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Beware of iPhone 6s in 16GB | 4K = 1GB a minute

Cuniac said:
Now lets talk 4k Video. 4K is four times the resolution of 1080p. This means that file size is going to be gigantic even with the h.265 compression. For example Tears of the Sun, a 4K short filmed at 23 FPS (7 less that what the iPhone will shoot) is only 12minutes. The file size 11.9GB. That's about 1GB per minute. So after the 16GB format and ISO install you left with about 14GB giving you only 14min of Video space if you install nothing else on the phone.
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4K is twice the resolution of 1080p, not 4 times. 4K = 3840x2160 and 1080p = 1920x1080.
 
Not directed towards the OP, rather, to the many nay-sayers of 4K that are popping up on this forum these-days...

Why are you (the nay-sayers) so bothered by 4K? This is a feature that is sought after by so may others (Go-Pro users for example, among many) yet some are so hot and bothered by it here. Makes no sense to me. Are you not interested in forward progress? Do you prefer to stay with old technology?
 
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Cuniac said:
So there is going to be a huge problem for people choosing iPhone 6s in 16GB. That problem is 4K video recording.

Apple announced this amazing new feature for the 6s. The inherent problem with this upgrade is that the video size is going to increase dramatically. Currently with my iPhone 6, one hour of 1080p video takes up 10.1GB. Luckily most of us are not taking 1hour of video at a time, but all the little video clips add up quickly. This already means that the 16GB model did not leave much space for anything else when your taking video.

Now lets talk 4k Video. 4K is four times the resolution of 1080p. This means that file size is going to be gigantic even with the h.265 compression. For example Tears of the Sun, a 4K short filmed at 23 FPS (7 less that what the iPhone will shoot) is only 12minutes. The file size 11.9GB. That's about 1GB per minute. So after the 16GB format and ISO install you left with about 14GB giving you only 14min of Video space if you install nothing else on the phone.

Please take this into consideration if you are getting the 6s.
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Mm. You know what, I'm gonna go ahead and up it to 128GB. Yup! I'll do it.

Bryan Bowler said:
Not directed towards the OP, rather, to the many nay-sayers of 4K that are popping up on this forum these-days...

Why are you (the nay-sayers) so bothered by 4K? This is a feature that is sought after by so may others (Go-Pro users for example, among many) yet some are so hot and bothered by it here. Makes no sense to me. Are you not interested in forward progress? Do you prefer to stay with old technology?
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I'll record with it sure. But they didn't provide us a way to view it.
 
freeskier93 said:
Yes, but the OP was talking resolution not total pixels.
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I am talking resolution, you can resolve twice the detail in each dimension. I understand that there is some debate about the meaning of resolution in a technical sense but essentially there are 4 pixels in a 4K video for every 1 of 1080p improving resolution 4x.
 
Cuniac said:
So there is going to be a huge problem for people choosing iPhone 6s in 16GB. That problem is 4K video recording.

Apple announced this amazing new feature for the 6s. The inherent problem with this upgrade is that the video size is going to increase dramatically. Currently with my iPhone 6, one hour of 1080p video takes up 10.1GB. Luckily most of us are not taking 1hour of video at a time, but all the little video clips add up quickly. This already means that the 16GB model did not leave much space for anything else when your taking video.

Now lets talk 4k Video. 4K is four times the resolution of 1080p. This means that file size is going to be gigantic even with the h.265 compression. For example Tears of the Sun, a 4K short filmed at 23 FPS (7 less that what the iPhone will shoot) is only 12minutes. The file size 11.9GB. That's about 1GB per minute. So after the 16GB format and ISO install you left with about 14GB giving you only 14min of Video space if you install nothing else on the phone.

Please take this into consideration if you are getting the 6s.
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4Kgate...Its coming
 
masotime said:
What I do find mystifying (although not confirmed yet) is why Apple does not implement the HEVC codec for 4k video.

[..]

Perhaps the hardware isn't quite there yet?
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that's what I'm thinking. Current gen hardware for native HEVC encoding/decoding probably eats batteries for breakfast at the moment, while the power efficiency of H.264 hardware is pretty well established.
 
masotime said:
I actually expect the average consumer to care more about photos rather than 4k video, what with Instagram and Facebook etc. Consumers do take video, but do they really care about 4k? If the default setting is 1080p30 they will probably never change it.

Power users will naturally gravitate to the larger capacity models. But yes, if you're looking for a great 4k recording device in a smartphone form factor, I'd strongly recommend getting one with external storage.

For myself, I own a Panasonic LX100 with a 256GB SD Card, and it records great 4k video. If I plan to record long / large videos I'll stick with the LX100, rather than using the iPhone 6S, which will mostly be for video shorts when I don't have time to prepare the camera.

I suspect the Live Photo feature is what will really wow the average consumer, rather than the 4k recording capability.
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See my husband is not wowed at all by the live photo feature. He says it's no different than taking a video and doesn't understand the hype. Also, we don't see using 4k video as we do not have a 4k viewer so it's rather pointless. We both went with 16gb and are pretty sure it'll be enough for our needs.
 
I'm turning off ALL the new features on this iPhone. Force touch looks annoying, 4K is useless taking up too much space, and that movable photo is just plain dumb.
 
skwood said:
Retina MacBook, Retina Macbook Pro, iPad Pro, Retina iMac 4K and 5K...
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I didn't realize that I could view it on my late 2013 retina MBP. I won't use it often since it takes up so much memory but it's nice to know I can actually view it.
 
H.265 encoding is must for 4K in 2015. Especially if one is being extremely miserley with base 16 GB storage.

Does Apple expect people to upload all their 4K videos to iCloud wasting extra money on storage tier and bandwidth?

Wait.... Some idiots will take this idiotic route.
 
MH01 said:
Okay, so the problem goes from being able to record around 14 min of 4k video to around 40 min. That's still a problem for me for a brand new phone in 2015, and that's assuming the device has no apps, music or photos on it....
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Fixed that for you.

Seriously, IMO, most casual users (those that just want an iPhone) won't be affected by this in any way, shape or form.

Those same casual users don't know about bitrates, 720p, 1080p, 30FPS, 60FPS, 4k etc.

They like the iPhone for its simplicity and the fact they can use a smartphone is a revelation in itself and the fact they can whip it out of a pocket/bag and grab a quick picture/video.

They're probably the same ones that film their videos in portrait mode, they just don't know/care any different IMO, they're not interested in specs, they're more interested in owning an iPhone.
 
To be honest I think whats more lacking from Apple than bumping 16 up to 32, is the lack of the HEVC (h265) codec. It is not only that it from an objectively measured standpoint are able to half the size of the h264 video, for high-resolution videos like 4k, for most home video purposes you will probably not notice even file-sizes down to 1/4 or 1/8 because the artifacts are almost invisible due to the high resolution. It will still look subjectively much better than 1080p video using the same codec. I imagine that Apple don't want to jump on the HEVC-wagon because they think it is not finalized enough, or they are not satisfied with the performance on hardware solutions to include in the phones, or they are maybe developing their own codecs... I am not sure what hardware solutions are available, I use a 6-core PC to encode (it does it in real-time), but of course a phone must have some other options.
 
masotime said:
As mentioned above, 4K video does not take up 1 GB per minute.

The precise bitrate is 50 megabits / sec, which translates to 6.25 megabytes / sec or 375 megabytes / minute. This is barely more than 1/3 of the figure you are plucking out of thin air.

As to whether it is utilizing the HEVC codec... this is debatable. h.265 is supposed to provide the same quality at half the bitrate, and most 4k consumer digital cameras now record at 100Mbps. If we read the given bitrate of 50Mbps as an implication that the codec is h.265, that would be good, but I wouldn't put too much stock on that speculation.
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It's h.264. See this video from apples site.
 
Yes I've already downloaded and posted about it.

masotime said:
I had forgotten about the sample movie. I downloaded it, and confirmed, older h.264 codec at 50Mbps:

iOAq5TDufkQBe.png


Video quality is decent. It's definitely 375MB/min.
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Ritte said:
It's h.264. See this video from apples site.
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what I dont understand is why include 4k recording when the iphone screen for playback isnt 4k resolution and also how many people own a 4k tv/device? am i missing something obvious here or is this just a gimmick that hardly anyone will use for the next few years until 4k tvs are the norm?
 
GRANTCKING said:
what I dont understand is why include 4k recording when the iphone screen for playback isnt 4k resolution and also how many people own a 4k tv/device? am i missing something obvious here or is this just a gimmick that hardly anyone will use for the next few years until 4k tvs are the norm?
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Perhaps Apple is looking forward to the day the broadcast standards are finallized and more people own a 4K TV that can actually play that content?
 
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