How much HD video will fit on a 25GB Blu-ray disc?

[Rupert]

My Panasonic HD/Blu-ray player/recorder enables me to burn recorded TV programmes to Blu-ray disc if I wish, just once per HD recording - thereafter in SD as often as I want.

The menu of recorded programmes shows a high level of information, including the total run time of the programme or film on the hard drive. What it does not show me however is the size in gigabytes of that recording.

I have bought some blank single-sided Blu-ray discs with the intention of making permanent copies of a few films and programmes that I have recorded in HD over the past several months. This should enable me to release some hard drive space - although to be fair, the capacity of the drive is approximately 250 hours of HD material, so I've got a way to go yet!

The discs I've bought are rated at x2 speed 25GB each. What I really want to know is how much space is there on a 25GB Blu-ray disc for HD recorded material of a given running time? Is it the length of a standard film at, say, 1hr 45min? Or could I get all 8 episodes of Humans on one disc (just over 6 hours once the commercial breaks are removed)?

Remember, this is HD video material I want to burn here, not straight data as in photo files etc.

 

[abacus]

How long is a piece of string?

It will all depend on the quality you chose to record it to the HDD and also what you choose to burn to the Blu-Ray, (Just like DVDs there are many quality options to choose from) however if you look at the back of the manual it should give you the size required for the various quality recordings.

Hope this helps

Bill

 

[Rupert]

Thanks abacus ... I hadn't realised that it wasn't clear in my post that the recordings I've made, currently residing on the recorder's hard drive, are in the highest available quality, i.e. what we usually refer to as HD but what Panasonic actually refers to as DR.

The 116-page manual doesn't say how much HD/DR recorded programme time will fit onto a Blu-ray blank disc, single-sided or double-sided.

I thought if I mentioned that the recorded TV material was taken from HD source (i.e. Blu-ray quality) that someone might have some idea of how many minutes relate to how large a file size and thus how many programmes can be burned onto a single sided 25GB Blu-ray (as opposed to DVD) disc?

 

[expat_mike]

How long is a piece of string?

It will all depend on the quality you chose to record it to the HDD and also what you choose to burn to the Blu-Ray, (Just like DVDs there are many quality options to choose from) however if you look at the back of the manual it should give you the size required for the various quality recordings.

Hope this helps

Bill

I will try and add a few extra suggestions.

This webpage helps explain the capacity of a recordable Blu-Ray disc under typical use.

http://www.blu-raydisc.com/en/Technical/FAQs/Blu-rayDiscforVideo.aspx

As you can see, there are several potential answers, to the capacity question, if the only contextual information is Blu-Ray quality.

I think that when abacus is referring to the length of a piece of string, he is hoping that you will also be able to provide a clue as to the recording codec that you will be using - the above webpage does mention that it is possible to significantly increase the length of the video that is recorded, depending on which recording codec is used.

If you can post the model number of your Blu-Ray disc recorder, maybe that will help someone identify your codec options.

 

[abacus]

Thanks abacus ... I hadn't realised that it wasn't clear in my post that the recordings I've made, currently residing on the recorder's hard drive, are in the highest available quality, i.e. what we usually refer to as HD but what Panasonic actually refers to as DR.

The 116-page manual doesn't say how much HD/DR recorded programme time will fit onto a Blu-ray blank disc, single-sided or double-sided.

I thought if I mentioned that the recorded TV material was taken from HD source (i.e. Blu-ray quality) that someone might have some idea of how many minutes relate to how large a file size and thus how many programmes can be burned onto a single sided 25GB Blu-ray (as opposed to DVD) disc?

If it's a current Panasonic, this should help http://www.panasonic.com/uk/consumer/home-entertainment/blu-ray-and-dvd/dmr-bwt740eb.specs.html

As you can see from the link it is not just straight forward. (Isn't technology wonderful)

Bill

 

[Rupert]

Thank you Bill (and to others who offered suggestions) ...

Looking a little deeper into your link and my pdf of the manual itself (my recorder is the DMR-BWT740 model) I have now established that the DR (HD quality) recording time that can be accommodated onto a single layer 25GB 6x speed Blu-ray disc is 6 hrs 30 mins. There is a proviso: 'The recording time in DR mode may vary depending on the bit rate of broadcasting'. Panasonic assumes a high definition bit rate of 8 Mbps, but it might as well be 800 Mbps for all I know what it means!

As an aside, to what does the '6x speed' refer on the blank disc specification? I've noticed something similar with blank DVDs, where that number is usually 16x.

 

[abacus]

Thank you Bill (and to others who offered suggestions) ...

Looking a little deeper into your link and my pdf of the manual itself (my recorder is the DMR-BWT740 model) I have now established that the DR (HD quality) recording time that can be accommodated onto a single layer 25GB 6x speed Blu-ray disc is 6 hrs 30 mins. There is a proviso: 'The recording time in DR mode may vary depending on the bit rate of broadcasting'. Panasonic assumes a high definition bit rate of 8 Mbps, but it might as well be 800 Mbps for all I know what it means!

As an aside, to what does the '6x speed' refer on the blank disc specification? I've noticed something similar with blank DVDs, where that number is usually 16x.

Its the maximum speed that the disc can be recorded too, (Assuming the recorder can burn ot this speed) thus a 6 hr film (Using a 6x disc and suitable recorder) will only take 1 hr to burn.

Hope this helps

Bill

 

[Rupert]

Brilliant Bill, thank you for all your help!