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Disk Types

Info

Disk types are now deprecated. All storage requirements are handled automatically and each video can process up to 10GB of source footage and output footage. Submitting a disk type will have no effect and be ignored by the API.

Shotstack has two disk types, each of which has specific use cases and are optimized for speed or storage space. If you are not experiencing any issues with file size or running out of disk space then you can use the default and do not need to make a selection, it will be chosen for you.

Speed optimized - local disk type​

By default, each render uses a local disk which is optimized for speed. Source footage and assets are downloaded directly on to the instance that performs the render. This allows many short videos to be rendered in parallel without running in to any read/write or throughput issues.

The maximum file size for the local disk type is 512MB, which is used for both the source footage and the rendered output. In most instances you should optimise your source footage and output file to use local disk types.

File size optimized - mount disk type​

The mount disk type is a special type of disk suitable for when your source and output footage exceeds the 512MB limit. You should use this disk type when working with larger files or outputting longer high resolution videos. The mount type allows total source file storage of 5GB and an output file size of 512MB or each render.

The mount disk type takes longer to load and is slower than using local disk type so should only be used when required. If you render too many videos in parallel using the mount disk type you may experience read/write or throughput issues.

Which disk type should I use?​

  • Unless you are experiencing out of disk space errors you should use the local disk type.
  • If you render videos in batches or perform several concurrent render tasks you should optimise your assets and output to complete withing 512Mb using the local disk type.
  • If you are experiencing disk space errors or you know you will be handling files totaling more than 512Mb or creating long, high resolution (1080p) videos try the mount disk type.

Setting the disk type​

The disk type is set at the root level of each render that you POST to the Shotstack API. The default value is local so you do not need to pass any value to use the local disk.

If you want to explicitly choose local you can use the disk parameter:

{
    "timeline": {...},
    "output": {...},
    "disk": "local"
}

To use the mount disk type set the disk parameter to mount:

{
    "timeline": {...},
    "output": {...},
    "disk": "mount"
}