How to Burn More Than Two Hours on a DVD-R

By Matt McGew

i Thinkstock/Comstock/Getty Images

A standard DVD-R blank disc holds approximately two hours of video. If, however, you want to put more than two hours on a single DVD-R disc, you can use compression software which allows you to burn more digital information onto a single disc. Compression software works by lowering the quality of the video. Since lower quality video requires less storage capacity, you can fit more than two hours of compressed video on a blank DVD-R disc.

Step 1

Download and install DVD compression software on your computer. Examples of DVD compression software include DVD Shrink, Nero and DVD neXt Copy. Open the DVD compression program by clicking on its icon on the Desktop.

Step 2

Insert the DVD you want to burn into the DVD-R drive on your computer.

Step 3

Click the "Open Disc" or "Open" option and select the DVD containing the video you want to burn. Allow the compression program to analyze the DVD disc. The program will break the DVD into its component files.

Step 4

Select the "Main Movie" file and adjust the "Compression Settings" so that the total size of the file is less than 4.7 GB. If the compression program you are using doesn't show a "Main Movie" file, you want to select the largest available file. This is your "Main Movie" file even if the compression program labels the file differently.

Step 5

Select the option to compress the file and burn the compressed file to a new disc. Your compression program will prompt you to insert a blank DVD-R disc into your DVD burner drive.

Step 6

Insert a blank DVD-R disc.

Step 7

Wait while the compression program burns the compressed video file onto the blank disc. When the process is complete, the program will prompt you to remove the DVD-R disc.

References

Writer Bio