Free DVD Burning Software

DVD Burning Software

Remember CD-ROM discs? Soon CDs will join floppy discs in the pages of history, filed under "obsolete." Most users still have the ability to use CDs but every day fewer actually do so. The new removable medium for long-term storage of data is the DVD disc.

A DVD disc looks almost the same as a CD: same size, same shiny plastic platter. Slight color variations in the shiny coating on a disc are sometimes the only clue to what format it's for. But DVD discs hold about 8 times more data than CDs (twice that if you have a double-sided DVD), and that makes DVD the preferred choice for today's offline storage needs.

Naturally, there is software for copying data from one source to a DVD disc. The copying process is called "burning" a DVD because a laser beam literally melts tiny pits into the shiny surface of a disc to record bits of data. DVD burning software manages the selection of files to be copied; the order in which they will be burned to disc; the steady feeding of data to the DVD drive; and the verification that the data written to DVD is exactly the same as the source data.

Of course you'll need an optical drive that's capable of writing to a DVD disc, too. Most computers now include a CD/DVD drive that can act as a DVD burner, but you should check to see that the drive is labelled "DVD R/RW" or similar.

DVD Burning Software - Free and Commercial

There are many retail DVD burning programs. Ahead Software's Nero 9 is arguably the best known. A slimmed-down version of Nero is often bundled with new computers, giving users a taste and a tease for advanced video editing and other features in the retail version. Roxio Easy Creator is another DVD burning program often bundled with new computers. It, too, is given away free in limited form.

Windows 7 and Vista (Home Premium and higher editions) include Microsoft's DVD Maker software. You can access DVD Maker through the All Programs option on the Start menu or use the Publish option in Windows Movie Maker HD, the movie authoring and editing application. Some users have reported difficulties with Windows DVD Maker when the size of the batch files to be copied is close to the capacity of the DVD disc.

Most Mac OS X users have DVD burning software built into their machines. It's callled iDVD and it's found in the iLife application suite installed by default with the operating system. You can also burn to DVD disk music using iTunes or photos using iPhoto; these are also found in the iLife suite.

If you use Ubuntu or some other Linux flavor that runs the Gnome desktop, the Brasero and Nautilus CD/DVD burning applications will do the job.

Third-party free DVD burning software is abundant. A key factor is the ability to burn not only DVD discs but the Blu-Ray format, which is rapidly gaining acceptance. Blu-Ray has even greater capacity than DVD and is very useful for burning high-definition video files that may take up gigabytes of storage space.

AVS Disc Creator is one of the first free, Blu-Ray capable DVD burning programs. It supports CD-R/RW, DVD+/-RW, DVD+/-R, Double/Dual Layer DVD, and BD-R and BD-RE, the latest in Blu-ray technology.

Ashampoo Burning Studio does everything from CDs to Blu-Ray, costs nothing, and comes without adware or toolbars. It is especially good at backups and restoring files.

What DVD burning software do you prefer? Post your comment or question below...