gHacks Technology News | Latest Tech News, Software And Tutorials » cd burning software http://www.ghacks.net A technology news blog covering software, mobile phones, gadgets, security, the Internet and other relevant areas. Sat, 11 Feb 2012 17:32:23 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 Free CD Burning Softwarehttp://www.ghacks.net/2009/12/21/free-cd-burning-software/ http://www.ghacks.net/2009/12/21/free-cd-burning-software/#comments Mon, 21 Dec 2009 16:44:45 +0000 Martin Brinkmann http://www.ghacks.net/?p=21672 If you ask tech savvy users for CD burning software recommendations they usually propose Nero Burning Rom as the commercial software to pick but chance is that they will list five to ten free CD burning software programs. Not all of the free alternatives to Nero provide all the features that Nero comes with but most do a very fine job when it comes to basic CD, DVD and Blu-Ray burning tasks.

But money is not the only issue for most users. Nero has become bloated over time with lots of additional burning tools that most users do not need. The free CD burning alternatives are usually lightweight and tend to concentrate on the popular operations that most users do when burning CDs.

ImgBurn

The review could probably end here as ImgBurn is a complete CD burning software. It supports a wide variety of disk images, most Microsoft operating systems, video CDs, DVDs, HD DVD and Blu-Ray disks as well as audio CDs.

The only drawback is that its usage can be complicated at the beginning. The developers are however offering guides on their website (linked from the burning software) which guide the user in completing specific tasks.

  • Supported disk formats: BIN, CUE, DI, DVD, GI, IMG, ISO, MDS, NRG and PDI.
  • Unicode support: Yes
  • Operating Systems: Windows 95+ including 32-bit and 64-bit editions of Windows Vista and Windows 7
  • Video: Video CD, Video DVD, HD DVD Video and Blu-Ray Video support
  • Audio CDs: Yes, burn directly from AAC, APE, FLAC, M4A, MP3, MP4, MPC, OGG, PCM, WAV, WMA and WV formats

ImgBurn is a lightweight software that offers CD burning operations for the majority of users out there. It offers a wizard and manual CD burning mode.

ImgBurn Download

CDBurner XP

CDBurner XP is another popular CD burning software. It supports the same amount of disk types that ImgBurn supports including various types of CD and DVD disks but also HD-DVD and Blu-Ray disks.

Usage is a little bit easier than that of ImgBurn but the limited amount of supported disk image formats makes it unusable for some users who need to work with those formats.

  • Supported disk formats: ISO but can also convert nrg and bin to ISO.
  • Unicode support: Yes
  • Operating Systems: Windows 2000/XP/2003 Server/Vista/2008/Windows 7
  • Video: Video CD, Video DVD, HD DVD Video and Blu-Ray Video support
  • Audio CDs: Yes, burn directly from mp2, mp3, wav, bwf,ogg, flac, wma, aiff, wv, ape, mpc, mp4 and m4a formats
  • other features: lightscribe support, command line options, cover printing

CDBurner XP download

InfraRecorder

InfraRecorder is an Open Source CD burning software that is provided as a portable version and an installer. The interface is similar to that of CDBurner XP with its two pane explorer like interface.

The free CD burning software has limited disk format support and does not offer the means to burn HD or Blu-Ray videos.

  • Supported disk formats: ISO, BIN, CUE
  • Unicode support: Yes
  • Operating Systems: Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows Server 2003/2008, 32-bit and 64-bit editions
  • Video: Video CD and Video DVD support (?)
  • Audio CDs: Yes, burn directly from .wav, .wma, .ogg, .mp3 formats
  • other features: Open Source, portable version

InfraRecorder download

Explore & Burn

The burning software comes with Windows Explorer integration from where the burning operations are started. This makes the program comfortable to use but it also means that several features are missing from the program.

  • Supported disk formats: ISO, IMG
  • Unicode support: Yes
  • Operating Systems: Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows Server 2003/2008, 32-bit and 64-bit editions
  • Video: Video CD and Video DVD support (?)
  • Audio CDs: Yes

Ashampoo Burning Studio Free

This is a free version of a commercial software from Ashampoo. It offers a solid functionality and support for a limited number of disk image formats.

  • Supported disk formats: ISO, CUE, BIN
  • Unicode support: Yes
  • Operating Systems: Windows 2K / XP / Vista and Windows 7
  • Video: Create Video CDs and Video DVDs, burn CD, DVD and Blu-Ray video disks.
  • Audio CDs: Yes, support of WAV, MP3, FLAC, WMA and Ogg Vorbis
  • other features: audio CD ripper

download Ashampoo Burning Studio Free

Verdict:

ImgBurn is the free CD burning software with the largest support of different disk image formats and audio formats making it an ideal solution for users who want the greatest compatibility.

Are you using one of those CD burning programs that are reviewed in this post? Or are you using another program that has not been included but should be? Let us know in the comments.

]]> http://www.ghacks.net/2009/12/21/free-cd-burning-software/feed/ 12 Lightweight Disc Burning Software UsefulUtils Discs Studiohttp://www.ghacks.net/2009/08/09/lightweight-disc-burning-software-usefulutils-discs-studio/ http://www.ghacks.net/2009/08/09/lightweight-disc-burning-software-usefulutils-discs-studio/#comments Sun, 09 Aug 2009 13:41:39 +0000 Martin Brinkmann http://www.ghacks.net/?p=15183 microsoft windowsThere is definitely no shortage of free disc burning software programs for the Windows operating system. Programs like ImgBurn, Cdrtfe or Infrarecorder are only a few of the applications that have been reviewed at Ghacks in the past.

UsefulUtils Discs Studio is another lightweight disc burning software. The 500-something Kilobyte download will install a utility that can perform most disc burning operations on the computer system. It can burn data, audio and video disc and supports the most popular disc image formats as well including iso, img, bin, mdf and nrg.

The process is a little bit easier than in our favorite burning software ImgBurn. The explorer-like interface can be used to select files and add them to the queue. It is possible to burn the disc right away or configure some of the parameters before doing so.

disc burning software

Here is a list of supported features:

  • SCSI, ATAPI, Parallel port, USB (1.1 and 2.0) and FireWire (IEEE 1394) devices support
  • OverBurning (in UUDS – HyperBurning) support
  • Supported BUP (Buffer Underrun Protection)
  • Bootable discs burning
  • Multisessional discs burning
  • Support of MP3, WMA, ASF, OGG, FLAC (if codecs are installed), WAV formats
  • Support of ISO, UDF, IMG, BIN, MDF, XMF, NRG, BWI, B5I, CDI, PDI formats
  • Audiotracks ripping with converting to: WMA, MP3, OGG, FLAC. FreeDB support

UsefulUtils Discs Studio is a free and lightweight disc burning software program for most Windows operating systems including Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7. The website is showing up in Russian by default. A click on the British flag will change the language to English.

]]> http://www.ghacks.net/2009/08/09/lightweight-disc-burning-software-usefulutils-discs-studio/feed/ 14 Grab A Copy Of Nero 9 Free Editionhttp://www.ghacks.net/2009/07/31/grab-a-copy-of-nero-9-free-edition/ http://www.ghacks.net/2009/07/31/grab-a-copy-of-nero-9-free-edition/#comments Fri, 31 Jul 2009 06:57:17 +0000 Martin Brinkmann http://www.ghacks.net/?p=14918 microsoft windowsThe DVD burning software Nero evolved from a lighting fast application to burn CDs and DVDs to a bloated monstrosity in the last ten years. The latest versions come with so many modules and additional applications that most users hardly use. Yes, some may appreciate that Nero 9 can convert media files, let users watch multimedia files in the application or create music mixes but most users likely prefer otherwise.

The makers of Nero are now offering a stripped down version of Nero 9 for free on their website. Well, not totally free but if you give up an email address you can download and use the Nero 9 free edition. Nero 9 Free is only offering data disk burning and disk copying functionality. It still has a size of more than 55 Megabytes.

Nero 9 Free can be downloaded from the Nero website, or if that is preferred, from third party download portals like Softpedia where the download is also hosted. The benefit of downloading Nero 9 Free from these download portals is that no email address needs to be supplied before downloading the DVD burning software.

Nero 9 Free turns out to be Nero 9 Essentials which is a version of Nero that gets only distributed with hardware purchases. It should also be noted that the program will suggest to install the Ask Toolbar during installation. Make sure to uncheck the box if you do not want to install it.

Users who prefer lightweight might want to try out alternatives such as ImgBurn, Ashampoo Burning Studio Free or the recommendations in our best free burning software thread. Thanks Dante for the tip.

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