14 DAY TRIAL // There used to be a time when burning a disc was quite a problem for the average user because of the lack of handy and comfortable solutions on the market. Times have changed and the market is now overflowed with plenty of answers for the task. Nero is no longer top choice for users as the web abounds with free software for disc burning (CD, DVD and Blu-Ray).
BurnAware Free is a disc burning application with modular architecture designed to help you easily and effortlessly record your discs, regardless of their type. More than this, as you may have deduced from its name, the program is absolutely free of charge.
It comes with an interface so easy to use that it can be managed even by an absolute noob. The left hand side lets you choose the medium soon to be recorded (CD/DVD/Blu-ray) and the menu for each of them lays out the jobs that can be followed through. The options available according to the chosen medium suffer little variation and generally the tasks presented allow you to create a data disc or an audio disc or burn/create an ISO image. These are invariable regardless of the type of disc you select.
The differences are minor and easy to pinpoint. In the Multimedia section you can create an Audio CD (for CD medium), a DVD-Video (for DVDs) and in the Blu-ray menu the only multimedia choice you can make is to create a BD Jukebox disc (an option available for all three types of disc supported).
The Jukebox option present for all discs is designed to allow you to create a music only medium with more than one audio format. Unfortunately, in the case of BurnAware Free the only formats allowed for now are WMA and MP3. Trying to add anything else like OGG and even WAV (not to mention lossless formats) will result in failure because the application will not make visible formats other than the supported ones. An Audio CD on the other hand can be created from WAV, MP3 and OGG (WMA is not supported).
For all three types of discs the application gives you the possibility to burn ISO images or create them from files on the hard disk. You can store them on the HDD until deemed necessary to record them on the disc.
In all three cases BurnAware Free provides the means to inspect the inserted disc and learn details such as type, name, number of recorded sessions, total capacity, remaining free space as well as the status of the disc (writeable or not). Additional details relate to the drive used for recording (vendor, model, cache size, read/write speed and supported disc types).
And again, in all three cases the application offers the means to "recycle" a re-writeable disc, be it a CD, DVD or BD. The menu at hand offers two choices: either perform a quick erase or go with the complete erase option (physically erases the data on the disc leaving it squeaky clean).
The application seems to cover all the needs for a basic disc burning operation and it is extremely easy to use. Given its modular architecture on a computer equipped with more than one burning unit, it allows you to perform multiple operations at once.
The list of settings is extremely shy but it allows you to enable automatic updating of the software at each launch as well as closing the main application window the moment a project is started. As for the options per compilation, you get to choose whether to finalize the disc, enable test writing, verification of the recorded data and activate DAO (disc-at-once) mode. The speed of the operation can also be set in accordance to the features of the inserted disc and you will gain access to this right before the recording task begins.
However, it comes with its share of trouble, besides the limited support for audio files in the case of Jukebox operation. During our testing we noticed that it considerably slowed down the overall performance of the computer as it took a huge chunk of the CPU. A regular DVD-Video procedure hyped up the processor above 80% leaving little room to other processes to take place.
BurnAware Free proves to be a very good companion if your needs are limited to basic disc burning jobs and do not require extravagant options such as creating a bootable disc or an image in a format other than ISO. But it tends to be a bit greedy with the CPU resource. I would rather have it eat a bigger slice of RAM.
The Good
It is an incredibly easy to use application that offers all basic choices when it comes to disc burning. It has support for all of today's disc standards and allows you to create a Jukebox disc from any of them.
The modular architecture permits you to run multiple tasks at once if your machine comes with more than one recording device.
The Bad
Writing a DVD-Video caused a serious drop in computer performance due to the high CPU usage leaving little room to other processes to take place.
The pool of audio standards supported for creating Audio CDs is limited but not compared to the one in the case of Jukebox disc creation.
The Truth
If desperate needs require desperate measures, basic burning jobs call for bells and whistles – free applications that can carry out the job easily and with the least amount of effort on the user's part. BurnAware Free falls into the second category as it is a stripped to the bone version of the high priced disc burning apps in the field. If you need the essential for recording your discs, then this app here is a perfect fit for the job.
Although it covers the basic needs, BurnAware Free still has some features to assimilate in order to prove a tight competitor on the market.
Here are some snapshots of the application in action:
