Could a firmware upgrade change this?

[Green Hornet]

I was recently testing a Canon HF s100 and it divides the AVCHD footage at 2 gigs (from what I remember). THe HMC150 seems to divide the footage at 4 gig sections.

I was wondering if a firmware change could change this on the HMC150?

I would prefer that it could be divided at even lower amounts, like 1 gig sections.

The reason for this is that is sure seemed easier to edit the Canon AVCHD footage, as I could transcode or use smaller sections of footage, and not use other sections.

If out of a 4 hour shoot, I only needed selective 15 minute sections, it sure makes things easier doing smaller chunks.

With 4 gig chunks, you have to process the whole thing in order to cut out the smaller section. Sure you would have more single pieces, but works for me.


Also what is with the nameing sequence when transcoding to DVCpro HD?
It seems as if there is no way to know the order if you put the footage in the same folder.

 

[jpmulligan]

I think that a change to decrease the segment size, or ideally to make it selectable from a few different sizes, would absolutely be possible via a firmware change. While the upper limit would have to remain at 4GB, i don't see where adding this feature would present any technical challenge.

Now you just need to convince Panasonic that this is a desirable feature.

 

[Green Hornet]

If you are shooting short takes, it doesn't really matter as each section will be it's own file, however, if you had a 32gig card of an event, the option to work on one portion, seem of value to me.

Examples:

If shooting a wedding, I'd like to find the "I-do" clip and edit that, and then fill in the rest to build into a reasonable time frame of say 30 minutes

If shooting a band or musicians, I would like to find the best performance, and edit that, and add cutaways etc to that main clip.

If used as a B camera, that is running continuously, I might only need a 3 second clip segment.


As it stands now, you have to drag a whole 4 gig clip around and then slice it down to the part you need. That is about 24 minutes of footage when you may only need the cutaway.

I can edit this stuff, but 4 gig chunks seem like they could be smaller.

My workflow is that I take all files and put them on my hard drive as AVCHD, then either transcode them to a portable USB drive that I let process overnight, or just edit the raw AVCHD and make the new clips go to the external hard drive.

I am getting to the point that my source footage is nearly filling my computers hard drive.
Having smaller chunks would allow me to only bring in what I needed.

I think that is why so many are having a hard time with their edits.

One gig (or slightly less) chunks would be great.
That is about 6 minutes, most songs are less than 6 minutes, you would likely have each song (or nearly) on one clip (or two at the worst).

That would greatly reduce your edit, and transcoding times (if you only need to transcode one gig instead of 4) as well as maintain hard drive performance (due to the drive not being as full).

...That being said, how are you splitting your footage when you only need the cutaway?

 

[pailes]

It should be no problem to split the 4gb files into smaller files after shooting.

 

[Green Hornet]

It should be no problem to split the 4gb files into smaller files after shooting.

Yes it can be done, but how is everyone doing it.
I have taken the clips into premiere , but that is a long process for something that I would like to take seconds doing.

Also, if you need say 5 smaller clips from a 4 gig segment, how do you do that in premiere or other application?

Do you set in and out points and then create a subclip?

IS a subclip a seperate file or only a reference of that portion of the main file?

Again, now I am creating more files, and filling up more of the hard drive for something that would be nicer to just be able to bring in the smaller clip and do a ripple delete on what i wasn't using.

Most of my stuff has not been long form event type shooting so I would have short clips anyway, but of late, I have been doing more continuous stuff.