Windows Media to DVD

Does anyone know how, or if it is possible, to burn a Windows Media file to DVD? The video can be located at http://clarksonline.com/video/dave.asx. I downloaded DVDSanta, and when I load the video and go to burn it, it asks to insert a blank DVD, which I do, but it never actually burns it, it just keeps on asking me to insert a blank DVD. I have both DVD+Rs and DVD-RWs, and I am not sure which one to use. What am I doing wrong? My laptop has DVD playback capabilities, but do I need an actual DVD burner? I referred to the directions on the DVDSanta website, but they don't seem to help. If anyone can help me out, I would greatly appreciate it. Thank you. By the way, I am not the most technical proficient person, so if someone has the answer, please spell them out for someone most likely "slower" than yourself... Thanks again.

 

Absolutely, if you want to burn to a DVD-/+R/RW, then you need a DVD burner. It's likely the drive on your laptop is a combo DVD-ROM/CDRW drive, which means it'll play DVDs & burn CDs...it cannot burn DVDs. It should say on the front of the drive exactly what it is. If the file is not too big for a CD, you could just burn it a CD as opposed to a DVD. Deepburner is a good freeware program for doing this, if you don't already have one:

http://www.majorgeeks.com/download4310.html

 

YOu may want to check though, many dvd players today can handle cd-rs and cd-rws so you could always burn the video to a cd and then play it in a dvd player.

 

Doom9 http://www.doom9.org/ and Afterdawn http://www.afterdawn.com/guides/ have guides for working with video CDs, though I'd recommend Nero as it can burn video CDs and DVDs, and will convert files to the proper format. You will need a DVD burner drive tto burn a DVD disc. Check with your laptop maker and find out if there is an internal drive available, otherwise consider an external drive. They are available with USB 2.0 and/or firewire connections to connect to your laptop.