4.7GB or not?

BlueMak · Jan 31, 2007, 11:18 AM

Can someone please tell me if it is normal to have DVD Rs discs that claim they have room for 4.7GB of data but only write about 4.3-4.4GB?
Or is my dvd recorder not working as it should?

~~DudeBoyz~~ · Jan 31, 2007, 11:25 AM

There is UNFORMATTED capacity and FORMATTED capacity.

It's a marketing lie - like 21" CRT's that only really have 20" diagonally, hard drives that say they are 120 gig but use a flat 1,000,000,000 instead of the proper 1,073,741,824 bytes (1024 megabytes)

Oh yeah, and breast implants - all the same thing...

heh.

H3X4D3C1M4L · Jan 31, 2007, 04:52 PM

What DudeBoyz said, but its not the formatting that does it. Its the fact that your hard drive manufacturers and now DVD manufacturer's are gimping out on the whole GB thing. Technically, a gigabyte in its purest form is 1,000,000,000 bytes. The definition the rest of the world has, is in base 2 due to the fact that computers don't speak binary, and the 'hoity-toity' correct way to say it is "gibibytes" or GiB, which is 1,073,741,824 bytes per gigabyte.

The math backs it up: 4700000000/1024/1024/1024 = 4482.269287109375 megabytes or ~4.4GB.

Zelig · Jan 31, 2007, 06:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by H3X4D3C1M4L

What DudeBoyz said, but its not the formatting that does it. Its the fact that your hard drive manufacturers and now DVD manufacturer's are gimping out on the whole GB thing. Technically, a gigabyte in its purest form is 1,000,000,000 bytes. The definition the rest of the world has, is in base 2 due to the fact that computers don't speak binary, and the 'hoity-toity' correct way to say it is "gibibytes" or GiB, which is 1,073,741,824 bytes per gigabyte.

The math backs it up: 4700000000/1024/1024/1024 = 4482.269287109375 megabytes or ~4.4GB.

Exactly.

Multiply GB by 0.931322574 to get the number of GiB (actual space) that the storage device actually holds.

Jan 31, 2007, 11:18 AM	#1
BlueMak HH's Asteroids' Dominator Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Hellas->Macedonia->Thessaloniki Posts: 13,465 Rep Power: 349 System Specs	4.7GB or not? Can someone please tell me if it is normal to have DVD Rs discs that claim they have room for 4.7GB of data but only write about 4.3-4.4GB? Or is my dvd recorder not working as it should? __________________ The people who are regarded as moral luminaries are those who forego ordinary pleasures themselves and find compensation in interfering with the pleasures of others(Bertrand Russell)"You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil,You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them." - Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis This is slavery, not to speak one's thought. [Euripides-The Phoenician Women (c.411-409 B.C.)] http://www.macedonia.info/FALLACIESANDFACTS.htm *Sic semper tyrannis.*

Jan 31, 2007, 11:25 AM	#2
~~DudeBoyz~~ banned Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: USA Posts: 1,677 Rep Power: 0	There is UNFORMATTED capacity and FORMATTED capacity. It's a marketing lie - like 21" CRT's that only really have 20" diagonally, hard drives that say they are 120 gig but use a flat 1,000,000,000 instead of the proper 1,073,741,824 bytes (1024 megabytes) Oh yeah, and breast implants - all the same thing... heh.

Jan 31, 2007, 04:52 PM	#3
H3X4D3C1M4L DriverHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 6,794 Rep Power: 0	What DudeBoyz said, but its not the formatting that does it. Its the fact that your hard drive manufacturers and now DVD manufacturer's are gimping out on the whole GB thing. Technically, a gigabyte in its purest form is 1,000,000,000 bytes. The definition the rest of the world has, is in base 2 due to the fact that computers don't speak binary, and the 'hoity-toity' correct way to say it is "gibibytes" or GiB, which is 1,073,741,824 bytes per gigabyte. The math backs it up: 4700000000/1024/1024/1024 = 4482.269287109375 megabytes or ~4.4GB.