What is the EXACT capacity of a DVD?

[AlanHK]

What is the exact capacity of a (single layer) DVD?

I see "4.7 GB (presumably decimal gig), "4.38 gig" (binary); but I'd like to know the exact number, in bytes -- assuming this is a fixed number.

Is it the same for data or DVD video? I know that a CDR has a different capacity if used as a VCD or data or music; but I suspect that DVD is formatted as data in all cases -- is this correct?

[redwudz]

4.37GB something is what most of us use for a DVD-5. + and - DVD formats vary slightly. If you look to the upper left under 'What is' DVD, you will see the explanation. You can go a little over this number, but for a couple of hundred megabytes gain, you risk making a coaster.

It should be the same data or video. CDs can be burned in different modes, one of which includes no error checking files. In this way you can get a little over 800MB on a 700MB/80 minute CD. SVCDs do this often. Doesn't work the same with DVDs, though.

[Wile_E]

To find the exact number, you can use Nero CD-DVD Speed. Put disc in drive, and go to "disc info" tab.

[AlanHK]

4.37GB something is what most of us use for a DVD-5. + and - DVD formats vary slightly. If you look to the upper left under 'What is' DVD, you will see the explanation. You can go a little over this number, but for a couple of hundred megabytes gain, you risk making a coaster.

Thanks, that gives:
DVD+R/DVD+RW/DVD+R DL and DVD-R/DVD-RW exact sizes
DVD-R/DVD-RW = 4 706 074 624 bytes ( 4488 MB )
DVD+R/DVD+RW = 4 700 372 992 bytes ( 4482 MB )
DVD+R DL = 8 547 993 600 bytes ( 8152 MB )

But can you actually gain a "couple of hundred megabytes" and have it play in a DVD player? How much can you go over?
Any special app needed to burn this?
I've just authored a DVD and had the VIDEO_TS total 4900k; so now I'm re-encoding, which is probably going to take a day or two, as well as reducing the quality.

[manono]

Hi-

I've just authored a DVD and had the VIDEO_TS total 4900k; so now I'm re-encoding, which is probably going to take a day or two, as well as reducing the quality.

Do you mean 4900 MB? Or maybe 4.9 GB? If so, that's quite a bit over. That's what bitrate calculators are designed to prevent. You might try one.

[redwudz]

Just to satisfy yourself, take a DVD that you have burned up to the 4.37 capacity and look at the burned side. It burns from the inside to the outside. The outer edge of a DVD is the most unstable part due to the way they are coated.

You should only see a very thin line of unburned area near the edge. That is where you want to add more information. That is also where a cheaper DVD has the most problems. I used to set Shrink to make the DVD files only about 4.2GB. That gave a bigger 'safe zone'. Now that I use TY media, I don't need to do that. The quality of the media does make a difference. You 'might' be able to get a hundred or so megabytes in the little blank area, but compared to the full capacity of the DVD, it's really not much of a gain. And the DVD may not play properly.

And be aware that different programs seem to read the sizes of DVD files differently. Shrink says 4.7GB, but has 4.464GB as another number. TMPGEnc is often off on the exact size of the encoded file, so are a lot of other encoders.

When I am encoding to MPEG-2 for a DVD, I often use a 4.2GB size to allow room for the authoring files. I leave the 'safe zone' alone myself and just use a bitrate calculator to size my encodes.

[AlanHK]

Hi-

I've just authored a DVD and had the VIDEO_TS total 4900k; so now I'm re-encoding, which is probably going to take a day or two, as well as reducing the quality.

Do you mean 4900 MB? Or maybe 4.9 GB? If so, that's quite a bit over. That's what bitrate calculators are designed to prevent. You might try one.

The VIDEO_TS was exactly 4,893,992,960.

I use HCenc, which gives a good estimate, though it's a bit complex with seven source files; but what caught me was that there seems to be about 23 MB/file overhead in MUXing, eg:
01.m2v 611,369,130
01.mp2 42,528,000
VOB 676,665,344
(taken from the intermediate files folder of GUIfor DVDAuthor) which is what put me over.

Anyway, I can allow for that now but want to get close but not over.