Video File Size and Storage?

Hey duders!

Some friends and I have started putting together a gaming channel, mostly for our own fun for the internets. But we're running into a problem - file size. Pushing out a 720p 15 minute file is coming up at over NINTY GIGABTYES.

Suggestions on file format? Should we look at cloud or offsite storage? And if so, whats a cheap option?

HELP!

You'll want to run these through video editor software if for no other reason than to compress them. Using MP4 format with H.264 encoding will drop those down to a gig or less. The popular choices are expensive options like Premiere and Vegas but I'm sure that cheap stuff exists to do the job just fine.

Alternatively, if editing for length or content isn't really needed then I'd suggest simply recording your videos with Open Broadcaster Software (OBS). OBS is primarily for streaming but it's a nice light recorder as well and it encodes to MP4 as it records so the file you get out of it is compressed and ready for upload.

@bigdaveischeap: Right now Im running off a copy of Vegas Movie Studio HD 11 that was given to me by a friend. Sadly, their export options are fairly complex and numerous. Example:

Audio: 192 Kbps, 48,000 Hz, 16 Bit, Stereo, AAC
Video: 29.970 fps, 1280x720 Progressive, YUV, 8 Mbps
Pixel Aspect Ratio: 1.000

is how it describes one of its formats (they're all like that). Nothing matches to a H.264 encoding (though I've seen this referenced many times by websites)

Correct me if I'm wrong but 8mps seems like a high bit rate for 720p. Maybe try lowering it a bit and see how it looks. That should help with size. Also YUV is the video encode type that needs to be changed.