DVD Burning in Windows XP
Published: November 25, 2002
By Don Jones, Windows XP Expert Zone Community Columnist
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After a recent trip to Walt Disney World, I found myself with a stack of tapes from my new digital camcorder. Coincidentally, I also found myself with a new computer that included a DVD-R drive, commonly referred to as a DVD burner. The gears in my head started to turn, and I thought, wow, wouldn't it be fun to make a vacation DVD! I could make copies and send them off to relatives, who would surely be impressed.
DVD burning is a great way to preserve your precious memories. DVDs tend to be more durable than their VHS counterparts, and it's unlikely that you'll accidentally record over your DVD vacation videos to tape the latest episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer! DVDs also add an extra cool factor to vacation videos, school plays, family reunions, and other special occasions, making preserving memories more enjoyable and creative.
Windows XP doesn't contain built-in support for burning DVDs. However, Microsoft plans on including built-in support for DVD write capability in the next version of Windows. For a look at the issues involved in planning and developing which DVD technologies to support, read the Windows Platform Development article, DVD Writing Support and Windows.
In the meantime, in this column I'll talk about finding Windows XP-compatible drivers for DVD drives, how to transfer and edit video on your PC, and how to use third-party software to burn great video to DVD.
DVD Burners and Drivers
Of course, having the right hardware is important. My computer has a DVD-R drive, although yours may include a DVD-RW, DVD+R, or DVD+RW drive. For vacation-video purposes, they're close enough to the same thing, so you just need to be sure you buy the matching blank media.
If you have a DVD-RAM drive, you're probably out of luck. DVD-RAM discs won't play in a standard DVD player. The other writable formats will play in most DVD players, although older players may have problems with some of the different formats. Check out the DVD Players Compatibility List for help determining what your DVD drive will support.
Here's an important note regarding your DVD drive: You must have Windows XP-compatible drivers. I know a lot of devices will work fine with Windows 2000 drivers, which are sometimes easier to find, but DVD burners are much pickier. If you get halfway into your DVD-making project and find out that your drive isn't working, then 99 times out of 100 it's because you don't have the right drivers. You'll need to contact the manufacturer of your drive or computer to obtain the proper drivers.
If you're planning to buy an add-on DVD burner, make sure the box includes Windows XP on its list of supported operating systems before you make your purchase. For help in locating drivers, see Finding Driver Information. Ideally, you should look for the "Designed for Windows XP" logo on the box to be sure the drive has been tested to work with Windows XP.
Transferring Video to Your PC
You'll also need a way to get your vacation videos into your computer. My camcorder has an IEEE 1394 connection and so does my computer, so I had a perfect match. Keep in mind that some camera and computer manufacturers refer to IEEE 1394 by brand names such as FireWire or iLink, but they all use identical plugs and are interchangeable.
Transfer Video to Your Computer is a great tutorial on getting your video footage onto your hard disk. Galan Bridgman's columns, Capturing Video from Analog Sources and Capturing Video from Digital Sources, also contain useful information on transferring video to your PC.
If you don't have a digital camcorder, you can pick up a DV bridge, such as the Dazzle Hollywood DV Bridge. This handy device lets you hook up an analog VCR or camcorder's video and audio outputs, and converts the audio/video stream into digital video over an IEEE 1394 connection.
Don't have an IEEE 1394 connection on your computer? You can always add one with inexpensive cards or you can use a USB 2.0 port, if you have one. Note that older USB 1.1 ports don't really provide sufficient speed for an efficient transfer of audio and video. Newer computers usually have USB 2.0 ports built in, and you can add one to older computers with inexpensive add-in cards. See my column, USB 2.0: High Speed at Last, for more information about how to add USB 2.0 support to your computer. Windows XP Service Pack 1 also contains additional support for USB 2.0 devices.
Video Editing with Windows Movie Maker
My vacation videos start out pretty much like everybody else's—boring. I spend too long pointing the camera at one thing, zoom too frequently, and jiggle the camera. Half the time I forget to turn off the camera and I get ten minutes of fascinating footage from inside the camera bag. Clearly, some editing is in order. Fortunately, Windows XP includes Windows Movie Maker, which lets me clean up my videos and make them fit for human consumption.
Make sure you have the latest version of Windows Movie Maker 2 by visiting Microsoft Update, or Windows Movie Maker 2. Also see Create Movies with Windows Movie Maker for more tips on how to use this video-editing tool.
As shown in Figure 1, I used Movie Maker to import my vacation video from my camcorder into my computer. After I'd fed it all of my video footage, Movie Maker converted the video into clips, which represent different scenes.
Figure 1
Movie Maker then let me reassemble my clips, leaving out the ones I didn't want (like the footage from inside the camera bag). I could also split clips into multiple pieces and recombine them in any way I wanted. I assembled the footage that I wanted to keep into a timeline at the bottom of the Movie Maker window, as shown in Figure 2. The end result is a movie that I'm pretty pleased with.
Figure 2
With my completed movie "in the can," I was ready to burn the movie to DVD.
Burning the DVD
Windows XP does include built-in support for CD burning (see Focus On: CD Burning and Windows XP), so you could burn shorter movies to a CD-ROM. You can also upload short ones to special Web sites and share your movies on the Web. Movie Maker contains the features to perform these tasks, but making a DVD will take a few extra steps.
First, use Movie Maker to save your complete video to a file (on the File menu, click Save Movie) on your computer's hard disk. As shown in Figure 3, it's important that you select the DVI-AV (NTSC) file format, because that will result in the best-quality DVD. Windows Movie Maker automatically detects which standard (NTSC or PAL) your specific DV device uses. If you're in a country that uses the PAL video standard instead of NTSC, you would use the DVI-AV (PAL) format instead. NTSC is common in the US and Japan, while PAL is prevalent in most of Europe.
Figure 3
Next, use the DVD-burning software that came with your computer or DVD burner to import the saved movie file and create your DVD. Most DVD burners come with free software such as Sonic DVDit!, neoDVD, or one of ULead's DVD products. These utilities make it easy to load the Movie Maker file and save it onto a writable DVD. Keep in mind that the process of encoding the movie into a DVD-compatible format can be quite lengthy. My 60-minute vacation video, for example, took well over four hours to encode, and another 30 minutes or so to actually burn onto DVD. After you've created one DVD, you can immediately burn additional copies for friends and family without having to sit through the encode process each time.
My DVD drive came with Sonic DVDit! As shown in Figure 4, I can create a DVD menu that includes a background image and buttons for different chapters of my vacation video. Most DVD packages provide these capabilities, and it's really cool to send the relatives a professional-looking DVD that includes menus and other nifty features.
Figure 4
Note: Make sure you've purchased media that's compatible with your DVD drive. With so many types to choose from—DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD+RW, DVD-RAM, and others—it's easy to grab the wrong kind off of the shelf at your local computer store.
If you want to play your DVDs on your computer, you'll need the right software. Check out DVD Playback for more details. Keep in mind that many writable DVD formats, including DVD-R and DVD+R, can also be played back on home DVD players.
Ready to Go Further?
If you're a budding Spielberg or Lucas, you may outgrow Movie Maker's capabilities. There are a number of other digital video editing packages available, many with built-in DVD authoring features. Mediostream and Ulead Systems make some popular packages for under $50.00. Adobe Premier is another popular choice that weighs in at a much more expensive $500+. Browse the Web for DVD editing and authoring solutions and you're sure to find a package that fits your creative needs and your budget.
Don Jones is a professional consultant and author. His most recent book is Special Edition Using Commerce Server 2002 (Que Publishing: 2003).
