Burning DVDs with Windows DVD Maker in Vista

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to Windows Reference RSS feed Thanks for visiting!

You can also burn DVDs using Vista, but you use a different application to do it. The Windows DVD Maker helps you create DVDs containing pictures. You start this application by choosing Start–>All Programs–>Windows DVD Maker.

The following steps tell how to burn a DVD.

1. Place a blank DVD in the DVD drive.

2. Click Choose Photos and Videos. You’ll see a Windows DVD Maker window that contains a blank area to hold video, audio, and picture files.

3. Click Add Items. Add any items that the Windows DVD Maker supports (approximately the same set of files that the Windows Media Player supports). Any music that you choose will get added to a slide show if you create one.

4. Click the Options link. You’ll see the DVD Options dialog box.Notice especially the Video format area. Make sure you choose the right output format for the video.
You can also choose elements such as whether to start with a menu.

5. Select the options for your DVD and click OK. Click Next. You’ll see a Ready to Burn Disk window . This window lets you change the menu options, choose a menu background, and modify the menu text. At the very least, you’ll want to click Menu Text, type a new title in the Disk title field, and click Change Text.

6. Customize the menu as needed, and then click Burn. Windows DVD Maker creates a DVD
for you based on your selections.

After what seems like days, you’ll receive a DVD you can place in any DVD player. Depending on the options you choose, the DVD will start at a menu, provide a full play option, and let you select particular scenes. Overall, the ability to create both full motion video and slideshows is impressive in Vista. However, you can’t rip DVDs, which means that you can’t perform manipulations of existing DVDs like you can when using other products such as Roxio’s Nero.