I just installed the 16G P2 card driver in my 15" Powerbook. Then i tested it with some long takes recorded onto on P2 card. I was shootingt 720 24PN
When I looked at the shots in the import window of FCP (5.1.2) one of the takes ( probably the one that went over the previous 20 minute limit) said "spanned" on it. But I was only using one card. I did leave the cmera recording right up to the end of the card but that was on another take and that take seemed fine. I didn't actually try to import these shots into FCP.

What is this about? I need to use it tomorrow and don't want any problems. Don't have time to troubleshoot today either.

- Lenny

I just went through this a couple of weeks ago.

My thinking, and it may be completely wrong (even the Apple guy couldn't tell me for certain), is that the computer is looking at your 16 gig card as TWO 8 gig cards, not one 16 gig card.

I had a dickens of a time getting FCP to ingest these spanned files, but after about 30 tries on each file, it eventually worked, but I was just about ready to give up.

My best advice to you, having just been through this, is try to film with many smaller clips rather than one massive one. I had my problems with massive 20-25-30 minute takes. I had NO trouble for clips that were of more typical cinema length.

Good luck!

Stephen

Thanks Stephen,
Did you post about this earlier somewhere? i recall seeing something but couldn't find it on my searches.
On your 30 attempts to ingest this file in FCP, did you do anything different? Also what version of FCP where you using?

Shouldn't be too hard to have smaller files unless you were recording a long speech or piece of music in which case its a major drag.

Anyone lese have this problem. My buddy tried the same experiment when he got his 16 G but never saw the problem.

I had a dickens of a time getting FCP to ingest these spanned files...


You might try Raylight/Mac which will never ever have that problem. Plus you can read the metadata from the timeline. http://dvfilm.com/raylight/mac

I did not do anything different from one attempt to the next. Sometimes it would blow up ("sieze up" would be a better term, actually!) immediately, and sometimes it would taunt me and get almost to the very end before blowing up. But, eventually, they all took.

I was doing an interview and the camera was on a tripod, which is why it took so long.

Stephen

Oh, I forgot. I'm using FCP 6.0 from Final Cut Studio 2.

Stephen