Why can't I convert an AVI file over 4 gig?

[danzautomatic]

Please help! Been trying to work this out for ages.
Basically I’ve got an AVI file of 5.4 gig that I cannot convert beyond what I think is a 4 gig limit.
Whatever format I try to convert to, it gets to 73% and finishes, creating a file that is always 18 minutes long. 73% of 5.4g is 4g, so I’m thinking there must be a 4 gig limit on what can be converted? I’ve tried many different bit rates, settings etc. and just cannot get it to process the 5.4g. Can anyone help please?
(by the way, aiming to save to MPEG-TS to play on my media player, not burn a DVD)

[zoobie]

I think you're right. Fat32 has a file limitation of 4GB. However, using NTFS, there is no limitation.
[edit] I just noticed this is mac related so take my answer with a grain of salt [/edit]

[danzautomatic]

Oh my life, you're right!
Damn, the ridiculous 4g limit on FAT32 rears its head again! I didn't know AVI was a Microsoft file format. After some quick research it seems that there can also be a 2g limit on AVIs, depending.
You would not believe the ammount of hassle this has caused me in the past for various reasons.
Thanks Zoobie, Dan.

[dizzie]

Were you able to get it to work yet? 4GB for 18 minutes of video, must mean that it is in ful HD. Are you converting to an MPEG2 TS such as those from HD broadcasts? If so, maybe try 15,000 - 20,000 kbps for full 1080p material - might bring the filesize down a bit without sacrificing too much quality.

That is a weird problem you are having unless the disk drive you are writing to is formatted in FAT32. It may be in FAT32 if it is a media server hard drive. If possible, format it to HFS+ or even NTFS using NTFS 3G for Mac (warning, it can be buggy). If you have to stick to FAT 32, perhaps just split the original file into pieces with MPEG Streamclip and then encode the different parts. If it is simply an external hard drive, you should be good to format to HFS+ : )