consensus: how much svcd data will fit on cdr?

[stanwebber]

i'd like to hear from anyone who has their own figures on this subject. my experience is that nero will fit a 795-796mb mpeg on 80min media in mode2, track-at-once: 795.0mb will always fit; 796.0 will never fit. ideally i would like to have someone narrow this to within 100kb for me(my guess is 795.4?). i have no numbers on 74min media as i've never burned one, but i am seeking that info as well

[Reggie]

I have burnt quite a few discs, and 800Mb is the Max on an 80minute CD, you could thoretically squeeze another 10-20Mb out of it.

However, you could use a 90Minute CD and Nero will burn at least 892Mb to a Disc, with the right CD-RW drive of course.

I have been trying the 90's and my drive will burn 91minutes to a disc which works out at over 900Mb.

I'm going to try some 99minute discs next week, by my calculations that is going to be nearly a Gigabyte of data on a single CDR!

[vitualis]

stanwebber,

Assumptions:
- no systemic problem with your burner or media
- DAO
- nothing apart from bare minimum in first logical track (i.e., no still screens, no CD-i app).
- 80min media really does hold exactly 80min (360 000 sectors)
- 2324 bytes/sector available for video data

Calculations:
Total user capacity: 80:00:00 (minecectors)
Space taken by first track (minimum): 00:06

Total capacity available for video data (track 2-99): 79:54

79:54 = 359 550 sectors
As 2324 bytes/sector --> 835 594 200 bytes
= 796.88 MB

Discussion and modification of figures
However, some of the original assumptions must be modified. Many brands of 80min CD-R don't actually hold exactly 80:00 (a tool like CloneCD will tell you what the media reports). Often, it is a few seconds less (e.g., 79:57)

Also, a believe the newest version of VCDImager places a 2 second pre-gap before each track. Nero doesn't do this (I believe), however.

Just taking into account of a realistic example of media (79:57), this brings capacity available for video data down from 79:54 --> 79:51.

Following the above calculations: 796.38 MB
+ 2 second pre-gap on one track: 796.05 MB

Conclusion
If you drive does not allow overburning, then you can calculate the exact amount you can burn onto your media (but this depends on the true capacity of your media -- which is often a little bit less than 80:00).

If you use VCDImager to author your CUE/BIN images, it shows you exactly the size of the entire image in minecectors so you know precisely beforehand whether or not it will fit.

If you drive supports overburning, you can usually fit an additional minute safely on most media.

Regards.

[stanwebber]

thanks, this info is exactly in line with my figures: 79:57 - :06 overhead - :05 default nero pregap = 79:46 = 358950 sectors = 834199800bytes = 795.55mb only 150kb off from my initial crude estimate