How much video can I fit into single layer DVD-R?

[helloguys]

I know this is an old topic. It all depends on the bit rate, menu, etc.. Google search returns answers of 120-150 minutes.

When I try to make DVD with VideoStudio X6, I always got the out of size warning when I have more than 60 minutes of video. I can click 'OK' to let VS X6 adjust the video (quality) and fit it into a DVD. But I'm curious why VS X6 always complains about video longer than 60 minutes while on the internet most people (including Microsoft) said 120-150 minutes for a single layer DVD?

Thanks!

[canuck]

Google search gives an incomplete answer. While it is possible to get about 2 hours of video on a standard DVD it would be at such a low bitrate which would give very poor quality and would make watching the video "painful". "Most" people do not believe the marketing hype of the DVD makers. I doubt 90% of any information that Microsoft puts out

A standard 4.7GB DVD can only hold 60 minutes of best quality video. To get longer you have to lower the bitrate and you lose quality.

[Ken Berry]

To round out Canuck's answer a bit more, if you select Share > Create Video File (or Create Disc) > DVD, Video Studio's default template uses a bitrate of 8000 kbps. That is high quality and as Canuck says, it will allow around an hour of video to be burned to a single layer DVD, with menu -- and perhaps up to 10 minutes more using Dolby audio (more highly compressed than standard LPCM audio, hence more room for video).

If you have 90 minutes of video, you need to reduce the bitrate (Share > Create Video File > Custom) to around 6000 kbps. This will still be good quality, though not as high as 8000 kbps will give you. To fit 2 hours on, the bitrate would need to be around 4000 kbps, but at that rate, the quality would only be about the same as a VHS tape.

Incidentally, VS's ability to adjust to fit has always seemed to me to be a bit of a gimmick, and my few experiments never really satisfied me. Besides which, it only seemed to work if there was not much needing to be cut down e.g. where I had about 4.8 GB of video needing to be fitted on that 4.3 GB. If I were to need to keep the length of the video but reduce the size and still retain good quality, I would "burn" a DVD Folder with VS, then use a program like DVD Shrink or Nero Recode to compress the video size. The results with these was always satisfying -- though you need to bear in mind that Recode will only work with non-copyrighted material.

[jparnold]

You might also consider rendering using two pass VBR (variable bit rate) which allows a little more than 60 minutes on a single layer DVD.