Sonic

[B. Parker]

My HP Laptop came with Sonic installed.

Is it required to run the DVD burner, or can I uninstall it?

 

[Shenan Stanley]

My HP Laptop came with Sonic installed.

Is it required to run the DVD burner, or can I uninstall it?

You are posting in a "Windows XP" newsgroup. If you have Windows XP - you
do need a third party application to write to DVDs.

 

[B. Parker]

Thank you, that's good to know. Yes, I'm running XP Pro, SP3.

Two follow up questions -

Is Sonic the only software, or will Nero or others work with this drive?

Does MS Media Player require Sonic, or such, to burn CD's, or DVD's?

 

[Shenan Stanley]

Thank you, that's good to know. Yes, I'm running XP Pro, SP3.

Two follow up questions -

Is Sonic the only software, or will Nero or others work with this
drive?

Does MS Media Player require Sonic, or such, to burn CD's, or DVD's?

Sonic is not necessary in any form. There are *many* options, free and
cost, to write to/play various DVD formats (given you have the proper
hardware.

Burning CDs with Windows XP in a few ways requires no third party
application. Some others (such as bootable CDs) require a third party
application. Using Media Player does not.

Burning ANY DVD+/- RW/R requires third party software in Windows XP.

 

[DL]

http://www.sonic.com/

Thank you, that's good to know. Yes, I'm running XP Pro, SP3.

Two follow up questions -

Is Sonic the only software, or will Nero or others work with this drive?

Does MS Media Player require Sonic, or such, to burn CD's, or DVD's?

 

[Paul]

Thank you, that's good to know. Yes, I'm running XP Pro, SP3.

Two follow up questions -

Is Sonic the only software, or will Nero or others work with this drive?

Does MS Media Player require Sonic, or such, to burn CD's, or DVD's?

That might depend on exactly what Sonic product you were given.

I got Sonic with an optical drive (it was bundled with the drive),
and I replaced it with the full version of Nero (back when Nero
wasn't quite so bloated). Nero does a decent job of supporting
drives in various scenarios (CD/DVD drive inside your computer, CD/DVD
drive in a USB enclosure).

Sonic is also available as a plugin, as seen on this page.

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/digitalphotography/photostory/storyactives.mspx

You can also find free burner software, via Wikipedia.
There is a short list of freeware for Windows, part way
down the page. If you were really desperate, you can
also boot a Linux LiveCD and use K3B to burn optical media.
I use K3B occasionally, when Nero is giving me a hard time.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_optical_disc_authoring_software

I don't know about other people, but I don't like the notion of
burning applications getting "married" to other programs. I'd much
rather have a program output an ISO or a project file, suitable
for importing into a burning program. That way, the end user
has the ability to work modularly, selecting the best tool for
the job. For example, I was using a movie editing program a
few days ago, that insisted that I should immediately burn the
resulting output. But I don't work that way. I only burn discs,
when I'm completely satisfied that my project is finished, and not
before. And that may require inspecting the ISO image of the disc,
with other tools.

Burning is mentioned in this article on WMP. It looks like WMP
is mainly interested in CDs.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_media_player

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/knowledgecenter/howto/burn_how_to.aspx

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/knowledgecenter/mediaadvice/0091.mspx

Paul

 

[B. Parker]

Thank you Shenan for the clear explanation.