While Apple wipes off the hard drive from MacBook Pro and MacBook Air, it doesn't mean that burning DVD on Mac will become obsolete soon. In fact, there are still large number of users use CD/DVD to record their important memories, backup files and share data with friends. With an external DVD drive for Mac, you can simply burn ISO, MP4, video to DVD. What you may note is that to burn different data, you will need different methods and DVD burner for Mac. Here are all the ways on how to burn a DVD on a Mac freely from ISO files, MP4, music and more.
10 Best Free DVD Burner for Mac #1) Burn. Burn, while simple, is a well-known free DVD burner for Mac, and has gained a wide reputation to make playable DVDs. It‘s able to burn audio and video files, but it requires converting your media files to MP3 and MPG before burning. Burn app can handle the conversion processes. Burn CDs and DVDs on Mac. If your Mac has a built-in optical drive, or if you connect an external DVD drive (for example, an Apple USB SuperDrive), you can burn files to CDs and DVDs to share your files with friends, move files between computers, or create backup files. Burn is a popular DVD burner for Mac that is simple to use but very powerful and efficient. Express Burn CD and DVD Burner Free. Express Burn is a burning suite program to create and record discs quickly and easily. Create traditional audio discs or MP3 discs to store your music. Burn your home movies to share with everyone. Save your data on ISO discs. Download the latest version of Burn for Mac for free. Read 117 user reviews and compare with similar apps on MacUpdate.
If you're running on MacBook Pro/Air without built-in DVD drive, you may need an external DVD drive for Mac to burn a DVD on Mac.
Basic Info on Mac DVD Burning
Before you start to learn how to burn DVD on Mac with different DVD burning software for macOS, you will need a disc at hand. Do you know what kind of disc is suitable for storing your media? If you're not sure, learn some basic information about different disc types below.
- DVD+R: this disc can be rewritable and reused for burning a DVD on Mac with new contents;
- DVD-R: Compared with DVD+R, DVD-R is a one-time recordable disc, thus it can't be reused or rewritable. You can still copy or burn the disc to new one as well. Those discs are usually cheaper than the DVD+R format;
- ROM: a read-only DVD disc used to permanently store data files;
- RW: it means that the data on a DVD-RW disc can be erased and recorded over numerous times without damaging the medium;
- Single and dual layer: single layer discs can hold 120min or 4.7GB of data, while dual-layer discs can store 8.5GB or 240 minutes. Select the right disc based on your data and purpose.
# How to Burn ISO Files to DVD on Mac
1. Insert the blank into the DVD drive.
Burn Dvd Free Mac Software
2. Go to Finder > Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility, launch the free DVD burner for Mac.
3. Click file from the menu and Open Disk Image, or you can drag the ISO file into the left frame of the Disk Utility window.
4. Click Burn and you can start to burn ISO to DVD on Mac.
Important tips:
- Check the size of the DVD disc and the ISO image to make sure that the blank DVD has enough storage to store the data;
- In Disk Utility, select the slowest speed available (2x-4x) for the DVD burning on Mac (this also applies to other burning tasks or software). This will ensure the best quality of the burned DVD and avoid any playback errors or other problems with the disc.
To Burn DVD to DVD on Mac, You Need ISO Image First
- Homemade discs: the Disk Utility can copy ISO image from DVDs un-protected: insert DVD > open Disk Utility and select DVD > click 'New Image' > click 'Save As...' to set the output folder > set the 'Image Format' to 'DVD/CD Master' and then click Save.
- Protected discs: the free DVD burner for Mac won't support any DVD protections. If you want to burn DVD on Mac from any commercial discs, there are third-party rippers to help. For example, MacX DVD Ripper Pro, it's extremely useful to copy protected DVD to DVD, as it can rip any types of DVDs into ISO image, MPEG (other digital formats as well) within 5 minutes. Original quality reserved.
# How to Burn MP4 Video to DVD on Mac
As the Disk Utility or other Mac-built in methods (Finder or Command Line) will not accept video formats besides Image files directly, if you want to burn MP4 to DVD on Mac or other formats like avi, mov, mkv etc, you will need third-party DVD burning software for Mac to help. The 100% free MP4 video to DVD burner for Mac recommended here is Burn.
1. Free download the Mac DVD burning software and insert a blank disc. First of all, launch the burner, click the dropdown menu and change the format to DVD-Video.
2. Add the video to burn. You can freely add MP4, MKV, MOV, AVI and videos in many more digital formats by drag and drop or click the + button.
3. The free Mac DVD burner can burn MPG to DVD only, so if you're adding videos in other formats, an message will pop up asking you to convert the videos. Click Convert. If you can't convert with this burner or your source video file is too large for DVD burning, try programs like Handbrake or MacX Video Converter Pro.
4. Click Burn to start to burn mp4 videos to DVD on Mac. Before that, you can adjust the output destination, DVD format, burning speed and other settings.
# How to Burn Audio to CD on Mac
Both Disk Utility and Burn for Mac offer a feature to burn CD/DVD on Mac, but there is another method to burn audio to CD on Mac that some users may ignore: using iTunes. With iTunes serving as free dvd burning software for mac, you can either burn CD/DVD from music downloaded from Apple Music, or movies and videos purchased from iTunes Store. If you don't want to use other DVD burner for Mac to create music CD, try iTunes.
1. Open iTunes and insert the CD. Note that most CD can hold 77 minutes of music.
2. Create a new playlist and add the music you'd like to burn into the playlist.
3. Click File button and select Burn Playlist to Disc.
4. A window will pop up with CD settings. Check the Use Sound Check box to ensure that all the songs on the CD will play at the same volume. Then click Burn to start. Then you can just wait and the free DVD copy software will automatically finish the job.
# Burn DVD Mac Errors & Troubleshooting
Even if you have strictly followed the above steps on how to burn a DVD on a Mac, we understand that there are users facing with failed burn problems. After numerous searching on various forums, we find that most 'unable to burn DVD on Mac' problems are caused by some common reasons. Below we gather those causes and you can check if necessary.
* Dirty optical drive - If the lens of the drive is dirty, it can't read the disc properly and will cause problems. You can try a different computer to see if it's the cause. Then you can buy a lens cleaner, or replace it, or use some compressed air to clean it yourself.
* Bad media - don't forget to try a different disc. If you have choose the right DVD type for your purpose, DVDs in bad quality won't work out either.
* Burning speed - to burn DVD on Mac at the maximum speed can be quick, but it also has problem. Some DVD-R burned at fast burning speed won't be read by some players, or result in bad quality. Try to burn disc content at a slower speed (4x or 2x).
* Repair disk permission - open Disk Utility and select the startup disk > First Aid > click Verify Disk Permissions > Repair Disk Permissions.
What's the fastest way to burn DVDs on Mac? There are too many DVD burning freeware for us to choose from, it is a little time-consuming to try which one is better. It’s, therefore, a good idea to read this article, that will recommend the easy yet cheaper ways to burn DVD on Mac. Don't wander among dazzling market, just go on reading this article, you will find more useful things. I separately introduce Mac built-in burning applications, as well as the easy-to-use yet professional third-party application to burn video to DVD on Mac.
Free Solutions to Burn Video Files to DVD
1. Finder - To burn video folder to DVD
How to Burn DVD on Mac for Free? You don’t need to download the third-party applications, just use your Mac OS X to help you make it. What free DVD burning application I want to recommend is the Mac OS X Built-in Application – Finder. You may not know that Finder can burn the video folder to CD. Only has a built-in optical drive, it can help you burn DVD on Mac.
How to Burn DVD on Mac with Finder?
1. Insert a blank DVD disc to the slot (CD-R/CD-RW or DVD-R/DVD-RW/DVD-DL ). A dialog window pops up and asks you to choose “open Finder”, press OK. Then the Finder window is opened.
2. Drag-n-drop Video files into the Finder window. You can see the “Untitled DVD” at the right column menu of the Finder. Double-click it and open its window. Drag-n-drop your favorite video files or folder to it.
3. Click “Burn” at the right upper corner, a small dialogue pops up. You are able to title the Disc Name, set Burn Speed. And at last, click Burn button to its burning process.
2. iTunes - To burn music playlists to DVD
iTunes is not limited in its duty of media player, media library, online radio broadcaster, and mobile device management, but it can burn DVD with simple requirements. It is useful to store more songs on a single CD, including your purchased music. I would like to take Burn Music Playlist to DVD for example.
1. Open iTunes, go to the “My Music” window. And drag-n-drop all of your favorite music files or videos to it. This is the preparation step.
2. Click the “Playlists” window. Create a new playlist and name it with the button at the left bottom corner. Like “My Favorite Music”
3. Click the Music> Library, drag-n-drop all music files to the “My Favorite Music”.
4. Right-click the playlist, and choose the “Burn Playlist to Disc”.
5. A small window pops up, you can do some settings before final burning.
Tips: We can use iTunes to burn video to DVD for free with audio and video from your iTunes Library< Music at the right upper corner. You can’t burn the following to CDs or DVDs.
Movies and TV shows purchased from the iTunes Store
Songs or music videos downloaded from Apple Music
But you can resort to the DRM-removal application (Like Requiem, MyFairTunes, FairGame, etc.) for help to resolve this problem.
The Fastest Way to Burn DVDs on Mac
If you're looking for easy-to-use and professional software to burn video to DVD Mac, then installing Cisdem DVD Burner will be essential. You can burn all popular SD & HD video/audio formats to DVDs, DVD folders, and ISO files, never worry about the format compatibility problem. So you can feel easy to burn music files to DVD, burn YouTube HD video to DVD, etc.
And what’s more, it is different from those free DVD burner for Mac programs, it has the ability to edit, preview, make DVD menu for your DVD video. Below, I want to show you how to use it to burn DVD on Mac in less than 5 minutes.
How to Burn DVD on Mac with Cisdem DVD Burner?
1. Load Multiple Videos. Drag-n-drop your files from a local folder to the app.
2. Click under the video thumbnail to open the Editing Window, start to beautify video with crop, create special effects, watermarks, rotate, subtitle, etc.
3. See the 'Menu' tab at the top, press it, and switch to DVD Menu Window. Make a DVD menu with templates, backgrounds, text, music, etc.
4. Preview with the icon , check all details of your videos before final burning.
5. Press and go to the burning Window, do some output parameter settings to get quality DVD video. Click 'Burn', and begin the fast-burning journey. After DVD burning is finished, you can eject the disc, and enjoy and playback on your home DVD player attached to the TV set.
Conclusion
Burn Dvd Free Mac
Free DVD burner for Mac can let you burn DVD on Mac without spending any penny. But most of them are lack some video polishing and beauty feature. Just as of its simplicity, you can't do much more advanced settings and customization, besides, you can't throw whatever formats videos into it as you like. But Cisdem DVD Burner, the fastest way to burn DVDs, covers all the features you need.