I am using a panasonic ag-hmc40 cam which take's SD cards. My question is if I shoot for 60 mins, my SD cards breaks the AVCHD files into 2 shots. Is there some way to shoot for 60 mins and have just one file to download? This is really bad when I go to shoot a wedding and I have to put the 2 clips together and I get a one second skip on the DVD...Looks very unprofessional.

Gary

Gary...it's my understanding different camera platforms split the 'clips' into 2G files. My Sony HXR-NX5U, in standard configuration, splits the the files when they reach 2Gs, but provides a software Content Management Utility (CMU), allowing you to stitch the two pieces together. Now, with that said, my Atomos Samurai OS uses such large file sizes, the 2G constraint doesn't come into play. I'm sure there is a much more technical description that someone will provide.

Regards,

J.

It comes down to the formatting type of the storage used. By default most USB sticks (as an example) use FAT formatting which limits the file size to about 4 Gb per device. Using NTFS formatting removes that limitation. Sony uses the 2 gB limit in their cameras as well which might explain your camcorder's limits.

Gary, I am using multiAVCHD to merge my Sony mts files together. I believe it is doing it without any dropped frames but I am still fairly new to all of this. The software is free and fast for just merging. Email me if you have any questions.

The majority of video cameras using SD cards split the file but join them up seamlessly on the time line, what editing program are you using, it might be worth trying some free trials to check out how they handle your files, I found with my Canon HF10 some of the old programs didn't like the AVCHD high profile.

Sony Vegas

Sony Vegas was the one the programs that didn't like the high profile avchd that the canon used, but this is going back a few years don't think it would be a problem know, but I would still try a free trial of some other programs that way you can find were the fault lies.
Since I've retired and not had the money for expensive programs like Premiere I've found I can get as good results using a very cheap program called Magix movie edit pro 17plus, might not be suitable if you are familiar with Vegas as it uses editing techniques more in line with Corel with some aspects of Premiere like it's 99 tracks.

Gary,
Try this free program to join segmented files back into one continuous file. It works for me.

https://sites.google.com/site/mtsfilejoiner/Home

Sony Vegas

Gary,

Do you realize Vegas has an AVCHD import function?
Insert your SHDC card into the computer, fire up your Vegas project, and do View --> Device Explorer
That's what it is there for.

I use it for importing AVCHD footage from Canon HF-S200's and a Sony HXR-NX5U camera all the time.
For more information, do Help --> Contents and Index, and do a search for 'Device Explorer'