How Much Space Can A DVD-R Fit?

[Ryen]

Hi , Im new but.. I have an imporant question
a DVD-R can hold up to 4.7 gigs right? so can I put in 4500mb worth of movie in? which is 450 minutes..but DVD-R's says its only 120 mins?
Im just pre-pering for my dvd burner that Im gettin soon and hopefully I won't have to ask stupid questions , I'm sorry =(

[flobbo]

The amount of movie minues you can fit on a DVD-R depends on the bitrate of the movie. If you use 1000Kbit/s then yes you can fit 450 minutes on it but that isn't even VCD quality. Use a birate calculator to find out the right bitrate for the movies you wanna put on there.

[Ryen]

thank you
Im really new to this so what are standard birates for dvd's and vcd's?
and also you know where I can get a birate caculator?
Im realllly new to this stuff thank you so much!

[Bulten]

I just wanted to inform you about 4.7 gig and the 120 min statement. If you are using the DVD-R in a computer, then you should consider about the 4.7, because that's what you're going to work with (how much data you are able to fit). 120 min statement is more important if you try to use the disc on a DVD recorder(one of those standalone ones wich you use instead of a VCR recorder). If storing 120 min on the disc, the recorder will use a specific bitrate. It doesn't mean the disc only can hold 120 mins though. I suppose they call this SP (or standard play). Mose DVD recorders have other modes too, like LP(long play), SLP (super long play) and so on.

Hope this helps you in your struggle to get things right.

[Gazorgan]

A DVDR can hold 4.7 billion bits. That translates to something less when you realize that a Kilobyte has 1024 bits. Also, there is overhead on the disk for the file structore and how the disk knows where the information is kept.

A good rule of thumb for DVDR's is 4.3 GB of 'stuff' as it appears on your harddrive. This is usually safe (4.3 GB of miscellanous 40 KB pictures is another story). This is 'roughly' 120 minutes of DVD quality video. Factors include menus, extras, whether you have 3 different 5.1 audio tracks included, etc.

[Laddydaddy]

Gazorgan is right on the money. For useful information on DVDs go to www.dvddemystified.com. There is a wealth of information there on DVDs. The 120 minute limit stated on blank DVD covers assumes the standard bitrate of a DVD. Unfortunately I don't remember what the standard is. You will find it on the above link. By lowering the bitrate when you encode films you can fit more on a blank DVD and still get a superb rip. It sometimes helps to use the filters in TMPG and virtual dub, especially the sharpening filters. The important thing to remember is the 4.3G limit. Your film should be no larger than that.

[SLK001]

A DVDR can hold 4.7 billion bits. That translates to something less when you realize that a Kilobyte has 1024 bits.

Okay, but I think that you mean 4.7 billion bytes and that a Kilobyte has 1024 bytes.

[Gazorgan]

My error. I'm refering to the problem of 1024 versus 1000. Compound that with file keeping overhead and 4,700,000 bytes translates to 4.3 GB (1000*1000*1000)/(1024*1024*1024) ratio factor, or about 7%. .93x4,700,000 Bytes = 4.37722 GB

Enough with the dead horse :P

4.7 Gb looks a lot better on the store shelf than 4.38 GB. Any company that used 4.38 would lose sales because 'Everyone else is bigger!'

Strictly speaking, you could sell 80 minute CDR's as 800 MB CDR's. Just like unformatted floppies are 1.7 MB (whoah, DOS flashback).

[Ryen]

Thank you so much people! I learn alot from everyone on this board