DVD burning software

Forums › Digital Imaging › DVD burning software

1 | 2

quickymart

14940 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 13954

ID Verified

#3399542 3-Aug-2025 15:50

Thanks again for all the suggestions, much appreciated. I've been out of action over the weekend, however will pick up some blank DVD-R's and have another look at this this week coming 🙂

Oubre

1 post

Wannabe Geek
+1 received by user: 1

#3402078 12-Aug-2025 14:53

Back when I used ImgBurn to transfer MiniDV to DVD+R, my Toshiba SD1009 player couldn't read it. Blamed the software and bought Cisdem's DVD burner, turns out their support team told me that I should switch to DVD-R discs instead.

quickymart

14940 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 13954

ID Verified

#3429905 1-Nov-2025 20:18

Right, I downloaded ImgBurn as suggested above tonight. It has plenty of guides but these are mostly on how to create image files etc; my dilemma is I just want to drag-and-drop these .mp4 files and get them burnt onto the DVD. Having a menu displayed when the DVD is inserted to select the desired video file would be great as well.

Can someone please give me a step-by-step or point me in the direction of a guide (screenshots preferred) that outlines the process? Thanks in advance 🙂

fe31nz

1294 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 423

#3429931 2-Nov-2025 00:45

Do your target DVD players need authored DVDs, or can they just play files from a data DVD? ImgBurn does not create authored DVDs. It can create data DVDs using the "Write files/folders to disk" option. If you need authored DVDs (as you seem to), then you need to use DVD authoring software (such as DVDFab) to create an authored DVD image, which DVDFab can burn to a DVD or you can use ImgBurn to burn images to a DVD. Free DVD authoring software does exist, but there is not a huge selection, probably due to licensing requirements for DVDs. A little searching found this for Windows:

https://www.dvdflick.net

It looks like it can do what you want.

But if the target DVD player can just play files directly from a data DVD, that is usually a better option as the files need to be converted to MPEG2 for authored DVDs, and any conversion inevitably decreases the quality of the video. Each DVD player that can play files from a data DVD can normally only play a restricted set of video file types. Usually they can play .mp4 files, but not necessarily the highest quality versions of the .mp4 format, with the CABAC option or the Hiqh@L4 profile for example. Finding exact documentation of the supported formats is usually impossible. So it is often just a case of burning a data DVD and seeing if the file can be played. Which is where it is best to have some DVD-RW rewritable disks to test with before burning (semi)permanent DVD-R versions.

Do not expect DVD-R disks to last forever either. With good DVD-R disks and careful storage, you may get a decent lifetime, but it it best not to expect more than just 5 years or so as even "good" brands of DVD-Rs can have bad batches. Pressed DVDs last a lot longer, but even they do fail after a long time sometimes. I had to get a new copy of a DVD that was 20 years old and failed - fortunately the producer of the DVD was happy to ship me a new copy (and it was still on sale!), after I emailed them photos of the damaged DVD. They only charged me shipping costs from the USA. So do not choose DVD format for archival storage unless you own a DVD authoring and pressing machine, and even then you need to keep several copies. With data DVD-R disks, it is possible to burn error correction data to the disk alongside the files - there are several options for this, such as PAR2 files. That allows you to have a significant number of errors in the files and still be able to recover them.

quickymart

14940 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 13954

ID Verified

#3429941 2-Nov-2025 07:50

Thanks, I'll have a look at that. No, I need something where my family have a menu that lets them select the video to watch on their DVD remote, not something that just holds the files.

If DVD authoring software is the only way to do this, I'll need to go down that road then.

robjg63

4161 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 1427

Subscriber

#3430044 2-Nov-2025 11:04

fe31nz:

Do your target DVD players need authored DVDs, or can they just play files from a data DVD? ImgBurn does not create authored DVDs. It can create data DVDs using the "Write files/folders to disk" option. If you need authored DVDs (as you seem to), then you need to use DVD authoring software (such as DVDFab) to create an authored DVD image, which DVDFab can burn to a DVD or you can use ImgBurn to burn images to a DVD. Free DVD authoring software does exist, but there is not a huge selection, probably due to licensing requirements for DVDs. A little searching found this for Windows:

https://www.dvdflick.net

It looks like it can do what you want.

But if the target DVD player can just play files directly from a data DVD, that is usually a better option as the files need to be converted to MPEG2 for authored DVDs, and any conversion inevitably decreases the quality of the video. Each DVD player that can play files from a data DVD can normally only play a restricted set of video file types. Usually they can play .mp4 files, but not necessarily the highest quality versions of the .mp4 format, with the CABAC option or the Hiqh@L4 profile for example. Finding exact documentation of the supported formats is usually impossible. So it is often just a case of burning a data DVD and seeing if the file can be played. Which is where it is best to have some DVD-RW rewritable disks to test with before burning (semi)permanent DVD-R versions.

Do not expect DVD-R disks to last forever either. With good DVD-R disks and careful storage, you may get a decent lifetime, but it it best not to expect more than just 5 years or so as even "good" brands of DVD-Rs can have bad batches. Pressed DVDs last a lot longer, but even they do fail after a long time sometimes. I had to get a new copy of a DVD that was 20 years old and failed - fortunately the producer of the DVD was happy to ship me a new copy (and it was still on sale!), after I emailed them photos of the damaged DVD. They only charged me shipping costs from the USA. So do not choose DVD format for archival storage unless you own a DVD authoring and pressing machine, and even then you need to keep several copies. With data DVD-R disks, it is possible to burn error correction data to the disk alongside the files - there are several options for this, such as PAR2 files. That allows you to have a significant number of errors in the files and still be able to recover them.

It's been years since I created a DVD from a video file - but that rings a bell as something I used.

If you know the make/model ofthe target DVD player - that could help.

Its possible that some support you just burning mp4 files onto a DVD (as a data disk) and will recognise (and play) the file(s) without it being a DVD authored disk (if that makes sense)

Nothing is impossible for the man who doesn't have to do it himself - A. H. Weiler

1 | 2