Free tool // Storage
How many TB does the shoot need?
Pick the camera, the codec and the frame rate, add the hours you roll a day, the days and the cameras. You get the terabytes for every copy and how long the offload takes, from the manufacturers' own data rates.
En español ↗Storage to buy for the whole shoot
0TB
- Data rate
- MB/s
- Per minute
- GB
- Per hour, 1 camera
- TB
- Per shoot day, all cameras
- TB
- Whole shoot, 1 copy
- TB
- Offload per day
Decimal units (1 TB = 1,000 GB), as drives are labelled. Offload time assumes the copies are written in parallel. Data rate source ↗
The other way round
How much fits on 1 TB?
Same camera, codec and frame rate as above. Decimal units, as drives are labelled; formatting leaves a little less.
- Recording time, 1 camera
- All cameras and copies
- Shoot days at your rolling time
Quick answers
Where do the data rates come from?
From each manufacturer's own specifications, manuals and data rate tables. Every format links to the page it was taken from. When a brand only publishes a rate for one frame rate, the calculator scales it with the frame rate, because RAW and intra-frame codecs store a fixed size per frame.
Why 3 copies?
The usual rule on set: a master and two backups, on different drives, with one of them leaving the set every day. Change it to 2 if production signs off on a single backup.
Why does my drive show less than the calculator says?
Drives are sold in decimal terabytes (1 TB = 1,000 GB) and the calculator uses the same units. Windows shows binary units, so an 8 TB drive appears as about 7.3 TB there. Leave 10 to 20% free on every drive anyway.
How much do I really roll per day?
It depends on the job. As a rough start: commercials and music videos often roll 1 to 3 hours per camera, fiction 2 to 4, documentaries and live events much more. Check with the script supervisor after the first day and adjust.
Made by Adrian Alescio, DIT in Barcelona. Free tools, no sign-up, built for the set.