DVD - Capacity

Capacity

Capacity and nomenclature
Designation Sides Layers
(total)		 Diameter
(cm)		 Capacity
(GB) (GiB)
DVD-1 SS SL 1 1 8 1.46 1.36
DVD-2 SS DL 1 2 8 2.66 2.47
DVD-3 DS SL 2 2 8 2.92 2.72
DVD-4 DS DL 2 4 8 5.32 4.95
DVD-5 SS SL 1 1 12 4.70 4.37
DVD-9 SS DL 1 2 12 8.54 7.95
DVD-10 DS SL 2 2 12 9.40 8.75
DVD-14 DS SL+DL 2 3 12 13.24 12.33
DVD-18 DS DL 2 4 12 17.08 15.90


Capacity and nomenclature of (re)writable discs
Designation Sides Layers
(total)		 Diameter
(cm)		 Capacity
(GB) (GiB)
DVD-R SS SL (1.0) 1 1 12 3.95 3.68
DVD-R SS SL (2.0) 1 1 12 4.70 4.37
DVD-RW SS SL 1 1 12 4.70 4.37
DVD+R SS SL 1 1 12 4.70 4.37
DVD+RW SS SL 1 1 12 4.70 4.37
DVD-R DS SL 2 2 12 9.40 8.75
DVD-RW DS SL 2 2 12 9.40 8.75
DVD+R DS SL 2 2 12 9.40 8.75
DVD+RW DS SL 2 2 12 9.40 8.75
DVD-RAM SS SL 1 1 8 1.46 1.36*
DVD-RAM DS SL 2 2 8 2.65 2.47*
DVD-RAM SS SL (1.0) 1 1 12 2.58 2.40
DVD-RAM SS SL (2.0) 1 1 12 4.70 4.37
DVD-RAM DS SL (1.0) 2 2 12 5.16 4.80
DVD-RAM DS SL (2.0) 2 2 12 9.40 8.75*

The basic types of DVD (12 cm diameter, single-sided or homogeneous double-sided) are referred to by a rough approximation of their capacity in gigabytes. In draft versions of the specification, DVD-5 indeed held five gigabytes, but some parameters were changed later on as explained above, so the capacity decreased. Other formats, those with 8 cm diameter and hybrid variants, acquired similar numeric names with even larger deviation.

The 12 cm type is a standard DVD, and the 8 cm variety is known as a MiniDVD. These are the same sizes as a standard CD and a mini-CD, respectively. The capacity by surface (MiB/cm2) varies from 6.92 MiB/cm2 in the DVD-1 to 18.0 MiB/cm2 in the DVD-18.

As with hard disk drives, in the DVD realm, gigabyte and the symbol GB are usually used in the SI sense (i.e., 109, or 1,000,000,000 bytes). For distinction, gibibyte (with symbol GiB) is used (i.e., 10243 (230), or 1,073,741,824 bytes).

Each DVD sector contains 2,418 bytes of data, 2,048 bytes of which are user data. There is a small difference in storage space between + and - (hyphen) formats:

Capacity differences of writable DVD formats
Type Sectors Bytes kB MB GB KiB MiB GiB
DVD-R SL 2,298,496 4,707,319,808 4,707,319.808 4,707.320 4.707 4,596,992 4,489.250 4.384
DVD+R SL 2,295,104 4,700,372,992 4,700,372.992 4,700.373 4.700 4,590,208 4,482.625 4.378
DVD-R DL 4,171,712 8,543,666,176 8,543,666.176 8,543.666 8.544 8,343,424 8,147.875 7.957
DVD+R DL 4,173,824 8,547,991,552 8,547,991.552 8,547.992 8.548 8,347,648 8,152.000 7.961

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