Burn a CD or DVD in Windows Media Player

When you copy music, pictures, and videos from your PC to a blank CD or DVD, it's called burning.

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Different discs you can burn

With Windows Media Player you can burn three kinds of discs: audio CDs, data CDs, and data DVDs. To decide which kind of disc you should use, you'll need to think about what you want to copy, how much you're copying, and how you want to play the disc. This table helps you decide what type of disc is right for you.

Disc type Description

Audio CD

Choose this option if you want to make custom music CDs that you can play in your car, on your stereo, or on your PC.

  • Use this for: music only

  • Capacity: up to 80 minutes

  • You can play an audio CD on: almost any CD player, including home stereos, car stereos, and PC.

Data CD

This is a great option if you have lots of music and a CD player that can play Windows Media Audio (WMA) files. It's also handy for backing up your media.

  • Use this for: music, pictures, and videos

  • Capacity: about 700 megabytes (MB), or roughly 8 hours of music

  • You can play a data CD on: PCs and some CD and DVD players. The device must support the file types that you add to the disc, such as WMA, MP3, JPEG, or Windows Media Video (WMV).

Data DVD

Because a data DVD has a lot of space, it's especially useful if you have a lot of files that won't fit on a single data CD.

  • Use this for: music, pictures, and videos

  • Capacity: about 4.7 gigabytes (GB), or roughly 54 hours of music

  • You can play a data DVD on: PCs and some DVD players. The device must support the file types that you add to the disc, such as WMA, MP3, JPEG, or WMV.

What you'll need

You'll need two things to get started:

  • A CD or DVD recorder drive (also known as a CD or DVD burner).

  • A blank CD or DVD.

Burn an audio CD

With this option, you can make a music CD that will play in almost any CD player.

Here's how to burn an audio CD:

  1. Open Windows Media Player:

    1. Swipe in from the right edge of the screen, and then tap Search.
      (If you're using a mouse, point to the upper-right corner of the screen, move the mouse pointer down, and then click Search.)

    2. Enter Windows Media Player in the search box, tap or click Apps, and then tap or click Windows Media Player.

    If the Player is currently open and you’re in Now Playing mode, tap or click the Switch to Library button Switch to Library button in the upper-right corner of the Player.
  2. In the Player Library, tap or click the Burn tab, tap or click the Burn options button Options button, and then tap or click Audio CD.

  3. Insert a blank CD-R disc into your CD burner.

    If your PC has more than one CD drive, tap or click the drive you want to use in the navigation pane.

  4. If you see the list from your last selection and want to start a new list, tap or click the Clear list button to remove the previous one.

  5. Find the items in your Player Library that you want to burn to the audio CD.

  6. Drag items from the details pane (in the middle of the Player Library) to the list pane (on the right side of the Player Library) to create a burn list.

  7. If you want to change the order of the songs in the burn list, drag a song up or down in the list.

  8. If you want to remove a song from the burn list, double-tap or right-click the song, and then tap or click Remove from list.

    Tip

    Tip

    Don't worry—removing an item from the burn list doesn't delete it from your Player Library or your PC.

  9. When you're happy with the list, tap or click Start burn.

    If your list has too many items for one disc, you can burn the remaining items to a second disc.

Burn a data CD or data DVD

If you want to make a disc that can hold several hours of music (as opposed to an audio CD that only holds about 80 minutes of music), choose the Data CD or DVD option. You can also add picture and video files to data discs.

Keep in mind that when you burn a data CD or DVD instead of an audio CD, the CD or DVD player that you use to play it must be able to play the file types that you put on the disc. For example, if all of your songs are in the WMA format and your CD player only supports MP3 files, you won't be able to play your new data CD or DVD with it.

  1. Open Windows Media Player:

    1. Swipe in from the right edge of the screen, and then tap Search.
      (If you're using a mouse, point to the upper-right corner of the screen, move the mouse pointer down, and then click Search.)

    2. Enter Windows Media Player in the search box, tap or click Apps, and then tap or click Windows Media Player.

    If the Player is currently open and you’re in Now Playing mode, tap or click the Switch to Library button Switch to Library button in the upper-right corner of the Player.
  2. In the Player Library, tap or click the Burn tab, tap or click the Burn options button Options button, and then tap or click Data CD or DVD.

  3. Insert a blank disc into your CD or DVD burner.

    If your PC has more than one CD or DVD drive, tap or click the drive you want to use in the navigation pane.

  4. If you see the list from your last selection and want to start a new list, tap or click the Clear list button to remove the previous one.

  5. Find the items in your Player Library that you want to burn to the disc.

  6. Drag items from the details pane (in the middle of the Player Library) to the list pane (on the right side of the Player Library) to create a burn list.

  7. If you want to change the order of the items in the burn list, drag the item up or down in the list.

  8. If you want to remove an item from the burn list, double-tap or right-click the item, and then tap or click Remove from list.

    Tip

    Tip

    Don't worry—removing an item from the burn list doesn't delete it from your Player Library or your PC.

  9. When you're happy with the list, tap or click Start burn.

    If your list has too many items for one disc, you can burn the remaining items to a second disc.

Note

Note

Unauthorized use and/or duplication of copyrighted material may be a violation of copyright law in the United States and/or other countries/regions. Copyrighted material includes, but is not limited to, software, documentation, graphics, lyrics, photographs, clipart, animations, movie and video clips, as well as sound and music (including when MP3 encoded). Violation of U.S. and international copyright laws may subject you to significant civil and/or criminal penalties.

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