Create DVD Using Windows DVD Maker

Create DVDs Using Windows DVD Maker

You can also convert and burn video files directly to DVD right from Windows DVD Maker which is included in Vista and Windows 7. However you might need to install the correct codec for it to work.

Open the Start Menu \ All Programs \ Windows DVD Maker.

After it launches you can click Add item and browse to your video files or simply drag and drop them in. in the DVD title field it shows today’s date, but you probably want to change it to the title of the DVD.

If you see the following message, you’ll need to install the correct codec for it to recognize certain types of video files—there’s a few different ways to go about getting the right codecs including DivX, ffdshow, or the K-Lite Codec Pack.

On our Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit system we tried DivX and ffdshow but neither worked. So we’re going to go with the K-Lite Codec Pack 6.4.0 (Basic). During the install process you can choose different options but we just accepted the defaults and it worked great.

However, we tried it on a Windows 7 Ultimate and Home Premium 32-bit system, and we had no problem using the AVI files without the need to install any codecs.

When we tested it out on our Vista Ultimate 32-bit system, we installed the DivX codec pack and that worked successfully—it really depends on the type of video file that you’re dealing with.

Now that we have our AVI video file recognized, in the next step you can choose from different Menu Styles.

It also allows you to customize the DVD menu style and to change the DVD title.

After you have everything set up how you like, click the Burn button.

Then wait while the encoding and burning process completes. Again the amount of time it takes will vary between machines and the size of the files.

After your DVD has been created, you can save the project in case you need to burn the disc in the future.

The project will be saved as a Windows DVD Maker Project with the .msdvd extension.

Here we have the results of our South Park DVD…

Which we opened in VLC to verify it burned correctly…here is an example of the Reflections main menu style we used.