The Last CD/DVD Burning Guide You'll Ever Need

Posted 12/18/2009 at 9:30am | by Mark Edward Soper

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Freeware Disc Burning Utilities Roundup

If you're using Windows XP, a third-party CD/DVD burning program is a necessity, and it's a highly-desirable option with Windows Vista and Windows 7. If you didn't get a satisfactory program with your drive, or you're looking for a program with more features, we've selected four freeware contenders for your consideration:

• AmoK CD/DVD Burner
• CDBurner XP
• Deep Burner Free
• ImgBurn

AmoK CD/DVD Burning

AmoK CD/DVD Burning, as the name implies, isn't designed to work with Blu-Ray or HD DVD media, so if you're looking for an all-in-one solution, keep looking. However, if you're looking for a CD/DVD burning system that's portable and expandable and isn't hard to remove from a system, this might be on your short list. However, keep in mind that you'll also be dealing with clumsy plugin installation, and a lack of integration between plugins and the main program.

The basic AmoK CD/DVD Burning program supports basic CD and DVD burning, but to get the most from it, you'll want to add a variety of free plugins. Plugin support is needed for Audio CD burning, Video CD and Video DVD burning, and ISO creation/burning.

When you click the Plug-ins button in the program before you've installed plugins, you're taken straight to the AmoK download page, where plugins are listed for download. However, to install them, you must extract each plugin from its own Zip file archive and copy it manually to the program's plugins folder.  After copying plugins to the appropriate folder, clicking the Plug-ins button displays a list of plugsins to choose from.

Selecting a plugin launches a separate program, such as the Audio Burning wizard shown here.

By default, AmoK's video and audio plugins select the SPTD (SCSI Pass Through Direct) data transport method. However, if this doesn't work, you can select SPTI (SCSI Pass Through Interface) or ASPI. I used SPTI, which is built into Windows 7.

In my tests, I was unable to get the Burn Video DVD on the Fly plugin to work properly, but I was able to burn a copy of Zulu by selecting VideoBurning and selecting DVD Video when prompted (you can also burn Video CD or Super Video CD).

AmoK CD/DVD Burner Quick Feature Reference

• Mastered discs - Yes
• UDF File Support - Yes
• Flash drive-style drag and drop file copying - No
• Create ISO Image – Yes (free Plugin required)
• Burn ISO Image –Yes (free Plugin required)
• Create Bootable Disc - No
• Create Audio Disc – Yes (free Plugin required)
• Blu-Ray & HD-DVD support – No
• Burn Video DVDs – Yes (free Plugin required)
• Creates mixed-mode discs – No
• Command-line options – No
• Native 64-bit version – No
• Works on 64-bit Windows versions – Yes
• Portable version: Yes (copy installed version program folder to USB or optical disc )

CDBurner XP

CDBurner XP, despite the name, works on Windows Vista and Windows 7 as well as Windows XP (we used it on Windows 7). It supports Blu-Ray and HD-DVD as well as CD and DVD disc formats.

CDBurner XP has an easy-to-use interface and useful menus, making it easy to create a video DVD.

For times that you need help, it also offers good online help. One irritating glitch in the current version is the way the program window sometimes shrinks to the title bar, requiring the user to maximize the window.

CD Burner XP Quick Feature Reference

• Mastered discs - Yes
• UDF File Support - Yes
• Flash drive-style drag and drop file copying - No
• Create ISO Image – Yes
• Burn ISO Image - Yes
• Create Bootable Disc - Yes
• Create Audio Disc – Yes
• Blu-Ray & HD-DVD support – Yes
• Burn Video DVDs – Yes
• Creates mixed-mode discs – Yes
• Command-line options – Yes
• Native 64-bit version - No
• Works on 64-bit Windows versions - Yes
• Portable version - No