There are actually several impressive programs out there that can be used as a replacement for commercial CD and DVD writers such as Nero Burning Rom. They are interesting not only for users who do not buy a commercial products but also for those that feel that those commercial applications have become so bloated with features that their responsiveness has gone down the hill.
The list of free CD and DVD burning software tries to list all applications that can be used as an replacement. Those programs had to meet some requirements though. They had to be free, be able to burn CDs and DVDs, be able to burn images like iso and be able to burn files from the hard drives which includes audio and video CDs and DVDs.
The requirements have reduced the field quite a bit because several applications support only a few of them. Burrrn for instance is only able to burn audio CDs. It’s an excellent program but it can’t burn anything else but audio CDs. The same can be said for ImgBurn which does a very good job when it comes to disc images but can’t burn files from your hard drive.
It basically comes down to the following programs: Infra Recorder and CD Burner XP
All two open fast and are very responsive to user input. I tried to write a short description of each application below concentrating on strengths and weaknesses.
CD Burner XP
CD Burner XP looks clean and crisp and supports many features when it comes to burning CDs and DVDs. As with Infra Recorder it only supports a limited amount of image formats, those are iso, nrg and bin. Besides that it’s complete. You can burn audio and video CDs and DVDs with ease.
It supports multi-sessions and bootable media and even Blu-Ray, HD-DVD, and Double layer DVDs.
Infra Recorder:
Infra Recorder can be installed as a desktop or portable application and supports most operations that I require. A major drawback in my opinion is the missing support for several disc image formats such as img, mds and nrg. It only supports iso, bin and cue images.
It can create Video DVDs and Audio CDs as well as Data DVDs and CDs which will be sufficient for most users I think. I personally would not use it because of the lacking support for several image formats though.
Conclusion:
Both applications are fine programs and both lack support for several important image formats. I personally prefer Infra Recorder though because it does not open a “what do you want to burn” popup at startup. It all comes down to personal preference at the end I think.
I personally think that both can replace commercial products such as Nero unless support for image formats such as nrg or mds is needed.
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StarBurn is also free and it is a much better Nero alternative in my opinion…
http://www.rocketdivision.com/download_starburn.html
StarBurn looks like program for children :D
I think I will use CD Burner XP as more lightweight than Nero. I also dont like a “what do you want to burn” popup ;]
ImgBurn can’t burn files from your hard drive?
I use ImgBurn 2.3.2.0 all the time to burn files from my hard drive!
All you have to do is go into build mode. menu= Mode -> Build. Select the files and folders you want to copy. Select the optical drive. Then click the Write button.
In retrospect, I can’t blame the writer Martin, ImgBurn was a pain to learn how to use.
ImgBurn works just fine, and I personally think the usability is great, for most pre-defined images, that is ;)
And if you take the installer-package, a right-click on the img in the explorer, “Burn with ImgBurn”…doesn’t get any easier than that at all…
I’m also big fan of the StarBurn! What I don’t understand is “program for children”. I personally prefer to have ONE windows and ONE button to do everything what I want. Complicated things like burning should not be also GUI complicated! Look what Mac guys have. Everything is cool, simple and absolutely stright-forward. I’m not ashamed to use simple to use software :)
Arigato!
-ichiro
Your opinions here are entirely unclear.
Under Infra Recorder you write “I personally would not use it because of the lacking support for several image formats though”.
And under the Conclusion you write “I personally prefer Infra Recorder though”.
So… you prefer Infra Recorder over CD Burn XP, but you dislike Infra Recorder enough that you will not use it?
Based on this topic, I tried both CD Burn XP and Infra Recorder with hope. As always seems the case with this type of freeware, neither burned VOBs to a DVD that could successfully be read by either of our standalone DVD players in the household. Yet, the same VOB files on a DVD burned by either Nero or Roxio products can be read successfully. (Media used and DVD burner hardware the same in all instances.)
What is it about the Nero & Roxio solutions that make them superior and hassle-free to use with VOB files to be played on a standalone player?
I Have a CD & DVD Burner. But I can’t use them any more. I lost them when I used a DVD Burner without knowing what I was doing.
I used to use the CD for Pictures and Songs only.
Nero 6 Ultra Edition 6.6.1.4 was the recorder I used.
I did not use it for DVD Burner until I got some DVD-+RW last Friday.
I emailed Nero and got a reply
Thank you for your e-mail. This is an automatic message to verify that your e-mail has arrived and that it is currently waiting to be processed.
I did not hear from from anyone about Help. Then I found a help manual.
but It was no good explaining what I needed to know.
But I have managed to mess up 4 DVD+RW discs trying to burn
pictures from a few campers I go camping with.
Then I got InfraRecorder http://infrarecorder.sourceforge.net/.
I know they work, the DVD recorder anyway. I managed to erase one disc so far. But I had to throw away 4 DVD+RW disc’s I used while useing Nero.
Anyone here use InfraRecorder? Can you explain what I need to burn a bunch of still pictures on a DVD+RW Disc? I use a Pioneer DVD-RW DVR-109 1.09. and using Maxwell DVR+RW 4.7GB / 2 Hrs SP Mode. I need to write a Multi-Session Disc.
Or another free recorder that works?
Thank you for your Entry., It’s very useful! :)