My dad just got a DVD recorder for the TV, and, I need to record like 20 minutes of something, can it use a regular CD R for that, instead of wasting a whole DVD? I will be using it on my computer, so a DVD player wouldn't need it... Would that work?

To my best understanding, you should still be able to use a CD, but it will have much less space available. If it is a super small clip, yea, I bet it would work, but for 20 minutes...well...record it, find out the file size, see how much space you can have on the CD, if there's enough then burn on it.

I can't give you a yes or no answer because it depends on whether the program you're using to record auto-compresses the video after you record it. I would guess that you can fit it onto a CD though. It would be a good idea to record it then see what the file size is, as Redmonke suggested.

Just remember CD+/-R is normally 700 MB; DVD+/-R is normally 4.7 GB.

Well, I just found out the device doesn't support regular CD's


I just recorded it, and didn't finalize the disk yet.

Looks like you're stuck using a dvd then.

Make sure you do a nice good quality.

There are many cheap Blank DVDs in Walmart. In my country we can get a blank DVD-R for less than 60 American dollar cents. Their quality is good and if you are using it on your computer just set the DVR to record on the best quality so it isn't a waste of the DVD.

Also, you can buy a DVD-RW which is more expensive but you can use again.

DVD-RAM discs are pretty good--10x more rights than a standard DVD-RW. They're usually pretty expensive though--but save money or just added convenience.