How do I know if it will fit on one DVD?

Question

Level 1

26 points

How do I know if it will fit on one DVD?

So I am working on a DVD project (My first one) and I have about 12 movies that are about 20-25 minutes each in .avi format. The total size for all of these movies is about 3.07 GB.

How do I know if iDVD will be able to fit all of these movies on one DVD? Does it go by the 60min rule regardless of file size, or will all twelve movies be able to fit on one DVD? a DVD golds 4.7Gb of information right? So it should fit theoretically, but it is almost 3.5 hours of video.

Is there a fill bar or something within iDVD that can estimate how much space I have left for a DVD based upon the images, menus and movies I add to a project? I dont seem to find one in the iDVD project window and the Help file did not turn anything up.

Macbook, Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Posted on Nov 6, 2006 1:12 PM

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Answer 1

SDIllini

Level 6

16,675 points

Nov 6, 2006 1:20 PM in response to Sup909

Hi sup:

A DVD-R disc can hold about 4.7 GB. This allows up to 120 minutes of high-quality video to fit on a DVD. iDVD goes by length.

Sue

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Answer 2

F Shippey

Level 7

21,500 points

Nov 6, 2006 1:22 PM in response to Sup909

iDVD cares ONLY about running time!!!!!!!

All files used will be converted to MPG-2 during the encoding process.

With a single layer disc, in the Best Performance mode you can get UP TO 60 minutes of content (however, your menus take up some of that time). In the Best Quality mode you can get UP TO 120 minutes of content (again, your menus use up some of that time).

Double the above times for a double layer disc.

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Answer 3

MartinR

Level 7

25,334 points

Nov 6, 2006 1:25 PM in response to Sup909

The size (MB or GB) of the input files doesn't matter to iDVD. What matters is the length (in time).

iDVD renders/compresses/multiplexes your video into MPEG2 format which is the format of a playable DVD. With a single-layer DVD you can fit up to 2 hours of content (video, titles, etc.); with a dual-layer DVD you can fit up to 4 hours of material. iDVD will make choices of how to render your video depending on your quality choices in iDVD Preferences.

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Answer 4

F Shippey

Level 7

21,500 points

Nov 6, 2006 1:26 PM in response to SDIllini

Hi sup:

A DVD-R disc can hold about 4.7 GB.

That's decimal - it's about 4.2 GB in computer binary terms.

This allows up to 120 minutes of high-quality video to fit on a DVD.
iDVD goes by length.

I KNOW you meant to say "iDVD goes by time".

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Answer 5

Sup909 Author

Level 1

26 points

Nov 6, 2006 1:37 PM in response to SDIllini

Hmm Ok thanks, So it is time regardless of video type/size.

So is there a fill up bar in there to tell me how much time I might have left on the DVD as there is with CD creation software?

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Answer 6

SDIllini

Level 6

16,675 points

Nov 6, 2006 2:49 PM in response to F Shippey

Fred:

By length, I meant length of time.

My bad-I guess I should be more clear. Sorry about that!

Sue

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Answer 7

Nov 6, 2006 3:02 PM in response to Sup909

In your iDVD project go to the "project" menu and select "project info". You will see a progress bar that shows how much space you have left.

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