What size USB do I need?

[Clive McLaughlin]

My package is

5minute trailer
20minute film
Speeches approx 60minutes

I'm just about to order 8GB USBs. A friend of mine in the industry said that he does the pretty much the same but manages to supply on 4GB.

It would certainly cut costs a little. I know I could just try a few exports and test it, but wondered if anyone on here might be able to confidently tell me 8GB is unnecessary.

[Adrian Tan]

In your situation, I'd definitely go 8gb.

Just looking at my files sizes, I'm getting about a minute = 60mb. So 5 + 20 + 60 minutes = 85 minutes = 5.1gb.

My rendering specs are just basic YouTube quality: h.264, 1080p25, max bit rate of 9Mb/s.

[Noa Put]

All depends on the bitrate you are rendering your files, that should be the deciding factor to determine the usb stick size. I"m not good at calculating this but if you would render out a 85minute file, you would know exactly what capacity the stick needs to have, just add maybe 15% extra as safety.

[Clive McLaughlin]

There are calculators out there. Bit rate can obviously be adjusted to get under the required file size. I just wondered if it would be sub-par in terms of quality. I guess I just need to do a few renders. I did a render last night for fitting on 8GB. I’ll do another one tonight that fits on 4GB and then compare them both.

[Danny O'Neill]

8GB. Our 60 minute speeches edits come in at 4gb alone. You would need to use a crazy low bitrate.

[Peter Riding]

Depends what you're output settings are. I use Vegas Pro as do you. For MP4's I output at 1080p 2 pass 14 highest 10 average (any higher and the bit rate can be too much for some playback machines.

Just looked at a few recent renders, the two figures are Windows reported size of the files in properties

86mins = 7.56 / 8.12
63mins = 4.58 / 4.92
72mins = 7.50 / 8.06
63mins = 6.56 / 7.05

There are 2 x 63 mins but the file sizes are a lot different as is the content.

I usually burn to dual layer DVDs as I don't trust USB sticks as yet. Sometimes they get two dual layer discs splitting the event if necessary. I think you certainly need 8gb sticks but ad a few 16gb ones in reserve. No one wants to have to re-render at lower bits rates especially during busy periods :- )

Who are you using to source your USB sticks?

Pete

[Clive McLaughlin]

It's a bit frustrating. I distinctly remember some basic software back in the day (Windows Movie Maker??) which allowed you to render by telling it what size it had to be. I wish this were an option, I've had to spend hours re-rendering at times because the collective file size was only megabytes too big for a DVD. Very frustrating.

[Roger Gunkel]

Hi Clive,

I made a spreadsheet table recently to help me work out how many minutes of MP4 I would get on USB using various bitrates.

Column A shows average Kbs, with a margin of 1500Kbs more for maximum limit.
Column B is now many Mb each minute at the selected Kbs would give
Column C gives the number of minutes in 4Gb storage blocks

So looking at the table, 2000Kbs gives 4hrs 26mins for 4Gbs
4000Kbs gives 2hrs 13mins gives 2hrs 13mins for 4Gbs

So the figures are easily adjustable to work out what you would get into a fixed amount of storage space eg 8Gb space would give 106 mins at 10000Kbs.

I took a number of 1 minute renders at different rates to work out the figures, using a main concept encoder. As the figures are constant, you could take a couple of short renders of your own and work out your own table. Twice the rate = half the storage time. I think my figures are pretty standard so you should be able to use them as a reasonable guide.

Ignore the graph, as my spreadsheet programme on the iPad seems to make it's own graph from the spreadsheet if I save a pdf.

Roger

[Jeff Harper]

8GB are so inexpensive the cost difference is negligible. I have 8GB and 16GB and use whateve size is called for. I try and use optimal settings at all times without begin unnecessarily large, and just put it on the stick that fits.

[Chris Harding]

In the same vein surely an upgrade to 16GB isn't going to be that much more compared to the wedding price in total. If in doubt I would just cost in 16GB drives in case things run longer than expected and you are covered.

The lowest acceptable bitrate for PAL SD seems to be around 4000kbps or on an MP4 I don't think any lower is wise. I use 4000kbps for my online videos and just for interest ran two new renders at 2000 and 1000 .... the 2000 was a bit rough on a big screen TV and the 1000kbps was simply awful!!!

On Sony Vegas even 1280x720 internet preset defaults to 8000 kbps so I would use that for TV viewing and if it needs more space just bite the bullet and buy 16GB drives.

[Clive McLaughlin]

Thanks guys for the info and for the spreadsheet Roger.

I've went with 8GB. Perhaps 16GB would have given peace of mind, but I have to cut costs as much as I can. I'm getting all the elements of my custom packaging made up. Should be super nice but pricey. Something around £12 per unit. It's big money in a lump sum with a bulk order but I guess per unit, the price isn't crazy compared with the package fee.

[Peter Rush]

Originally Posted by Clive McLaughlin

It's a bit frustrating. I distinctly remember some basic software back in the day (Windows Movie Maker??) which allowed you to render by telling it what size it had to be. I wish this were an option, I've had to spend hours re-rendering at times because the collective file size was only megabytes too big for a DVD. Very frustrating.

What is your NLE Clive? In Premiere Pro when you render out it gives an approximation of file size that adjusts itself according to your chosen target bit rate.

Pete

[Danny O'Neill]

I think our 8GB custom sticks were around £5 per unit when ordering 50 from Flashbay.

Also, don't forget the limitations of using the FAT32 file system on the sticks means your file size will be limited to 4GB. We use this as it means it will work with any computer or smart tv. If you use NTFS your limiting to just windows machines really, eXFAT is great but a lot of TV's wont just work. Ours needed a firmware update before it would read them and even then its a bit flakey.

[Tim Akin]

I have been looking into the usb sticks and found there is so many different places to get them. Where's a good reliable place? And, what are ya'll getting printed on them.....company name or somthing like "our wedding day"?

[Adrian Tan]

I'm really happy with Flashbay as well -- cheap, fast delivery, good presentation -- though I'm starting to look around for fancier USBs.

I'm just getting company name printed on mine, though, in an ideal world, maybe bride and groom's names would be preferable... but then you're ordering them one at a time, and the cost is higher.