# Is 16GB Enough?



## Niagaramark (Jul 20, 2007)

I'm looking at buying a 16GB or 32 GB iPad. Any idea how much room/memory a dvd ripped to play on an iPad will take-up? One my selling points to the wife is to be able to load a few movies onto the iPad for the kids for long car trips vs setting up bulky portable DVD players etc. I would like to get the 32 GB, but cost is a bit of a factor. Leaning towards the 16GB as a first gen 'tester' etc.


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## imnothng (Sep 12, 2009)

I just checked. The movie Up in .mp4 format which is the one required for the iPhone is 1.4gb.


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## Bjornbro (Feb 19, 2000)

Niagaramark said:


> Is 16GB Enough?


In a word, yes. You can encode lesser resolution DVD rips and suffer the size vs. quality equation.


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## l84toff (Jul 27, 2008)

I have a 16gb iPhone and it's not enough. 

I personally wouldn't get an iPad smaller than 32GB but most likely a 64GB version. I think you'll find that the 16 fills up very quickly and will wish that you got dbl the memory for a small price difference.

Most movies encoded by Handbrake using the universal setting will end up between 700MB and 2GB at most. E.g. The new Star Trek is 1.83GB, Bad Santa is 822MB.

16GB will never be enough. As memory size increases, so does our ability to fill that space. A few years ago 80 or 100GB would have been enough. Today 2 TB is plenty (for the average person). Tomorrow...


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## imnothng (Sep 12, 2009)

Well I for me the question that you need to ask yourself is how often do you want to sync? I have the 16g iPhone and it's enough, but I do have to sync it a lot, which can be a pain.


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## Niagaramark (Jul 20, 2007)

I have a 32 GB iphone that is only 30% full, but I don't load video or movies (other than clips I take with the camera). But I would see the iPad getting more use for pics. PDF/Books and 4-5 movies for the kids etc. However, I don't expect to add my music collection to the iPad so I guess that would save some space. Maybe if the iPad had a camera, my memory needs might be closer to the 32GB option. Lots to think about before Saturday!


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## enon (Feb 12, 2010)

16 GB is enough. You can just stream everything from the internet or from your home network. You are not gonna get a 2 TB drive on the iPad anytime soon. Live with it.


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## fyrefly (Apr 16, 2005)

I have a 32GB iPhone 3GS and it's onlh got about 8 gigs free. I debated getting the 16GB iPhone, but went with the 32 and I'm glad I did. Almost 10 gigs of that is just music. But it will always depend on your user patterns.


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## pcronin (Feb 20, 2005)

I'm thinking 16 is enough, unless you're looking to fill it with media at highest quality to take a long trip with. (even then I feel like 16 is mostly enough)

I've got an 8gb ipad mini (ipod touch) and keep 3-5 movies, about 80 songs, a few PDFs (really hard to read on small screen  ) and the rest is taken up with podcasts (video and audio) and an occasional audio book. I've only ever run out of room when trying to sync when I had a back log of video podcasts after a vacation period. 

If I was toget an ipad, I now see it as primarily ebook/pdf reader, secondarily as an email/surfing device for on the go, or comfort of bed/couch. 

What I'm really interested in is seeing the ipad in place of the ipod touch in a classroom as opposed to netbooks.


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## jimbotelecom (May 29, 2009)

Have to be frugal and efficient with the 16GB version - as i plan to be - I'll be using it mostly for reading. I'll try a movie or 2 every once in a while. I'll be fine.


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## Oakbridge (Mar 8, 2005)

Unfortunately you are the only one that can answer that question. As you've seen from the responses, opinions are all over the map. 

To those that have suggested that you store content at lower resolution, why bother? Memory, including hard drive space is cheap in today's world. October 2001, 5 Gb iPod sells for $399 US. 

I remember 10 Megabyte hard drives selling for the $800 that the 64 Gb iPad will be selling for. Drives are like spare drawers and attics, you keep as much stuff as you've got room for. 

I've got a 64 Gb waiting for me. My current 16 Gb iPhone has only a portion of my music and photos and none of my video content. I'm not sure how much personal use the iPad is going to get. Daylite Touch has already been tested using the simulator. I see this as more of a business tool for my own use. 

But as I said, you're the best judge of what you plan on using it for.


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## e4l (Dec 20, 2007)

If you have to debate the matter with yourself, I would suggest 32. I think that the iPad will be the type of device whose potential you won't even realize until you've started to use it for 2 - 3 months. I had originally set out to purchase a 8GB iPhone 3G when they were first released, but they were sold out, so I opted for the 16GB. I don't consider myself a multi-media intense person, but the extra storage did get used, without the need for being miserly as far as my content. I upgraded to the 32GB 3GS when it was released, and am thankful for the extra storage.

Two of my common mantras are a/ "you pay now or you pay later" and b/ "better to have it and not need it, than need it and not have it."

e4l


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## pcronin (Feb 20, 2005)

e4l said:


> Two of my common mantras are a/ "you pay now or you pay later" and b/ "better to have it and not need it, than need it and not have it."


um.. That's what she said?


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## bsenka (Jan 27, 2009)

I have a 160GB iPod, and for me that isn't even enough. I can't imagine being anything but miserable with 16GB.


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## pcronin (Feb 20, 2005)

bsenka said:


> I have a 160GB iPod, and for me that isn't even enough. I can't imagine being anything but miserable with 16GB.


well, I agree that an iPod, to load with music/videos needs to be insanely large, but the iPad isn't just a big iPod touch. I don't see most folk using it that way really.


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## winwintoo (Nov 9, 2004)

hmmm. For the kids to watch videos on long trips? 

That would be fine until one of them leaves it on the seat under a jacket or something and then sits on it, or leaves it on the floor of the car after you all get out and you only find it after one of your hockey buddies plants his size 13 on it.

Bulky dvd players are not that bulky and you can get them for less than $75 - no great loss if it gets rained on.

There's lots of iPod Touches and Nanos for sale on used sites - believe it or not you can watch movies on them and the kids would probably be happier with something that you aren't so paranoid about (_*that last part is a reflection of how I'd be acting - YMMV*_)

Margaret


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## kloan (Feb 22, 2002)

I'd say 16GB won't be enough considering it isn't 16GB. You're probably only getting somewhere around 14GB.

Why bother encoding movies that aren't the same resolution as the screen? They're going to look like crap. Streaming may or may not be an option, depending if you have 3G or not.. but I'd say cover your bases and get at least 32GB. 

Shame the memory isn't upgradeable, huh?


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## bmmr (Nov 25, 2006)

Well I reserved a 16 and a 64 but ended up buying the 16g, as the 40% up charge can be used towards planned obselesence.

We all know that a better iPad will be introduced within 12 months, so I am banking my 200.00 edge towards that purchase.


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## Adrian. (Nov 28, 2007)

You are probably never going to view anything more than 16 GB in one sitting, or in a string of sittings. Just SYNC it, remove the movies and put new ones on...


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## Niagaramark (Jul 20, 2007)

Ended up with a 16GB version. Figured the family will end up with more than one iPad over the next year, so I'll just take advantage of the extra money I _didn't_ spend and apply it to the next, more improved iPad when it comes out.


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## chas_m (Dec 2, 2007)

I have found that "how much storage do I need" can usually be determined by one or two simple questions:

1. How long ON AVERAGE does your (Touch/iPhone/iPad) go between being synced with a computer?

2. How many hours per day do you actually devote to using the media functions of your device?

If the answers to these two questions are fairly low numbers, then you don't need a huge amount of storage. It's child's play to set up smart lists that will "refresh" your content each time the device is synced.

If the answers to these two questions is fairly high, the higher end of the storage options looks like a better investment.


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