canon hf g10 - filming limitations - help

[marginal]

Hello,

I made yesterday my first long shooting and today when playing it on my pc I realized that the camera just broke the filming two times at 11min21sec and one time at 11min 35sec and went on filming in a new file. Why didn't the cam went on filming on the same file? How can I avoid this?

Can it be because I was changing AF to MF and the MIC LEVEL during filming?

Thanks
Nuno

[smrpix]

You can't "fix" it. The camera is designed to work that way. Due to technical and/or EU regulations filesize is limited. The camera creates spanned clips.

It has absolutely nothing to do with the mic levels.

Importing the folder structure (instead of individual clips) into your NLE may combine the clips. Otherwise just line them up on the timeline and you're good to go.

[marginal]

I just checked that when the file size reaches 1,90 GB it opens another file. Do you know why this is regulated by the EU? Is it regulated on the States? Does this also happens with pro cams?

Thanks.

[aedipuss]

doesn't have to do with laws. it's a limitation of the flash file system. fat32 has a max file size of 2GB.

[smrpix]

Slight mixup on my part. The EU regulations have to do with DSLRs, file duration, and the definition of a video vs. still camera for VAT purposes. Not relevant here.

This is a VERY typical scheme and was borrowed from pro cameras. I don't know exactly, it initially probably started with actual filesize limitations in FAT32. Also, long files can bog down even the best NLEs (like Avid) so the shorter file length makes for a zippier response but, properly imported, is essentially invisible to the user.

edit: aedipuss beat me to the technical part.

[turk690]

I made yesterday my first long shooting and today when playing it on my pc I realized that the camera just broke the filming two times at 11min21sec and one time at 11min 35sec and went on filming in a new file. Why didn't the cam went on filming on the same file? How can I avoid this?

The HG10, like all other AVCHD camcorders, create a number of folders in the SD card root. The actual recorded files *.mts are in the \BDMV\STREAM folder. Other important folders are \BDMV\CLIPINF and \BDMV\PLAYLIST; the files in these folders are dynamic and contain metadata about the *.mts files, specifically how each is related to the other. Due to filesystem limitations, the *.mts files are in 2GB chunks (how long each is depends on the bitrate used; how many there are depends on the length of time between successive presses of the record start/stop button).
As they are, the 2GB limit is inconvenient, as is often the case when the files alone are used as is. But when the entire AVCHD\BDMV folder is copied onto the NLE computer drive, a program like Premiere Pro, which recognizes and uses the contents of the \CLIPINF and \PLAYLIST folders, will reconstruct the 2GB chunks into a complete seamless whole on the timeline, exactly between two successive presses of start/stop (no matter how long it was, til the SD card was filled up). You will never ever know where the joins between successive 2GB segments are in the aggregate reconstructed file on the timeline, but may be confusing since it is named only after the 1st file in the cue (if the 1st file in the cue is 0000.mts, the whole reconstructed file will be named 0000.mts).
I'm not aware of other NLE programs that do the same, but I like to believe Premiere is not the only one capable of this.
It effectively renders the camcorder filesystem limitations moot.

[smrpix]

.
I'm not aware of other NLE programs that do the same, but I like to believe Premiere is not the only one capable of this..

Avid Media Composer and Vegas (Pro) can certainly handle it. I too am curious about others' experience with say Pinnacle 16 or Vegas Movie Studio, so please chime in if you have any insight.

[Brainiac]

I just tried an experiment with some footage from my Sony NX5U camera and Pinnacle Studio 16. The clips were from a wedding, and the camera was NOT turned off during the ceremony, but was turned off during pre and post ceremony.

The complete AVCHD folder from the flash drive was copied to the hard drive, and the folder on the hard drive was set up in Pinnacle Studio as a watch folder. After the files were imported into Studio, I dropped the 4 contiguous files to the timeline and played the video starting slightly before the end of one clip and the beginning of another. There were no hiccup or sync issues as the playline passed over the join points, and I tested all areas where clips were butted up against one another.

Brainiac

[smrpix]

Thanks Braniac.

The Sony cameras below the XDCam level do contain a minimal text stream within the mts files themselves and so are not dependent on the folder structure -- although for some reason copying the whole folder works better fo me than bringing over individual files.

It's not exactly the same thing, but that's great to know it doesn't miss a beat.