DVD-R can hold 4.7 Gigs, so depending on your bitrate you choose when burning, they can hold up to 6 hours. most burners have default speeds XP 1 hour, SP 2hours, LP, 4 hours, EP 6 hours. It just lowers the video bit rate each time. With XP, the bit rate usually stays rounf 8-11 MBPS. with SP it stays around 4-7 MBPS. Most burners have VBR (variable bit rate) that adjust according to how much is needed. This usually produces a better image than a constant bit rate. The less you put on 2 disc, the less compression artifacts you are likely to see. Most people agree that the difference between XP and SP is usually not noticable, but recordings longer than 2 hours and 20 minutes begin to have noticable artifacts. I have done alot of 95 minute recordings, (Mystery Science Theater 3000, and the quality is great. For recording animation, like Ren and Stimpy, the video content is relatively simple, so I record in LP mode, and they are still very good. But for recording complex video, like Film and sports, LP sucks.

My bootlegs have the each movie on 1 disc, and the quality is still great. It many ways it looks better than the LDs. Compression is minimal. When Dual layer discs and burners come out, theyll get even better. Ive made my own, but the ones I got from TR47 are slightly better. The bit rate my current bootlegs is still averaging over 5 MBPS, which is comparable to most studio releases.