Run-time hell - Longer on camera than on copied file on hard drive

[Qwerty69]

Hi -

Hoping some evil genius can shed some light on this one...

I've just got a cheap BenQ S-21 DV camera which records in an AVC1/H.264 format. Took it to a gig last night and got some great footage recorded @ 1280 x 720 with a reported 29.971 fps rate.

The problem I've got is that if I play the video file on the camcorder, it plays the correct length of 2:10:52. If I connect it via USB and copy the file over to my hard drive, (3.7Gb), then the file is truncated and I only get 1:53:01 worth of video. Similarly, if I play the file on the computer and read from the SD card in the camera directly, it also stops at the 1:53:01 mark.

Any idea what's going on? All the data is obviously there as it plays the full 2:10:52 on the camera - just can't get the last 23 minutes over to the PC.

Going insane now!

Any help, greatly appreciated!

Cheers -

Q.

[Qwerty69]

This is the MediaInfo output for the file -

General
Complete name : M:\FILE0032.MOV
Format : MPEG-4
Format profile : QuickTime
Codec ID : qt
File size : 3.67 GiB
Duration : 1h 53mn
Overall bit rate : 4 645 Kbps
Encoded date : UTC 2010-01-03 02:03:04
Tagged date : UTC 2010-01-03 02:03:04
AMBA :

Video
ID : 1
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : Main@L4.0
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames : 4 frames
Format settings, GOP : M=3, N=15
Codec ID : avc1
Codec ID/Info : Advanced Video Coding
Duration : 1h 53mn
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 4 254 Kbps
Nominal bit rate : 4 001 Kbps
Width : 1 280 pixels
Height : 720 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 29.970 fps
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.154
Stream size : 3.36 GiB (92%)
Title : Ambarella AVC / Ambarella AVC
Language : English
Encoded date : UTC 2010-01-03 02:03:04
Tagged date : UTC 2010-01-03 02:03:04
Audio
ID : 2
Format : ADPCM
Codec ID : 11
Codec ID/Hint : Intel
Duration : 1h 53mn
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 384 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Stream size : 310 MiB (8%)
Title : Ambarella AAC / Ambarella AAC
Language : English
Encoded date : UTC 2010-01-03 02:03:04
Tagged date : UTC 2010-01-03 02:03:04

[betwixt]

Sounds like you hit the 4Gb file size limit.
What OS and disk filing system are you using? It may be that your only option is to record the file in two or more sections, compress them and join the bits back together.

Brian.

[Qwerty69]

I'm using Windows 7 x64 and it's an NTFS volume.

[betwixt]

I'm pretty sure it's the 4GB file size limit thats doing it. Can you check by copying it in two sections to make sure it really can all be copied and it isn't some glitch on the recording that's stopping it.
What will be your final media, are you planning copying it to DVD/BluRay or will it stay as a file on the hard disk?

Brian.

[Qwerty69]

Happy to try, but I'm not sure how I'd go about copying it in two sections? The file appears on the SD card in the camera as a single FILE0032.MOV which is 3.66Gb in size. All I am doing is connecting the cam and then dragging/dropping that file to a hard drive. Not sure I understand what you mean about "copying it in two sections", (sorry if I'm being thick!)

Main final media will be a) HD stream to media server/TV and b) DVD for friends.

Cheers!

Q.

[Qwerty69]

Just been reading up on the file size limitations - NTFS supports well over a 4Gb file size. The card in the camera is formatted to FAT32, but the max. file size on FAT32 is 4 294 967 295 bytes. The file I'm copying is 3,936,845,824 bytes - under that limit. There's no other files on the SD card, so it hasn't split it automatically on there either.

As such, that doesn't look like it is a file size issue...

[aedipuss]

try media info on the file in the cam and see if reports differently than the copied file.

you could take the card out of the cam and use it directly in the computer. if you don't have one get a usb card reader.

are you sure there isn't a file0033.mov?

[edit] lots of cams automatically file split at 4gb no matter what.

[Qwerty69]

MediaInfo on the card in the cam reports the same truncated length - 01:53:01. Definitely no other files on the card - hidden or otherwise. File still plays on the camera all the way through to the actual end @ 02:10:52.

I've also tried re-building the copied file on the HD using AVIdemux, avc2avi and mp4creator - all report or demux only the 01:53:01 length.

GRRR! Goddam technology

Q.

[hech54]

Maybe the camera somehow switches to some sort of "safe" mode when it feels it's coming to the end of the storage space available? I don't know how the camera would deal with the "extra" material or where it would put it but...just a thought.

[aedipuss]

does the camera also have built in memory storage space the other file might be in?

[gregalan]

If it's a 4GB SD card the actual formatted size is around 3.6GB, so the camera must have internal memory and that's where the rest of the file is.

[Qwerty69]

OK - this was on an 8Gb card and no, there wasn't anything else on the internal memory.

BUT -

I've "fixed" it... Or at least found the rest of the data. Here's what happened -

Last night, before I went to bed, instead of copying the file off the SD Card, I actually cut it off and pasted to the internal PC's HDD. This morning when I look on the SD card, the 1:53:01 file called FILE0032.MOV is gone, but there's a new file now appeared called FI010032.MOV - 00:17:51 long.

No idea how or why this is the case - my explorer browser is set to show all files, all the time - and I swear to God that file wasn't listed before, but hey, I'm not arguing!!

Thanks everyone for your assistance!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Q.

[betwixt]

Now you know why so many of us use Linux!
(no flames please)

Brian,

[Qwerty69]

Ha! I hear ya mate

No flames from me - just appreciation for your assistance!

Thanks again,

Q.