im a newbie please help me out

Is this true that all the files combined in your VIDEO_TS folder have to be under 3.95gb in order for it to be played on a settop player after its burned?

No - that's not true. A set-top player plays many 9GB dvds, but the problem is most burners will only burn up to the 4.5GB limit because of the dual layer issue. So feel free to fill them up to the limit your recording software and media will allow. Your player will be fine.

Actually DVD-R discs can hold about 4.38GB, even though they indicate 4.7GB . The reason it's 4.7GB is because they use 1000Bytes per KB instead of 1024Bytes (probably for marketing purposes). 4.7GB --x1000^3--> 47x10^8 Bytes 47x10^8 Bytes --/1024^3)--> 4.377GB

Yeah - what he said.