Windows users have lots of alternatives at hand, to name a few: Tiny Burner, ISO CD Burner or Ashampoo Burning Studio Free.

Hamster Free Burning Studio falls right in line with those programs. The program, which is currently available as a beta version at the developer site, supports CDs, DVDs and Blu-Rays. The main menu lists the available options. Here it is possible to create a data CD or DVD, or Copy a CD or DVD. Options are provided to switch to a minimal mode or full mode, the latter is suggested as it resembles the interface that most burning programs share.

The limitations to only copy or create CDs or DVDs will likely be lifted once the program leaves beta. For now, it is only possible to run those tasks. This limits the functionality, as it is not possible to use the program to burn a music CD or video DVD at this point in time. The disabled Media Studio button will likely add that functionality to the burning software. Another functionality that is not included yet is the option to backup data, which will also be added in a later version. The final release has the following capabilities:

Hamster Free Burning Studio performs the most popular operations with laser disks: data burning, backup copying, creating music disks, cloning DVDs, CDs or BluRay.

Free Burning Studio can read ISO images and burn those to disc. It can furthermore erase re-writable discs.

The program itself is promising, the lack of features however limits its use right now to copying and burning data discs. Windows users who would like to try Free Burning Studio can download the current program version from the developer website. The software is compatible with all 32-bit and 64-bit editions of the Windows operating system.

When you start Tiny Burner for the first time you notice that it launches both the main media burning interface plus a small always on top area that can acts as a drag and drop pod for files and folders. These are then automatically added to the active project.

The small drop area displays the total number of files and the total file size which can be handy to avoid adding more data than what can be burned on the inserted blank disc.

Tiny Burner is largely a file writer, support for different image formats is nearly non-existent. Only iso images are supported which is a severe limitation. Even audio CDs and DVDs do not seem to be supported by the program.

You can create and burn iso images from the Tools menu. Everything else is handled from the main program interface. Files and folders can be added with a right-click and the selection of the appropriate action from the context menu, via the File menu or one of the buttons of the main toolbar.

The total size of the current compilation, the available space on disc and the total disc space are displayed conveniently on the program’s status bar.

Controls are available to switch writers and to change the speed of the writing process. Compilations can be saved as projects which is handy if you want to burn the files again in the future, or need to add additional data to the compilation.

The core benefits of Tiny Burner are the minimalistic, easy to use interface and overall burning process, that it can be used commercially and that it supports all common CD, DVD. HD-DVD and Blu-Ray writers.

Some users will find the lack of supported image formats appalling, which is by far the biggest point of criticism.

The free burning software Tiny Burner supports 32-bit and 64-bit of the Windows operating system. Downloads and additional information are provided at the developer website.

Lightscribe allows the user to print designs directly on the upper side of a CD and DVD. The advantage of this method is that it does not use ink but laser etching.

A compatible DVD burner is only one component that is needed. The other two are a recordable disc that supports Lightscribe as well plus a Lightscribe driver and a DVD burning software or CD labeling program supporting Lightscribe.

That sounds like a lot of requirements. The Lightscribe driver that is needed can be downloaded from the official website for Windows, Linux and Macintosh systems. The download is labeled LIGHTSCRIBE SYSTEM SOFTWARE (LSS).

You also need to buy media that is supporting the Lightscribe technology.

LightScribe CDs and DVDs have a special coating that interacts with the laser in your LightScribe-enabled disc drive. You must use LightScribe CDs and DVDs in order to burn a label onto your discs.

Lightscribe DVDs start at about 0,30 Dollar or Euro a piece which is a little bit more than one would pay for standard media. The Lightscribe discs have the same Lightscribe logo on their covers.

The last part that is needed is a Lightscribe software that can process the disc surface to apply the design. A free software program that supports Lightscribe is CD Burner XP.

The process would then look like the following:

• Put the Lightscribe disc into the Lightscribe compatible CD or DVD burner.
• Burn the data as usual.
• Turn over the disk so that the program can etch the design on the upper side of the CD or DVD.

Lightscribe obviously has to be configured in the software program. Designs can be created individually or downloaded from the official design center or other resources. Additional labeling programs are linked in the download section of the Lightscribe website.

Lightscribe software might not work sometimes as expected. HP has created a Lightscribe Diagnostic software that can be used to analyse the Lightscribe functionality on a system in detail. The Lightscribe System Software needs to be installed on the computer system before the diagnostics tool can be used.

The troubleshooting application can be used to detect software settings, compatible drives and media, check the event log, error files and look up error codes directly in the software.

Have you used the Lightscribe technology before? What was your experience with it?

This article exemplifies how to burn a DVD with the free DVD burning software ImgBurn, which can be used for all DVD burning tasks. In addition to the standard ISO format, ImgBurn supports a wide variety of alternative disc image formats including BIN, CUE, DI, DVD, GI, IMG, MDS, NRG and PDI.

Burning Disk Images

Burning a disk image is probably the easiest of all the DVD burning operations in ImgBurn. Users have two options to perform that operation. The first is to load the disk image directly in ImgBurn by right-clicking the disk image in Windows Explorer and selecting to open it with the DVD burning software. The second option is to open ImgBurn first and then click on the Write image file to disk option in the launch wizard. It is then necessary to select the disc image manually by browsing the file system.The user may now insert a blank DVD into the drive and click the DVD burning icon to initiate the burn process.

Burning Files And Folders

One of the options in the ImgBurn launch wizard is to write files and folders to disc. This opens a new window from where files and folders can be added to the DVD.

The left area with the source title is used to add the files and folders. Buttons on the right can be used to add metadata to the DVD. The calculator icon on the right side will display the size of all files and folders that have been added to the DVD. By default, ImgBurn assumes a single layer DVD for the calculating disc information, however it will automatically switch to a dual layer DVD if the total selected files’ and folders’ size exceeds the storage capacity of a single layer disc. Dual layer DVDs can store almost double the amount of data that single layer DVDs can. Most options in the configuration window can be left untouched. The destination menu can be used to select one of the DVD recorders if more than one device is connected to the computer system.

Inserting a blank disc into the active DVD burner will activate the “Burn DVD” icon to start the DVD burning process. ImgBurn will automatically display the default volume labels, which can be changed in that dialog.

The burning process can take some time depending on the type of DVD, the data that has been selected to be burned and the speed of the DVD burner. ImgBurn displays the elapsed time as well as the time remaining to complete the process in the progress window. Upon completion a confirmation dialog about the successful (or unsuccessful) job is displayed. It is recommended to write information about the contents of the DVD directly on the disc’s label surface so that it becomes easier to identify them. We recommend a special DVD pen for this to avoid scratching the label surface or damaging the sensitive plastic disc material.

Burning Videos

ImgBurn can be used to burn a Video_TS folder directly to DVD. Burning a Video_TS folder is slightly more complicated than burning a disc image. Start by selecting Mode > Build from the menu bar. Make sure that the Output parameter in the menu bar is set to Device. Now click the Browse For Folder icon and select the Video_TS folder on the hard drive of the computer system.

Click the calculator icon to make sure the data will fit on a blank DVD, and after inserting a blank DVD into the DVD writer initiate the DVD burning process by clicking on the Burn A DVD icon.

Imgburn in this regard is only handy if a Video_TS folder is available, for instance after ripping a DVD to the PC to create a backup copy of it. However, the software will not automatically convert video files such as avis or mpgs to DVD format for playback on a DVD player. Two tools for converting such files are are the Open Source software DVD Flick and Free DVD Creator. Both applications support tens of video file formats and include their own DVD burning modules.

This concludes the tutorial on how to burn a DVD with ImgBurn. Please leave a comment if you have questions about the process, additions to the article or want to tell us how you burn DVDs on your computer.

ImgBurn was recently updated by the developer. The new version is available at the developer’s websites. Regular users of ImgBurn will notice some changes besides the updates to the program itself.

There are two adware related entries that might get installed during the installation of the DVD burning software if the user is not carefully selecting the options.

The program tries to place a Uniblue shortcut on the desktop and to install the Ask Toolbar. Both of which can be unselected so that they are not installed.

More problematic than those choices are three new entries in the Tools menu of the burning software that also lead to the Uniblue website.

These options do however not reduce the value of ImgBurn itself. The developer has fixed more than a dozen bugs in the new version and added or changed dozens of other features as well. Most of these new features and updates are under the hood and will likely not be recognized by most users.

The latest version of the DVD burning software ImgBurn can be downloaded from the developer’s website.

Explorer and Burn supports the two image formats iso and img which can also be burned directly by selecting them in Windows Explorer. The program requires the Image Mastering API v2.0 can be downloaded from the Microsoft website. Imapi 2.0 is included in Windows Vista and Windows 7 which means that only Windows XP users have to download the additional component.

Explore and Burn will display a wizard with a few DVD burning options that include specifying a disk burning speed and name. The disk can be finalized in the same menu. The program supports all major CD and DVD disk types and can burn single-session and multi-session discs with ISO-9660, Joliet and UDF file systems.

Explore And Burn is a hassle free DVD burning software that should be sufficient for many disk burning purposes. A few additional options would make it even more useful. This includes recognizing DVD video folders or the ability to burn audio disks by selecting audio files. Explore And Burn can be downloaded from the developer’s website. It is compatible with Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7.

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.

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.

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.

One great way of finding out how to perform a special operation in ImgBurn is to take a look at the guides that have been created by the developers. These guides explain how to burn a certain type of disk. They include guides on how to burn bootable Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7 operating system disks, audio CDs, DVD video, image files such as ISO or IMG and double-layer or Bu-Ray disks.

Even users with past experience with other DVD burning software might need to take a look at the guides to ensure they are performing the right steps to burn the disk the right way. All ImgBurn guides can be found on the ImgBurn website.

ImgBurn was recently updated to version 2.5 and the developer has published a huge list of changes, fixes and additions to that version. The program stays the same at its core which means it is still the lightweight DVD burning software that can be installed or used as a (unofficial) portable version instead.

Below are some of the more important changes introduced in this version of ImgBurn:

• An ‘Advanced’ input mode to build mode where you have total control over the layout of the disc and can add new folders, change names etc. (i.e. you’re no longer limited to burning an existing folder structure on your hard disc as-is)
• ImgBurn now adds itself to the context menu’s ‘Open With’ submenu for files it’s associated with.
• Support for burning CCD files.
• Support for building images using the ‘MODE2/FORM1/2352′ data type. (previously it only supported ‘MODE1/2048′)
• A check to ensure all the DVD Video files in a sequence are present. (i.e. it’ll prompt if VTS_XX_1.VOB and VTS_XX_3.VOB are present but VTS_XX_2.VOB isn’t)
• Detection of attempts to build Vista style OS installation discs (via the ‘sources\install.wim’ file) and the relevant prompting for conflicting settings, failing to make it bootable etc (same as an ‘I386′ install disc).

The new version of the DVD burning software can be downloaded directly from the developer’s website. It has a size of only 2 Megabytes, comes with many language translation files (e.g. German, Chinese, Russian, French and Spanish) and is compatible with all Microsoft operating systems from Windows 95 to Windows 7.

ImgBurn via Download Squad