You need software to tame your DVD recording beast. For PC owners running Windows, the choice is clear: Easy Media Creator 7 (Creator 7, for short) from Roxio. This showpiece has been the solid, reliable Swiss army knife of CD and DVD burning for many years. It has a wide range of features, it can burn a host of different formats and disc types, and it's simple enough for a novice to use.
Formats and disc types out the wazoo
If you're likely to need just about any specific type of disc on planet Earth, this program can do it. Of course, Creator 7 can burn simple data discs and audio CDs using Track-at-Once or Disc-at-Once without even lifting an eyebrow, but it can also pump out
* CD-ROM XA (multisession) discs
* DVD-Video discs
* Video CDs
* Mixed-mode discs
* CD Extra discs
* Photo slideshow discs
This lineup also includes two types of discs that deserve special attention: the bootable CD-ROM and the MP3 music disc. You can boot most PCs by using a bootable CD-ROM, so you can even run your PC without a hard drive - after a fashion, anyway. A bootable disc can also carry other programs and data besides a basic operating system. A Microsoft Windows XP CD-ROM is a good example of a bootable CD: It uses DOS as a basic operating system to display simple prompts, but after your computer is up and running, you can install Windows from it.
An MP3 music disc, on the other hand, is a specialized data CD-ROM. Although it carries music in MP3 (MPEG Audio Layer 3) format, its songs aren't recorded in the Red Book digital audio format, so you can't play the disc in an older audio CD player. MP3 discs are meant to be played exclusively on either your computer, using a program like Winamp, or on specially designed MP3 CD players. (Many of the current crop of audio CD players now support MP3 music discs; check your player's manual to see if your model can use them.)
Burn a CD
Interested in burning hot music on a compact disc? Whether those songs are in MP3 format, stored on older cassettes and vinyl albums, or a collection of tracks from existing audio CDs, Creator 7 can do it in style. Its Creator Classic (the primary recording application included with Easy Media Creator 7) continues to be a favorite; it's the easiest to understand and the fastest to use.
On the audio side, the program can
* Automatically convert songs in MP3 and WMA (Windows Media Audio) formats and prepare them for recording
* Extract tracks from existing audio CDs and save them as MP3 files on your hard drive
* Store CD text for display on many CD players with digital readouts
* Add transition effects, like fade in, fade out, and cross-fading
* Preview WAV and MP3 songs before you record them
Extra stuff they give you
If the Creator 7 feature list ended in the preceding section, most folks would be satisfied. But, wait - you also get the following great stand-alone (separate) programs to boot:
http://tech.yahoo.com/gd/dvd-recording-in-windows-roxio-easy-media-creator-7/153121;_ylt=AqP2qb8ng8kxKGvMltY9TVoSLpA5
