How much video will fit on a DVD?
While a good rule of thumb is that it takes about two gigabytes to store one hour of average video, the amount of video a DVD can hold depends on the amount of audio and the type of audio/video compression, as well as the associated audio tracks, menu complexity, and additional material. This means that a DVD-5, DVD-R, or DVD+R can hold up to about 130 minutes of high-quality digital video with standard bit-rate and a 48kHz audio stream. However, if the DVD has only one audio track, it can hold over 160 minutes at excellent quality. DVD-9 will hold about 4 hours of video, whereas a DVD-18 can hold about 8 hours of high-quality video. A single DVD-18 can hold a whole library of VHS-quality material – about 30 hours’ worth!
To take advantage of the best quality encoding, we can fit up to two hours of video on a DVD. You don’t want to sacrifice quality for quantity to fit more onto a DVD. The bottom line is that if you try to fit 6 hours of an EP VHS tape onto a 2-hour DVD, you will see moderate pixilation and sound quality will dither. It’s never a good idea to combine too many tapes onto one disc. Optimum transfer is (1) VHS to DVD, (1 or 2) hi8 or 8mm to DVD (depending on the length), (2) MiniDV to DVD, (4) VHS-C to DVD, etc..
