Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

iluvifone

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jun 28, 2010
281
0
What?? Really??

yea lol wtf..

im trying to decide between the 16 and 32 gb versions..

also, do all videos recorded with the native iphone cam app record .mov files only, or is there an option for mpg/avi/ etc??
 

iluvifone

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jun 28, 2010
281
0
If you plan on recording a lot of HD video I would get a 32GB.

i dont plan on recording 'a lot'. max like 1hour while on vacations, etc and i would be able to transfer it onto my pc. how much space would that take approx
 

scaredpoet

macrumors 604
Apr 6, 2007
6,627
342
What?? Really??

Yeah, really. I have some 720p movies that are about 4 minutes long and take up about 350MB or so, each.

i dont plan on recording 'a lot'. max like 1hour while on vacations, etc and i would be able to transfer it onto my pc. how much space would that take approx

An hour would take over 4GB, almost 5. Yes, really.

Think about it: a low-quality DVD can record 2 hours of standard definition 480i video, and nothing else, and it'll take 4.7GB and look semi-passable.

But with the iPhone, this is 720p HD video you're recording. The iPhone is actually doing a better job at compression and delivering higher-quality video.

This is why movies are currently being compressed and downsampled before being uploaded to YouTube.

And this is why AT&T eliminating unlimited data plans for new users is good for them and bad for us, and their logic is false. Yeah, iPhone 3GS and previous users mostly used under 250MB of data monthly. Those stats mean nothing when you add 720p video and 5MP photos to the mix.

One thing you could do is, when you get home, use a tool like Handbrake to further compress the video to make it smaller. Your iPhone does a good job at compressing video, but it has to balance compression with battery life and CPU load. If you do it right on your home computer, you can get somewhat better results - maybe shave another 20-30% off the file size without too much of an impact on video quality, and even more if you're fine with the quality suffering or using a lower resolution. But until then it's gonna take up a lot of space on your iPhone.
 

extraextra

macrumors 68000
Jun 29, 2006
1,758
0
California
i dont plan on recording 'a lot'. max like 1hour while on vacations, etc and i would be able to transfer it onto my pc. how much space would that take approx

One hour IS a lot. It uses about 4GB per hour. So, if you feel that with 16GB you can always have around 5GB available then get the 16GB. But if you plan on keeping lots of music, movies, pictures, videos, apps, etc. you should get the 32GB.
 

OMGitsShan

macrumors regular
Jul 21, 2010
139
0
if you are even considering HD recording then 32GB is a must. Trust me, you can never have enough space, but you will always run out of space!

I would only suggest the 16GB model if you dont plan to record HD video, because once you put music/tv shows/movies/pictures etc - it all adds up quickly.

Baffles me why Apple didn't bring out a 64GB version - especially with HD recording. Even if they charged another $150 on top of the 32GB price, I would buy it and so would everybody else - since you cant even get a phone these days.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.