tomwardthomas
Level 1 (0 points)

Q: What's the maximum size and length that go onto a DVD

I'm trying to put a whole load of home videos onto DVDs. What is the maximum size that can be burnt onto a DVD. There are a lot of hours on here, about 15 and I was hoping to try and get about 3 hours per DVD is this possible?

Thanks

Tom

MacBook Pro, OS X Mavericks (10.9.2)

Posted on Feb 20, 2015 9:37 AM

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tomwardthomas

Q: What's the maximum size and length that go onto a DVD

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  • by Kappy,

    Kappy Kappy Feb 20, 2015 9:50 AM in response to tomwardthomas
    Level 10 (271,879 points)
    Desktops
    Feb 20, 2015 9:50 AM in response to tomwardthomas

    The standard single-sided DVD holds 4.7 GBs of data which is, I think, enough for a 2 hour color film. Double-sided DVDs hold 9.4 GBs of data.

     

    How much you can fit on a DVD will depend on the movie itself.

  • by Drew Reece,

    Drew Reece Drew Reece Feb 20, 2015 10:02 AM in response to tomwardthomas
    Level 5 (7,813 points)
    Notebooks
    Feb 20, 2015 10:02 AM in response to tomwardthomas

    You could compress the life out of them to squeeze more onto the disk. You would need other tools than iDVD or Toast - they tend to protect you from making terrible quality discs. DVD studio pro & compressor will let you pick your own settings. Final Cut Pro X has DVD export options, but I haven't used them.

     

    I have to question what your aim is - is it intended to preserve these movies as a backup? You may want to go the other route, buy more disks & put about 1-2 hours per disk to get best quality.

  • by Old Toad,

    Old Toad Old Toad Feb 20, 2015 5:01 PM in response to tomwardthomas
    Level 10 (141,773 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Feb 20, 2015 5:01 PM in response to tomwardthomas

    If you're referring to a video DVD which will plan on a TV set via a DVD player then a single layer DVD disk can hold 120 minutes of playing time which includes the basic material and any animated menus in the project.

     

    A double layer disk can hold 240 minutes.

     

    If you are creating a data disk with the files copied to it then its a matter of grouping the files into batches of either slightly less than 4.7 GB for single layer and 9.4 GB for double layer.

     

    if you're referring to  video DVD discs follow this workflow to help assure the best qualty video DVD:

    Once you have the project as you want it save it as a disk image via the File ➙ Save as Disk Image  menu option. This will separate the encoding process from the burn process.

     

    To check the encoding mount the disk image, launch DVD Player and play it.  If it plays OK with DVD Player the encoding is good.

     

    Then burn to disk with Disk Utility or Toast at the slowest speed available (2x-4x) to assure the best burn quality.  Always use top quality media:  Verbatim, Maxell or Taiyo Yuden DVD-R are the most recommended in these forums.

     

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