How to deal with file size? .Mov, Pro Ress, etc.

C

Cieloent

Well-known member
Basically I had a brand new 160gb HD that basically got filled up within a 2 weeks ( 3 projects). At an average of around 60gb per gig this is not going to work.

Any advice or help on what I can do?

Thank you
 
Buy a 2TB external. You can get them for 2 to 3 hundred dollars. I have a decent Western Digital 2TB external, very handy.
 
You did not mention your brand or style of computer, but if you can use internal not external. They are cheaper and much faster. Oh and by the way welcome to Hd digital video. It has always been a hog and every time drives get cheaper the next awesome format comes along to eat up your free space.
 
kgimedia said:
You did not mention your brand or style of computer, but if you can use internal not external. They are cheaper and much faster. Oh and by the way welcome to Hd digital video. It has always been a hog and every time drives get cheaper the next awesome format comes along to eat up your free space.
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I have a Macbook Pro, (laptop) so obviously having more HDs for my system is really not possible :(

I guess my question was do people keep the pro res and delete the .mov or just keep it all? Also maybe buying an external blu ray player and disc be an option, or is that not a safe media?

What a headache I have right now :angry:
 
It's less reliable, slower to access and read only. And why would you want to deal with a large number of split up files when you could keep it together? Discs might be a little less expensive, but dealing with it isn't worth that. And, again, it's much less reliable. As long as you don't drop your enclosure.

Running more HD's for your system is possible, since the first suggestion was to get externals anyway. It's an improvement over internal in my mind because you can switch computers easily and the drive isn't spinning up when it doesn't have to.
 
Cieloent said:
I have a Macbook Pro, (laptop) so obviously having more HDs for my system is really not possible :(
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Actually, consider this solution: An HDD dock (under $30 shipped), which will allow you to use and stockpile inexpensive internal HDDs. You can think of the HDDs as "tapes" or cartridges, which you can swap and store. That's what I do.

I guess my question was do people keep the pro res and delete the .mov or just keep it all?
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Just do whatever makes you feel secure about your data.

Also maybe buying an external blu ray player and disc be an option, or is that not a safe media?
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Not a good idea, but not because Blu-ray is not "safe," rather because it's not a good value at all. A Blu-ray burner will cost you a minimum of $150 shipped. The best deal that you can find for a 15-pack of 25GB Blu-ray discs is $35 shipped, which is slightly more than nine cents per GB. The best deal for a 2TB internal hard drive is $135 shipped. That's less than seven cents per GB. Please, you can reuse the hard drive (not so with write-once BD-R media), and you won't have to worry about burning coasters.
 
Cieloent said:
Basically I had a brand new 160gb HD that basically got filled up within a 2 weeks ( 3 projects). At an average of around 60gb per gig this is not going to work.

Any advice or help on what I can do?

Thank you
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You will need a lot more HD space to store files that you are currently working on, I think the best is a team of 500 GB as apposed to bigger ones. They are about the same price per GB (about $50 ea) and easier to devide up you projects.
Then work out a system where you have a schedule to delete working files after the project is done and save just the original files and the final export.
I'm working with Full Uncompressed and 10bit Mov files and they consume 12 or 9 GBs per minute, but if I plane my edit around the shots I need to work with before converting them to it's very efficient. I don't need to spent the time converting all the footage to files with another compression format that is inferior to the original material and expands the files many times as well. I've also seen complete gamma shift in DNxHD wiich killed my shots. I know there are more work arounds, but by the time I figure that method out my edit is delivered to the client using uncompressed. CS5 will most likely allow working with the camera original H-264 files the same as the support for Sony EXcamHD in CS-4.
Working with proxy files creates a double task and pain in the ass. Since all we are talking about is space on HDs that can be deleted it doesn't really matter how big your files become as long as your system can handle the heavy data.
Good organization will save time HD space and headaches.
 
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I have a couple dozen internal drives stored in old pelican cases, but cool dry places on a shelf is fine as long as it is safe from magnets and shock.

As you said you have a Macbook pro and are thinking about an external Blu-ray drive you may consider replacing your internal DVD drive with a hard drive. I know there used to be a kit out there but I could not find it for this post. I sucks if you use Optical media (CD, DVD) often but if you are like me and insert a disc once every 2-3 months the extra HD is really nice. If you think about it other then watching a movie most discs are in the drive for 1/2 hour Max. While editing drives can be plugged in for days. It is an option to consider and it gives you edit freedom compared to bulky external high capacity or convenient slow bus powered drives.
 
I say go for the Blu-ray. HDs need to be spun up every 6 months or so. Also it's been documented if you don't, they basically erase themselves from the magnetics of the earth! Larry Jordan has done several articles on it, search his site! Very unreliable for long term storage. Depends really on how long you need to keep it.
 
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