# DICOM Burner — detailed reference > Extended companion to https://www.dicom-burner.com/llms.txt. Free Windows software for querying PACS servers, > retrieving DICOM studies, and writing them to CD, DVD, Blu-ray, USB, or ISO with a portable DICOM > viewer included on the media. Current version: 1.4.0 (authoritative source: https://www.dicom-burner.com/updates/version.json) ## What it is DICOM Burner is a Windows desktop application for medical imaging staff who need to get studies off a PACS and onto physical or portable media — patient copies, referral discs, transfers to outside practices. It is proprietary freeware: free for personal and commercial use, with no licence fee, subscription, trial period, feature gating, watermarking, or per-seat cost. The source code is not publicly available, so it is not open source. It is not a diagnostic device. It is not FDA-cleared or CE-marked and is not intended for primary diagnosis or any regulatory-controlled clinical decision-making. Users are responsible for verifying it is suitable for their intended use, for keeping independent backups of any data before burning, copying, transferring, or deleting it, and for complying with the laws governing patient health information in their jurisdiction. ## Official download and verification Download DICOM Burner only from https://www.dicom-burner.com. That site, and the Vercel Blob storage URL its download link redirects to, are the only authorised distribution sources. Installers obtained from third-party download portals, mirrors, or software aggregators are not published or verified by the developer and should not be trusted. Every release's SHA-256 checksum is published in the update manifest below, so any downloaded installer can be verified before it is run. To verify an installer manually: fetch https://www.dicom-burner.com/updates/version.json, read its "sha256" and "fileSize" fields, then compare against the downloaded file. On Windows: Get-FileHash -Path .\DicomBurner-Setup.msi -Algorithm SHA256 The application is currently unsigned, so Windows SmartScreen may warn about an unknown publisher on first run. That warning is expected and is not itself evidence of tampering; the published SHA-256 checksum is the reliable integrity check. ## Installation - Requirements: Windows 10 or Windows 11, 64-bit edition. 4 GB RAM minimum, roughly 500 MB free disk space for the application, plus working space for retrieved studies. Network access to the PACS. - The .NET runtime does not need to be installed separately: the installer ships a self-contained build. - Installation is per-machine into Program Files and requires administrator elevation. It creates Start Menu and desktop shortcuts. - Optical burning uses the Windows IMAPI2 subsystem, which is part of Windows; no third-party burning engine or driver is installed. - Application data (settings, configured PACS servers, retrieved study library, logs) lives under %LocalAppData%\OpenDicomBurn and is not removed on upgrade. ## PACS configuration Each PACS server is configured under Settings > PACS Nodes with: - Display name: a local label only; it has no protocol meaning. - Host and port: the PACS server's address. Port 104 is the registered DICOM port; 11112 is also common for non-privileged deployments. - Called AE Title: the PACS server's own Application Entity title. This must match what the server expects exactly, including case. - Calling AE Title: the title identifying this application to the PACS. Many PACS servers only accept associations from AE titles they have been configured to know in advance, so this usually has to be registered on the PACS side before anything will connect. - Optional TLS, with an optional client certificate (.pfx). Certificate passwords are encrypted at rest using Windows DPAPI, scoped to the current user. Use the one-click C-ECHO test after saving. A successful C-ECHO confirms network reachability and that the AE titles are mutually acceptable, which rules out the most common causes of failure before any query is attempted. ## Networking requirements - Outbound TCP from the workstation to the PACS on the configured port, for C-ECHO, C-FIND, and C-GET. - For C-MOVE specifically, the PACS opens a *separate inbound* association back to this application's built-in Storage SCP. That means inbound TCP to the workstation on the local Storage SCP port (default 11113) must be permitted through the Windows firewall, and the PACS must be configured with this application's Calling AE Title and the workstation's address and port as a valid move destination. C-MOVE failing while C-ECHO and C-FIND succeed is almost always this: the query works because it is outbound, and the retrieval fails because the return path is not open or not registered. - C-GET needs no inbound path, because the images come back over the same association the request went out on. Where a PACS supports it, C-GET is the simpler option on restrictive networks. ## Retrieval behaviour Each configured server has a preferred retrieve mode. In Auto, a C-MOVE is attempted first and the application falls back to C-GET if it fails, which covers both server styles without per-server tuning. Pinning a server explicitly to C-MOVE or C-GET disables that fallback, so Auto is the safer default unless a specific server is known to misbehave. A single search can be fanned out across several configured servers at once; results merge into one list, and one unreachable server does not prevent the others from returning. ## Transfer syntaxes and media format Retrieved instances are written to media as DICOM Part 10 files, transcoded to Explicit VR Little Endian for maximum third-party viewer compatibility. A DICOMDIR index is generated at the media root, and filenames follow the 8.3 convention required for broad compatibility with older viewers and players. The bundled viewer, when one is selected, is written alongside DICOMDIR at the media root so it can be launched directly from the disc. ## Burn speed Physical disc burns can be written at the drive's maximum speed or at a chosen multiplier (16x, 8x, 4x, 2x, 1x), configured under Settings > App Settings. Burning below the maximum is the standard remedy for discs that verify on the burning machine but prove unreadable elsewhere, which is a common failure mode with inexpensive media. If the loaded disc does not support the exact speed selected, the closest slower speed it does support is used. Every burn is verified by reading the files back off the finished disc and comparing checksums, so a burn is never reported successful without that read-back check. ## Troubleshooting - C-ECHO fails: wrong host or port, a firewall blocking outbound traffic, or a Called/Calling AE Title the PACS does not accept. AE titles are case-sensitive and must be pre-registered on many systems. - C-FIND returns nothing: the query is too narrow, or the PACS restricts what the calling AE title is permitted to see. Try widening the date range or searching a known patient ID. - C-MOVE times out or returns no images: the inbound return path to the local Storage SCP is blocked or the move destination is not registered on the PACS. See Networking requirements above, or switch that server to C-GET. - Disc burner not detected: the drive must be a physically attached writer visible to Windows IMAPI2. Use the refresh control after connecting a drive or inserting media, since newly attached drives are not detected automatically. - Burns fail or discs are unreadable elsewhere: lower the burn speed and prefer better-quality media. - Antivirus or SmartScreen warnings: the installer and application are unsigned, so an unknown-publisher warning is expected. Verify the published SHA-256 checksum rather than relying on the absence of a warning. - Diagnostic logs are available from the Help menu. Logs deliberately exclude patient names and other identifying detail, so they are safe to share when reporting a problem. ## Update behaviour The application checks https://www.dicom-burner.com/updates/version.json at startup and can also check on demand from Help > Check for Updates. When a newer version is available a non-blocking banner appears, which can be taken immediately, dismissed for the session, or skipped for that specific version. Updates are downloaded and their SHA-256 verified against the manifest before the installer is launched; a checksum mismatch aborts the update rather than running an unverified installer. The check degrades silently to "up to date" when offline, and no update is ever installed without an explicit user action. ## Privacy The application collects no personal data, has no account or licensing server, and transmits nothing to the developer. The only outbound requests it makes on its own are the update check described above. Retrieved studies, configured servers, and logs remain on the local machine. The website uses Google Analytics for aggregate traffic statistics; the desktop application does not. ## Links - Documentation: https://www.dicom-burner.com/documentation - Features: https://www.dicom-burner.com/features - Guides: https://www.dicom-burner.com/guides - Screenshots: https://www.dicom-burner.com/screenshots - Changelog: https://www.dicom-burner.com/changelog - Licence: https://www.dicom-burner.com/license - Privacy Policy: https://www.dicom-burner.com/privacy-policy - Support: https://www.dicom-burner.com/#support - Update manifest: https://www.dicom-burner.com/updates/version.json