How much video can I burn on a DVD 5

[Sikander]

Hello,
I'm using ConvertXtoDVD 3 to convert video I captured from my DV camera through WinDV into a DVD video disc. The thing is, I don't know how much video the disc can hold. I just converted about 1 hour 20 minutes of video and it came out as a 4.02 GB of DVD video, a DVD 5 can hold 4.7 GB right....Convertxtodvd doesn't tell me accurately how much video I can put on the disc because this compilation I burned convertx told me it's about "1.4 GB on Disc" also, the conversion advisor said "excellent" don't know what that means.
How can I find out how much video I can put on the disc before converting it, when the settings in convertxtodvd are set to "slow encoding/high quality".
Thanks.

[jagabo]

You can fit as much video as you want on a DVD5. But quality goes down as compress more and more to do so.

[redwudz]

No real rules on how long the video on a DVD can be. Longer time=lower quality, though.

What I figure with DV from a camcorder is one hour at best quality, 2 hours of good quality, from there the quality usually starts to decrease fairly quickly. Sources like hand held DV from a camcorder usually need a lot of bitrate because of shake and poor lighting.

If you are capping VHS tapes, or TV captures, you won't notice much difference between a 1 hour and a 2 hour DVD. You can also use 1/2 D1 format for making DVDs from lower quality sources and put 4 hours on a DVD, even six, and it may look fairly good.

If you use a bitrate calculator and a encoder that you can adjust the bitrate with, you can have more control over the size of a DVD file. Most simple converters like ConvertX just take a 'best guess' and err on the small side for output sizes.

And just to mention, a DVD-5 is about 4.37GB. The higher number is just poor math. You can find more info about the DVD format, specifications and structure to the upper left on this page in 'WHAT IS' DVD.

[Alex_ander]

a DVD 5 can hold 4.7 GB

Actually the promoted 4.7 number is 4.7 billion bytes = 4.377 GB or 4482 MB.

[Sikander]

Thanks for the replies, so the thing is, if I throw say four hours of video into convertx, it will convert it and just compress it more and give me a Video_TS folder which I can put on a DVD 5 disc. I'm thinking if I give it say six hours, won't the final video ts folder be bigger than 4.3 GB, say 6 GB??? How can I put 6 GB onto a DVD 5 then? Confusion.

[jagabo]

Thanks for the replies, so the thing is, if I throw say four hours of video into convertx, it will convert it and just compress it more and give me a Video_TS folder which I can put on a DVD 5 disc. I'm thinking if I give it say six hours, won't the final video ts folder be bigger than 4.3 GB, say 6 GB??? How can I put 6 GB onto a DVD 5 then? Confusion.

I don't use ConvertX, but in general you fit more running time on a DVD by compressing the video (and/or audio) more. You can elect to compress as much as you want (to a point) but the quality will decrease the more you compress. I've heard of people putting more than 20 hours on a DVD. I don't think I'd want to watch it though!

[redwudz]

I'm not sure how much ConvertX can compress, but if you tell it you are using a DVD-5, probably the default, I assume it will try to compress six hours to the DVD-5. Give it a try, but the quality may be terrible. For six hours, you would want to use 1/2 D1 format and I don't know if ConvertX can do that.

For six hour DVDs, you might want to try a stand alone MPEG-2 encoder. Or you might try the freeware FAVC. It has more options than then ConvertX.

[FulciLives]

If you want good quality then I would do no more than 3 - 4 hours per single layer DVD.

Anything over 4 hours and the quality will begin to suffer and 6 hours is just way to much.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[Sikander]

I don't want to fit more video on a single disc here, I want to know how much video I can put on a disc with the MAXIMUM possible good quality video, even if its half an hour...... I checked, convertx is compressing my video using Full D1 which is its recommended setting I guess. So just tell me which settings will convert the video giving me best quailty and how much video can I burn on the disc with the quality being super, without any deterioration in quality, don't want to squeeze more and more bad video on my disc. Thanks.

[jagabo]

I don't want to fit more video on a single disc here, I want to know how much video I can put on a disc with the MAXIMUM possible good quality video, even if its half an hour......

About 60 minutes at the maximum DVD legal bitrate (highest quality) of 9800 kbps (for the video).

[jman98]

Sikander - the problem is that what YOU think is good quality and what I think is good quality are not necessarily the same. My personal generic recommendation would be to NOT put more than 3 hours of video on a single layer DVD.

If you are really concerned about the highest quality possible, then I would agree with jagabo and say you've got about 1 hour per single layer disc.

[guns1inger]

If you want to start pushing the running time and need to go half-D1, look at FAVC. It will happily encode full D1, half D1 or even VCD resolution. It uses a higher quality encoder than ConvertXtoDVD. It won't make the decision for you though - you have to tell it you want half-D1.

[Sikander]

So I gather that Full D1 is the setting I need for the programme to encode in the highest quality possible right.
Also, you guys say that I can even put 20 hours video on a DVD 5 but the quality will suffer, so if I throw 20 hours at convertx, you mean that it will compress the video so as to produce a final video ts folder under 4.3 GB which I will be able to fit on a DVD 5 .........right.

[jagabo]

So I gather that Full D1 is the setting I need for the programme to encode in the highest quality possible right.

If quality is your only criteria, yes. But you will only get about 1 hour of video on a DVD.

Also, you guys say that I can even put 20 hours video on a DVD 5 but the quality will suffer, so if I throw 20 hours at convertx, you mean that it will compress the video so as to produce a final video ts folder under 4.3 GB which I will be able to fit on a DVD 5 .........right.

I don't know Convertx but in general:

file size = bitrate * running time

When you start putting lots of video on a DVD you need to find a compromise between bitrate and frame size. You have limited choices in frame size: 720x480, 704x480, 352x480, and 352x240 for NTSC DVD. The larger you make the frames the more bitrate they will need to keep from degenerating into macroblock artifacts. So as you increase the running time you need to reduce the frame size. What you are doing is trading away spacial resolution to get fewer blocky artifacts.

[Sikander]

ok got it thanks. so if i want best quality video from my captures from my mini dv camcorder, i should convert one hour of video (equals one mini dv tape) using the full d1 setting. presto.

[FulciLives]

ok got it thanks. so if i want best quality video from my captures from my mini dv camcorder, i should convert one hour of video (equals one mini dv tape) using the full d1 setting. presto.

You got it but it gets slightly more complicated.

ConvertXtoDVD is shit for quality. It never respects bitrates. It's a real mess.

You should learn how to use a better quality encoder such as TMPGEnc Plus or CCE Basic etc.

I believe both are around $60 each and either one will do you well with CCE Basic being my top choice of the two.

Basically you want to do a straight single pass CBR encode and either use 8000kbps for the video and PCM WAV for the audio or if you want to compress the audio to AC-3 then do 9000kbps for the video. For AC-3 audio 256kbps is generally considered to be fine although some people like to use 320kbps or even 384kbps.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman