# Burning a DVD **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 14, 2011, 12:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/burning-a-dvd/578355 "2011-04-14T12:01:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2011, 12:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/burning-a-dvd/578355/1 "2011-04-14T12:01:24Z")
Looking for a cheap way to burn a couple of short home videos onto a DVD. I can’t seem to find a program that will take a video file (AVI) and convert it to the right format then burn it onto the DVD. It seems all of the conversion programs just do the conversion to a DVD file on your hard drive. So now assuming I have that DVD file on my drive, how do I burn it onto the DVD disk to make it into a playable DVD on my player at home? ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2011, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/burning-a-dvd/578355/2 "2011-04-14T13:29:48Z")
[Here’s](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_DVD_authoring_applications) a list of DVD authoring software that will do just that, with links. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2011, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/burning-a-dvd/578355/3 "2011-04-14T15:41:11Z")
If you have DVD files on your hard drive, you can burn them to a DVD with any burning software. ([Deepburner](http://www.deepburner.com/) has a good free version.) You could even use Windows’ built-in disc-writing. The only things you really need to remember: Burn disc-at-once/mastered. Make sure your video files are in a folder called VIDEO\_TS, and that this folder is in the root of the disc. That’s where your DVD player is going to look. If the video files are directly in the root, or in D:\your\_movie\video\_ts or whatever, it ain’t gonna work. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2011, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/burning-a-dvd/578355/4 "2011-04-19T01:48:09Z")
Thanks. Got my dvds burned with no problem. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2011, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/burning-a-dvd/578355/5 "2011-04-19T17:46:33Z")
This may seem obvious, but note also that you need a DVD burner (as in, the piece of hardware). Not all drives which can read DVDs, or burn CDs, can burn DVDs. Though I’m guessing this wasn’t actually an issue for you, given that you said it worked. ---
**Author:** ![standingwave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@standingwave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/standingwave)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2011, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/burning-a-dvd/578355/6 "2011-04-19T20:36:57Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > So now assuming I have that DVD file on my drive, how do I burn it onto the DVD disk to make it into a playable DVD on my player at home? I use [DeVeDe](http://freshmeat.net/projects/devede) but there are many such programs. Most modern players will play a variety of formats but this is the only to be absolutely sure it will play anywhere.