“Is there a program to finalize a DVD after it has been burned on a computer so that it will play on other DVD players?”
The trick to making sure any DVD you burn will play in other DVD players is to actually author your movie rather than simply burning the file to a data DVD. DVD players require specific formatting of the audio and video, so you can’t just burn to DVD and finalize, you actually need a program that puts the audio and video from your project into the proper format before burning. In most cases, this boils down to the software you use when making your DVD. While there are a bunch of apps that can author DVDs, I have some particular favorites.
If you are making a video DVD, there are several apps that could work. SoThink DVD Maker, which I have written about in the past, will author DVDs for free, however, I also find that it can have errors in the process. Sometimes you get what you pay for.
The solution I use for almost every video DVD I create is MyDVD from Roxio, which is also bundled with Roxio Creator. If you happen to use Pinnacle Studio for video editing, it also has built-in DVD authoring, as does Sony Vegas. If you have Windows Vista, the Windows DVD Maker included is quite good. The thing all these tools have in common is a reliable DVD authoring engine. None of the solutions is free, but you also won’t be making coasters with your blank DVDs.
One of the key reasons I like MyDVD over other choices is the ability to easily create menus, set chapter points in the movie, and generally make a professional looking DVD from any of the movies I want to burn.
