Problems recording 4K 120FPS ProRes Samsung T7 SSD iPhone 16 Pro Max

[@DavidHarry]

Testing ProRes 4K 120FPS with the iPhone 16 Pro Max using the popular Samsung T7 as its external USB-C SSD, should have been a very easy test with a simple and conclusive answer. However, as you seen in the video the Apple Camera App recording of ProRes 4K 120FPS with the T7 had an error after over 30 minutes of what seemed to be a good recording. The video file also didn't record 120FPS. MediaInfo identified it as around 98FPS and Blackmagic's DaVinci Resolve Studio identified it as 100FPS. Although, the file did seem to be a full recording regardless of the anomalies. When using the Blackmagic Camera App the results were better but still confusing. While there was a relatively short shot recorded before the app stopped recording. Presumably due to a dropped frame detection. The file was 120FPS, it did play properly, but Resolve identified the recoding as being shorter than what the Blackmagic Camera App reported it. I also used a Sabrent 10Gb/s USB-C cable to connect the T7 to the iPhone because it's shorter than my Samsung cable. This cable is perfect as it works with faster drives on my iPhone 15 Pro Max and iPhone 16 Pro Max. You can see this cable in use in this speed test video. iPhone 16 Pro Max VS iPhone 15 Pro Max Speed Test With External USB-C NVMe SSD Storage Drive kzbin.info/www/bejne/f2XMnqGVnJWEfZY I have seen another KZbinr saying that the T7 works with 4K 120FPS ProRes. However, in their video they did not show it working, they did not show any footage being used in an NLE, so obviously never confirmed anything about how the footage was identified by their NLE. Basically. In fact, they did not even say what NLE they were using or what computer platform. Basically, they showed no proof of it working whatsoever. So if anyone want's to contest the results of this video, then prove your point with a video that's as thorough as mine, which shows a long recording and it working in an NLE. It's far too easy for KZbinrs to make claims without irrefutable proof or evidence. My iPhone 16 Pro Max playlist: list=PLleKChtNUwZRmt2wIdprAJ5ry5XZSlTiW Video chapters: 00:00 Intro 00:59 Apple Camera App 05:46 Checking the recording 09:03 Blackmagic camera app 12:57 Checking the recording 17:47 End summary Here's the stuff I used in this video. I would still recommend the T7 for up to 4K 60FPS ProRes, it is a great little drive and with it being slim it can be rigged very easily, even with velcro or straps. iPhone 16 Pro Max geni.us/rdAXg iPhone 15 Pro Max geni.us/GPgIAmU Sony ZV-1 geni.us/olHLpOY SSD - Samsung T7 1TB geni.us/pqBzC9T Case used when shooting - Spigen Optik Armor MagFi geni.us/jRt1S Clamp - Ulanzi ST-02S geni.us/pWe6am Desktop tripod - Neewer desktop light stand geni.us/n9MWB I also used different cases on the 16 Pro max and 15 Pro max when talking to camera, these were the Aurora ArmorAir by Benks. Here's the links for those, if buying direct form Benks use my discount code - David15 - for a 15% discount. iPhone 16 Pro Max case direct from Benks shrsl.com/4ozbh The same case on Amazon amzn.to/3XYVI05 iPhone 15 Pro Max case direct from Benks shrsl.com/4ozbl The same case on Amazon amzn.to/3ZMJWaB AMAZON ASSOCIATE DISCLOSURE: I am an Amazon Associate. My Amazon links are Amazon affiliate links. I earn money from qualifying purchases when you use my Amazon affiliate links. OTHER EARNINGS AND COMMISSIONS: I also earn money from other product links within my video description. For the sake of clarity and for the avoidance of any confusion, assume that I earn money from commissions from any and all links that I have within my video description. Amazon links to stuff used in this video: The gear that I use, have used or reviewed that I would recommend. Cameras: amzn.to/3PzC8mI Microphones: amzn.to/3tD6FaM Computers: amzn.to/3tuwHNr Phones: amzn.to/3ttqjWN iPads & Tablets: amzn.to/46t8wxG You can also send me a coffee donation via PayPal if you found my video super helpful: www.paypal.me/DavidHarry My Amazon pages with videos and product links: Amazon USA www.amazon.com/shop/davidharry Amazon UK www.amazon.co.uk/shop/davidharry If you would like to help my channel please use my global Amazon Affiliate links. I will be paid a small commission for anything you buy from Amazon when using these links. These commissions don't cost you any extra but really do help me to buy gear for my productions and to review: Amazon USA: geni.us/Amazon-USA Amazon UK: geni.us/Amazon-UK Amazon Deutschland: geni.us/Amazon-Deutschland Amazon España: geni.us/Amazon-Espana Amazon Canada: geni.us/Amazon-Canada Contact for product reviews: [e-mail] www.DavidHarry.com I’m David Harry. Thank you very much for watching this video, take care and goodbye now. Cheers, Dave.

[@kristofeight9668]

Samsung t7 is DRAM less cash disk, which means is not intended to work with constanant high bps, and in this case will not work properly, when his bitrate can easly go down to 100-150 MB/s

[@DavidHarry]

Hi. DRAM-less SSDs can also sustain the necessary bitrate, it depends on other factors as well. Check my recent speed test video with a Samsung SSD980, also a DRAM-less SSD, which I use all the time for sustained high bitrate recording. Cheers, Dave.

[@leonard_roy]

the iphones footage has a variable framerate as in it contains timestamp metadata for every frame. with thermal limits reached on the phone or the ssd frametimes will deviate further from the framerate target. davinci resolve handles this vfr footage poorly resulting in audio desyncs and wrong framerate interpreted. also reported framerate in mediainfo can be deceiving. but you can render a prores intermediate via ffmpeg to drop and duplicate frames to achieve target constant framerate. then audio desync in resolve should be minimized.

[@DavidHarry]

Hi. Having tested a lot of footage recorded with the Blackmagic Camera app on the iPhones in ProRes, my observations are different. My recordings are solid frame rates, which I have checked with manual frame advancing in Resolve, showing no interpolation or duplication with footage containing constant temporal activity within the fame. I have also not noticed any audio sync issues between the Blackmagic camera app and Resolve. As for heat, I can't say that I have noticed that being a factor of concern either. Cheers, Dave.

[@MatthewFling]

I had this exact same problem yesterday shooting ProRes 120Fps and the footage is extremely laggy and pretty much unusable. My SSD was definitely fast enough and formatted correctly.

[@DavidHarry]

Hi, Matthew. Someone else has said the exact same thing. I don’t think it would be unreasonable to suggest the issue is with the iPhone. Given that I rerun tests with a much faster SSD and had problems, you’ve had issues with a fast SSD and so have others. Cheers, Dave.

[@MatthewFling]

@@DavidHarry hopefully it’s just a software bug that can be patched.

[@ray3maxwell]

I recorded 4K 120 fps ProRes 422 HQ to a T7 SSD with no problem. Playback data rate was 190 megbytes/sec. I also could playback another file from the T7 that was 6K 29.97 fps with a data rate of 245 megabytes/sec. I could not reproduce your problem.

[@DavidHarry]

Hi. That bitrate you mention is less than half the bitrate for 4K 120FPS ProRes. Cheers, Dave.

[@KevinMuldoon]

Interesting. Does Apple have an official statement on what the minimum write speed should be for external hard drives to be able to record at that frame rate? They really need a compatible hard drive page or more information as to what you need to ensure recordings are ok. Kevin

[@DavidHarry]

Alright, Kevin. There probably is a compatibility guide, I just haven’t seen one. However, I think I have worked out that this is a “proper” problem anyway and is reproducible. I tried some quick tests with a drive that definitely has the speed and the results still ended up as 100FPS. I’ll try and do a video later. Cheers, Dave.

[@KevinMuldoon]

@@DavidHarry Nice one. I'll be sure to check that out when the video drops 👍

[@scottburrow8293]

I heard 400mb per sec.

[@KevinMuldoon]

@@scottburrow8293 thanks Scott. I know from copying files to external drives in the past that a drive may reach a particular speed, but sustaining that speed over time is a different story. I have the Samsung T5, not the T7. I always remember that having good sustained speeds.

[@scottburrow8293]

@@KevinMuldoon I have a T5 1Tb as well it, says it does 540mb per sec.

[@racingwithlowvisipn]

I really like how you explain things, it’s always good to follow. Thanks a lot for that stuff!

[@DavidHarry]

Hi. Nice one, thank you and you are very welcome. Cheers, Dave.

[@kemarbell]

Who records an entire workflow in 120fps I only use it for slow mo B-Roll🤷🏾‍♂️

[@DavidHarry]

Hi. This video is not about a workflow, it's testing for any underlying issues and potential compatibility issues. Plus 120 isn't always used for slow-mo or "b-roll". Cheers, Dave.

[@RIPCUTPOSTPRODUCTION]

May you can try with nvme gen 4 or 5 with thunderbolt enclosure and thunderbolt cable.

[@DavidHarry]

Hi. I have already done videos about that and it does not work. The iPhone cant send enough power to power the enclosure and a Gen 4 SSD and the cable doesn't matter either. Cheers, Dave.

[@ehenferio]

Overt heat? Test with cooling attach on SSD and phone too.

[@DavidHarry]

Hi. It wasn’t over heating. I suspected this as well in another video so measured the SSD as it was warmer than the iPhone and the temps were fine. Cheers, Dave.

[@Lebenslangerschicksalsschatz.]

*smasnug

[@KaioshinAemi]

i want to be able to record regular 4K to external SSD without recording to the internal iphone first. Black magic app allowed me but i want to use the iphone native camera app.

[@DavidHarry]

@@KaioshinAemi The Apple camera app will record 4K/60 ProRes to an external drive. Cheers, Dave.

[@KaioshinAemi]

@@DavidHarry no ProRes, just regular 4K. Can it do it?

[@DavidHarry]

​@@KaioshinAemi Hi. No, the Apple Camera App will not allow you to do that. However, if you use the Blackmagic Camera App, this will allow you to select either the H.264 or HEVC/H.265 codecs and will allow those recordings to be written to an external SSD. Cheers, Dave.

[@IDKOKIDK]

Would you know of any places where I could download a short HEVC 10bit with spatial audio from IPhone 16? I have been hearing it can cause Resolve to crash but oddly I can not find a single AVC or HEVC sample on the internet, Thanks!

[@DavidHarry]

Hi. What do you mean by spacial audio? Cheers, Dave.

[@IDKOKIDK]

@@DavidHarry The Iphone 16 records 6 channels, 2 are stereo, and 4 others are the surround channels (if turned on) and the apparent Resolve bug (crashing) is with the surround channels. I think a PC system problem.

[@DavidHarry]

@@IDKOKIDK I did notice the extra channels in some of my tests recordings but there was only audio in the main (first) stereo track. To be honest, I wasn’t aware that it was a selectable feature and didn’t know that the multiple tracks were there until I got home and put the takes in a timeline. In the recordings that had the extra channels I had to mono one of the main stereo track’s channels for centred dialogue that I done for a test on my vlogging channel but didn’t have any issues. I’ll see if I can get a short example for you tomorrow and post a link here. BTW, that problem I had with the Apple Camera App only recording 100FPS is reproducible. I tried it again with a faster drive and the issue was still there and it’s not Resolve misinterpreting anything, the file is only 100FPS. I’ll try and do a short video about it tomorrow. Cheers, Dave.

[@DavidHarry]

@@IDKOKIDKHi. Just a quick one. It’s pissing down today and I may not be able to get you the test clip today. I know you only need something for testing a crash scenario. However I want to record the clip by a busy road, just in case there’s any audio info to play with a well. Are you bothered about the resolution? Cheers, Dave.

[@Kayserjp]

because you filming in PAL?

[@DavidHarry]

Hi. No, filming PAL is either 25p or 50i. Cheers, Dave.

[@AlistairHutchinson]

This was also my first thought. Not sure how much experience you have with filming HFR video but certainly on both of my Canon cameras (EOS R and EOS R5) if I have them set to film in PAL the HFR video is limited to 100fps rather than 120fps. Seems VERY dated to have limitations like this nowadays IMO but maybe someone with more experience can chime in with why this might be the case?

[@DavidHarry]

@@AlistairHutchinson Hi, Alistair. Things become even weirder after this video and it definitely wasn’t a PAL thing. I did a recording to replicate the issue on a very fast SSD, so ruling out the SSD and the recording was 120FPS. A bit later with the same fast SSD and the issue happened again, 100FPS and no errors writing to the SSD. The only reasonable suggestion I have after all that is that it may be an exposure issue when there’s not enough light. As 120FPS needs a lot more light and the Apple Camera App is essentially automatic. I suspect it’s dropping the frame rate to compensate for light and to raise exposure. At 120FPS, the shutter needs to be at least a 120th. So if the app knows it can’t go lower than a 120th with the available light and can’t gain the exposure anymore with “ISO” (electronic gain) and it’s fixed aperture is essentially at its fastest all the time anyway. Then maybe the App “thinks” that the only way to get a “good” exposure without the picture falling apart. Is to lower the frame rate, then lower the shutter to match it in order to get a “better” exposure. I’m only suggesting this as a possible cause as I’ve seen some action cameras do it. Shooting manually with the Blackmagic Camera App gets around all this as you obviously have full control of the exposure (aside from aperture). And if it means producing a grainy recording due to over gaining, at least the recording will be 120FPS. There’s a fair chance that I’m completely wrong and it’s something else. As the Apple Camera App was also recording 120FPS in different takes with what was very similar lightning conditions. Also that disk error may be the Phone and not the disk. In another video I show another disk error with Blackmagic camera app but with an SSD that I’ve already shown can do over 900MB/s write speed in another recent video. Plus someone else also said they were having issues on long takes with another known fast drive that’s easily capable of the 440MB/s required for 4K/120 ProRes. It’s all a bit odd 😆 Cheers, Dave.

[@AlistairHutchinson]

@@DavidHarry Does the metadata show the shutter speed? ie is it doing 100fps at 1/100 shutter? This would certainly confirm your theory.

[@DavidHarry]

@@AlistairHutchinson Hi, Alistair. I didn't check and have now deleted the test files. However I did do a lot of screen recording when checking the files, I'll see if any of the screen recordings have the data shown. If not, I'll definitely check for it the next time it happens. Cheers, Dave.

[@armandoragusaucy96z.71]

The interesting part is that we can actually record 4k 120fps 10-bit RAW video on androids without the need for an external SSD. Admittedly its at the limit but its already possible, yet Apple struggles even with an external SSD Worth mentioning that in our Android community we discovered that the SSD, when supplied with external power, can achieve faster write speeds - just an FYI 😊

[@DavidHarry]

Hi. The iPhone can record 4K/120 ProRes internally, just not with the Apple camera app. Also, 10 Bit RAW requires a lower bitrate compared to a 10 Bit ProRes 422HQ file in rec.709 or rec.2020. That's interesting what you say about Androids being faster over USB. I have a number of Android phones, including the S24 Ultra and Redmagic 9 Pro and neither are even close to even the iPhone 15 Pro Max let alone the iPhone 16 Pro Max, which is faster again with its write speeds. Can you point me to any data that supports what you have said? BTW, external power wont make any difference to the bandwidth, it will only help to power a device that's not able to be powered by a host and its internal power. Cheers, Dave.

[@elysiumcore]

@@DavidHarry likewise I would love to know which Android phone can record externally in Raw. I know up upcoming Android phones this fall ( vivo x200, Xiaomi 15 pro etc ) all will have much better sensors than Iphone 16, I truly hope they offer external raw options

[@DavidHarry]

@@elysiumcore Hi. Yes, I’ve not heard of any native RAW video recording on Android either and I doubt that any 3rd party apps are recording proper RAW sensor data. In fact, I don’t think Android at the moment can facilitate it anyway. I’m also looking forward to the new Android phones later this year. I can’t wait to see what RedMagic do with their Pro series and the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 when that comes out. I have a small gaming channel and do lots of Warzone Mobile and although the iPhone 16 Pro Max is currently the most powerful smartphone, I much prefer playing on the RedMagic 9 Pro. There’s a lot of manufacturer specific software and hardware functionality with Android and some really cool gaming functions on the gaming specific Android phones 👍 Cheers, Dave.

[@Chris_Hruska]

what is the bitrate of those files? seems like these videos are at a rate of 500MBps ish. that drive seems like it does not sustain speeds above that for a very long time according to amazon reviews and speed screenshots of file transfers. seems drops to 250MBps pretty quickly due to throttling. I assume the internal storage could handle that bitrate but fill your 256gb phone up in 7 minutes. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ should be allowed on the 1TB phones though.

[@armandoragusaucy96z.71]

​@@DavidHarry it's actually the inverse as we can capture CinemaDNG, so we no longer count by Mbps, but MB/s!! 😊 It requires far more equivalent bitrate as the data transfer involved is much higher (technically equivalent to ProRes 4444 as it's 10-bit RAW) Our USB connectors have definitely shows much faster speed, HOWEVER not via windows, only when connected directly to an external SSD without additional OS interfacing. We clocked one recently on the Xiaomi 14U reaching as much as 850MB/s (yes, MB, not Mbps). As per citations, unfortunately the issue is we are but a small community in the android world that is pushing the boundaries so the little testing and empirical data available is all in there, however if you want to see or test it I can show you where to find it :) And the power doesn't impact the bandwidth 100%, however if the device is unable to deliver full power to the SSD it seems it runs it at lower speed compared to its peak capability - hence my point