Can I effectively store just videos on a NAS?

Question

Level 3

940 points

Can I effectively store just videos on a NAS?

I have a MacBook Pro retina with only 256 GB of storage, and videos are quickly eating up my remaining space. Since an Aperture library should reside on one's internal hard drive/flash (much faster than the jpegs), I think that the best compromise would be to keep the photos on the flash as well (70GB or so) but store the videos as referenced files (60GB+) on a NAS (a Time Capsule just dedicated to that purpose, to be specific).

Would that be an effective solution? The TC can read and write at about 25 MB/sec, so throughput shouldn’t be much of an issue -- and I don't actually play the videos all that often.

I want an easy way to store the videos (plugging and unplugging an external hard drive is less easy than networked storage) and have them readily accessible.

Many thanks in advance for thoughts.

MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.3)

Posted on Sep 1, 2013 1:46 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Best reply

Frank Caggiano

Level 7

25,959 points

Sep 1, 2013 3:17 PM in response to odysseus

The NAS for referenced files (either still or video) should work. Your best course of action is to try it with a few to see how it works for you.

One thing to be aware of concerning referenced videos ad Aperture; Only videos stored in the Aperture library are available via the media browser to other apps. If the videos are referenced they will not show up in the media browser. Not sure how much of an impact this would have on your setup, depends on if you use Aperture to store the videos and then use something like iMovie to edit them.

regards

Reply

Answer 2

odysseus Author

Level 3

940 points

Sep 2, 2013 9:27 AM in response to Frank Caggiano

Thanks for the heads-up about the media browser. I assume that referenced videos can still be dragged from the Aperture browser to another app's icon?

Reply

Answer 3

Sep 2, 2013 10:11 AM in response to odysseus

That's a good question and one I can't answer. The few videos I have in Aperture are managed so the situation has never came up for me.

I would assume it should work but you never know. The best thing is to relocate one video and try it. If it doesn't work you can always consolidate it back into the library.

regards

Reply