Digital Video Storage Options
Video footage imported for use with iMovie or Final Cut Pro can take up many gigabytes worth of storage space
and is usually too large to copy over the lab network or store in individual
user accounts. Although we recommend that students bring their own external
storage devices, we recognize that not all students may have access to such
equipment and also provide a temporary storage location for video clips at
each lab computer.
To calculate the amount of storage space you will need for
a project, remember that uncompressed digital video requires approximately
200 MB per minute of footage, or roughly 12 GB per hour. Once your video
is ripped to a storage location, you will also need space for render files
and output, so add another 2-4 GB per hour, depending on the complexity of
your editing, special effects, output format, etc.
Also keep in mind that you will probably shoot more footage
than you will need for your finished project. A good ratio might be 5:2,
or 5 minutes of footage for every 2 minutes of edited video. Here is a chart
with some sample video lengths and storage sizes:
| Length of final cut of video |
Approximate storage space needed |
| 3-5 minutes |
4-5 GB |
| 30 minutes |
15-18 GB |
| 60 minutes |
30-40 GB |
We strongly recommend the use of a personal
external hard drive to store your video files. You may be able to purchase
one at a discount through UK's ebuy website -
look for drives that have FireWire/IEEE 1394 ports and are compatible with
Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard). Some drives may have both FireWire and USB interfaces
and most can be used on both PCs and Macs, although we recommend that the
drive be formatted for Macintosh if it will be used extensively in our labs.
Purchasing
a drive does cost more than using the Temporary_Storage volumes, but you
will not have to share space with other users and your project isn't tied
to a specific computer. You also won't lose your files when Temporary_Storage
is erased at the end of each semester.
Every Macintosh computer in the SCS labs
has a Temporary_Storage volume that can be used to store video files during
the semester. For more information, see our Temporary_Storage FAQ.
We have documentation for configuring the
settings on iMovie and Final Cut Pro to use external hard drives
and the Temporary_Storage volumes. Failure to properly configure your settings
will result in an inability to import or edit footage and may cause additional
problems with your account.