How Many Videos Can You Truly Put Onto a DVD?

[the_ultra_code]

Okay, now I know some of you will already look at this question and think: Idiot! This has already been answered! And dingus, it says it on the DVD container itself (4.7 GB, 120 minutes)!

But hold on there, buckaroo. This is different, and let me explain.

Okay, to set the scene, I am doing a project for a coworker: putting her digital photos on DVDs to play in DVD players (in short). Now, I have grouped a fraction of the photos based on their year on my Linux desktop, and, using the software "Imagination", have created video slideshows using the photos. Now, I have determined that the total length of time all of the videos, if played end-to-end, is 1 hour, 6 minutes, and 4 seconds (01:06:04).

Now, coming to the question. These videos together take up ~1 GB of space, even though together their play time is 66 minutes. Even though my DVDs "support" 120 minutes of playback time, they have a capacity of 4.7 GB. So, this gets me thinking: can I put more than 120 min. of video slideshows onto a single DVD, assuming I would not take up the full 4.7 GB and leave plenty of room for the DVD menus and other things required?

I have looked around elsewhere on the Internet, but they talk about "recording" to DVDs, and when they aren't they are talking about treating DVDs as data discs.

Now, is the reason for such a "time limit" on DVDs is because in the process of putting the video files onto the DVD and making the DVD "playable", it "increases" the size of the video files (to account for different resolutions or to make sure the quality of the DVDs are as close to "original" as possible), and so, therefore, the time limits are to account for the re-encoding (?) of the video files to larger sizes? Is it not all DVD players support more than 120 min. of videos (which sounds dumb to me)?

Not to sound impatient or mean, but I would like this question answered ASAP, as I want to get this long project done ASAP (I still have not even begun with putting her videos on DVDs *rolling eyes*). However much you can help would be much, much appreaciated! Thanks!

 

[rontonomo]

almost every new tv has a usb port on it... and usb drives are pretty cheap like 30 bucks for 128 gig... almost all the tvs that have usb will let you slideshow the pictures on a usb drive... only a matter of time before every single tv has a usb port. and that fact that a usb stick wont scratch... But to answer your question you can put regular videos files on the dvd and fill up the 4.7 gigs but you will have to have a dvd player that supports the format you want to play back.

 

[USAFRet]

Resolution, compression, format...

Yes you can put WAY more than simply 120min of video on a single 4.7GB single layer DVD.

 

[the_ultra_code]

Okay, thank you, both of you (and you two snapped at my question in no time!)! However, these posts raise another slew of questions (well, two for now), one of which goes a little outside.

1. [strike]What are some of the most compatible DVD formats out there (what formats work on the most DVD players)?[/strike]

Update: Well, found my answer to question #1 and then some: https://www.lifewire.com/dvd-record-modes-and-times-1846582 ; https://www.lifewire.com/dvd-recording-times-1846614.

2. [strike]What are they talking about in this article when they talking about "bitrate" (http://blog.sharbor.com/blog/2011/10/how-much-video-can-i-fit-on-a-dvd/)? Will I "encountered" this part when I go to burn the DVD ISOs?[/strike]

Even later update: Again, found out my answer to question #2

By the way, here are the settings I use in Imagination:

Also, I am following the essentials of this article (https://linuxaria.com/article/dvd-slideshow-con-linux) to do the photo-half of this project, except I plan to use K3B as the DVD burning tool unless stated otherwise.

 

[Solandri]

Movie DVDs (the kind you put into a DVD player) use MPEG2 to encode the video. That's a very old compression standard, produced in the late 1990s to be decodable in real-time on 1990s hardware. As a result, it's not very good and doesn't compress all that much. So the "limit" with decent encoding is about 2-3 hours.

If you use a newer video compression format like MPEG4, or h.264, or even h.265, you can fit a lot more video onto the DVD's 4.7 GB. 4-5 hours of med-high quality 1080p content, 10+ hours of low-med quality. But it will not play on a standalone DVD player since those are expecting MPEG2. You might be able to get them to play on a Blu-ray player.

There are some other DVD formats for even lower quality video (originally designed for video CDs) which will play on standalone DVD players. But I seriously doubt anyone with modern 720p or 1080p video would want to use them.

DVD slideshows are an entirely different beast. They're not video, just a sequence of still images. So how many hours of a slideshow you can fit on a DVD depends on the size of the pictures, and the time interval between "slides".

 

[the_ultra_code]

Thank you Solandri! I did not know that.

However, these "slideshows" of photos that I have exported from Imagination are in MPEG video format (look at original image posted), but to be honest I do not know what "version" of MPEG they are. I'll find that out latter.

However, I will just ask again to anybody: in that article linked in the last post I made, what is it referring to when it mentions bitrate? I think at this point I might just know everything else. Might.

Update: Found my answer to the last question.

 

[the_ultra_code]

Okay, three updates.

One, I found that the .vob files produced by Imagination are, according to VLC Media Player, "MPEG-1/2". I think that is sufficiently compatible with DVD players, is it not?

Two, I have found my answer to my "bitrate" question on the Internets. It's amazing what you can find when you actually look stuff up on the Internet. *face palms himself*

Three, unless anybody else, including myself, has any more questions, comments, or potential solutions connected to the original question I had originally asked, then I am declaring this thread essentially "solved" as you will. Thank you guys who have given their time to help my trivial lack of understanding!