Having some problems wrapping my mind around DVDs. I was wondering how you can fit a good sized movie about 60 minutes long at 12 MB/S on a DVD at 4.5 Gb? Maybe my math is wrong but 12 MB/S x 60 sec/min x 60 min/ hour is 43,200 MB for an hour which /1000 is 43.2 Gbs. How does that fit onto a disk?

A DVD will hold 4.7 GB. A CD holds 700mb. DVD's hold about 6.7 times as much as a CD.

Yeah I get that part, I just cant get how you can fit an hour of video at 12 MB/S on a DVD that only holds 4.5 Gb or so. Maybe I am asking the question poorly

For example....making a clip with AVI files and they come up at 12 MB/S then I produce to a DVD. The output is say MPEG-1 or 2, I guess, does that severely compress the video then?

Maybe I figured it out. When burning the DVD it is calculated not in files size but MINS or minutes. So you can carry a certain file length rather then certain file size? Am I on the right track or way off base?

Yes, MPEG2 is compressed. Depending on the software you use to burn DVD you can custon fit any output to fit on a disk. At full quality you will get about 60 minutes. As the length of video increases so will the amount of compression and therefore the quality of the end product will decrease.

If you want to maintain full quality use a dual layer burner with appropriate disks or break your video up into two DVD's.

I hate DVD format myself but that's what people want so that's what I use. For my personal videos I store on DVHS tapes. Higher quality than MPEG2 and you can get up to 6 hours on a tape at full quality.

Thanks, I think I have my mind around this now.