We spent more than 80 hours researching and testing the best CD burning software this year, and we have covered this category for more than a decade. We judged the software by using each program and comparing burning capabilities, exporting tools, customization options and help resources. Top 10 Best DVD Authoring Software For Mac. February 26, 2014, Editor, 5 Comments. If you are a Mac user and would like your digital files to be saved on a DVD, it is possible using DVD authoring software.
The Best Blu-ray Burning Software of 2019
We’ve been reviewing the best Blu-ray burning software for the better part of a decade. In that time, we’ve considered dozens of applications, burned hundreds of discs and spent many hours reviewing the results. In our most recent evaluation, Blue-Cloner was our top choice because it has a unique interface with two modules: Express and Expert. Express mode walks you through the burning process step by step, while Expert mode allows you to customize the disc you’re about to burn. With these modes, Blue-Cloner strikes the perfect balance between the needs of both causal and heavy users.
Best Overall
Blue-Cloner
With its Express and Expert modules, Blue-Cloner has the tools both occasional and heavy users need to make great Blu-ray discs. It also has compression tools not found in other Blu-ray burning programs.
Best Value
BurnAware
You can pay up to $100 for Blu-ray burning software, but BurnAware costs just $20 a year. Also, you never have to worry about buying new versions.
Best for Archiving
Leawo Blu-ray Copy
This program not only burns excellent-quality copies of your Blu-ray movies, but it also has powerful archiving tools so you never lose access to films you’ve bought and paid for.
| Product | Price | Overall Rating | Copy | Output | Customization | Help & Support | Ease of Use | Time to Create Identical Copy (minutes) | Time to Compress Copy (hours) | Time to Compress to DVD (minutes) | Bypass Copy Encryption | Extract Disc Image | Burn from Disc Image | Identical Blu-ray Copy | Compressed Quality Copy | DVD-9 Compression Quality | DVD-5 Compression Quality | Copy Main Movie | Select Content to Copy | Split Disc | Build Original Disc | FAQs or Knowledgebase | Live Chat | Social | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Blue-Cloner 6 | View Deal | 5/5 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 7.5 | 85% | 48 | 10 | 144 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | A | A | A | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | - | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | - |
| Leawo Blu-ray Copy 7 | View Deal | 4/5 | 9.5 | 7.2 | 4 | 10 | 90% | 43 | - | - | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | - | - | - | ✓ | - | - | - | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| CloneBD 7 | View Deal | 3.5/5 | 9.5 | 7.2 | 4 | 5 | 90% | 42 | - | - | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | - | - | - | ✓ | - | - | - | ✓ | ✓ | - | - |
| Ashampoo Burning Studio 16 | View Deal | 3.5/5 | 9.5 | 7.2 | 2 | 7.5 | 80% | 42 | - | - | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | - | - | - | - | - | - | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | - | ✓ |
| BurnAware Premium | View Deal | 3.5/5 | 9.1 | 7.2 | 2 | 7.5 | 90% | 42 | - | - | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | - | - | - | - | - | - | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | - | ✓ |
| CyberLink Power2Go 10 Platinum | View Deal | 3.5/5 | 9 | 7.2 | 2 | 7.5 | 90% | 44 | - | - | - | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | - | - | - | - | - | - | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | - | ✓ |
| Alcohol 120% | View Deal | 3.5/5 | 9.2 | 7.2 | 2 | 5 | 85% | 48 | - | - | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | - | - | - | - | - | - | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | - | - |
| Express Burn | View Deal | 3.5/5 | 9.2 | 7.2 | 2 | 5 | 90% | 90 | - | - | - | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | - | - | - | - | - | - | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | - | ✓ |
| Nero Burning ROM 2016 | View Deal | 3.5/5 | 8.4 | 7.2 | 2 | 7.5 | 100% | 42 | - | - | - | - | ✓ | ✓ | - | - | - | - | - | - | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | - | - |
| Aurora Blu-ray Copy | View Deal | 3.5/5 | 9.5 | 7.2 | 5 | 80% | 13 | - | - | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | ✓ | ✓ | - | - |
Best Overall
Blue-Cloner
Blue-Cloner is our favorite Blu-ray burning software because it is fast and easy to use, and it makes perfect-quality 1:1 copies. It also has disc customization options other applications don’t.
The program is divided into two modules: Express and Expert. Express mode is a good option if you just want to burn a 1:1 copy of a Blu-ray disc or aren’t particularly tech savvy because it walks you through the entire process step by step. In this mode, you can start a new burn in just seconds.
Expert mode has a full array of customization options. For example, you can compress a commercial Blu-ray disc to fit onto a smaller-capacity blank – most Blu-ray movies come on 100GB discs, while most blank Blu-rays only hold 25GB to 50GB. You may also need to either strip away everything except the main feature or split the content onto separate discs, both of which you can do in Blue-Cloner’s Expert mode.
Commercial Blu-ray movies are almost always protected with anti-piracy encryptions to guard against unlawful distribution of copyrighted materials. Blue-Cloner cuts through these encryptions so you can burn backup copies of the movies you’ve bought and paid for.
Best Value
BurnAware
BurnAware Premium costs just $20 per year, so it’s the program you want if you only need to burn one or two Blu-rays – just use it for what you need and let your license expire. This is a much better option than paying full price for a program you’ll only use a couple times.
It’s designed for average consumers who need to copy discs, extract audio from video and recover files from corrupted discs. You can also use this software to burn data or videos to discs and erase the existing files on rewritable discs. If you are burning large data files, or even backing up your entire home computer, you can spread them over several discs.
This Blu-ray writing software analyzes the amount of data you need to burn and efficiently divides the information to minimize wasted space. If you have extra space on a disc, BurnAware Premium allows you to burn in multiple sessions so you can store more files on it later. Because of this feature, BurnAware can even read corrupted or multi-session discs so you can access the files on them.
Since BurnAware can circumvent anti-copy encryptions, you can use it to make back-up copies of commercial Blu-rays. It can make identical, 1:1 copies of Blu-rays; however, unlike with data discs, it can’t compress commercial Blu-ray movies to fit them onto smaller-capacity blank discs or split their content onto multiple blanks. So, you have to buy the more expensive blank Blu-rays if you want to copy your movies.
Best for Archiving
Leawo Blu-ray Copy
Leawo Blu-ray Copy can decrypt, rip, copy and burn Blu-rays onto your PC’s hard drive or blank discs to serve as backup copies. However, it can’t compress movies, and Blu-ray customization is limited to making movie-only copies of commercial discs.
Other programs we reviewed allow you to pick and choose what content you want to burn to a new disc.
Perhaps the program’s most attractive feature, Leawo Blu-ray Copy can save a Blu-ray’s disc image (ISO file) onto your computer’s hard drive. This is essentially the disc’s blueprint, and once it’s on your computer, you can use Blu-ray player software to watch the movie just as you would with a physical copy of the disc. This feature also allows you to burn a copy without the original source disc, which is great for archiving your library and creating backups in case your movies get stolen, lost or damaged.
Leawo Blu-ray Copy can decrypt every type of Blu-ray protection currently in use. It can also strip region codes from discs, so you can copy movies purchased overseas. The software frequently updates its decryption database, so you can continue to copy Blu-rays when new encryption formats are released. However, you need an internet connection to get these updates.
Fastest Blu-ray Burner
Aurora Blu-ray Copy
We timed how long it took each of the Blu-ray burning software we reviewed to make a brand-new disc.
Best Cd Burner Software For Mac
Aurora Blu-ray copy blew all of the competition out of the water with a 13-minute burn. The next fastest software was 42 minutes, which was achieved by four other programs. Our top choice took 48 minutes to burn a full Blu-ray movie.
Probably the best thing about this program is that it is totally free. But there are some tradeoffs that come with that. Most notably, it lacks the ability to compress content on a larger commercial Blu-ray onto a smaller-capacity blank disc. You also can’t customize discs or make a movie-only copies.
Best for Mac
Express Burn
There aren’t many choices for Blu-ray burning software for Mac users. Of the products we reviewed, Express Burn was the best.
It’s not just a Blu-ray burner, it’s a whole suite of optical disc utilities. The program also makes CDs and DVDs. And while it’s burn times are slow, it produces an excellent picture. It also burns data discs, which are great for backups and a good alternative to cloud storage and external hard drives.
Part of the reason for the lack of selection is that Apple hasn’t put optical drives in their computers for years now. So, if you want to burn Blu-ray discs, you’ll need to invest in an external burner as well as the software.
Why Trust Us
We’ve been reviewing the best Blu-ray burner software since 2012. When a new program comes out or a software update is released, we subject it to a battery of tests and compare it to other products to find out which one is the best.
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During our tests, we analyze each program’s interface, workflow, features and more. We use each program to burn a new copy of a commercial Blu-ray movie, and our team of video experts inspects the copied footage for quality degradation such as compression artifact, motion blur and interlacing issues.
We also time how long it takes to make a new Blu-ray with each product. Additionally, we note how long it takes the program to compress a Blu-ray movie onto a smaller-capacity blank disc, split content onto one or more discs, and save the disc’s image onto a hard drive.
How We Tested
Best Cd Authoring Software Mac
As we evaluated the best Blu-ray burning software, we subjected each application to a battery of tests:
Quality Tests
Blu-ray burner software’s main purpose is to create high-quality copies of movies. Using each product, we burned test copies of multiple Blu-ray discs. We then asked video experts to watch each burned disc and note any video or audio degradation compared to the original.
Each burner we reviewed can create an exact 1:1 copy of a Blu-ray movie, and our video experts didn’t detect any quality degradation in copies made by the programs. So, no matter which software you choose, you can burn copies that are indistinguishable from their source discs – as long as you have the right size blank Blu-ray, of course.
However, blank Blu-ray discs large enough to make perfect copies can get expensive. As such, the best Blu-ray burner applications let you compress the content on commercial Blu-rays to fit onto less-expensive, smaller-capacity blank discs or even onto DVDs.
We burned multiple Blu-ray discs and DVDs using the programs’ various compression options. Compression almost always causes quality loss, and our video experts noted that while the new discs lost some of the high-quality Blu-ray goodness of the original, the compressed footage was surprisingly good. Pixelation, motion blur, interlacing and other quality issues were minimal. Even the DVD compression copies were as good as or better than their store-bought counterparts.
Timing Tests
Because Blu-ray files are large (25GB to 100GB), burning new copies can be time-consuming. If you're making a disc-to-disc copy, expect it to take at least three hours.
If you need to make multiple copies, we recommend extracting the ISO file to your computer and burning discs from that. Doing this instead of burning individual disc-to-disc copies can save you hours. When we timed how long it took each application to burn a new disc using an extracted disc image, we found that, on average, it took about 45 minutes to make a copy.
Compression takes a bit longer, especially if you're compressing the movie onto a blank Blu-ray disc. In our tests, we found it takes up to 13 hours to compress a 50GB commercial Blu-ray movie onto a 25GB blank disc. This is because the program must examine a 50GB disc image, compress it to 25GB, write a new ISO file and burn it to the new disc. We found this was true regardless of whether we burned a disc image or made a disc-to-disc copy.
Ease of Use Tests
We evaluated each Blu-ray burner’s interface and workflow and found the applications are all generally easy to use. Some are intended for more tech-savvy users, and people with less technical knowledge may experience a slight learning curve when using them. However, after a burn or two, even these more difficult programs are easy to get the hang of. The best programs eliminate the guesswork and are simple enough that a casual user can burn new discs on the first try.
Key Attributes of the Best Blu-ray Burning Software Applications
As we evaluated Blu-ray burning software, we used the following criteria to determine which applications are the best:
How Much Does Blu-ray Burner Software Cost?
You can pick up a barebones Blu-ray burner program absolutely free. While it gets the job done, you don’t get a lot of extra functionality. Paid programs can run anywhere from $20 to $120. However, you start seriously overpaying when you exceed $60.
Copy
Before any Blu-ray burner can start copying, it must first overcome the anti-piracy protections found on nearly every commercial disc. Most of the software we reviewed can do this. If a program cannot decrypt commercial discs, its usefulness is limited to copying homemade and unprotected Blu-rays.
In addition to making disc-to-disc copies, the best burning software can extract a Blu-ray’s image and save it to your computer. Once there, you can use the ISO file to burn unlimited copies of the movie without needing the original disc. This is a great timesaver if you want to make multiple backup copies of your movies.
Output
Each application we reviewed can make an exact replica of a Blu-ray movie. This means you can use any of the products to burn a new copy of your Blu-ray movies with no quality loss.
There are three sizes of blank Blu-ray discs you can purchase: 25GB, 50GB and 100GB. The best Blu-ray burner programs compress large commercial discs to fit onto blank small-capacity discs, which are less expensive. Keep in mind that compressing a movie results in a loss of quality compared to the original.
Customization
There will be times you simply don't want to burn an exact copy of a disc, and the best Blu-ray burners let you customize your new disc with only the content you want. For example, you may only want to back up the feature presentation. In this case, software with a 'Movie Only' option can automatically strip away all menus, special features and audio tracks from the disc, which saves space on your hard drive and blank Blu-rays.
Some programs even let you split the content onto two separate blank discs. This is a good option if you want to back up all the content on a Blu-ray but don't have the more-expensive blank discs to make an exact copy.
Help & Support
The products we compared are all relatively easy to use, but there may be times you need help with a technical or customer support issue. The best resource a manufacturer can offer is a frequently asked questions (FAQs) page or a knowledgebase on its official website. Common questions and technical issues can most likely be solved by consulting these resources.
The best Blu-ray burning software developers also offer other options, such as email ticket systems and live chat support, on their websites. A few companies even answer tech and customer support questions on their social media accounts. The best companies respond within 24 to 48 hours.
Best Free Blu-ray Burner Software
If you want to burn DVDs and Blu-ray discs for free, consider Wondershare DVD Creator. We’ve reviewed several Wondershare products in multiple categories, and its software is generally very good. This program focuses on authoring new discs from the ground up. It has templates for menus, can input chapter breaks and includes a basic video editor.
However, it lacks some of the features we look for in this category. The biggest omission is it can't make duplicates of copy-protected discs. So, you can't create a backup copy of your “Avengers” Blu-ray with this software. If you want to do that for free, check out Aurora Blu-ray – it’s the most basic program we reviewed, but it gets the job done.
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