What’s the best Blu-ray authoring software to use for burning my holiday video clips to Blu-ray disc so that I could safekeep it for future review? I have used some so-called ‘best Blu-ray burning software’ but none of them really works, especially when I tried to make a DIY disc menu. What’s your advice? ”

We live in a world where you can capture beautiful HD footage with just a few taps on your smartphone, recording precious moments of your life. You could easily author these beautiful HD video clips into Blu-ray/DVD content for safe keeping on discs so that you could freely review the happy moments anytime you want.

However, to burn videos to Blu-ray/DVD disc playable on Blu-ray players, you have to make use of Blu-ray authoring software. Blu-ray authoring is the process of putting and burning video clips/pictures to Blu-ray content so that you will get Blu-ray content of your precious moments.

This tutorial guide is mainly discussing the following topics:

Part 1: 5 Best Blu-ray Authoring Software on the Market

To burn your videos or pictures to Blu-ray, you need a Blu-ray authoring software tool. The gap between professional film production and Blu-ray authoring is shrinking as the technology democratizes the form, and this means that Blu-ray disc authoring is something that should be just as accessible to most home digital video producers as any DVD authoring. Now let’s look at some best Blu-ray authoring software in the market. We have collected 5 best Blu-ray authoring software tools here for you to choose from.

No.1 Leawo Blu-ray Creator

As an all-inclusive Blu-ray/DVD burner software combo, Leawo Blu-ray Creator could burn video to Blu-ray/DVD, and burn photos to Blu-ray/DVD photo slideshow from 180+ file formats, including: MP4, AVI, MKV, FLV, MOV, WMV, MPEG, VOB, MTS, JPG, BMP, etc.

It could handle Blu-ray/DVD burning tasks like AVI to Blu-ray/DVD, MKV to Blu-ray, MP4 to Blu-ray/DVD, and others at the same time.

It enables you to burn video to Blu-ray/DVD from various origins like camcorder video, smartphone recorded footage, downloaded online videos, saved screen activities, etc.

You could burn video to Blu-ray/DVD disc, folder and/or ISO image file as you like in BD50, BD25, DVD5 or DVD9. You could also burn ISO image file to disc freely.

Features:

  1. Burn photos to Blu-ray/DVD with photo slideshow editor available;
  2. Burn videos in 200+ file formats to Blu-ray/DVD disc, folder and/or ISO image file;
  3. Burn ISO image file to Blu-ray/DVD disc in simple clicks;
  4. Internal video editor to edit videos in various aspects, including: trim video length, crop video size, adjust video effect, add image or text watermark, apply 3D effect, remove noise, etc.
  5. Select subtitles and audio tracks, even add external subtitles.
  6. 40+ preset disc menu templates for choice, and the internal menu designer enables you to design disc menu manually.
  7. Allow you to choose output Blu-ray/DVD region and DVD video mode manually.
  8. Play back source video files and preview any change you apply to source video files.
  9. Available in both Windows and Mac platforms.

No.2 StarBurn

StarBurn is a free and powerful tool that allows you to grab, burn and master CD, DVD, Blu-Ray and HD-DVD. The program supports all types of optical storage media (including CD-R/RW, DVD-R/RW, DVD+R/RW, BD-R/RE, HD-DVD-R/RW and DVD-RAM) and a wide variety of burning hardware.

Features:

  1. Can burn data CD/DVD/Blu-ray/HD-DVD (i.e. the type of CD/DVD/Blu-ray/HD-DVD which you put files on)
  2. Can burn audio CD (i.e. the type of CD which can be played in any CD player, including your car)
  3. Can burn video DVD (i.e. the type of DVD that can be played in any DVD player)
  4. Can burn VCD and SVCD (i.e. video CDs; these types of CDs can only be played on devices that specifically support VCD/SVCD)
  5. Is able to burn ISO to CD/DVD/Blu-ray/HD-DVD
  6. Can create an ISO copy of existing CD/DVD/Blu-ray/HD-DVD
  7. Supports all types of CD/DVD/Blu-ray/HD-DVD discs: CD-R/RW, DVD-R/RW, DVD+R/RW, BD-R/RE, HD-DVD-R/RW, DVD-RAM, double layer DVD+R, and dual layer DVD-R

No.3 Free Any Burn

This can be considered as the simplest free Blu-ray burner that we have got in our list. Even though it offers a minimalistic user experience, it has the potential to deliver a complete Blu-ray disc burning experience to the users. In other words, it has almost all the features that you need to have in order to burn a Blu-ray disc without any hassle. It is a very simple application of few megabytes and you can download for free from the internet.

Main features:

  1. Burn all CD / DVD / Blu-ray disc image files.
  2. Backup or add files and folders to CD, DVD, or Bluray disc
  3. Burn Audio CD which can be played in regular CD player from mp3, m4a, ape, flac, wma files...
  4. Create image files from hard disk files or CD / DVD / BD discs.
  5. Convert disc image files between various formats.
  6. Create bootable USB drive for Windows 7, 8, 10, or Linux.
  7. Support both 32-bit and 64-bit Windows.

No.4 BurnAware

Burn Aware can also be considered as an excellent Blu-ray disc burning software that you can find on the Internet. It comes in two different versions as free and paid. The free version of this blu ray authoring software has all the features that can be used to burn a Blu-ray disc without any restrictions. You can even use it to create bootable discs and disc images. It has a well-organized interface as well.

Main features of BurnAware:

  1. Burn files and folders to CD, DVD or Blu-ray Discs.
  2. Append or update multisession discs.
  3. Burn standard or boot disc images.
  4. Burn ISO files to multiple recorders simultaneously.
  5. Create boot CDs or DVDs.
  6. Create Audio CDs.
  7. Create DVD-Video discs.
  8. Create MP3 CD / DVD / Blu-ray Discs.

No.5 Express Burn

Express Burn disc-authoring software that includes a number of tools for Blu-ray burning, including the ability to extract the disc image, or ISO file, from an original Blu-ray disc and then burns a copy from the disc image.

Main features of Express Burn:

  1. Burn audio, video or files to CD, DVD or Blu-ray.
  2. Drag and drop files directly into the application.
  3. Provide multiple disc menu options.
  4. Create both video Blu-ray/DVD and data Blu-ray/DVD.
  5. Burn to recordable/re-recordable discs (CD-R, CD-RW)
  6. Supports dual layer DVD/Blu-ray burning
  7. Create bootable data discs
  8. Burn audio CD/DVD directly.

These are the 5 best Blu-ray burning software tools for you to burn Blu-ray/DVD content from videos and images as you like. Some of them are free, and some of them provide superb Blu-ray/DVD burning experience.

Part 2: How to Convert Video to Blu-ray/DVD with Leawo Blu-ray Creator

Here, we would like to show you how to convert and burn vidoe to Blu-ray/DVD with the help of the best Blu-ray authoring software - Leawo Blu-ray Creator. It has both Windows and Mac versions. You need to firstly download and install it on your computer. Note: Leawo Blu-ray Creator has been built into Leawo Prof. Media as a module.

Step 1: Download and launch the program

Download and install it on your computer. Get source video files ready for burning. Launch it and open the “Burn” module.

Step 2: Import source videos

Under the “Burn” menu, click the drop down box of “Add Video”. You can introduce videos by add video, add video folder, add ISO file or directly drag file into the program.

After loading source video file, at the bottom, set output Blu-ray disc type, bit rate and quality. To burn video to Blu-ray disc, you need to insert your blank writable Blu-ray disc into the BD drive.

Step 3: Specify output disc region/mode

Click the wheel icon at the top right corner and then go to the “Copy & Burn” tab to choose output DVD disc video mode or Blu-ray region code as you like.

Step 4: Edit video files(optional)

You could edit loaded video files to make it your own patent. Just click the edit icon in each loaded title to enter the editing panel, where you could trim video length, crop video size, add image or text watermark, adjust effect, apply 3D effect, remove noise, create chapters, etc. For details, you could visit: How to edit video within Leawo Blu-ray Creator.

Step 5: Choose/design disc menu

You could also choose and even design a disc menu for output BLu-ray/DVD content. Select any disc menu template on the right panel and then click the middle of it to enter the disc menu preview panel. Then, click the pencil icon to enter the disc menu editing panel, where you could change font, text, size, color, position, add background image/video/audio, etc.

Step 6: Output settings

Afterwards, click the big green “Burn” button and complete more settings on the pop-up sidebar. You can burn the file to a Blu-ray/DVD folder or to ISO file by putting a click in the Folder or ISO File box respectively. To burn video to Blu-ray disc, insert the Blu-ray disc into the BD drive and then choose it as target here. Also, you could set “Disc Label” and “Save to” options. After these settings, click the “Burn” button to start burning videos to Blu-ray.

Part 3: Comparison and Conclusion

The below comparison table would show you the differences of these 5 best Blu-ray authoring software tools. Just check the table to learn more.

 

Leawo Blu-ray Creator

StarBurn

Free Any Burn

BurnAware

Express Burn

Burn video to Blu-ray/DVD

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Burn pictures to Blu-ray/DVD

Yes

No

No

No

No

Edit videos before burning

Yes

No

No

No

No

Add image or text watermark

Yes

No

No

No

No

Create 3D Blu-ray content

Yes

No

No

No

No

Edit photos before burning

Yes

No

No

No

No

Select subtitles and audio tracks

Yes

No

No

No

No

Create ISO image file

Yes

Yes

Yes

No

Yes

Create audio DVD/CD

No

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Add external subtitles

Yes

No

No

No

No

Availability

Windows, Mac

Windows

Windows

Windows

Windows

In video/picture to Blu-ray/DVD burning, without Leawo Blu-ray Creator offers you the best burning experience in both main burning task and bonus features. You could get what you need with multiple DIY features. What’s more, it’s available in both Windows and Mac versions.