14 DAY TRIAL // It's been a while since I used a famous burning tool for my disc recording needs and I have to say that I am pretty much pleased with the performance of the less bloated free software I got my hands on. Software market nowadays offers plenty of options in this sense and large suites are continuously losing ground in favor of lighter apps that finish the job pretty much with the same results both in terms of performance and duration.
BurnAware Free is one piece of software familiar to us since we have reviewed the Home and Free editions. As its name suggests, the application is free of charge so you will not be nagged by reminder screens or hindered in any way by limitations; what you see is what you get, no more, no less.
Installation can almost run unattended if you want Ask Toolbar on your computer as well. If such addition is not to your taste you can skip setting it up on your system by simply unchecking all available boxes in the installation screen.
Once the installation process is complete a Spartan interface awaits, providing options for recording the three disc standards: CD, DVD and Blu-ray. Each of them represents a distinct module in the main application window allowing you to choose the medium to burn unhampered. The sections present for each medium are largely the same, with few differences here and there.
The CD options bring choices such as creating boot discs, Audio CDs or MP3 CDs as well as burning ISO images and creating ISO images from a compact-disc. Regarding the latter option, the application failed to create an ISO image from an Audio CD because BurnAware Free asks you to select the actual files and then wraps them up in ISO format. The result would be selecting the CDA files that are mere representations of the CD audio tracks, which do not include the actual pulse code modulation (PCM) information.
The software makes available the necessary options for checking up on the state of the inserted disc. Details include disc info (type, number of sessions, capacity, used space and status) as well as particularities of the writer (system assigned letter, model, firmware version, cache, read/write speed). These go for all types of writeable media supported by the application.
Options for DVD module are similar to those in the CD section with the exception that in Multimedia the Audio CD option has been traded for the Create DVD-Video one. Other than this, the options are the same but adapted to the new storage media type. You are given the possibility to create boot DVDs. The Disc Images section permits you to burn ISO images and wrap the contents of the DVD by manually adding the files you want to compress.
Having tested the DVD capabilities of the software, we can tell you that the time needed for fully erasing this type of disc recorded with a DVD-Video is around 15 minutes. It scored the same when it came to writing a DVD-Video from Video TS folder on the hard disk, but only if no other job was undertaken at the same time. Otherwise, the time slightly increased.
The third module, the one for Blu-ray tasks, is a bit misfortunate compared to the aforementioned two because the list of options is shorter. Thus there is no possibility for the moment to create a bootable Blu-ray disc or a Blu-ray video. But you can make an MP3 BD and write data on it as well as burn an ISO image to it or select and wrap its contents into ISO image format. Unfortunately, we were not able to test BurnAware Free's Blu-ray features (the reasons are independent from the application itself).
We also tested the application to see how it does with multiple burning tasks. Our tests showed an increase of CPU usage but the job was followed through successfully. The only downfall (which we had expected) was that the time for writing a DVD-Video more than doubled, the entire process taking about 34 minutes to complete. Of course, with a high-end computer there should not be any trouble as our test computer is a feeble 1.8GHz running with 1.5GB of RAM. Under more fortunate circumstances the timings should improve.
BurnAware Free is a great choice for basic disc burning operations such as creating data CDs and DVDs. And even if you decide to make an MP3 disc the application will handle the job. But when it comes to creating Audio CDs BurnAware fails to provide you with a pool of audio formats that also includes the WMA format, not to mention more “exotic” ones such as FLAC. Also, the lack of an Audio CD ripper makes it lag behind the popular disc burners on the market.
On the upside, we have to mention the reduced CPU usage compared to the latest version we tested. Another difference is the removal of the Jukebox option, which allowed the creation of an Audio CD from WMA and MP3. At this point the application supports the creation of an Audio CD from OGG, WAV and MP3 audio files.
The Good
CPU usage has been improved in this version and the developer preserved the simple interface and its ease of use.
The Bad
The Truth
The application is not designed to become a Roxio or Nero replacement but it does a great job with the simple disc operation.
Here are some snapshots of the application in action:
