Max file size limit for burning DVD

[David Whyte]

Hi fellow Ubuntuans,

For a year or more I have been backing up important data to a large
tar file and burning it to DVD.  Last month the files were approaching
4GB and I feared I would be unable to put the entire backup on a
single DVD so I started to split the resultant tar file into smaller
chunks of 4GB, which should easy fit on a single layer DVD.  This
month, the backup ran and has split the tar into one 4GB chunk and one
41.6MB chunk.

This weekend I upgraded to Edgy and am just now trying to do my first
DVD burn.  I started with the first 4GB chunk of my backup, but using
the Gnome DC/DVD creator, all I get is an empty disk, no file is
burnt.  When I burnt the smaller 41.6MB remaining chunk, it seems to
burn just fine.

After doing some searching, there is mention of a file size limit of
around 1GB (http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=352386), but
I have been burning DVD's with single file >3.5GB in size for the past
year. (In fact, I thought I had burnt a single file that was bigger
than 4GB in the past but can't be 100% certain)

Can anyone shed some light?  Should I split my files into chunks just
smaller than 4GB (say about 3.9GB)?

Thanks,
Whytey