A DVD burner is a device used to encode or "burn" information onto a blank DVD. A DVD is a form of storage media 12 cm (4.72 inches) or 8 cm (3.15 inches) across that can typically hold 4.7 gigabytes (GB) of information, enough to hold a three-hour movie at high quality, or ten TV episodes, or about 75 hours of .mp3 files, or roughly 15 hours of video in the lower-grade .avi format. The DVD is thought of as the successor to the conventional CD (compact disk). Common formats include DVD-R and DVD-RW, a rewritable version of the DVD.

Each DVD generally costs about US$1, or even less when bought in bulk. DVD-RWs are about US$2 each. The cost of these storage media has fallen rapidly throughout the late 1990s and early 2000s, and continues to become more affordable as manufacturing costs diminish. The DVD burner allows this storage medium to become even more flexible than before.

DVD initially was supposed to stand for digital video disc, but because it can hold any type of data, not just video, members of the inter-corporation DVD Forum refer to it as a digital versatile disc. DVD players became affordable sometime around 1999, as their cost dropped below about US$300. The DVD burner has always been more expensive, but as of 2005 its price has dropped to as low as US$60 for an internal DVD burner, about twice as much for an external DVD burner, and about three times as much for DVD burners for laptops.

The DVD burner is in the process of displacing its predecessor, the CD burner. In 2003-2004 prices dropped below cost thresholds, encouraging even non-electronics enthusiasts to buy a DVD burner if they have a use for it. DVDs and DVD burners are widely used with the format of video, which is storage-hungry in comparison to text and music files.

A major worry for the industry is that the DVD burner might be used widely to pirate copyrighted DVDs. Indeed, many people now download videos using file-sharing programs and then burn them to DVDs. Most commercial DVDs have special safeguards to discourage their copying.

A DVD has a recording layer coated in an organic dye. A DVD burning laser, of higher intensity than a typical DVD reading laser, etches patterns into the dye, allowing the data to be read at a later date. A rewritable DVD uses a special metal alloy instead of a dye. The alloy can be switched back and forth between an amorphous and crystalline phase through the application of a laser, allowing the DVD to be rewritten a substantial number of times. Data quality degrades if the DVD is rewritten excessively, however.