Burn a CD or DVD in Windows Media player

Burn a CD or DVD in Windows Media Player. When you copy music, pictures, and videos from your computer to a blank CD or DVD, this is called burning.

With Windows Media Player, you can burn three of discs: audio CDs, data CDs, and data DVDs. To determine which disc you should use, you need to consider what you want to copy, what size you want to copy, and how you want to play the disc. The following table can help you determine which type of disc is right for you.

Audio CD: Select this option if you want to burn a custom music CD that can be played on a car, stereo system, or computer. This option is used for: music only. Capacity: up to 80 minutes. You can play audio CDs on virtually any CD player, including home stereo systems, car stereo systems, and computers.

Data CD: If you have a lot of music and a CD player that can play Windows Media Audio (WMA) files, this is a good choice. This is also very handy for backup media. This option is used for: music, pictures, and videos. Capacity: About 700 megabytes (MB), or about 8 hours of music. You can play data CDs on your computer and on some CDs and DVD players. The device must support the types of files you add to the disc, such as WMA, MP3, JPEG, or Windows Media video (WMV).

Data DVD: Because the data DVD has a lot of space, it's especially useful when you have a lot of files that you can't put on a single data CD. This option is used for: music, pictures, and videos. Capacity: About 4.7 gigabytes (GB), or about 54 hours of music. You can play data DVDs on your computer and on some DVD players. The device must support the types of files you add to the disc, such as WMA, MP3, JPEG, or WMV.

You need to have the following two to start: a CD or DVD burning Drive (also known as a CD or DVD burner). A blank CD or DVD.