[X4U] Why is my DVD Capacity so small?

[Dennis R. Cohen]

On 2/6/11 at 13:25, John Erdman <jperdman at gmail.com>transmitted 
the following electronic message:

>I'm trying to make a video DVD that I can play on my TV with my regular
>DVD player that is connected directly to the TV.
>
>I've got my files ready to burn. I've never been able to get all the
>way thru the process. I run into problems in the burning process. It
>seems to be related to the amount of storage capacity on the 
>new disk. And it don't make no never mind whether I'm working 
>in OS X or
>Bootcamp.
>
>
>I'm using brand new Sony DVD+R disks. They're labelled as having 4.7 GB
>capacity and 1X-16X speeds. And when I try to burn the disks I get
>error messages that 1) the disks are already used (sometimes) and
>2)That there is not enough space.
>
>Despite the data included with the spindle of unused disks,  Bootcamp
>says that the amount of space available is 1.57GB, and in OSX  Info
>shows the available capacity is a whopping 3.32 GB.   Trouble is, I
>need at least 3.7GB to do this job of writing video files.
>
>What's happening?  Does this mean that the 4.7GB is not really
>available.  What do I need to do to get this done?
>
>Thanks
>
>

Well, the 4.7GB is a slight exaggeration as far as most burning 
software is concerned...it's talking about 4,700,000,000 bytes 
while most software uses the traditional (but not Snow Leopard) 
binary GB, so it's 4.38 of those. It depends upon the software 
you're using, but that wouldn't account for the discrepancy 
you're seeing.

As someone else noted, DVD-R is compatible with more settop DVD 
players than is DVD+R, but that is also unlikely (in the 
extreme) to have anything to do with the capacity difficulties 
you're witnessing.

Another problem might be the software you're using for the DVD 
authoring. The video files must be properly encoded (also the 
audio) and then multiplexed and the support files structure of 
the VIDEO_TS folder created.

Also, your references don't tell us what software you were using 
to get the information. "Bootcamp" just means you were running 
Windows, not the software that informed you concerning disk 
capacity. The "info" box in OS X is also notoriously 
conservative concerning the capacity of a blank optical disc 
(e.g. it will also state that a 700MB CD only has about 640MB, 
but that's another issue). Your best shot to see what a blank 
disc's actual capacity is would be something like Toast Titanium 
(Mac) or Nero (Windows)--they'll tell you how much you can write 
to the disc.

All that having been said, I have had problems with Sony DVD+Rs 
and -Rs at various times, where the burning software reported 
that the disc had already been used...one spindle ran almost 40% 
failures. It should be noted that Sony (and TDK, Maxell, etc) 
don't manufacture their own media...they buy in bulk from 
various manufacturers and put their brand on them. My experience 
with the media manufactured in Singapore, India, and Taiwan has 
been erratic and I try to stick with media manufactured in Japan 
(preferably Taiyo Yuden), regardless of who packaged it. You can 
usually find the manufacturer information impressed in the hub ring.

-- 
Dennis R. Cohen