Norton's at the very top of my crapware list. When setting up a friend's computer or doing a full restore from disc, it's the first thing to go. From sad experience, I've used the Norton Uninstall Tool. Otherwise, an install can bugger the comp, which means a do over. Now, this may no longer be true with later versions, I dunno.
So what's bad about it? Bloat. It sets hooks everywhere. It degrades system performance significantly. One could go on...
It seems in every category, there's a program like Norton.
For video, it's Pinnacle stuff, particularly Studio. Hugely bloated, unstable, takes forever to render. Outputs only PCM (maybe they've fixed that in current versions), doesn't even offer MP2, much less AC3. Spend a day doing a project only to lose it all when the prog locks up. Bleh.
Nero's another one. Now, I know lots of folks like it, and the core application, the Burning ROM, is alright. It's all the junk extras that typically get installed that are bad. There's a freeware alternative for every single one of them that is superior, not to mention having a smaller footprint. Did I mention Nero is bloated?
Oh yeah, don't use it for DVD-Video, it's not fully compliant. It fails to set a 32k gap between IFOs and BUPs. One bad sector in the wrong place and there goes the DVD navigation.
Pardon me for straying off-topic.