Windows DVD Maker is a discontinued
DVD authoring
DVD authoring is the process of creating a DVD video capable of playing on a DVD player. DVD authoring software must conform to the specifications set by the DVD Forum.
DVD authoring is the second step in the process of producing finished DVD ...
application developed by
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washing ...
introduced in
Windows Vista
Windows Vista is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft. It was the direct successor to Windows XP, which was released five years before, at the time being the longest time span between successive releases of ...
, available in the Home Premium and Ultimate
editions of Windows Vista for users to create slideshows and videos for playback on media devices including
DVD player
A DVD player is a device that plays DVDs produced under both the DVD-Video and DVD-Audio technical standards, two different and incompatible standards. Some DVD players will also play audio CDs. DVD players are connected to a television to wa ...
s and the
Xbox 360
The Xbox 360 is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. As the successor to the original Xbox, it is the second console in the Xbox series. It competed with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation ...
home video game console
A home video game console is a video game console that is designed to be connected to a display device, such as a television, and an external power source as to play video games. Home consoles are generally less powerful and customizable than ...
. It is also available in the Home Premium, Professional, Enterprise, and Ultimate
editions
Edition may refer to:
* Edition (book), a bibliographical term for a substantially similar set of copies
* Edition (printmaking), a publishing term for a set print run
* Edition (textual criticism), a particular version of a text
* Edition Recor ...
of
Windows 7
Windows 7 is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft. It was released to manufacturing on July 22, 2009, and became generally available on October 22, 2009. It is the successor to Windows Vista, released nearly ...
, but it is no longer available as of the release of
Windows 8
Windows 8 is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft. It was Software release life cycle#Release to manufacturing (RTM), released to manufacturing on August 1, 2012; it was subsequently made available for downl ...
.
DVD Maker features an
Aero Wizard-style
user interface
In the industrial design field of human–computer interaction, a user interface (UI) is the space where interactions between humans and machines occur. The goal of this interaction is to allow effective operation and control of the machine f ...
and includes customizable effects and transitions for
slide show
A slide show (slideshow) is a presentation of a series of still images (Presentation slide, slides) on a projection screen or electronic display device, typically in a prearranged sequence. The changes may be automatic and at regular intervals o ...
s and videos, which are
Direct3D
Direct3D is a graphics application programming interface (API) for Microsoft Windows. Part of DirectX, Direct3D is used to render three-dimensional graphics in applications where performance is important, such as games. Direct3D uses hardware a ...
hardware accelerated and require the
Windows Display Driver Model
Windows Display Driver Model (WDDM) is the graphic driver architecture for video card drivers running Microsoft Windows versions beginning with Windows Vista.
It is a replacement for the previous Windows 2000 and Windows XP display driver model ...
. Developers can create new effects, styles, and transitions through a
software development kit
A software development kit (SDK) is a collection of software development tools in one installable package. They facilitate the creation of applications by having a compiler, debugger and sometimes a software framework. They are normally specific to ...
, which include options for project user interface personalization. DVD Maker includes a number of
command line
A command-line interpreter or command-line processor uses a command-line interface (CLI) to receive commands from a user in the form of lines of text. This provides a means of setting parameters for the environment, invoking executables and pro ...
options and integrates with other applications in Windows Vista including
Windows Media Center
Windows Media Center (WMC) is a defunct digital video recorder and media player created by Microsoft. Media Center was first introduced to Windows in 2002 on Windows XP Media Center Edition (MCE). It was included in Home Premium and Ultimate ...
,
Windows Media Player
Windows Media Player (WMP) is the first media player and media library application that was developed by Microsoft for playing audio, video and viewing images on personal computers running the Microsoft Windows operating system, as well as on ...
,
Windows Movie Maker
Windows Movie Maker (known as Windows Live Movie Maker for the 2009 and 2011 releases) is a discontinued video editing software program by Microsoft. It was first included in Windows Me on September 14, 2000 and in Windows XP on October 25, 2001 ...
, and
Windows Photo Gallery
Windows Photo Gallery (formerly known as Windows Live Photo Gallery) is a discontinued image organizer, photo editor and photo sharing program. It is a part of Microsoft's Windows Essentials software suite. The product has been unavailable fo ...
. DVD Maker—as well as Windows Media Center and Windows Media Player—can be removed from Windows 7, where Windows Movie Maker is also no longer available in favor of
Windows Essentials.
History
DVD Maker was reported by Paul Thurrott during the
WinHEC
The Windows Hardware Engineering Community (WinHEC) is a series of technical conferences and workshops, where Microsoft elaborates on its hardware plans for Windows devices.
The WinHEC from 1992 to 2008, which stood for Windows Hardware Engineerin ...
2003, who said Windows Vista (codenamed "Longhorn") would support DVD movie creation "through an independent application, and not through the shell."
This detail was accompanied by reports that Windows Vista would also support all major DVD
packet writing formats such as
Mount Rainier
Mount Rainier (), indigenously known as Tahoma, Tacoma, Tacobet, or təqʷubəʔ, is a large active stratovolcano in the Cascade Range of the Pacific Northwest, located in Mount Rainier National Park about south-southeast of Seattle. With a s ...
,
and would eliminate the "staging and burning" steps while writing to optical media—files copied to optical media could instead be written immediately, or managed later—making DVDs equivalent to
flash storage
Flash memory is an electronic non-volatile computer memory storage medium that can be electrically erased and reprogrammed. The two main types of flash memory, NOR flash and NAND flash, are named for the NOR and NAND logic gates. Both use ...
.
The
Live File System
Live File System is the term Microsoft uses to describe the packet writing method of creating discs in Windows Vista and later, which allows writeable optical media to act like mass storage by replicating its file operations. Live File System lets ...
enables this latter feature.
DVD Maker is available in Windows 7 as an optional application installed by default; it is no longer available as of the release of Windows 8.
Features
Windows DVD Maker is available on Home Premium, Enterprise and Ultimate editions of Windows Vista, as well as Home Premium, Professional, Enterprise and Ultimate editions of Windows 7. It has a simple user interface, which takes the user through the process of creating DVD-Video. The first step involves importing video
files, arranging them to play in proper order. Windows DVD Maker automatically splits the videos into scenes that can be accessed from a special scene selection page in the DVD menu. In the next step, animated DVD menus can be added to the compilation. Windows DVD Maker can also add a
slide show
A slide show (slideshow) is a presentation of a series of still images (Presentation slide, slides) on a projection screen or electronic display device, typically in a prearranged sequence. The changes may be automatic and at regular intervals o ...
of pictures with a musical accompaniment and transition effects. Many of these are similar to the transition effects available in
Windows Movie Maker
Windows Movie Maker (known as Windows Live Movie Maker for the 2009 and 2011 releases) is a discontinued video editing software program by Microsoft. It was first included in Windows Me on September 14, 2000 and in Windows XP on October 25, 2001 ...
. Users can also customize the font and button styles. The application can show an interactive preview of what the DVD will look and act like when it has been burned. For example, users can navigate the DVD menus, testing them.
Windows DVD Maker is designed to encode video as
background process
A background process is a computer process that runs ''behind the scenes'' (i.e., in the background) and without user intervention. Typical tasks for these processes include logging, system monitoring, scheduling, and user notification. The backgr ...
with
reduced scheduling priority to ensure the computer remains responsive during the compilation process.
Windows DVD Maker Encoding Slow , This P.O.S
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See also
*Features new to Windows Vista
Compared with previous versions of Microsoft Windows, features new to Windows Vista are very numerous, covering most aspects of the operating system, including Management features new to Windows Vista, additional management features, Security and ...
*List of features removed in Windows 8
Windows 8 is a version of Windows NT and the successor of Windows 7. Several features that originated in earlier versions of Windows and that were included in versions up to Windows 7 are no longer present in Windows 8. Following is a list of thes ...
*List of DVD authoring applications The following applications can be used to create playable DVDs.
Free software
Free software implementations often lack features such as encryption and region coding due to licensing restrictions issues, and depending on the demands of the DVD produ ...
References
{{Windows Components
2006 software
Discontinued Windows components
Optical disc authoring software
DVD Maker
Windows 7