Free Software To Burn Dvd On Mac

Part 4: 3 Best Free DVD Burners for Mac Top 1: DVDStyler. DVDStyler is the best free DVD burning software for Mac. It is an open-source project, so you can use it on Windows, Mac and Linux for free. For people who have limited budget, it is a good choice. Free to use without virus. Include DVD menu templates. Support popular video formats. Burn CDs and DVDs on Mac. If your Mac has a built-in optical drive, or if you connect an external DVD drive (for example, an Apple USB SuperDrive), you can burn files to CDs and DVDs to share your files with friends, move files between computers, or create backup files.

Want to back up or permanently keep your homemade movie projects from iMovie and share them with your family? Why not burn those movies to a DVD? Mac with optical drive makes it possible for you to create DVD on Mac through iDVD. But iDVD was dead since OS X 10.7 Lion, and can’t be found on the Mac App Store with all of the other iLife apps. If you have a new Mac with the latest OS version, I advise you to purchase a more professional third-party DVD burner.

Well, this article will introduce how to create a DVD on Mac with or without iDVD, together with the knowledge of creating a data DVD.

  • >> How to Create a DVD on Mac with iDVD?

Best Tool to Make DVD on Mac

Use the simple yet robust DVD creator for Mac- Cisdem DVD Burner to:

  • Create DVD on Mac from 300+ video formats
  • Burn MP4, MOV, 3GP, VOB, DAT, TS, MPEG, M2TS, etc. videos
  • Burn downloaded movies from YouTube, Vimeo, Dailymotion, etc.
  • Make a DVD disc, DVD folder, and ISO image
  • Create interactive menus with plenty of free and stylish templates
  • Edit videos by cropping, rotating, adding effects/watermarks/subtitles
  • Personalize DVD settings with Aspect Ratio, TV Standard, or others
  • Change background image/audio, title thumbnail, etc.
  • Preview the created disc before making a DVD on Mac
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How to Create a DVD on Mac with iDVD?

Although Apple no longer supplies iDVD with the new Mac version, you still can go to buy the copy of the iLife that is in the sale on Amazon ($40) or eBay ($10).

Create DVD on Mac from iMovie

Works on iMovie ’11/’09/’08 or earlier

You are capable of sharing iMovie project to iDVD within the iMovie software and burn the project directly. Check out the guide: Burn iMovie to DVD with iDVD.

But iDVD was not supported since iMovie 10. All references to iDVD to creating DVD are removed. If you are using iMovie 10 or later, you have to export iMovie video at first, and then load the video to iDVD for burning:

  1. Launch iDVD program, and click on “Create a New Project” button.
  2. Enter a name for the project, and save it to a location.
  3. Drag the videos created earlier to iDVD. Or navigate to File > Import > Video to choose files.
  4. Insert a blank DVD and select “Burn DVD” from the File menu.

Create DVD on Mac from iPhoto

Works on iPhoto 8, 9

  1. Create a slideshow on the iPhone.
  2. Click on File > Export > Slideshow, and choose one of the formats.
  3. Hit the Export button, give a name to the file, and select a destination.
  4. Start iDVD and import iPhone slideshow.
  5. Insert a blank disc and burn slideshow to DVD on Mac with iDVD.

However, you’re not sure how long iDVD will continue to work. Since Apple has been phased out the iDVD, thinking it was not useful for its customers. Plus, its design and features are out of date and won’t be updated anymore. If you insist on purchasing the boxed copy of iLife ’9 until iLife ’11, it’s probably not worth the money. Thus, we need an iDVD alternative for assistance.

How to Create a DVD on Mac without iDVD?

#1. Cisdem DVD Burner (Editor’s Choice)

Works on macOS 10.12 or later, Big Sur included

Cisdem DVD Burner is a reputed and effective application to make DVD on Mac. It comes packed with an attractive interface and all needed and advanced functions. You can edit and beautify the videos, set aspect ratio, edit thumbnails, and customize the DVD menu for better playing navigation. In addition, Cisdem DVD Burner supports any popular SD and HD video formats you import.

It helps you create DVD on Mac with a 16x faster speed than other competitors. If you have one such stable DVD maker for Mac you can get rid of iDVD totally.

Download Cisdem DVD Burner for Mac and Launch it.

Click '+ Add videos' to import the source files. Alternatively, directly drag multiple videos to the first panel.

Click under the video thumbnails to bring out a DVD editing interface.

Beautify the video according to your preference: crop video borders, create visual effects, add watermarks, rotate video, etc.

Switch to the 'Menu' tab, a list of free menu templates with different themes are on the left side.

Click to pull out hidden tools. Adjust the template's elements by backgrounds, frames, and play buttons. Alter the DVD name and its fonts/color.

Plus, you can import an image/music from your Mac as background as well.

Click to check out a preview of the DVD.

Plug a blank DVD 5 (Single Layer DVD) or 9 (Double Layer DVD) into your disc drive.

Head to the fourth interface, where you can configure the output settings. Set up the TV standards, folder path, copies number, etc. After everything is done, click 'Burn'.

Check the video tutorial:

#2. Express Burn

Works on Mac OS X 10.5 or above

Express Burn is specially designed for burning audio, MP3, Data to CDs, DVDs, or Blu-ray on Mac and Windows, and you can also take advantage of is its ability to burn ISO images. It has intuitive interface and supports most of the formats, once you open it on Mac, you can easily know how to use it.

However, NCH Express Burn is a bit pricey and slow to make DVD on Mac. Moreover, the installer tries to get you to install a lot of other irrelevant things such as toolbars.

  1. Download and Launch Express Burn, a window appears for you to choose what to burn.
  2. Add video files in batch to this DVD video creator.
  3. Double-click the loaded videos for preview.
  4. Output parameter setting is limited, but you can still set some video bitrate and standard TV.
  5. Put a blank disc into your computer, and click 'Burn Video DVD'.

#3. Finder

Works on Mac OS X 10.11 El Capitan or higher (to replace Disk Utility)

You may never expect that Finder can create CDs and DVDs on Mac. The Finder is the default file manager and graphical user interface shell used on all Macintosh operating systems. Besides, it is also an easy and free DVD creator for Mac users, lets you create DVD on Mac without iDVD. I would like to make the burning steps as simplest and possible as following.

  1. Create a new folder on desktop and name it.
  2. Drag-and-drop videos you wish to burn to the new folder.
  3. Click the folder, and navigate to the top menu bar.
  4. Click “File”, and from the dropdown menu, click “Burn xxxxx (the name of your folder) to Disc…”.
  5. A “Burn Disc” window pops up. At this time, insert the blank DVD disc into the drive
  6. Mark the disc to burn, select the burning speed, and then click 'Burn' to make DVD on Mac.

#4. iTunes

Works on macOS 10.14 Mojave or before

As Apple Music streaming service, iTunes is an all-in-one home for music and video files. It enables you to download music, TV shows, movies, and more, manage your iOS devices as well as download content from the iTunes store and use Apple Music. It has another exciting feature that it can be regarded as a free DVD burning software, helping to create DVD/CD on Mac out of those iTunes videos downloaded without iDVD.

  1. Run iTunes app on your Mac system
  2. Right-click the videos you would like to burn, and select the “Add to Burn List” option.
  3. Go to “File” > “Burn Playlist to Disc”, and you’ll be presented with a “Burn Settings” dialog.
  4. Choose your preferred burning speed.
  5. Select the disc format as “Data CD or DVD”.
  6. Click “Burn” to create DVD on Mac.

FAQs about Making a DVD on Mac without iDVD

Q: Why can't I play DVDs created by Finder and iTunes in DVD player?

A: Both Finder and iTunes can only create a data DVD on Mac, which works in your computer or an external SuperDrive. Most DVD players have no capability to read data DVD discs, unless the player supports the data format of the DVD. People usually make data DVD on Mac for further editing the created DVDs.

Q: Can I burn DRM-ed iTunes to DVD?

A: No, you can’t!

All movies and music purchased from iTunes are locked down by Fairplay (Apple's DRM scheme). If you want to create DVD on Mac within iTunes, you need to download a third-party tool - Requiem or MyFairTunes to remove the DRM copy-protection first before making a DVD on Mac.

Q: How to burn slideshow to DVD on Mac?

A: Toast Titanium is such a powerful program to get the task done and also create DVDs with chapters on Mac. But the software is too expensive to over the budget of most regular users. So if you don’t burn slideshow very often, I recommend you to record the slideshow to a video using QuickTime Player and then burn the recorded video to DVD with a DVD creator.

Conclusion

This article has discussed how to make a DVD on a Mac with or without iDVD. In spite of free and no install requirement, Finder and iTunes have some limitations to create DVD on Mac. For example, you can’t do some polish on the video before burning and they merely support data DVD. In order to make a more handsome DVD video, I highly recommend you download the free version of Cisdem DVD Burner for a try, it can cover all of the mentioned iDVD alternatives' shortcomings, like make DVD menu, edit DVD video, etc.

Burn videos including movies, homemade films, recorded meetings, etc., to DVD with DVD burning software is still a good way to storage video. Compare to a USB drive and cloud storage, in some cases, burning videos onto writable DVDs may be more convenient to share with others, and more affordable. Especially burn a video DVD, it can have a DVD menu structure and is playable on the DVD player.


There is a lot of free DVD burning software for Mac, but it may feel hard choosing from them. So, we have gathered some of the best and introduce simple burning steps for your reference.

P.S. Just remind that if you burn the movie under copyright protection to DVD, it is illegal to share.

CONTENTS

[An Easy Mistake to Make] Data DVD and Video DVD

When mention free DVD burning software for Mac, some people will firstly think of Finder or iTunes. Finder and iTunes can indeed burn DVD, but they can only burn a data DVD. Data DVD and Video DVD are different.

Data DVD is only readable on computers. It cannot be opened by DVD players. When creating a rewriteable data DVD, that is very similar to a USB drive. You can drag almost all the files in it. Image, songs, video, ISO image, text file, etc. can all be burned into the Data DVD.

Video DVD has a DVD video file structure: VIDEO_TS and AUDIO_TS. It is playable on the DVD software player on Mac, also the DVD player (hardware) for Television.

In the next, we are going to introduce the best free Video DVD burners for Mac, and a brief introduction to the operations. If you want to burn a Data DVD, you can view the Apple official support here: Burn CDs and DVDs on Mac. Using the built-in burner is one of the best ways to burn a Data DVD on Mac.

Top 2 Free DVD Burners for Mac — Burn Videos onto DVD

# 1. Burn

Seemingly as its name suggests, Burn works as a reliable Mac free DVD burner catering to your need. Once launching the software, you will encounter a succinct interface directly telling you a burning division of four modes: Data, Audio, Video, and Copy.


Step 1. Launch Burn after inserted a blank DVD disc in your Mac, then choose DVD-Video modes. If the disc is not blank and you have not erased it, then button 'Burn' cannot be clicked at all.

Step 2. Here, you will need to drag the video into Burn. Burn only support video in MPG format. No matter which format of video you import, Burn will convert it to MPG.

Step 3. Click on 'Burn' to start burning video DVD.

Free Dvd Burning Software Mac

Pros:

• It has a clear and simple interface.


Cons:

• No choice of selecting DVD menu templates.

• Performance is not that stable.

# 2. DVDStyler

Among free DVD burners, DVDStyler is probably the most powerful tool to create DVD templates. In addition to the built-in templates, DVDStyler allows adding own pictures on your Mac to be the DVD menu's background. Although it is powerful in templates and DVD options such as adjusting the video/audio formats, video bitrate, it has disadvantage on the interface. The interface of this product feels like the software 10 years ago. Moreover, it does not optimize for many computer screen resolutions. On my MacBook Pro, the interface of DVDStyler is blurry.


Step 1. Drag a video or a series of videos into DVDStyler. Then select a background picture for the DVD menu. You can click on 'File browser' to select an image on your Mac.

Step 2. Click on 'Buttons' to set DVD menu interactive buttons. After that, click on the donut-shape icon to burn.

Step 3. Wait a while to successfully generate DVD.

Tips: Just like product 'Burn', you will need to erase first with this Mac built-in feature if it is not a blank DVD disc.

Pros:

• It has a good DVD menu customization function.

• It has a discussion help on its official sites. It will be easy to get help from other users.


Cons:

• Outdated interface.

See this: A More Helpful Video DVD Burner for Mac

Best Free Software To Burn Dvd On Mac

Apart from finding an admired free DVD burner, you should not miss this professional one for Mac. That is VideoSolo DVD Creator. This reliable video DVD burner for Mac can not only help users to get DVD designed by themselves, but also edit the videos before saving them into the DVD. VideoSolo DVD Creator, with its simple and clean design, is handy for everyone to use.


It can add so many kinds of videos. The supported video formats are listed at VideoSolo DVD Creator Tech Specs. Another benefit is, you don't even need to erase the DVD disc before burning. If the burner has detected that your disc is not blank, it will remind and you can choose to continue burning.

Free Software To Burn Dvd On Mac

Star Features of VideoSolo DVD Creator

• Has the ability to edit the video, add subtitle, and add an external audio track to the video.

• Offer real-time preview for amending the DVD video conveniently.

• Offer beautiful templates; also allow users to DIY DVD menu in their preferences.

• Stable performance in burning DVD disc.


The simple tutorial shows clearly in 'Getting Started' on the main interface. For a more detailed tutorial, you can read How to Burn DVD on Macbook Pro/Air with VideoSolo DVD Creator. It is extremely easy to burn a playable video DVD with this product.

Tips 1. When a window pops up to choose, you will need to click 'Internal burner' to generate a video DVD. 'Using system tool' is to generating data DVD.

Tips 2. With VideoSolo DVD Creator, you don't need to erase DVD with Mac tool before burning. It will detect it automatically and it can erase the disc in the program.

By now, quite a lot of Mac free DVD burners go viral on the market. The free DVD burners are worth a trial with satisfying performance. Although it needs no charge to use the free DVD burners, a professional one can be more reliable. Therefore, if you need to burn DVD in a more professional way, try VideoSolo DVD Creator. Now, it is time for you to get a piece of the ideal DVD!