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. 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. Naturally, there is software for copying data from one source to a DVD disc. 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.
Slight color variations in the shiny coating on a disc are sometimes the only clue to what format it's for. The new removable medium for long-term storage of data is the DVD disc.Ī DVD disc looks almost the same as a CD: same size, same shiny plastic platter. You should find that they are just as capable as their paid-for rivals, covering everything from basic disc burning to impressive video DVD creation.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. That's why we've gathered the five best completely free DVD burners for you to try. As ever, there are plenty of free options to choose from, but you need to know that you're getting the right tool for the job. There's no shortage of DVD burning software, but tools from the likes of Nero and Roxio can be too expensive for some people. You would be forgiven for thinking that optical storage was all but dead by now, but in spite of these expectations – and competition from USB drives, cloud storage and so on – recordable CDs and DVDs live on.įor basic, day-to-day needs, Windows includes support for disc burning, but if you want to anything more advanced than simply copying files from your hard drive to a DVD, you're going to need something a little more powerful.