DVD Burning Software.

As with many IT-related industries DVD burning software has increased dramatically in its use, affordability and usability within the last few years. Whether for backing up your essential information such as pictures to free up hard drive space, creating home movies or copies of your favourite films to watch on your stand alone player.

With so many functions it’s not surprising how popular it has become but it’s easy to get confused about where to start so I thought I would try and pass on some basic knowledge to get you started.

Software

My personal favourites are:

Nero: They aren’t the biggest name in the business for nothing, they offer an amazing all round program that gives all the DVD and CD capabilities you need, however, with all these features comes a bigger price tag and a lot of settings and lessons to be learnt; it can sometimes be hard to use. You can find more information at www.nero.com, but I suggest trying a site such as www.amazon.co.uk or your local high street for a more competitive price.

DVD Shrink: If you just want the basics and are unsure of your ability to use more complicated programs like Nero this is a cheaper and more reliable way to back up and burn DVDs easily. Try it free from www.download.com

DVD Santa: A big disadvantage is that this program doesn’t work for everyone but did for me and I found it to be incredibly cheap, easy to use and effective; it puts your DVD, avi files, photos or home movies straight on to a DVD with chapters already included in a few simple clicks. The encoding of video files can take a while, three to four hours, but is the same for most encoders I have used. To see if it works for you give the trial a go from www.download.com

Now all you need is a burning drive, simply go to My Computer and see if your drive(s) are RW, if not www.ebuyer.com or somewhere similar can supply you with good and affordable burners, they will most likely sell the blank DVDs too, now you’re ready to go. Happy burning!