file size question?

mich · **15th March 2007, 10:02 AM**

I've burned a few things in vista to dvd (to be watched in a regular dvd player). The thing has worked fine every time, however the thing is that whether what i'm burning is 70 mins or 120 mins or whatever, it always says that it cant fit on the dvd and that it needs to reduce the quality to make it fit.

What i dont get is;

1) if you can fit 2+ hours at full 720x576 SD onto a regular dvd (like you hire from the video shop) and thats all that a regular dvd player will play (ie. only SD not HD), why does vista need to reduce the quality to fit 1-2hr SD recording onto dvd?

2) why do SD and HD dvr-ms recordings seem to be about the same size?

3) how much should it be able to fit onto a dvd before it needs to reduce the quality?

scottsos · **15th March 2007, 10:17 AM**

1) Are you using single or dual layer DVD's. Hire DVD's are dual layer with approx 9Gb max. The standard DVD blank are single layer and only hold 4.7Gb. The dual layer DVD blanks are very expensive.

2) Not sure.

3) 4.7Gb

mich · **15th March 2007, 11:14 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by scottsos

1) Are you using single or dual layer DVD's. Hire DVD's are dual layer with approx 9Gb max. The standard DVD blank are single layer and only hold 4.7Gb. The dual layer DVD blanks are very expensive.

2) Not sure.

3) 4.7Gb

cheers. so does 4.7gb equate to 60mins of SD? The reason i expected it would be more like 120mins is because thats the recording time most stand alone dvd recorders offer on the default setting.

scottsos · **15th March 2007, 01:31 PM**

At the highest quality a dual layer DVD can store 120min. So a single layer DVD should be around the 60min mark. To fit any more the quality needs to be reduced.

Hightimes · **16th March 2007, 07:02 PM**

I've never actually tried this to be honest! I didnt realise VMC actually transcoded the DRVMS files! ... what's the quality like when it degrades it to fit on a disk?

Some HD recordings can be mammoth (15GIG) what would happen if you tried to burn one to a duel layer blank DVD? would it be watchable?

scottsos · **20th March 2007, 12:08 PM**

Should be fine. If your HD recording was less than 120m than the quality should be the same as a DVD from the video store. Even at the maximum compression a DVD should still be whatable.