How much fits on a CD/DVD

A CD (compact disk) holds 750 megabytes of information. If all of these bits and bytes don’t mean much to you then this is a practical guide for you. These are the basics for how much of your various types of memories will fit on a single CD.

80 minutes of audio

400 slides scanned at 1200 dpi so you could print a good quality 4” x 6”

4,500 4” x 6” photos scanned at 300 dpi

A DVD (digital video disk) holds 4.7 gigabytes (1 gigabyte = 1024 megabytes). In useful terms this would be:

2 hours of video from a video tape (they can hold more but your video quality will be reduced)

20 minutes of video from a video tape saved as an avi file type (for editing your video at home).

1800 feet of film (this is approximate since films were shot at a variety of speeds)

3000 slides scanned at 1200 dpi so you could print a good quality 4” x 6”

30,000 4” x 6” photos scanned at 300 dpi