DVD Burning Software - Free Options for Mac Users
iDVD
Upon purchasing your Mac computer, you also received Apple’s iLife, a software pack consisting of: iPhoto, iMovie, Garage Band, iDVD, and iWeb. For the most part, all of the iLife applications are of decent quality. iDVD, which is Apple’s DVD burning software, is actually a quite capable program, that should be able to handle the majority of disc burning tasks that you throw its way.
Aside from being the DVD app included with your Mac, iDVD is probably the best free DVD burning app available. The only application that may be favorable to iDVD is Roxio Toast. However, Toast costs approximately $80, eliminating it entirely from our free DVD software for the Mac list. If you plan on using iDVD to work with your own film projects, you may also want to consider using iMovie for editing, as iDVD and iMovie work great together.
Burn
If you are looking for a good DVD burning program with an easy to use interface, Burn, a free OS X application from SourceForge, may be your ideal solution. Burn’s UI is extremely reminiscent of the native OS X window look. Thus, it blends in nicely with your Mac.
The Burn application consists of four main tabs: Data, Audio, Video, and Copy. Under each tab, you simply navigate to the file you want to burn, insert a DVD into your Mac’s superdrive, and click the Burn button. Burn is an open source software application, so it has a decent community backing. If you are looking to do something specific, or run into any trouble when using the app, the community forum should be able to help you out.
Simply Burns
Simply Burns is a newer burning application for Macs. Although there are not a lot of reviews out for it yet, the reviews that are there dub Simply Burns as a great choice for free OS X burning software. Like Burn, Simply Burns is an open source project. In turn, it too has the benefit of a support community behind it. Some features of Simply Burns include: copy mode, easy image burning, built-in DVD ripping, and more. Simply Burns supports versions of Mac OS from OS X 10.4 Tiger to the current version of Snow Leopard.
Conclusion
There really aren’t a lot of DVD burning software programs that are free for Macs. However, the capabilities of iDVD, Burn, and Simply Burns should be more than enough for the majority of disc burning projects. If not, you may want to consider purchasing Roxio Toast Titanium. Although it is a paid software, it will prove to be a good investment for anyone who does a lot of DVD burning on a constant basis.
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