Ashampoo Burning Studio FREE 1.27.5

Ashampoo Burning Studio FREE is a free disc-burning application for Windows. It writes files, music and prepared movies to CDs, DVDs and Blu-ray discs. It also extracts audio-CD tracks, copies discs and handles disc images.

Writing data and prepared video discs

A data-disc project collects the files and folders to be written. The file chooser and drag-and-drop both add content, with further selections added before writing. Recorder selection determines which drive writes the finished CD, DVD or Blu-ray.

Ashampoo Burning Studio FREE supports CD-R and CD-RW, DVD±R and DVD±RW, and BD-R and BD-RE media. Existing discs can be updated when their medium supports it. Rewritable discs can be erased for reuse, separately from adding content.

Video burning uses movie content already arranged for the target disc. For a DVD, this includes a Video_TS folder. HD and Full HD movies also need prepared files; the program writes them rather than assembling unedited clips.

The FREE edition supports prepared video DVDs and Blu-ray discs, along with VCD and SVCD creation. Video editing and DVD-menu authoring belong to the paid Burning Studio product, while FREE starts with the prepared movie folder.

Ripping CDs and creating music discs

Audio-CD extraction turns disc tracks into individual music files on the computer. The program recognizes discs and tracks automatically. The user chooses MP3, WMA or WAV output and an audio-quality level, producing files rather than another physical CD.

For music-disc creation, Ashampoo Burning Studio FREE works with MP3, WMA, WAV, OGG and FLAC audio. This source-format selection is broader than the three ripping outputs. The integrated player lets the user hear tracks while choosing them.

A finished music project can be a traditional audio CD or a disc containing MP3 or WMA music. The latter keeps music in compressed file form and holds longer collections. Normalization aligns track volumes, reducing abrupt level changes.

Copying discs and creating disc images

Copy Disc reads an existing disc and writes its contents to a new recordable. For a DVD copy, the operation has three distinct stages:

1. The program checks whether the selected source DVD is readable before reading its contents.
2. The source contents are temporarily copied onto the hard disk, providing the data used for the new disc.
3. The target recorder and blank DVD are checked, then the stored contents are written to that medium.

Temporary hard-disk storage is part of copying, including when one drive reads the source and later writes the blank disc. Progress feedback tracks reading and writing separately. Afterwards, the next-step controls can repeat the burn or return to the main menu.

Disc images provide a file-based route between source material and physical discs. Ashampoo Burning Studio FREE creates an ISO from an existing disc or selected data. It can also write an existing image to a disc.

Creating an image keeps the project as a file; burning it produces an optical-disc copy. Supported image formats include ISO, CUE/BIN and Ashampoo's ASHDISC. CDs, DVDs and Blu-ray discs can serve as sources for image creation.