| Windows DVD Maker | |
|---|---|
 | |
 Screenshot of the Windows DVD Maker start page | |
| Developer | Microsoft |
| Initial release | November 30, 2006; 19 years ago (2006-11-30) |
| Included with | Windows Vista andWindows 7 |
| Type | DVD authoring |
| Website | www |
Windows DVD Maker is a discontinuedDVD authoring application developed byMicrosoft introduced inWindows Vista, available in the Home Premium and Ultimateeditions of Windows Vista for users to create slideshows and videos for playback on media devices includingDVD players and theXbox 360home video game console. It is also available in the Home Premium, Professional, Enterprise, and Ultimateeditions ofWindows 7, but it is no longer available as of the release ofWindows 8.[1]
DVD Maker features anAero Wizard-styleuser interface and includes customizable effects and transitions forslide shows and videos, which areDirect3D hardware accelerated and require theWindows Display Driver Model. Developers can create new effects, styles, and transitions through asoftware development kit, which include options for project user interface personalization. DVD Maker includes a number ofcommand line options and integrates with other applications in Windows Vista includingWindows Media Center,Windows Media Player,Windows Movie Maker, andWindows Photo Gallery. 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 ofWindows Essentials.
DVD Maker was reported by Paul Thurrott during theWinHEC 2003, who said Windows Vista (codenamed "Longhorn") would support DVD movie creation "through an independent application, and not through the shell."[2][3] This detail was accompanied by reports that Windows Vista would also support all major DVDpacket writing formats such asMount Rainier,[3][4] 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 toflash storage.[2] TheLive File System enables this latter feature.[5]
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.
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 videofiles, 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 aslide show of pictures with a musical accompaniment and transition effects. Many of these are similar to the transition effects available inWindows Movie Maker. 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 asbackground process withreduced scheduling priority to ensure the computer remains responsive during the compilation process.[6]
An iDVD competitor from Microsoft
