burning dvds....

[Fallen]

hi,

i bought myself some dvd+rw's intending to burn some video files onto it, they're a 4.7gb capacity, and on the box states 120 minutes of video.
my laptop came with cyberlink power2go and i used that to burn the files on, but i can only burn 1 on each disc as the power2go says the disc has a capacity of 75 mins (each video file is just under 45 minutes long).
also, i was given some dvd+rw's of the same capacity but a different brand, that were able to hold at least 4 video files of around the same length.
how can i fit this amount on? is it the format i burn the files onto the disc with? is it the burning software i'm using?

please help as im going to have to use about 10 discs instead of 3/4.....

thanks

[Lord of the Rings]

It's the quality setting & how you go about it. A 4.7 GB (gigabyte) disk can only hold about 4.36-4.37 GiB (gibibytes) in real terms. DVD info
If your softw only allows 75 mins & doesn't have any options to change the capacity, then I'd dump it & get something decent like Nero 7 or Roxio. These will allow you to add over 2 hrs of video on a single disk. In fact, over 3 hrs if you don't mind poorer quality.

[Fallen]

thanks, sounds like that will fix my problems.

are either of those programs free or do you have to pay?

i seen another post from someone else saying they had problems burning dvds.... do i have to convert each of my avi files to a dvd format before i burn them to disc?

thanks

[Lord of the Rings]

Yes, Nero & Roxio are commercial products. But the most recent versions will convert almost everything video under the sun, including all avi & mpeg formats. They will do this themselves. The newest versions will also give you many other options such as menus, audio & video settings, etc.
I've heard it suggested you can use DVDSanta in trial mode quite ok.