Data & backup planner
How much space does DNxHR HQ take?
DNxHR HQ stores a constant amount per frame (3.33 MB at UHD), so the rate scales exactly with pixels and frame rate. UHD at 25 fps: 300 GB per hour.
- Footage per day
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- Footage, whole shoot
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- Incl. all copies
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- Drives needed
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- Offload per day
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- Left after wrap
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- Per recording hour
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- Per day
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- Whole shoot
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- Data rate
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- 4 GB file holds
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Picture = the plan on the Footage tab.
- One file
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- All versions
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- Upload at full speed
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- Upload at 80 %
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Same runtime in every format. Platform figures are their recommendations, not limits.
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DNxHR HQ: GB per hour
Rates derived from the manufacturer’s published bitrates. Plan with the nominal rate: the card has to survive the busiest take, not the average one.
DNxHR HQX take exactly the same space — they differ in structure or bit depth, not in size.
| Resolution | 24 fps | 25 fps | 30 fps | 50 fps | 60 fps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| HD 1920 × 1080 | 71.9 GB | 74.9 GB | 89.9 GB | 150 GB | 180 GB |
| UHD 3840 × 2160 | 288 GB | 300 GB | 360 GB | 599 GB | 719 GB |
| 4K DCI 4096 × 2160 | 307 GB | 320 GB | 384 GB | 639 GB | 767 GB |
How long a card lasts
Minutes of recording per card (UHD 25 fps). The last column is the time a DIT needs to copy that card once to an NVMe SSD at a sustained 850 MB/s, plus a verification pass.
| Card | Recording time | Offload + verify |
|---|---|---|
| 256 GB | 51 min | 10 min |
| 512 GB | 1 h 43 min | 20 min |
| 1 TB | 3 h 20 min | 39 min |
| 2 TB | 6 h 40 min | 1 h 18 min |
DNxHR HQ next to its siblings
The same hour of footage in every variant of the family (UHD, 25 fps). The step to the next quality level is usually the cheaper decision than it looks: drives cost less than a reshoot, but every step also lengthens the offload.
| Codec | GB per hour | vs. DNxHR HQ | Offload of 1 h at 850 MB/s |
|---|---|---|---|
| DNxHR LB | 61.2 GB | −80 % | 1 min |
| DNxHR SQ | 198 GB | −34 % | 4 min |
| DNxHR HQ | 300 GB | — | 6 min |
| DNxHR HQX | 300 GB | +0 % | 6 min |
| DNxHR 444 | 599 GB | +100 % | 12 min |
Frequently asked
How much storage does one hour of DNxHR HQ need?
In UHD at 25 fps: 300 GB. At 50 fps exactly double.
Why does my card show less space than its label?
Cards are labelled in decimal units (1 TB = 1,000,000,000,000 bytes); some operating systems count in binary units and show about 931 GB for a 1 TB card. The numbers on this page are decimal, like the label.