Panasonic HMC 40-Recording lenght question

G

grunzy

New member
I apologize if this somewhat basic question has been answered before, I am new to this forum as well as this camera.

I use SanDisk 32GB class 10 cards for my HMC 40 camera and mostly shoot local bands. It appears that all my continuous recordings
are broken up in 29 minute files and putting an atleast split second break in my files/recording. This obviously makes editing
a whole lot harder and prevents me from using this camera as my main cam. Is this normal? I have read somewhere that these SDHC cards
limit recordings to 29 minutes, but can that still be true?

Any discussion or advise on this topic would be great appreciated, I love this camera but this is a pain.

Thank you,

Tibor
 
The file format is FAT32 and FAT32 has a 4GB limit on the file size. The camera does break the recording into files that are as large as possible and if the ends are put together correctly there's no loss of audio or video. However not every conversion software I've tried is able to convert without dropping something.

One trick you could do is to watch the recording time and when there's a break between songs, pause the camera and start it again. This would force a break at a point where if you have a slight gap, it wouldn't show.


Bob Diaz
 
Thank you Bob, I might just have to do what you suggested last. Although i have also read somewhere if you use the import feature of the editing software (in my case Vegas 12.o)...it might keep all the footage together. I will also try that. So far I have just been copying the movie files from flash card to pc...it appears that may not be the right way to do this. I will keep you posted. Thx again.
 
Always recommended to copy the entire folder structure from SD card to hard drive, do not pick and choose just the video clips. There is important data in the file structure that the NLE needs to properly interpret and deal with the footage, especially in regards to the splicing issue. Can't speak for Vegas, but in Adobe Premiere, use above copy method and then use Adobe Media Browser for the import and splices are then seamless.

Thanks

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers
 
grunzy said:
This obviously makes editinga whole lot harder and prevents me from using this camera as my main cam.
Click to expand...
Depending on your editing software, it doesn't make it any harder whatsoever. As SHarbor is pointing out, if you bring the clips properly into an AVCHD-aware editing program, the editor will "know" how to deal with the spanned clips and it will all be processed invisibly in the background. You will get exactly what you want -- one big, long, uninterrupted clip to edit (as far as the user interface is concerned; behind the scenes your NLE will be working with the multiple pieces of the file and seamlessly stitching them together).
 
Well tried importing some footage directly in to vegas 12.0....between every 4gb clip created it loses about a 1 second worth of data, although it seems like it only loses the audio data, but will have to doublecheck that again. I think your suggestion will work best, it will off course make editing a little more painful when camera is part of 2 or 3 cam shoot. And off course...somehow have to try to remember to stop the camera at some point between songs.
 
Oooh, gonna try this, but i suspect it will require rendering this all together before i can use it in a 2 or 3 cam edit, right
 
No. Use the Device Explorer to import your footage into Vegas 12. Do NOT use "import", that is not the right process for AVCHD files and it is what is causing your audio dropouts.
 
As Barry says, you can use Device Explorer, if you use Win 7 or higher (I use XP that have no Device explorer). Otherwise, try with MTSmerger. That small software ONLY join clips (without rendering) but need time because must copy more than 4 Gb (e.g. if you have clip1 (4GB), clip2 (4GB) and clip3 (2GB), the result will be joined_clip (10GB)). Especially careful to enter a correct sequence of clips (1st, 2nd, 3rd ...) in the MTSmerger, because wrong sequence will give the faulty result!
 
Any modern NLE which is AVCHD-aware will have a whitepaper about how to properly import AVCHD footage. The 4GB file limit is irrelevant and using "MTS Merger" or whatever is just bad advice.

In a modern NLE, when go to import the footage and point the NLE at the PRIVATE directory, it will automatically detect that AVCHD file structure and will show full length clips without any breaks. You need to copy the entire PRIVATE folder structure from the SD card, as it contains metadata.

Working directly with the MTS files is a bad idea.
 
Yes Phil1076, but many of us use old NLE which meet all our requirements (I use Edius 5.5, it is AVCHD aware but not recognize SD card structure and metadata). So, for such users, software like "MTS Merger" is necessary!
 
tompa said:
Yes Phil1076, but many of us use old NLE which meet all our requirements (I use Edius 5.5, it is AVCHD aware but not recognize SD card structure and metadata). So, for such users, software like "MTS Merger" is necessary!
Click to expand...

Perhaps it doesn't really meet all your needs then. I'm just saying.
 
tompa said:
For now really meet all my needs! I'm just saying, also :)
Click to expand...

Your NLE does not support ACVHD. The fact that it "supports" MTS files means nothing. If your NLE supported AVCHD, you wouldn't have posted your first post and you would not have any issues with spanned clips.

As I said, any MODERN NLE will work and you won't have those issues. If you want to complicate things then by all means go ahead. Your NLE does not support the AVCHD format and that is why you're having issues -- simple as that.
 
Fine, but I can live with that, I can work with that and, of course, I can make a profit! Yes, you are right, Edius 5.5 not supported AVCHD, but work very good with MTS files, and for me that means everything what I need.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top