Windows DVD Maker

Windows DVD Maker was a DVD authoring utility developed by Microsoft, first released in 2007 in Windows Vista. The utility allows users to create DVD slideshows and videos for playback on media devices such as a DVD player. It is comparable to Apple's iDVD, which was released in 2001.

DVD Maker has been removed as of Windows 8.

History
Windows DVD Maker was first reported by Paul Thurrott during the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference of 2003. Thurrott stated that Windows Vista, then known by its codename "Longhorn," would support DVD movie creation "through an independent application, and not through the shell." This information was accompanied by additional reports that Windows Vista would support all major DVD packet writing formats, such as Mount Rainier, and would also eliminate the "staging and burning" steps while writing to optical media—files copied to recordable media would instead be written immediately. The latter functionality is exposed via the Live File System.

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 Aero Wizard-style 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 of pictures with a musical accompaniment and transition effects. Many of these are similar to the transition effects available in Windows 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 as background process with reduced scheduling priority to ensure the computer remains responsive during the compilation process.

See also
Features new to Windows Vista
List of DVD authoring applications
List of features removed in Windows 8

References

Category:Discontinued Windows components
Category:Optical disc authoring software
DVD Maker