GH2 34 minute record time on US bought GH2

M

mslade

Member
So I had posted earlier that I thought one of my GH2's was "skipping" frames as it had stopped and re-started with a new file name during a dance recital. well now it appears that I have a 34 minute limit on record time. Both cams are doing this now. They aren't skipping frames. They are starting a new file at 3.99 Gig or at 34 minutes. I bought them from Unique so they shouldn't be Europe cams. Any ideas???

Mark
 
If they're starting new files at 3.99GB, then I don't think there's anything wrong. The FAT file system has a limit of 4GB per file (if I recall correctly), which just means your GH2s are spanning the files before they get too big. Nothing wrong, as far as I can tell.

The European GH2s STOP recording entirely before they hit that 4GB limit anyway.
 
Are you using at least a Class 6 card, and which brand? Try a different card to rule out any problem with that.
 
I think Matthew nailed it, sounds like a FAT32 problem. Format the card in the camera, should take care of it.
 
mslade said:
So I had posted earlier that I thought one of my GH2's was "skipping" frames as it had stopped and re-started with a new file name during a dance recital. well now it appears that I have a 34 minute limit on record time. Both cams are doing this now. They aren't skipping frames. They are starting a new file at 3.99 Gig or at 34 minutes.
Click to expand...
There's actually no time limit on AVCHD videos on Panasonic NTSC G-series cameras. However, what you've seen is the SD card's 4GB limit on individual MTS files, due to its archaic FAT32 file system. During recording, the camera is designed to automatically span long AVCHD video takes across as many MTS files as needed, up to the capacity of the SD card. Players which recognize the card's PRIVATE file structure are expected to reconstruct the complete video during playback.

In practice, the 4GB file-spanning mechanism is not very robust. The camera may lose a frame or two between files, or may even stop recording at the end of a 4GB file. File spanning usually fails at bitrates higher than about 28Mbps, which are routinely produced by hacked GH1's. If your GH2 has trouble recording takes longer than 34 mins in FHD mode, I'd recommend trying a name-brand Class 10 SD card, or switching to SH mode, which typically requires lower bitrates.
 
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