“Is there any free DVD authoring software tool to help me burn video files to DVD disc for free? I have quite a few holiday video clips and would like to burn these video files to DVD disc so that I could save them safely. I have searched online for DVD authoring tools, but most of them are paid ones. Can I author DVD with free DVD authoring software tools? What are the best free DVD authoring software so far?”

Creating your own DVDs without retaining watermark may seem like it’s going out of fashion, but there are still some reasons asking you to keep these discs around. For instance, you need to make a DVD of your travelling clips to share with family and friends; create DVD with birthday party pictures and videos; free your computer disk space, etc. Whatever your reason is, be sure to pick up the best DVD authoring software to make the DVD creating process easy. Some people may want a DVD authoring freeware to burn home-made DVD disc, but have no idea which is the best free DVD authoring software. So here I will share you with 5 best free DVD authoring software. These freeware DVD authoring apps would help you easily create and burn DVD for free.

What is DVD Authoring?

Generally speaking, the term DVD authoring refers to the process of creating a DVD. In some cases, you may have the need to store your videos in a set of DVDs which can be shared in a family union or in a public party among your families and friends. But what would you do when you have only simple videos, audios, or images? In the circumstances, you have to know the art of DVD authoring which will allow you to create a complete DVD to be compatible with DVD players. DVD authoring is the process to combine video, audio, images, animation or other files onto a DVD which could be viewed as DVD content can could be played on a streaming device via some DVD authoring software.

 

dvd authoring

During the usual process of producing DVDs, the first step is to create the content of a movie or a video or a program. Then the second is the DVD authoring which will create the artwork, user menus, chapters or other files. The final step is to replicate the authorized DVD and produce DVD in a mass production. Therefore, DVD authoring is a vital step in video post-production and is the key part to turn your digital sources into a complete DVD content.

Part 1: 5 Best Free DVD Authoring Software for Mac and PC

No.1 Best free DVD Authoring Software: DVD Flick

DVD Flick offers a great balance between ease of use and DVD authoring power. It particularly highlights on this free DVD burning software supporting over 45 file formats (MP4, AVI, WMV, VOB, MOV, MPEG, FLV, MKV, etc.), 60+ video codecs and 40+ audio codecs. Thanks to its high compatibility, you can author a DVD from almost all regular media formats. DVD Flick allows you to create menus and subtitles for your DVDs; supports NTSC/PAL and 4:3/16:9 ratios; lets you burn to DVD disc or output as ISO. Another nice feature is, DVD Flick automatically calculates the bitrate of your project to make sure you can easily keep an eye on quality loss.

But the flaw for DVD Flick is, the program is getting old. It’s not been updated since 2009. Besides, someone feedbacks that the audio and video on many DVDs created by DVD Flick are out of sync.

Pros:

  1. DVD Flick supports multiple video file formats as input. You could nearly burn all video files to DVD disc or ISO image file.
  2. It supports NTSC/PAL output DVD video mode in either 4:3/16:9 ratios.
  3. Support multiple video codecs and audio codecs.
  4. It’s free.

Cons:

  1. It’s Windows only. You can’t get a Mac version.
  2. It has been discontinued for years.
  3. It has only basic DVD authoring features.
  4. Output DVD video and audio are out of sync.

No.2 Best free DVD authoring software: DVD Styler

Need a cross-platform DVD authoring freeware? You should keep an eye on DVD Styler. In person, I like DVD Styler because it’s extremely simple in its user interface but extremely capable. It lets you create DVDs from pretty much any video formats (AVI, MP4, WMV, VOB, FLV, MOV, MPEG, MKV, etc.). It’s smart enough not to re-encode MPEG and VOB files. It supports NTSC/PAL DVDs, allows you to choose 4:3 or 16:9 aspect ratio, creates DVD menus, lets you optionally control video/audio bitrate, and burns to DVD disc or outputs as ISO or DVD folder. The biggest attraction of DVD Styler is, it allows you to customize DVD menu the most. So, creating professional-quality DVDs with DVD Styler is not a problem.

It’s worth mentioning that DVD Styler is in update, and DVD Styler makes up for Windows DVD Maker being gone on Windows 8.

Pros:

  1. It’s available in multiple platforms including Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux.
  2. It’s a freeware tool.
  3. Support multiple video file format as input.
  4. Supports NTSC/PAL output DVD video mode in either 4:3/16:9 ratios.
  5. Create and burn DVD video with interactive menus.
  6. Add multiple subtitle and audio tracks.

Cons:

  1. It is difficult to handle all the functions in the complex interface without instruction.
  2. DVDStyler cannot support Blu-ray creation.
  3. All the design such as template and button of DVD menu are too old.
  4. Unapproved installation might be embedded when using this program.

No. 3 Best free DVD authoring software: Windows DVD Maker (Windows 7/Vista)

If you’re using a Windows 7 computer, I can’t think of a better option for you. Since all premium Windows computers come with Windows DVD Maker pre-installed, you have no need to consider downloading another free DVD burning software program to create DVDs. The program works directly with Windows Live Movie Maker; gets a nice user interface; and has a good stability. It offers multiple themes and menus for freely option. It only supports video formats by Microsoft like WMV, ASF, MPG, etc. To author other media files with Windows DVD Maker, you need to convert them to the supported formats. And you can turn to a free video converter to do the conversion.

Note: Windows DVD Maker is only included in premium versions of Windows 7 and Windows Vista.

Pros:

  1. Preinstalled with Windows 7 and totally free.
  2. Burn multiple video files in WMV file format to homemade DVD disc.
  3. Support most home and portable DVD players.
  4. Offer an intuitive interface for beginners.

Cons:

  1. If you don’t have the premium version, it is not an option for you.
  2. It’s been removed from Windows 8 and later versions.
  3. The free trial of Windows DVD Maker lasts for 7 days only.
  4. Windows DVD Maker free will add a watermark to the burned DVD.
  5. You need to upgrade to Windows DVD Maker full version to remove the inserted watermark.
  6. It is hard to uninstall Windows DVD Maker.

No.4 Best free DVD authoring software: AVStoDVD

If you’re looking for a feature-filled free DVD authoring program, look no further than AVStoDVD. It’s able to create DVDs from nearly all video formats like MP4, AVI, WMV, FLV, MOV, VOB, MPEG, MKV, etc. It allows you to burn video to DVD disc, DVD folder or DVD ISO. Features like DVD-5, DVD-9, NTSC and PAL are full supported. You can add subtitles and custom audio to DVD. DVD menu is automatically created with you having the option to customize. Besides, you can customize aspect ratio, bitrates and more. Best of all, AVStoDVD supports batch processing.

The biggest problem for AVStoDVD is it isn’t very user-friendly due to the poor user-interface. Besides, if you don’t have ImgBurn installed, you can’t burn video to DVD disc or ISO Image.

Pros:

  1. Video encoding using HCEnc/FFmpeg.
  2. Audio encoding using FFmpeg/Wavi/Aften. Multiple Audio tracks are supported.
  3. Subtitles encoding using SubtitlesCreator/VobSub. Multiple subtitles tracks supported.
  4. DVD Authoring using MuxMan/BatchMux.
  5. Internal DVD Menu Editor with customizable static and motion menus.
  6. Video and Audio editing using AviSynth filters.
  7. Batch encoding is supported.

Cons:

  1. ISO Image Building and DVD Burning using ImgBurn (not included in the installer package).
  2. Requires multiple video encoding plugins.
  3. It’s available in Windows only.

No.5 Best free DVD authoring software: iDVD

If you run on a Mac, iDVD is the best free DVD authoring software for Mac users. It comes free on most Macs with the iLife suite. The program is intuitive and offers loads of DVD menu templates and themes for selection. One flaw of iDVD is it only supports a few media formats like QuickTime VR, MPEG-1 or MPEG-2, Flash, etc. So, if you want to burn AVI, WMV, etc. to DVD using iDVD, you may fail. Besides, as Apple has dropped support for iDVD, you might need another piece of DVD authoring software like Leawo DVD Creator for Mac.

Also, it should be noted that now iDVD has not been preinstalled on the latest Mac computer. It’s only available in the box of iLife 11 to 13, which is only provided by Amazon and BestBuy.

Pros:

  1. Easy to use.
  2. Updated randomly to make it work even more smoothly and effectively.

Cons:

  1. Only available in Mac platform.
  2. Only a few video file formats are supported. You may need to convert video files for iDVD.

Part 2: The Best DVD Authoring Software for Mac and Windows

Above are our top choices for DVD authoring freeware. All of them perfectly combine ease of use and DVD authoring power, which are sure to meet your desire. Compared to paid DVD authoring software, the abovementioned DVD authoring freeware's biggest advantage is zero of cost. However, as their descriptions show, all of these free DVD authoring software apps are free to burn DVD, but far from perfect to meet every requirement for burning DVD like adding a disc menu. With careful and detailed comparison, we are glad to introduce you the best DVD authoring software - Leawo DVD Creator, a professional DVD authoring software app that meets every around of your needs.

  • Leawo DVD Creator
  • Leawo DVD Creator

    Create DVD-9/DVD-5 discs playable on various standalone DVD players and computers without region restriction.
    Create DVD content in either NTSC or PAL for DVD players for various regions.
    Convert and burn videos in 180+ file formats to DVD disc, folder and/or ISO image file.
    Edit video files such as adding image/text watermark, trimming video length, cropping video size, adjusting video effect, applying 3D effect, etc.
    Select disc menu for output DVD content, or even design disc menu with your own pictures and songs.
    Burn photos to DVD photo slideshow with built-in photo slideshow editor.

Why Leawo DVD Creator is the best DVD authoring software?

1. Supports to input video and audio files in 180+ formats like MP4, AVI, FLV, MKV, MPEG, MOV, VOB, etc.
2. Internal video editor enables you to get customized DVD content via editing features like Trim, Crop, Watermark, 3D, etc.
3. Built-in disc menu editor allows you to select and edit disc menu with your own preferrences.
4. Support to output multiple DVD types: disc, folder and/or ISO image file of DVD-9/DVD-5 in either PAL or NTSC.

Part 3: Comparison and Conclusion

The below comparison table would show you the differences between Leawo DVD Creator and the above-mentioned 5 best free DVD authoring software tools.

 

Leawo DVD Creator

DVD Flick

DVD Styler

Windows DVD Maker

AVStoDVD

iDVD

Burn video files to DVD

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Supported video files formats

MP4, AVI, FLV, MKV, MOV, and 200+ others

MP4, AVI, WMV, VOB, MOV, MPEG, FLV, MKV, and 45+ others.

AVI, MP4, WMV, VOB, FLV, MOV, MPEG, MKV, etc.

ASF, AVI, DVR-MS, M1V, MP2, MP2V, MPE, MPEG, MPG, MPV2, WM, WMV.

AVI, MP4, MKV, FLV

MOV, MP4

Burn photos to DVD

Yes

No

No

No

No

No

Play back loaded video

Yes

No

No

Yes

No

No

Select subtitles and audio tracks

Yes

No

No

Yes

Yes

No

Create NTSC/PAL DD

Yes

Yes

Yes

No

No

No

Edit video/photo files before burning to DVD

Yes. Trim, crop, adjust effect, add watermark, rotate, etc.

No

No

No

No

No

Turn 2D video to 3D DVD

Yes

No

No

No

No

No

Take screenshot

Yes

No

No

No

No

No

Though Leawo DVD Creator is a paid DVD authoring software tool, and the other 5 DVD authoring software tools are free, Leawo DVD Creator offers you the best and most comprehensive features and use