Absolute Beginner's Guide to Microsoft Windows® XP Media Center®

Choosing Your Tools

Let’s look at the three types of DVDs you can create,

and talk about the software tools you’ll need to get

the job done.

Creating Data DVDs

Data DVDs can be created using Windows XP, with-

out the need to buy additional software. In general,

XP supports the capability to copy files to a record-

able DVD disc so that you can access them on

another PC. DVDs recorded in this way will not

allow you to pop them into a standard DVD video

player, however, because they contain only com-

puter data. The main benefit of using a DVD in

this manner, versus using a recordable CD, is the

size: A typical DVD-R disc will hold 4.7GB of data,

compared to the measly 700MB capacity of a CD-R

disc. If you want to store large files, or even lots

and lots of small ones, there’s no contest.

To create a data DVD using Windows XP, do the

following:

1. Minimize or exit Media Center.

2. Insert a blank DVD disc into your PC. If XP

opens a dialog box, select Take no Action.

3. Click on Start, then on My Computer.

4. Right-click on the recordable DVD drive icon

(see Figure 12.1), and then select Format.

5. Follow the onscreen instructions to format

the disc.

6. Copy, move, or drag and drop files onto the

formatted DVD disc using My Computer.

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ABSOLUTE BEGINNER’S GUIDE TO WINDOWS XP MEDIA CENTER

Although most Media

Center systems include a

DVD writer as either standard or

optional equipment, you may

choose to burn CDs instead of

DVDs—either because you want to

save money on the blank media,

or because your system doesn’t

have a DVD burner installed. For a

general discussion of burning

recordable CDs, see the section on

using the CD Writing Wizard in

Chapter 19. For more information

on creating video CDs, see the sec-

tion “What About the Cost?” later

in this chapter.

Although the standard

size for a DVD is 4.7GB,

some formats go even higher.

Rewritable DVD-RAM discs, for

example, are available in a two-

sided variety that will store up to

9.4GB of data!

Creating a DVD from Video Files

To create a basic video DVD disc that can be played back on a PC or in a typical

video DVD player, you’ll need some specialized DVD editing software and recording

software. Check and see whether your Media Center PC came with any bundled

DVD authoring software. Some typical ones that PC manufacturers bundle include

the following:

■ ShowBiz from ArcSoft

■ Expression from Pinnacle

■ VideoStudio from Ulead

■ VideoWave from Roxio

■ Sonic MyDVD

There are many others as well. Most of these pro-

grams allow you to edit your video, create a DVD

menu system, and record the video to a DVD

disc. Another software package you may want to

consider—primarily because at the time of this

writing, it is being offered free—is Microsoft’s

Windows Movie Maker. This program may come

already installed on your Media Center Machine.

CHAPTER 12 CREATING DVDS ON AN XP MEDIA CENTER PC

169

FIGURE 12.1

This view of My

Computer shows

the icon for a

shared DVD/

CD-RW drive,

which supports

rewritable disc

media.

tip

For details on how to edit

your video and prepare it for

burning to a DVD disc, see

the section “Using Windows

Movie Maker” in Chapter 10,

“Capturing and Creating

Videos with Media Center.”

If you need to download a copy, visit the Web site www.microsoft.com/windowsXP/

moviemaker

and look for the “Download Windows Movie Maker 2” link (see Figure 12.2).

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ABSOLUTE BEGINNER’S GUIDE TO WINDOWS XP MEDIA CENTER

FIGURE 12.2

This section of

the Movie Maker

home page con-

tains two links

to download the

free software:

one at the center

of the screen

and one to the

right.

Windows Movie Maker has one major drawback, at least as far as this chapter is

concerned: It does not support recording your finished

movie to a DVD disc. Instead, you can choose to create a

Video CD (VCD), which provides many features simi-

lar to a true DVD disc. But because it records using a

blank CD instead of a DVD, the finished disc is lim-

ited in terms of the quality and size of the video you

can store. In addition, the interactivity features you

can add for use in a DVD player device are limited.

Creating a DVD from Recorded

TV Programs

This is probably the most interesting, and least

supported, DVD recording project available to own-

ers of Media Center PCs. As of this writing, the only

company that fully supports the capability to cre-

ate DVDs from programs and movies you recorded

from your TV signal in Media Center is Sonic. The

company offers two products with this capability:

MyDVD and PrimeTime.

Like Windows Movie

Maker, ArcSoft ShowBiz

doesn’t directly support the capa-

bility to burn a DVD-R disc. The

program is integrated with Sonic’s

MyDVD, however, so you can edit

your video project in ShowBiz and

then turn it over to MyDVD for the

actual creation of the DVD disc

(see Figure 12.3) .