SL: more than 2 hours?

[joelson]

Hi!

As long as I have tested, the single layer DVD media have supported around 2 hours of footage. However, I have heard that it can support more than this value, with good quality.

Does anybody know anything about?

Thanks in advance!

[guns1inger]

bitrate determines how much footage you can store on a disk. 2 hours is a recommended amount at a bitrate sufficient to provide good quality (assumes good source and good encoder). 1 hour of footage will fit on a single layer disk at the maximum bitrate encoded at a constant bitrate (CBR). It is possible to store much more than this by varying the bitrate and resolution. I have backed up The Godfather (168 minutes), with 5.1 and 2.0 audio tracks onto a SL disk. At VCD resolution (sub-vhs) and VCD bitrate (1150) you can fit 6 hours or so on a disk. Half-D1 resolution will give you reasonable quality at around 4 hours (good for old VHS tapes).

The issue really comes down to quality, and what you can squeeze out of your encoder at what bitrate.

[yoda313]

Hi,

Ditto to what guns1inger said. Bitrate is the magic number. Get that down and you can add more video at the expense of quality.

Just take sample clips of whatever you want to test and fool around with the bitrate. Get it down as low as you can tolerate and that will determine how much you can fit on a disc.

Kevin

[waheed]

The 2 hour is just a guidline for standalone dvd reorders. As mentioned, its the bitrate which dertermines how much to fir on a dvd.

[mats.hogberg]

That depends on where you put the border between "not good quality" and "good quality". @ VCD quality (not good, in my opinion) almost 8 hours can be squeezed on to a single layer DVD.
The only thing determining how much you can fit, is the audio and video bit rate used, and, given the same source material, the only thing that determines A/V quality. (And to some, in this instance miniscule, extent what encoder is used.)
<edit>Gosh! You're fast typers, guys! There was not one single reply when I wrote this!</edit>
/Mats