DVD writing, oh god help!

Got a Sony DRX-500UL today and don't have a clue what I'm doing. I know i've seen DVDs with about 30 episdes of Simpsons etc on them but how do i do it?

If i say to make a VCD, i get an error saying that I can't use a DVD-R. If i want to make a DVD, I can only get 6 episdodes to a disk - all my files are VCD compliant by the way.

I actually converted all the files to DVD standard to at least get the 6 on a disk, but after 2 hours of conversion and data preparation, it crashed 2 mins into writing. Am I cursed?!

I've tried Nero, Ulead DVD movie factory and Sonic My DVD.

6 episodes per disc is about right unless you edit out the commercials; Then I'd expect to get 8. But, if it's VCD-compliant it's not really right: VCD is mpeg1, DVD is mpeg2. If you had SVCD-compliant input, that would be ok.

I have a DVD with 20 episodes of family guy on it, so how is this possible? It plays on my DVD player and is recognised as a DVD.

More layers than a writable DVD is capable of having yet.

Edit: I should elaborate: A DVD can have up to 4 total layers, 2 on each side. That I know of no commercial 4 layer DVDs have been issued. There may be 3 layer DVDs now, but the typical DVD is either 2 sides 1 layer each, or 2 layers on 1 side. That gives you a total of 9.4gb. A writable DVD gives you one layer, one side, for a total of 4.7gb.

http://www.vcdhelp.com should have a discussion of this in their userguide section.

So is there no way to write a VCD onto a DVD-R as it were? 220MB per episode onto 4.7GB?

VCDs are mpeg 1. Your player *may* be capable of playing a DVD with mpeg 1 video, but it's not really a compliant video DVD. Since I edited my last post after you replied, I'll point in the direction of http://www.vcdhelp.com again, since I'm pretty sure they explain how you can do this.

Incidentally, doesn't a 220mb episode look like crap?

I'll take a look, thanks. A 220MB episode looks very, very good by the way! Not DVD quality in any respect, but certainly good. Of course, I've also seen crap 300MB episodes, so you can't really go by file size alone.

I'm turning into a snob. Nothing less than DVD quality for archival. I may start using the TiVo at something better than basic after the next disk upgrade, too.

Of course, if your TV station messes up the tape they are playing the Simpsons from, then it doesn't matter what quality you capture in. I've had that happen - capture an episode and when I go to edit it I find all sorts of garbled tape mess from the station.

My entire collection is comprised of only divx and vcd and the result is very good. Remember it is a cartoon. I bet you wouldn't notice the difference enough to deter from the entertainment of the show.

My simpsons collection takes up about 90 cds currently... I need a dvd writer...

I bet you wouldn't notice the difference enough to deter from the entertainment of the show.

Sure. I don't even need to watch, I know the dialogue and what's on the screen.

But someday I want to get a video projector, and artifacting on a 100" screen would be sort of nasty.