Is there a good free version of DVD burning software?

I am making the asumption that you are using some brand of windows. You could try this http://infrarecorder.sourceforge.net/

It really depends on quite what you wish to burn onto DVD. Modern DVD software like Nero tends to have multiple "add ons" that go far beyond the basic disk burning.

Hi M,

Mind telling us what hardware you are using?

Yes, it comes bundled with your Mac.

Maybe Marsh is talking about copying movies down to the hard drive- I heard it takes less battery resource to play from the hard drive than to play off the DVD. I have no idea if this is true.

I do copy game DVDs from my legally bought originals onto my hard disk, purely because the access time is much quicker, and I don't risk damaging the originals. But I didn't think that is what the OP was asking.

I agree with the others. It really depends on what you wish to accomplish.

Applications can run from simple to very complex.

- using a DVD as a file storage/backup medium

- burning home videos on DVD to play on your TV.

- copying DVDs movies (may be copy protected) for archival.

Thanks to all of you who are trying to help me! I have a laptop with Windows XP and want to do a slideshow of my vacation photos on DVD to play on my DVD player & watch on my TV. I have a Pinnacle program which I used to burn a basic DVD slide show. It plays very slowly on the TV. I could not get the more elaborate features for the slideshow program to work.

Download the fully functional 15 days Nero Demo-Version from Ahead Software and see if it fits for you. If it does, it won't cost much to buy!

http://www.nero.com/enu/downloads-nero8-trial.php

Go to www.ulead.com and download the trial version of Ulead CD & DVD Picture Show.
Gives you plenty of options, add music, captions, panning or zooming of photos, lots of options. Does a great job on DVD's and can be written to CD but you lose a lot of the effects if on a CD.

ttt