How Long Can 1TB Record BRAW? A Practical Capacity Guide

A 1TB drive can record anywhere from less than an hour to many hours of BRAW. The exact time depends on resolution, frame rate, compression, and whether the codec uses Constant Bitrate or Constant Quality. “One terabyte” describes capacity, not duration.

To estimate recording time, divide usable capacity by the camera’s data rate:

Time in seconds = usable GB × 1,000 ÷ MB/s

With no reserve, 1TB is 1,000 decimal GB. With a 20% production reserve, plan around 800GB.

Why 1TB often appears as 931GB

Drive manufacturers use decimal units. One terabyte is 1,000,000,000,000 bytes. A binary gibibyte is 1,073,741,824 bytes, so the same drive contains about 931GiB.

The device has not lost 69GB. The display is counting larger binary units. Some operating systems label the result clearly as GiB; others show “GB” even when the calculation is binary.

Practical camera capacity may be lower than both labels because formatting, filesystem structures, device behavior, existing clips, and a deliberate free-space reserve consume or withhold space.

Reference times from a 6K example

Using published 6144 × 3456 rates at 30fps as a reference and reserving 20% of a 1TB device:

These are deliberately conservative planning times. Remove the 20% reserve and the mathematical durations increase by 25%, but the production loses margin for retakes, remaining clips, and operational uncertainty.

At 24fps, a proportional estimate is lower because the camera records fewer frames each second. Camera-specific tables and supported modes should remain the final reference.

4K gives much longer times

Using a 4K DCI 4096 × 2160 reference at 30fps, representative published rates around 136, 82, 51, and 35MB/s produce approximately these 1TB durations with a 20% reserve:

• 3:1: about 1 hour 38 minutes
• 5:1: about 2 hours 42 minutes
• 8:1: about 4 hours 21 minutes
• 12:1: about 6 hours 20 minutes

The resolution change matters because 4K DCI contains far fewer pixels per frame than full 6K. If a production does not need the framing, stabilization, VFX, or delivery benefit of a higher sensor mode, resolution can be a larger storage lever than a one-step compression change.

Constant Quality turns one time into a range

Q0, Q1, Q3, and Q5 react to image complexity. A 1TB Q-mode estimate should therefore be a minimum-to-maximum duration.

The shorter time comes from the higher data rate and is the safe value for scheduling. The longer time is a possible result when footage compresses efficiently. It should not be used to promise continuous coverage.

Detailed foliage, water, smoke, rain, fine fabric, handheld movement, and high-ISO noise can increase data consumption. Test the most difficult scene, not the cleanest.

Does a 1TB SSD guarantee a continuous roll?

Capacity and compatibility are separate. A drive can be large enough but too slow, thermally unstable, power-hungry, or incompatible with the camera. The recording chain includes the cable and connector, not only the flash inside the enclosure.

Check all of the following:

• The exact drive model and capacity on the current approved-media list
• Sustained write speed after the cache is exhausted
• Thermal behavior during a full-duration take
• Secure cable routing and strain relief
• Camera firmware and media firmware
• Filesystem format supported by the production’s operating systems

An “up to” benchmark from a computer is not the same as a successful camera stress test.

One 1TB drive versus several smaller cards

A large SSD reduces media changes and can cover long continuous events. Smaller cards can reduce the amount of footage exposed to a single device failure and make parallel offloads easier.

Consider the production behavior:

• Long ceremony or performance: one approved high-capacity device may protect continuity.
• Narrative day: several labelled cards can align with setups, scenes, or camera rolls.
• Remote documentary: more physical media may reduce pressure to format cards before two backups exist.
• Multi-camera event: identical large devices simplify duration, but they can deliver a sudden multi-terabyte offload wave.

Capacity planning is also risk planning. No device replaces verified backups.

How much destination storage should one 1TB source create?

If the source device contains 800GB of recorded material, two verified destination copies require at least 1.6TB of free capacity. Add proxies, project files, audio, exports, and filesystem headroom, and a “1TB shoot” can easily need 2–3TB of immediate working space.

Long-term archive may add another full copy. If the source SSD must return to camera, it is not the archive.

Use 1TB as a planning unit

The quickest workflow is:

1. Open the calculator’s Record time tab.
2. Enter 1,000GB.
3. Choose the exact resolution, recording fps, and BRAW mode.
4. Reserve 20% for a normal production or 30% when roll length is uncertain.
5. Use the shortest value for a Constant Quality schedule.
6. Confirm that destination storage can hold two verified copies.
7. Run a full camera test before production.

The result will be more useful than a generic “1TB equals X hours” chart because it preserves the settings that actually control BRAW duration.

Sources and calculation notes

• Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera technical specifications: camera-specific formats and storage-rate reference tables.
• Blackmagic RAW overview: manufacturer information about the codec and encoding modes.
• BRAW Planner methodology: the estimation formulas, unit conventions and limitations used on this site.

Workflow suggestions in this guide are planning guidance, not a claim that a particular camera or drive has been tested by the author.