DVD-5 and DVD-9 are widely used in normal DVD disk. Since these two DVDs physically look very much alike, many people know very little about them and often ask questions like: what are the differences between DVD5 and DVD9? What’s the capacity of each type? Now follow this article to get a comprehensive understanding of these two different sizes of DVDs.

dvd5-vs-dvd9

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Part 1: What are DVD5 and DVD9

DVD5: DVD5 is a single-sided single-layer disc, can hold about 4.7 GB (4.38GiB) of data and is supported by DVD+R, DVD+RW, DVD-R and DVD-RW. It is the most common DVD media.

DVD9: DVD9 is a single-sided dual-layer disc, can store 8.5 GB (7.96GiB) of data. It is supported by DVD+R and DVD-R formats. It is also called DVD+R9/DVD+R DL, DVD-R9/DVD-R DL. The DVD-9 format is not as common as the DVD-5 format as the 4.7GB capacity of the DVD-5 discs is usually sufficient for most business uses, although many DVD films will use DVD-9 format if the film length is over 120 minutes.

Part 2: What Is the Difference between DVD5 and DVD9?

DVD5 VS DVD9: Storage
The DVD5 is made out of a single layer where information can be stored. On the other hand, the DVD9 is a dual layer DVD which can store twice the amount of information that a DVD5 can handle.

DVD5 VS DVD9: Price
Another difference between the DVD5 and DVD9, is the price. The DVD5 is a lot cheaper compared to the DVD9.

DVD5 VS DVD9: Reusable or not
DVD5 is also reusable when compared to the DVD9. When burning a DVD5 to store information and data, you can use one that already has information and data stored on it, and make room for new information and data to be stored. This is not the case with the DVD9. Once the information is burned into the DVD9, it can no longer be erased, and the DVD9 can no longer be reused.

DVD5 VS DVD9: Structure
In DVD-9 discs, two layers of standard DVD5 are joined together with a transparent spacer and a thin reflector between the two. The bottom layer is read and written to in exactly the same manner as DVD5. Reading and writing to the second layer is achieved by the laser focusing a fraction of a millimeter beyond the first recording layer. The diagram below shows the difference between single (DVD-5) and dual layer discs (DVD-9):

dvd5-or-dvd9

DVD5 VS DVD9: Supported formats
DVD5 holds 4.7GB and is supported by the DVD+R/RW and DVD-R/RW formats.
DVD9 holds 8.5GB and is supported by the DVD+R and DVD-R formats.

For your reference:
So now, you are clear what is the difference between DVD5 and DVD9. If you have the need to burn videos to DVD as DVD9 or DVD5 on Mac, you can use iFunia DVD Creator for Mac.