Tier 01
Play, inspect and deliver
- Memory8 GB
- Storage freePackage size
- Typical MacMacBook Air
Playback, QC, validation, KDM issuing and subtitle work. Enough for a producer or a QC viewer.
Storm DCP Studio
Will your Mac run it?
Storm masters DCI-compliant Digital Cinema Packages on the GPU. What it asks of your Mac depends less on the app than on what you make with it: playing a package back and mastering a 4K feature are very different jobs.
macOS today, on Apple Silicon and Intel (separate downloads). A Windows version is in development.
Pick the row that matches your work
Memory is the figure that decides most of this. Everything else is common to all three.
Tier 02
Master 2K and 4K
- Memory16 GB, 32 GB for 4K
- Storage free250 GB+
- Typical MacMac mini and variants
Trailers, adverts, shorts, and both 2K and 4K features. Any current Mac mini masters 4K, and a 32 GB mini variant takes a full 4K feature comfortably in its stride.
Tier 03
Fast 4K and long-form
- Memory32 GB
- Storage free500 GB+
- Typical MacMacBook Pro, Studio or Pro
The fastest turnaround for long-form 4K, plus 16-channel wild-track audio and back-to-back deliveries. More GPU means less time.
Full specification
Minimum means the app runs and produces compliant packages. Recommended is what we would buy.
| Component | Minimum | Recommended |
|---|---|---|
| Operating system | macOS 15.5 Sequoia | macOS 15.5 or laterStorm is a native macOS application. A Windows version is in development; there is no Linux build. |
| Processor | Apple M1, or an Intel Mac with a Metal-capable GPU | Apple M2 or later, or a Mac Pro (2019) on IntelApple Silicon and Intel are separate downloads, and both are first-class: a well-specified Intel Mac Pro encodes at the same speed as Apple Silicon. Pick the one that matches your Mac. |
| Graphics | Any Metal-capable GPU | Apple Silicon integrated GPU, or a Radeon Pro Vega IIJPEG 2000 encoding runs on the GPU, so a faster GPU is the single biggest influence on mastering time. On Intel, a Mac Pro (2019) with a Radeon Pro Vega II, or one of the other 32 GB workstation cards it shipped with, has ample encoding power and plays 4K back in real time. |
| Memory | 8 GB to play and inspect, 16 GB to master | 32 GB for 4K featuresMemory during a render stays flat whatever the length of the film, so it is resolution that drives this figure, not runtime. |
| Storage | Room for the finished package and your source material | Fast external SSD or RAIDMastering writes continuously for hours. See the planner below. |
| Drive formats | APFS, Mac OS Extended, exFAT | NTFS or ext2/ext3 for deliveryCinema and festival servers ingest delivery drives formatted NTFS or Linux ext2/ext3. exFAT is fine for your own Mac and Windows transfers, but many cinema servers cannot read it. |
| Display | Any | Calibrated Rec.709 or P3 monitorStorm tags its output so the picture matches a colour-managed grading display. |
| Cinema output | Not required | Blackmagic DeckLink cardOptional. Drives a projector over SDI with embedded 5.1 or 7.1 audio for a real screening-room check. |
| Internet | Required once, to activate | Occasional, for updatesMastering itself is entirely offline. Nothing about your film leaves your machine. |
Storage planner
Digital cinema picture is capped at 250 Mbit per second, so package size follows runtime almost exactly. Work from minutes, not gigabytes.
| Content | Picture | 5.1 audio | Package |
|---|---|---|---|
| Per minute | 1.9 GB | 52 MB | 2 GB |
| 2 min trailer | 3.8 GB | 104 MB | 4 GB |
| 20 min short | 38 GB | 1 GB | 39 GB |
| 90 min feature | 169 GB | 4.7 GB | 174 GB |
| 110 min feature | 206 GB | 5.7 GB | 212 GB |
Two things to add on top. Your source material has to live somewhere while the render runs, and a 16-channel wild-track soundtrack is larger than 5.1: allow 138 MB per minute instead of 52, so about 15 GB on a 110-minute feature.
How long a render takes
Real measurements, not benchmarks: the same 110-minute 4K feature, start to finished DCP, on two very different Macs.
Fast
MacBook Pro M5
47 fps4K encode, about twice real time
- 110 min 4K featureunder 1 hr
- 30 sec 2K advert11 sec
- Memory32 GB+
Entry
Mac mini M4
~4 hrssame feature, base configuration
- 110 min 4K feature~4 hrs
- Runs unattendedyes
A 4K feature encodes faster than it plays. MacBook Pro laptops with 32 GB of memory or more are genuinely fast machines for this, the M4 and M5 especially: Storm finishes a 110-minute 4K package in less time than it takes to watch it. On the cheapest Mac we would put the job on, the same film is an afternoon rather than an overnight. 2K is quicker again, which is why a cinema advert is done before you have finished reading the settings back.
Worth knowing before you buy
- An Intel Mac is not the slow option. A well-specified Mac Pro (2019) encodes as fast as Apple Silicon and plays 4K back in real time, helped by Storm using the CPU alongside the GPU during playback. Intel is a supported platform, not a legacy one.
- Encrypted packages and KDMs need a Studio licence. Unencrypted DCP mastering, playback, validation and subtitles are in every licence.
- The MacBook Air is the one laptop to think twice about. It has no fan, so it throttles under a render that runs for hours, and it is usually the machine with the least memory. An excellent choice for playback, QC and delivery. A slow one for long-form mastering.
- You do not need a fast internet connection. Activation is a one-time online step. Everything after that, including mastering encrypted packages and issuing KDMs, happens entirely on your machine.
- Nothing else has to be installed. No Java runtime, no Homebrew, no command-line tools, no third-party codec licence. The installer contains everything Storm uses.