Containers and Compression

Hello all, I am thinking of doing a video documentary on a bird nest, but I have a slight problem - an hour of video is 32 GB! That may be fine for short video, but I am talking hours on hours on hours of video here, and I don't have THAT much space... Which got me to thinking; what kind of compression do television crews use? Surely they don't use regular compression at over 5 Terrabytes a week per camera!
What kind of compression is best for keeping quality, but taking down file size?

Also, can someone explain "Containers" to me? I am guessing they are like a folder that the file sits in, but how they work, I have no idea.

Thanks!

CameraClicker wrote in post #13935177
Which got me to thinking; what kind of compression do television crews use? Surely they don't use regular compression at over 5 Terrabytes a week per camera!

Depends on the format, DV, DVCAM and DVCPRO run at 25Mbps, DVCPRO runs at 50Mbps, DVCPRO HD runs at 100Mbps and HDCAM runs at 140Mbps.

That’s a variable, kinda like asking which is better Canon or Nikon, each form of compression has its advantages and disadvantages based on the quality required and the processing power needed to execute the compression and the required end file size.

Traditionally a container is the combination of the video and audio CODEC’s wrappers that are utilized to perform the compression, in some containers multiple CODEC’s are supported, while others only support a single CODEC for each.

Wayne