Dividing Clips

[Mark Von Lanken]

I'm very new to the HMC 150. Is it possible to make a new clip without starting and stopping the camera or is it possible to divide a long clip into several smaller ones?

I'm doing a Same Day Edit at this weekends wedding and I would like to break up the ceremony into several smaller clips, without starting and stoping the camera. I only need about 1:00-1:30 from the ceremony so I don't want to bring in the entire ceremony and more importantly, I don't want to transcode the whole ceremony.

I'm editing in Edius 4.6 Broadcast and it takes 3 times the length of the clip to convert over to Edius HQ, which is what I need to edit the footage from the HMC 150. We plan to to show the Same Day Edit about 2 hours after the ceremony, but if it takes 1.5 hours to transcode a 30 minute ceremony, the HMC 150 is not a good tool for me when doing Same Day Edits.

Any suggestions?

[ilauzirika]

I don't know if that's possible, but the camera does it on its own, it breaks the clip that are over 20 minutes (more or less) so that they don't exceed the 3.99 Gb limit of FAT file system. That maybe enough for what you want.

EDIT: there have been some errors reported when importing the clips without sticking them back together (but I don't know, we'll have to wait till someone that knows chimes in).

[Averdahl]

EDIT: there have been some errors reported when importing the clips without sticking them back together (but I don't know, we'll have to wait till someone that knows chimes in).
I found a workaround for this for Windows users in this forum posted by DaFireMedic. If i run this command in a DOS window it stick those three files together to one file that will play seamless, in this example output.mts.

Here is how to do it:
1. Press WIN+R
2. Type cmd and press Enter
3. Navigate to the folder where the files are located
4. Type copy 00000.mts /b + 00001.mts /b + 00002.mts /b output.mts
5. Press Enter
6. Wait until it is done. (It takes several minutes to complete.) :)

I dont know how to do it on the Mac.

It works perfectly on clips that the camera has splitted during long captures. If one stick together two 10-seconds clips there will be a noticable artifact in the image between the clips though.

/Roger

[ilauzirika]

interesting thanks!

[Mark Von Lanken]

I don't know if that's possible, but the camera does it on its own, it breaks the clip that are over 20 minutes (more or less) so that they don't exceed the 3.99 Gb limit of FAT file system. That maybe enough for what you want.

EDIT: there have been some errors reported when importing the clips without sticking them back together (but I don't know, we'll have to wait till someone that knows chimes in).

Hi ilauzirida,

Thanks for the input. Even at 20 minutes, it will take an hour to transcode. Thanks for the warning on the potential of errors. I shot some test footage of 30 minutes today, but I'm still waiting for it to transcode. :(

[Mark Von Lanken]

I found a workaround for this for Windows users in this forum posted by DaFireMedic. If i run this command in a DOS window it stick those three files together to one file that will play seamless, in this example output.mts.

Here is how to do it:
1. Press WIN+R
2. Type cmd and press Enter
3. Navigate to the folder where the files are located
4. Type copy 00000.mts /b + 00001.mts /b + 00002.mts /b output.mts
5. Press Enter
6. Wait until it is done. (It takes several minutes to complete.) :)

I dont know how to do it on the Mac.

It works perfectly on clips that the camera has splitted during long captures. If one stick together two 10-seconds clips there will be a noticable artifact in the image between the clips though.

/Roger

Hi Roger,

Wow, thanks for the information.

[ilauzirika]

other possibility that just came to my head is prerecording.

You could set the camera to prerecord, then hit record and start recording, when you feel like you had enought hit stop and inmediately after hit record again. Just try it and see if it suits your workflow. what prerec does is activate free run tc so the timecode won't stop running, but I don't know how acceptable this might be if you are shooting with multiple cameras.

just test it and see if it works for you.

[Mark Von Lanken]

I found a workaround for this for Windows users in this forum posted by DaFireMedic. If i run this command in a DOS window it stick those three files together to one file that will play seamless, in this example output.mts.

Here is how to do it:
1. Press WIN+R
2. Type cmd and press Enter
3. Navigate to the folder where the files are located
4. Type copy 00000.mts /b + 00001.mts /b + 00002.mts /b output.mts
5. Press Enter
6. Wait until it is done. (It takes several minutes to complete.) :)

I dont know how to do it on the Mac.

It works perfectly on clips that the camera has splitted during long captures. If one stick together two 10-seconds clips there will be a noticable artifact in the image between the clips though.

/Roger

Hi Roger,

I attempted the above solution several times but it said "The system cannot find the file specified." Do you have any suggestions?

When I converted the AVCHD files for Edius I lost about 15 frames, so I would really like to find the solution. Thanks for your help.

[Averdahl]

I attempted the above solution several times but it said "The system cannot find the file specified." Do you have any suggestions?
Did you navigate to the folder where the files are located? If you dont, the system wont find the files. Use the command cd to change directory.

For example if you start in C:\ and want to get to the folder D:\Mark\Von\Lanken you must do the following:
1. Type d: and press Enter
2. Type cd \ and press Enter
3. Type cd mark\von\lanken and press Enter
4. To see the files, type dir and press enter

You can do it "one folder at a time" as well, just type cd mark and press Enter, type cd von and press Enter and at last, type cd lanken and press Enter.

To "step back" one folder, type cd.. and press Enter. If you want to get back to the root, D:\, type cd\ and press Enter.

If you need help for any DOS comand, lets say cd do this:
1. type cd /? and press Enter

If you have navigated to the correct folder you should be able to see all the files in that folder by typing dir and pressing Enter. This is a good way to see if the files are there. :)

/Roger

[Mark Von Lanken]

other possibility that just came to my head is prerecording.

You could set the camera to prerecord, then hit record and start recording, when you feel like you had enought hit stop and inmediately after hit record again. Just try it and see if it suits your workflow. what prerec does is activate free run tc so the timecode won't stop running, but I don't know how acceptable this might be if you are shooting with multiple cameras.

just test it and see if it works for you.

Hi ilauzirika,

I tried the pre record mode, but it lost about 1.5 seconds between clips. Thanks for trying to help.

[Mark Von Lanken]

Did you navigate to the folder where the files are located? If you dont, the system wont find the files. Use the command cd to change directory...

/Roger

Hi Roger,

Thanks for the DOS tutorial. I had no idea what DOS was...wel I still realy don't...but at lease I was able to follow your instructions and it worked just as you described. It made a new clip and the new clip included the 15 frames that were previously missing. Thanks so much for taking the time to help me.