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compressing/archiving files
Hi,
Now I realize this is off the FCP topic but I’m only posting here as I’ve had no response on other more relevent forums and I figured users of this forum may have experience in this….or someone may be able to point me in the right direction.
I’m trying to free up space on my computer (clogged with video media) and thought I’d use the Finder archive option on the Mac.
But I’m very confused about this finder compress option.So, by clicking ‘file_create an archive’, a zip file is created yet when I check the properties of this new zip file it’s always almost exactly the same size as the original.
For example, as an initial experiment, I tried to compress a file which was 55.7mg. The new zip file it created was 55.5mg.
I was hoping to compress some very large folders (nearly 100GB in size) which will take hours, it seems, so it’s hardly worth the effort if it’s only going to shave a few GB off.
Am I missing something?
Any ideas.
Thanks in advance.
Peter
Thanks,
Peter -
6 Replies
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Media files do not compress much. I have seen some audio files get bigger after zipping.
We are in the era of big cheap external media. Buy another disk and forget zip style compression.
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Hi Peter,
I think that the result will depend very much of the kind of footage you are compressing.
Compressed formats are already “compressed” so I don’t think you will get much difference.
But if you Zip an Apple Uncompress clip you may get a good 35/40% reduction on size.
rafael -
ya, zip word docs and the like.
Buy a Ext. FW drive and back up ur media to that.Chris Tompkins
Video Atlanta -
OK, last of the cheapskates I guess….I’ll go and buy yet another drive.
But that archive function is a complete ruse it seems.Thanks for the responses.
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It’s no ruse. Video is already highly compressed. But it works wonders on text documents and the like.
Shane
GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD…don’t miss it.
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def -
David is right.
Sheer uses a kind of Zip technique to highly reduce the files without lose.
The beauty consist in being able to zip/un-zip 8/10b Uncompress footage in RT.
If a compressed format could be further reduced by zipping, we could rate the compression scheme as very efficient.
rafael
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