Best compression tool for Mac

[CollectiveUnconscious]

My lab is doing a lot of video editting this semester, and the raw imports take up ongodly amounts of space. We're required to save all data for the IRB, and I need to know what the best compression tool for a Mac is. TIA.

Edit: Also note that the lab computer uses OSX 10.2.8 and upgrading the OS is not an option.

 

[Schadenfroh]

7-zip OS X port:

http://www.7-zip.org/download.html

 

[ForumMaster]

the only way to compress video like that is to encode it to a better format. use quicktime pro and encode it too h.264.

 

[CollectiveUnconscious]

Originally posted by: Schadenfroh
7-zip OS X port:

http://www.7-zip.org/download.html

The only workable port I can find is for 10.3 or higher.

 

[ITJunkie]

StuffIt?

 

[chcarnage]

The problem is that as long as you want to edit the video material in, say, iMovie, the program will work only with the raw data of the cam (about 3 MB/s) and re-inflate any compressed video files on import. Of course you can chose economic parameters for the end product after you've finished the project, or you can temporarily compress iMovie/video projects if you have several of them and only work on one at a time.

But it takes some time to compress several gigabytes of data and I would try to decompress them afterwards before deleting your precious original file, because compression errors can happen (they shouldn't, but you never know).

That said, I use the freeware Zippist to create .zip files, which I would recommend. There is also ColdCompress for .tar.gz archives, both run in OS X 10.2.