I had a similar experience with Nero, being surprised how well it worked after having been an EZ user.

I still have to keep EZ on my machine, though. There are some situations when I still need it. For example, sometimes I have to burn the alpha-test images for the upgrade CDs for the HSX-109, since I'm on the beta testing team. I discovered that Nero would not burn them properly, I made nothing but coasters when I used Nero with those particular files. Only EZ would properly burn those files. In theory, they were just standard ISO image files, but somehow EZ did the right thing and Nero did not. If I recall correctly, the symptom with Nero-burned CDs is that the CD would function fine right up until the very end of the upgrade, somewhere after the 90 percent mark, then it would crash. I never got to the bottom of the problem, I just discovered that EZ did the right thing.

The reason I started using Nero was because it will create VCD still-image slide shows from my raw JPGs. This lets me create "test pattern" VCDs that I can put in my DVD player and run on my rear-projection television to help calibrate it. This is a rather cool feature of Nero for non-techies, too: you can drop a bunch of photos onto Nero and it'll make a photo-album VCD that will play on a DVD player.