Is it possible to fit 3 hours on a DVD-R?

Dual 1 gig G4, 1 gig ram, FCP 4.02, DVDSP 2.0

I was always under the impression that 2 hours was the max that could be burned to a 4.7 gig DVD-R using DVDSP or even a straight transfer from a deck to an external stand alone burner... I was told that sure you can fit 3 hours on a DVD-R single sided single layered disk...Is this possible by compressing to MPEG-2 using compressor at a certain setting. Logically it would have to be lower than a 5 MPS average and it would surely look like garbage wouldn't it? If anyone has any answers on if this can be done, and if it can what approximate commpression settings I should use to try to give it the best look possible. (Its a 3 hour football game)

Thanks for your time,
James
Morrison DV

By altering the compression ratio, you can trade picture quality with length recorded. It won't look like garbage if - your source footage is pristine quality and not noisey, (however, I looked at the noise reduction in compressor and it was just a simple blur.... it looked bad), you've kept it digital all the way (letting analogue in means compression and recompression which can ruin the effect of the codecs).

The obvious answer is to test compress a "tricky" section at various bit rates and see what they look like. The VBR options in compressor should also help getting a good length, good quality compression. Also, remember to compress your audio with ac3 so that you've got more bits for the picture.

Graeme

James,

I recently finished a DVD of a school play that ran for 1 hour and 45 minutes. I tried all the compression bit rates from 8.0 down to 4.0 and settled on 4.5 Mbps VBR. Using AC3 audio compression I got it into 4.2 Gigs.
Simpler menus, AC3 audio and lower compression rates all go toward fitting on the DVD-5.

Mr. Mojo Rising:

No offense to John, but I didn't like his answer. I wish I could weigh in with more difinity, but my understanding was that lowering the bitrate down to 3.0Mbps, would allow for elongated play.

I also own a single sided DVD which is a football game (the greatest game of all time a.k.a. the Ohio State Buckeyes national Championship) and whoever made that figured out how to compress the game on to one DVD-R.

I'm hoping this can be done (3 hours) as I know many of us face budgets and it would be advantageous to put 3 hours of content on one disc.

I hope you will get an answer we are both waiting for.

Thanks,
-Ben.