), and you'll be joining a community dedicated to digital media topics -- especially when it comes to creating high quality DVDs! We do this to prevent leeching and download abuse.
Attached below is the installer, archived inside a ZIP file. If you're not sure what a ZIP file is, or how to easily re-join all the pieces, read the
instructions on how to use RAR and ZIP files.
To install RecordNow Max, you'll need to:
- Install Stomp RecordNow v3.
- Upgrade v3 to Veritas RecordNow Max v4.5 Upgrade
- Installed the RecordNow 4 PXengine update
- And optionally, you can try to install the final PX engine made by Sonic in 2009 (note that I've not tested this)
An older post in this forum has another PXengine update specific to the Pioneer 109 and its NEC clone. (I forget the model, it was probably the 2500, 2550 or 3500, if I had to guess. If you're still using this burner, you'll probably know what's what. Feel free to add to this thread, by replying to this post.)
And click the THANKS button if this has helped you. 
