Consumer DVD-R vs Computer DVD-R (Length/Speed question)

[vidanon]

hello...

Friend has a Phillips Consumer DVD-R unit hooked up to his
Home Theater system... He can record at multiple 'speeds',
just like a VCR. On his model, I believe he can author up
to 6 hours on DVD. Obviously the quality of the recording
is effected, but I like the idea, especially if the source is not
of great quality. Or for just moving VHS to DVD.

Can this be done on a standard PC...? Some of the software
i've seen will only let your record up to 2 hours of video, even
if the source material is of VCD quality. I would assume that
there is some conversion at that point to standard DVD speed.

-Vid

[setarip]

This is undoubtedly simply a matter of lowering the bitrate...

[vidanon]

That would have been my first thought...
But the bit rate I was using was of VCD quality....
The software I was using to write the disc is most likely the problem. Using the software that came with the Sony 500a unit..
I believe it was MyDVD... It didn't look at the bitrate, but only at the elapsed time of the mpg's that I was writing... Since the time went past the limit.. (I believe it was around 2 hours), it
would let me add any other files... Total size of the files was about 1.4GB....

What software is recommended ???

-Vid