Zoom H4N, How long recording on 16gb Sd card

C

crot0019

Well-known member
Hey guys,
Just wondering how long would i be able to record with a 16Gb SDHC card on the zoom h4n. I am using it for a shoot. Shooting it at 48khz 24 Bit.
 
I get 2 hours on the 24/48 setting with a 4GB card, so you should get around 8 hours. When you put the card in and format it, the approximate remaining record time will show on the main screen at all times.
 
I don't know about the h4n, but the tascam is limited to a 2gb file size. This means that although I can get 8 hrs of two track onto a 16gb card, I am limited each file being no longer than about an hour. This means little in location sound work where each file is typically under 1 minute and I've only had a few go over 6 minutes.
 
I've done recordings in the several hour timeframe on the Zoom with no issues, single file. Don't know if it cuts off at any point due to file size.

That Sound Devices page is a great resource. One thing for Zoom owners or Zoom potential owners is that the H4n MUST be in 4 channel mode to get anything higher than 16bit/44.1kHz, i.e. 24/48 setting. So that needs to be factored in the calculator page presented.
 
5 megs per minute per channel at 44.1/16. it's just about the same at 48 and 1/2 again more for 24 bit.

At 48/24 stereo I get just under an hour a gig.
 
gpforet said:
I don't know about the h4n, but the tascam is limited to a 2gb file size. This means that although I can get 8 hrs of two track onto a 16gb card, I am limited each file being no longer than about an hour. This means little in location sound work where each file is typically under 1 minute and I've only had a few go over 6 minutes.
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If you get an interviewer that likes to do long legnthy interviews your files can be over an hour long. That is how my latest project played out. The director would not stop talking and asking questions. It was one of the strangest productions I had worked on. No pauses and rapid rushes to set up as they began the interviews so abruptly, it was just odd.
 
gpforet said:
I don't know about the h4n, but the tascam is limited to a 2gb file size. This means that although I can get 8 hrs of two track onto a 16gb card, I am limited each file being no longer than about an hour. This means little in location sound work where each file is typically under 1 minute and I've only had a few go over 6 minutes.
Click to expand...

I think that is a FAT32 limitation. For the person with the "several hours" experience, that could still be under 2 gigs, depends on the format. You could do around 20 hours as MP3 mono. For production, assuming the zoom can do mono, you would double all your run times.
 
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