Create your own DVD by Windows Movie Maker

Create your own DVD by Windows Movie Maker & Windows DVD Maker

In this article, I'll share the free way of creating your own DVDs with your home videos to enjoy them on DVD players, to backup your favorite movie clips on DVD or to share wonderful videos downloaded from limewire or YouTube with friends.
All it takes are the following four steps:

 

Part1. Import video into Windows Movie Maker（WMM）
Video formats supported by WMM are : .avi, .wmv, . asf, . mpg, . m1v, . mp2, . mp2v, . mpeg, . mpe, . mpv2, and .wm.
If your video formats are not the above formats, you need a Video Converter to convert it to a supported format first. If you want to get movie clips from your own DVD, DVD Ripper can help you capture any parts of your DVD movies and convert the captured parts to supported video formats. In a word, you must make sure that your video formats are supported by WMM.
Then, launch your WMM application, click "import video" under Capture Video in Tasks pane, and add the video you want to edit.
Note: You can import several files at one time.

 

Part2. Edit video files

The major five editing functions provided by WMM are: Trim/Split/Combine clips, Add effects, Add transitions, Add background audio, and Make titles or credits

1.  Trim, split and combine video clips
You can capture your favorite part from a video file using the Trim function (On the timeline, set the beginning time and click "Clip"->"Trim Beginning, and set the end time and click "Clip"->"Trim End. Then the part starting from the beginning time and end time will be captured. And you can split video into smaller, more manageable clips. For instance, when you want to insert a video transition in the middle of a video clip, you can split the video clip at the point where you want to insert the video transition and then add the desired transition. Conversely, you can combine every two contiguous clips, if you need to.

 

2. Add effects
You can add any of the video effects that appear in the Video Effects folder in the Collections pane. A video effect is applied for the entire duration that the video clip displays in your movie. It allows you to add up to six effects to every video clip.

 

 

3.  Add transitions
You can add a transition between two video clips or titles on the storyboard/timeline by dragging the one you want from the Video Transitions folder in the collections pane. The video transition length can be adjusted by dragging in the Transition track of the timeline.

 

 

4.  Add background audio
You can add background audio by dragging imported audio or a recorded audio narration to Audio/Music track in timeline model. Some of the different audio-related tasks you can perform in Windows Movie Maker include adjust the audio levels; add different audio effects; adjust the volume of audio clips.

 

 

5.  Make titles or credits
You can add whatever text you want such as the title of your movie, your name, the date, and so forth. And you can add a title to various places in your movie: at the beginning or end of a movie, before or after a clip, or overlaying a clip. The title plays for the specified amount of time by dragging in video track under timeline view. You can customize the animation of any text to determine how the text will be displayed.

 

 

Part3.  Save movie
There are several ways to publish the edited video. But all needs to save it as a single .wmv format video file onto your PC at first. The Save Movie Wizard will let you quickly save your project as a final movie.
Tips:  After saving the edited video onto PC, You can convert it to other format video for your mobile devices by Video Converter, and enjoy it or easily share it with your friends.

Part4.  Burn the edited video to DVD

1. Insert a blank DVD into your DVD burner and launch Windows DVD Maker
If this is the first time to launch Windows DVD Maker, you will be greeted with the initial welcome screen. Press the "Choose Pictures and Videos" button to go to the main project window, where you can add the video and picture elements.

2. Add edited video and set DVD-Video options
Click the Add Items button and choose the video you want to burn. You can add several files at one time and arrange them by clicking Move Up or Move Down button. By clicking Option button, you can set how your DVD is played, DVD aspect ratio, Video format and temporary file location.

 

 

Note: The video format that is currently selected, NTSC or PAL, is based on the Regional and Language Option settings in Control Panel. Those in the United States should have NTSC selected.

 

3. Ready to burn disc
WDM applies various animated DVD menu styles. You can customize DVD menu, including the font, button style and background audio and video. Slideshow can also be inserted into contiguous video, when you burn more than one video on single DVD. Before burning the final disc, you can see a preview to make sure you like how things look.

 

 

Windows DVD Maker is applied in premium editions (Home Premium and Ultimate) of Windows Vista. If you are a user of any other edition, you can download a similar application named DVD Burner.

Tips:
Some video files have black video sides around them. If you want to remove these black sides, you can crop them off, but WMM does not have the "Crop" function. If this function is important to you, you can use a professional DVD Burner.