K3b is an open source project that provides users with a modern and powerful software designed from the ground up to be used as the default CD/DVD burning utility of the KDE Plasma Workspaces and Applications desktop environment.
Features at a glance
Key features include support for burning CD, DVD and Blu-ray discs, copy locked DVD-Video discs, 1:1 copy of CD, DVD and Blu-ray media, rip Audio-CDs to standard digital audio file formats, CDDB support, as well as burning of ISO, CUE and Cdrdao images.
In addition, it supports multisessions, Joliet and Rockridge volume formats, multiple El-Torito boot images, automatic or manual burned data verification, file renaming, on-the-fly writing of CDs, drag & drop support for files and folders, as well as support for empty directories.
It offers a user-friendly and familiar graphical user interface written in the Qt programming language and designed to allow users to easily and quickly create Video DVD, Video CD, Audio CD, Data CD/DVD, mixed content, and eMoviX projects.
Getting started with K3b
When running the application for the first time, it will warn users about missing codecs or core components for some of its built-in functionality, such as creating of MP3 files from Audio-CDs. It will also prompt users with a “Tip of the Day” dialog, from where they can learn a few tips and tricks.
In more technical terms, the application supports burning of CD, CD-R(W), DVD-R(W), DVD+R(W) and Blu-ray media, formatting of DVD+RW and DVD-RW discs, creation of eMovix DVDs and data DVD projects, as well as to create VCD 1.1/2.0, SVCD, and CD-Extra media.
Bottom line
Summing up, K3b is a very complex application that can be used for many tasks that involve optical media. Even if it’s designed for the KDE project, it can be easily installed on other open source desktop environments, as long as all requirements are met.
