How big of file to get good quality video replay?

[yogart]

I have compressed 25GB or 2 hours of AVI home video down to 4.3 GB. For good quality what is a the correct amount of playtime: ie 1 hour, 1.5, or 2 hours? How bad will 2 hours be vs 1 hours? What is a good standard?

[holistic]

Personally I don't like doing my MPEG2 under 4500 kbits\sec. At this bitrate you will fit 2 hours with room to spare on a DVD.

I suggest you do a test.
Pick a section of video 30 seconds or so with motion (motion scenes stress low bitrates and will show most flaws) and encode in 2000 then 4000, then 6000+ .Compare the results and decide which is best for you.

The higher bitrate, the lower the compression used, the better the (visually perceived) output - also a bigger file.
1 hour will come very close to the max bitrate. Ideal if you want to do a CBR of 9000.
If your are archiving precious memories (family video) then don't sacrifice "quality" by trying to fit a lot of video on the DVD. DVD's are cheap !.

https://www.videohelp.com/calc.htm
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