So you have the last episode of the Sopranos to watch and no way to get it to play on your DVD player? I will help you learn how to burn mkv files to DVD with a free application!

The application is called E.M. Free MKV Video2Dvd V3.10 (Freeware). It can be downloaded from here. Once you download and install it you will be ready to convert and burn your MKV files to a DVD directly or to an ISO file to burn later on. Either which way you will be on your way to watching your video file in no time.

You will then choose between Easy Mode and Advanced Mode. The easy mode is well um….easy! So that is the way we went. If you need to modify the menus, chapters, subtitles or other good stuff choose the advanced mode option.

Hit OK and you will see the program’s main interface. This is where you will drag and drop your MKV file (or files) to be converted to a DVD. It looks like this:

Locate your MKV file in Windows Explorer and drag and drop the file in the white portion of the window above. Repeat the process for any other files you want in the same compilation. Could it be any easier? Yeah well they could do it for you right! But this is pretty damn easy.

Once you get your files in there can you guess what we do next?

If you said hit the Burn Now button – shame on you Make Use of reader!  We should look at the settings before burning! If you don’t want to hit Burn Now choose your output files as ISO or burn to DVD and you are done.

You will see choices for NTSC and PAL on the TV system pull down menu on the left hand side. And then on the right you will see the display aspect ratio. You can drop that down to choose widescreen or normal old TV options on the aspect ratio. 4:3 is normal for those of you who don’t know. You can also hit the change profile button to see the pre-configured profiles for quality. I left mine on the Automatic adjustment setting. You can choose the best setting for yourself and obviously the worse the quality the more you can fit on the disk.

Now you are ready to burn. Hit OK on the settings screen and Burn Now on the main interface. From there you will see your two options. One for a DVD disk burn and another for a straight ISO image. You can burn the ISO later.

Once you select your burn now preference you will see the progress of the burn. My video was just a sample 5 minute clip and it finished almost instantly.

I saw this and knew I was done. I now had a ISO I could burn. If I had a DVD burner in this machine I would have burned directly.

How do you deal with MKV files? Share your thoughts with us in the comments!

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

• Top Free Media Converters for Windows (32)
• How To Rip & Convert A DVD Movie For Your iPod (Mac Only) (23)
• How To Easily Convert Video Files to DVD, MP4, VCD, MPEG, AVI … with VideoSpiritLite (22)
• How to Create a DVD from Any Video File (21)
• How to Compile Photos & Videos to Make a DVD with iDVD [Mac] (4)

Speaking of optical disks, CD and DVD are the most commonly used media by common people nowadays to store their multimedia digital memories. Being a media that supports interactive menus, it’s a bit surprising that most people use DVD only to store the raw data – just a direct copy of the files from the hard drive.

Maybe they just don’t know how to make a DVD, or they think that creating DVD interactive menus is not for everybody, “those complicated things are too advanced for my simple brain” they might say.

Getting started with iDVD

But compiling pictures and videos to make your own interactive DVD shouldn’t be a daunting task. Apple provides its users with a tool to make a DVD easily. The name is iDVD.

I was opening iPhoto to organize my photos and videos taken from my cameras when I saw that there’s iDVD sitting there nearby waiting. Curious, I opened it and found out that the DVD creation process is as simple as using other iLife apps like iWeb and Garageband.

When you open iDVD, you’ll get the familiar menu with several start options. As our purpose today is to quickly and easily create an interactive DVD with our personal photos and videos, the suggested choice is “Magic iDVD“.

The next step is giving your project a name and choose the theme for it. There are several theme groups available: 7.0, 6.0, 5.0 and older versions. Each group has several themes to choose for. I just picked the “Revolution” theme as it’s the first choice that appeared.

Then you can browse the media folder to find items that you want to include in the DVD. The materials could be music, pictures and movies. Adding them to the project is just a matter of dragging and dropping.

Hit preview to see what the end result will look like. A preview window will appear, complete with the remote control-like playback interface.

If your project contains a big size of data collection, it might exceed the maximum capacity of the disc and iDVD will give you a pop-up notification.

You could delete some files to reduce the size, or you could try to modify the encoder setting. To do that, open “Project Info” from the “Project” menu (or use Command + Shift + I),

And choose the lower quality setting from the “Encoding” drop down menu.

Click “Start Project” to enter the next stage.

Giving the final touch

There are other things that you can adjust from the menu interface. Click the “Menu Info” buttom at the bottom left of the window.

The menu info window will appear. Here you can adjust the loop duration, audio volume, buttons and drop zone. You could also change the background music simply by dragging and dropping any audio file from the hard drive to the audio box.

You’ll see the general folders of the DVD such as Movies, Pictures and Music. The folder and sub folder names could be edited easily by double clicking on it.

While editing the names, a text object setting dialog will appear. You could choose the font type and size here.

The last step is producing the DVD. From the File menu choose “Burn DVD” or hit “Command + R“. You could also save the DVD as an image to store in the hard drive (Shift + Command +R).

Another way to start the DVD burning process is by clicking the “Burn” button at the lower bar of the window next to the “Play” button. The process will stall unless you have a blank DVD ready in the drive.

And all that’s left to do is wait. The time will depend on how big your files are and how strong your Mac is. You could do something else while iDVD handle the necessary steps one by one.

There are a lot of iDVD features still uncovered by this short introduction, but I think it should be enough to start your own DVD project.

Have you tried compiling personal movies and pictures into an interactive DVD? Do you know other free alternatives to iDVD? Please share using the comments below.

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

• How To Convert MKV Files To Burn As A DVD (13)
• 4 Easy Ways to Burn CDs and DVDs for Free on Mac (3)
• [Google Picasa 101] – View, Folders, Toolbars (18)
• Windows 7 Libraries Explained – And Why You Want Them (51)
• Use Geographical Info To Organize Photos in iPhoto [Mac] (1)

That’s why modern people can afford to lose their computers but not the data inside. That’s also why the necessity of backing up your data is unquestionable.

Disc Burning in Mac OS X

One of today’s most popular and practical method of data back up is disc burning, and there are two popular disc formats used by the masses: CD (up to 700 MB worth of data) and DVD (up to 4.7 GB worth of data).

Mac OS X comes with its own built-in disc burning feature and users have several ways to access it. I’ll show you how to use native Mac apps to burn CDs and DVDs for free without installing anything.

1. From the iLife Suite

Mac users can burn their music, photo and movie collection directly from the respective iLife applications. There’s a “Burn Disc” button in iTunes, The “Share –> Burn” menu in iPhoto, And the burn button in iDVD.

2. From Finder

You can create a Burn Folder in Finder by choosing “File –> New Burn Folder” menu or by using “Command + Shift + B” key combination. Give name to the folder and then drag and drop the files and folders that you want to backup.

After everything is in place, open the burn folder and click the “Burn” button on the top right corner of the window.

3. From Disk Utility

Open Disk Utility (/Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility.app) and you can see that there’s the Burn button in the main window. Please note that Disk Utility can only burn from an image file. So, the first thing to do is to choose or create an image file. (You can create an image file by clicking the “New Image” button.)

The advantage of using Disk Utility is that you can create multisession disc. Just make sure you tick the “Leave Disc appendable” box before you start burning.

4. Burn Baby, Burn!

Mac OS X built-in disc burning feature has some limitations. The main one is that users should use different apps to create different kind of discs, and the kinds of disc that can be created is limited. That’s why there are still so many users who use third party disc burning application. We mentioned some of them in the article about free alternatives to Nero CD / DVD burner.

One good and free alternative of such app is Burn. This is an all-in-one, easy to use disc-burning software for Mac that has the ability to burn different kinds of discs with only a few clicks.

To use Burn, choose the type of disc you want to create from one of the tabs on the upper part of the window. There are three main types of disc available: Data, Audio, Video, with an additional ability to Copy disc.

The next step is to drag and drop the files you want to burn into the main window. Then, give the disc a name and click “Burn”. That’s it. No more complicated processes necessary.

There’s a list of adjustable sub-types of disc next to the name field. Other settings can be changed from the Preferences menu.

To create a multisession disc, be sure to check to the “Allow more sessions” box. And if you use CD-RW or DVD-RW, there’s the option to erase the disc before burning.

Burn is by far the easiest disc burning software that I’ve come across. I also think that this one is better than most of the paid competitors.

Have you tried Burn? Do you know other alternatives to burn CDs and DVDs for free? Share your burning experiences in the comment below.

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

• The Best, Free Alternatives to Nero CD/DVD Burner (244)
• ImgBurn – Easy & Free CD and DVD Burner App (15)
• How To Rip & Convert A DVD Movie For Your iPod (Mac Only) (23)
• How to Create a DVD from Any Video File (21)
• bitRipper : One-Click Free DVD Ripper for Windows (64)

ImgBurn is a CD/DVD/HD-DVD/Blu-ray burning application that is fast, lightweight, and completely free.

Editor’s note: Disc compatibility depends on your CD/DVD/Blu-ray/HD-DVD writer hardware.

Core Features

• Create images from files and folders – useful to backup your data
• Burn data files or images to disc – to burn downloaded software or movies
• Create image file from disc – for creating copies of discs
• Easily build DVD Video, HD DVD Video, and Blu-ray Video discs – for creating discs playable in your DVD player

You can also use ImgBurn to burn standard Audio CDs from any music files such as MP3, WAV. It supports a variety of image formats and almost all types of optical discs, so you don’t need to look any further for your disc burning needs.

Installation is fast and simple with the 1.9MB download. You can get a Portable version of ImgBurn here or easily create one yourself. ImgBurn runs on Windows and on Linux under WINE.

The welcome screen is very intuitive. You choose a mode of operation depending on your task:

• Use the Write Mode to burn images to disc. For e.g., when burning a .ISO file to disc.
• Use the Read Mode to create an image from a disc. For e.g., if you want to duplicate your friend’s disc, or create a backup copy of a disc, you would first create an image of the source disk.
• Use the Build Mode to create data discs containing backup copies of your chosen files/folders.

Burning Image (Write Mode)

In the Write mode, you select the image file that you want to burn on disk, insert a blank disc, and click Burn.



Creating Image from Disc (Read Mode)



The Read Mode displays information about the disc, and you choose the destination file for the image. Simple!

Burn Data Files (Build Mode)

If you want to backup data to discs, use the Build Mode. You can also use this to burn “VIDEO_TS” folders to create regular DVDs that play in your DVD player. You select files/folders in the left pane, and click the Calculator icon to see how much space will be utilized on the blank disc currently inserted.



The Options Tab allows you to choose the file system on the target disc and other preferences. Advanced users can also change how file date/time stamps are set, create bootable discs, and set ISO9660/Joliet/UDF restrictions.

ImgBurn offers a plethora of options for intermediate and advanced users, via neatly organized groups in the Options dialog. It also has a fairly extensive list of command-line options, for automating it via batch files.

ImgBurn is fast, simple, and best of all, completely free. You will never need to pay for another disc burning software with ImgBurn in your arsenal! Check out the other popular free burner applications.

What do you think? Does it give Nero Burning ROM or any other commercial burning application a run for their money? Let us know!

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

• The Best, Free Alternatives to Nero CD/DVD Burner (244)
• 4 Easy Ways to Burn CDs and DVDs for Free on Mac (3)
• How to Rip a CD to MP3 & Auto-Name Files Correctly (Win) (9)
• How To Rip & Mount Multiple ISO Images Easily (Windows) (12)
• How To Rip & Convert A DVD Movie For Your iPod (Mac Only) (23)

Sadly, they also brought some bad things; DRM amongst others.

With internet as a news medium, a lot of companies saw their chance to deliver a strike to piracy, by introducing new levels of security. Sadly, this had an immense effect on the everyday music lover as well.

The (then) new DRM protection refrained users from pirating, but shielded them from a lot of their proper rights as well. Consumers could now only put their songs on a limited number of devices, or burn them to a CD a limited number of times.

Also our beloved Apple went all-in on this, chaining audiophyles all over the world in a way that would’ve given most other companies tons of trouble. After quite some time they’re discussing other protection formats, but there are still plenty of DRM songs out there that need to be freed.

Freeing Your Music From DRM

Today we’ll look at how to obliterate your music’s DRM protection restrictions.

Mind, this is for lawful purposes only, so you can enjoy your music the way you want to. Don’t rob old ladies, steal babies, or use this method for any piracy-related activity.

There have been several different DRM-freeing methods. New ones have appeared and others have disappeared, due to the constant patching/cracking race.

Two methods have always remained though, both using an analog backdoor.

The CD Burning Technique

This is probably the most easiest (free) way to rid your music from DRM. The process is simple. We burn our music to an audio CD, and rip the disc to MP3.

In theory, any application can be used, but in reality most protected files only work with specific programs like iTunes, Napster, Windows Media Player and such.

The principle is always the same. Burn the files to a CD, and rip them back to your computer.

iTunes How-to

Burning the files is relatively simple. First, we create a playlist, and fill it with the DRM protected files.

Next, select the playlist and burn it to a disk. There’ll be a button at the lower right of the screen, or you can use right click on the playlist.

Once this is finished, we’ll specify the ripping format. In iTunes, go to Edit – Preferences, and press theImport Settings button in the General tab. Here you’ll be able to choose the desired encoder.

Finally, insert and rip the burned audio CD to your computer. You can also use other applications for this, in which case you won’t need the previous step.

Stream Copy Technique

The principle is even simpler than before. We play the songs, and record the audio output to a new file.

This one will work always, but is a bother at the very least. Freeing large batches of files will almost be impossible, as each time the conversion must be started and terminated manually. There are applications that will do this automatically, but sadly none of them are free; those that were are abandoned and stopped working.

A good, free and simple recording tool is Audacity. To capture any audio, simple press the record button at the start and at the end of the song.

This is a tiring process, and is more of a way out than an actual solution.

Do you know another way out to free your music from DRM, something we missed? Or are you having problems with the methods described above? Tell us in the comments.

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

• Liberate, Sync and Share Your Media With DoubleTwist (6)
• 5 Apps To Get More Out Of Your NEW Mac (63)
• Who Is Connected To My iTunes Library? (Windows) (12)
• Two Free Apps To Sync ANY MP3 Player with iTunes (19)
• Top Indie Music Websites (100% Legal, DRM-free Downloads) (19)

However, it’s much easier to transfer data from a hard drive, to date the capacity is much bigger, and when dealing with a mass of data, hard drives are of course cheaper, way faster and much more convenient to use for backups.

Now, even if you don’t make backups to CD or DVD, you probably own commercial discs, be it music, movies or programs you bought. If you don’t want to lose them due to “natural decay”, you will have to prepare a backup. Please mind that this is not an instruction to circumvent copy protection. In case you are dealing with copy protected media, you’d best learn how to treat them to achieve maximal lifetime. There is a very good article about CD and DVD Lifetime and Maintenance on Techworld. And to recover an already broken CD or DVD, you should refer to Bill’s recent article Free CD/DVD File Recovery Tool – CD Recovery Toolbox.

So how do you create a backup?

Most CD/DVD burners can save ISO files. Back in February Shankar wrote a great article introducing The Best, Free Alternatives to Nero CD/DVD Burner. Another great tool to extract ISO images from CDs or DVDs, is DuBaron’s open source CD2ISO. The tool does not require an installation, simply run the EXE file, select a drive and a target and go. CD2ISO does not read copy protected discs or audio CDs because it relies on a valid file system.

As you see, creating the backup is easy. And once you have it on your hard drive you can burn it to a fresh disc anytime. But why bother when you can read the backup directly from your hard disk!

Playback CD or DVD on your PC from Backup

Dolly, the first mammalian clone, has inspired the name and logo of SlySoft’s Virtual CloneDrive. With CloneDrive you can mount a virtual drive to playback CD or DVD backups in ISO, DUE, BIN, CCD, DVD, IMG or UDF format. The program supports up to eight virtual drives and it’s very easy to use.

After installation the tool appears as Elaborate Bytes folder in your Windows programs list. Open the Virtual CloneDrive menu and select how many drives you wish to mount. Check “virtual sheep” for the sheep head logo to appear as the drive symbol, to better distinguish the virtual from your regular drives.

To mount a CD image you can do two things. Either right-click the backup file and select >Open With >Mount Files with Virtual CloneDrive or right-click one of the virtual drives, select >Virtual CloneDrive and >Mount… from the menu, then browse for your backup file. Wait for a few seconds, then proceed as you would after loading a regular disc.

The advantages of using a virtual drive are manifold:
1. quick access to backed up CDs or DVDs
2. no need to carry discs
3. conserve your CD/DVD drive
4. less noise (especially on laptops)
5. less energy use

What is your experience with the durability of CDs and DVDs? Are you prepared to lose the first CDs you bought back in the 80’s?

(By) Tina is a regular MUO author. In her offline life she’s a PhD student interested in unraveling signaling events that determine cartilage and bone development.

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

• Mount CD or DVD Image Files Virtually Using A Portable App (19)
• How To Rip & Mount Multiple ISO Images Easily (Windows) (12)
• AcetoneISO – Easy ISO Manager for Linux (5)
• Virtualization-Free In-Windows Linux Installation (15)
• Using Keepass to Secure Your Online Accounts (19)

Why not try some freeware CD DVD Burning Apps applications that can serve as an alternative to Nero Burning ROM for your Windows PC?

1. CDBurnerXP

This is by far the most popular free alternative to the expensive Nero Software. Works on Vista as well, and here’s a features-highlight from CDBurnerXP:

• Multi Language Interface
• Support for Blu Ray/HD DVD
• BIN > ISO converter included

Download CDBurnerXP

2. InfraRecorder

This is the software that I currently use on my computer as a Nero alternative, and I must tell, it’s damn simple and straightforward. Has all that you might expect in a CD DVD Burning software like Nero. Some highlights from this Nero alternative include:

• Support for Multi-Session
• Very Light on Resources
• Support for not just ISO, but also BIN and CUE images
• Burning on Dual Layer DVDs is supported

Download InfraRecorder

3. DeepBurner (Free Edition)

Another good alternative. Available both as a regular and portable app. So if you want something you can carry around on your USB Flash Drive then check this one out.

• Supports both internal and external CD/DVD writers.
• Burn any data, copy any disc.
• Create multiple disk copies.
• Make ISO CDs.
• Print CD labels.

Download DeepBurner

4. Ultimate CD/DVD Burner

This simple solution can serve all your basic CD burning needs. Similar to above Deepburner, there is a portable version. The only thing I don’t like about this one is interface, it reminds of Windows 95.

• CD Photo Albums creation
• Easy Backup CD creation
• Disk copying
• ISO Creation and Burning

Download Ultimate CD/DVD Burner

5. Burn At Once

Burn At Once is another good CD/DVD Burning Application. It can copy discs on the fly and has the following unique features:

• Tagging of media by importing data from FreeDB
• Multi Language Support
• Drag and Drop Interface

However, it looks like support for this application is stagnant at the moment.

Download Burn At Once

6. Burn Aware Free Edition

This relatively new software is creating waves, and it’s intuitive interface is attracting users. It’s very light on resources, and supports every other format that you can imagine (including Blu Ray). Burning is fast because this software burns data directly on to the medium, instead of waiting for ‘hard disk staging’

Download BurnAware

7. ImgBurn

Another software that’s worth mentioning here is ImgBurn. It’s a lightweight CD / DVD / HD DVD / Blu-ray burning application that can be installed both on Windows and Linux PCs. It’s probably the most extensive out of all. If you’re looking for something advanced and with lots of features ImgBurn seems like a good candidate.

Download ImgBurn

Do let us know about your experiences with these software in the comments. Have I missed out any? Shoot out your voices, come and discuss!

(By) Shankar Ganesh, a 16 year old Student and Freelance Writer from India. Killer Tech Tips is his blog.

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

• ImgBurn – Easy & Free CD and DVD Burner App (15)
• 4 Easy Ways to Burn CDs and DVDs for Free on Mac (3)
• Vista Switcher – Replace Windows’ Alt-Tab With Something Cooler (9)
• Virtualization-Free In-Windows Linux Installation (15)
• Unfreeze Your Windows Computer With AntiFreeze (9)