Edit and burn

Once you've captured video to your hard drive, you'll probably want to edit it--that is, trim off unwanted static from the beginning or the end, add titles or music, and so forth. If you have multiple videos on the same disc, you may want to create a menu page (best with DVDs). Then, of course, you'll have to burn it all to disc. All of this requires software, which probably came with your burner.

If you have no software or you're looking to upgrade to a more competent package, there are a number of titles available for less than $100: Adaptec's MyDVD; Mediostream's NeoDVD; Powerquest's PowerProducer 2.0; Roxio's Videowave (Movie Creator or Power Edition); Ulead's DVD Workshop; and more. Ahead Software's Nero 6.0 Ultra Edition and Roxio's Easy CD Creator CD/DVD software suites both include competent movie-authoring programs as well.

Burn it
Burning a disc is generally no more complicated than placing it in your burner and selecting Burn or Create in your authoring program. However, there are tricks that may save you a lot of time in the long run. The first is to do test burns with rewritable discs while you're getting up to speed with your new equipment or when you're trying out a technique that's new to you, such as splitting a movie across two or more discs. It's cheaper than ruining bunches of write-once discs.

Another trick is to save your creation to the hard drive as a structure--that is, encoded and formatted with a movie disc's strict folder- and file-naming conventions. Because the encoding happens during the initial save process, you save time when burning multiple copies, and you can even edit it later with many authoring apps (use the VR, a.k.a. Video Recording, format for maximum compatibility).

If you're sure your creation is perfect, you can also save it to an ISO image, which can be burned to disc even more quickly by just about any competent authoring or mastering application. Sadly, no program we've seen to date will let you edit an ISO image; although some programs, such as Nero Image Drive, let you view one as a read-only drive and extract the files to your hard drive.

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