Windows DVD Maker was originally introduced in the Home Premium and Ultimate editions of Windows Vista. Windows 7 changes the application subtly, and sees it bundled with all editions from Home Premium and up.
Opening the application presents you a blank slate, into which you can add video or pictures by dragging and dropping or by clicking the “Add Items” button.
Windows DVD Maker
Each separate video clip that you add to the project is treated as its own separate “chapter” on the DVD, and pictures you add are automatically placed into a slideshow that will cycle through all of the added pictures. A characteristic pie graph in the lower right hand corner of the screen lets you know how much more stuff you can fit on the DVD.
Some advanced options can be found by clicking Options in the lower right-hand corner of the screen.
Advanced options
Those looking for a high degree of control over their DVDs will be disappointed by these simple options, but you can choose between aspect ratios (4:3 fullscreen and 16:9 widescreen) and regional settings (NTSC for North America and Japan, PAL for Europe), as well as the DVD burner’s speed and how your DVD will act when it’s inserted into a player.
Once you’ve put all of your pictures and clips in, it’s time to customize your DVD’s menu.
Menu customization
On the right side of the screen, you’ll see several different basic menu styles that you can choose from. These are largely unchanged from the Winodws Vista version of the application, but they’re nice, and people coming to Windows 7 from Windows XP won’t know the difference.
Clicking Preview, of course, will show you what your finished menu will look and sound like, while Menu Text lets you customize what your menu says and the font it says it in. Customize Menu gets you into some more advanced options:
Customize your menu
Here, you can insert music, choose the video that will play in your menus, and select what you scene selection page will look like.
Lastly, the Slide Show button will allow you to customize what a slide show of still photos will look and sound like.
Customize a slide show
You can set your pictures to music, choose how long pictures will stay on the screen before cycling to the next one, and choose what the transitions between pictures will look like. Like the rest of the application, it’s simple but streamlined, making it easy for just about anyone to use.
Once you’ve gotten everything just right, insert a blank DVD and click Burn – depending on the length and complexity of your movie, as well as the speed of your computer, this process could take a few minutes or a couple of hours. When everything’s finished, you’ll have a DVD you can play in just about any computer or standalone DVD player.
Would it be nice if Windows DVD Maker was a little more full-featured, or if there were a few more advanced options? Sure. But Microsoft’s not targeting professionals with this application. Windows DVD Maker is aimed largely at your mother and mine, the light-to-moderate computer user who wants to make a nice-looking DVD and wants it to be easy. In that capacity, Windows DVD Maker is an excellent application.
