I can't seem to find anyone else on the interwebs with this problem, and that frightens me a bit...

I've borrowed a Sony camcorder, the logo identifies it as an HDX-something. When I shoot continuous takes with it, it breaks up the video into 2 gig MTS files. Playing back on the camera these breaks are seamless, but playing back in Adobe products there is a 3 or 4 frame pause at the beginning of each file. These frames-- that should continue directly from the previous file-- seem to be clones of the 4th frame of the new file, and once you arrow past these few frames, the playback returns to normal.

Otherwise the project is going fine, but there are these odd skips every 12 minutes that I'd like to clean up, or at least prevent in the future...anybody know anything about this?

there are these odd skips every 12 minutes that I'd like to clean up, or at least prevent in the future...anybody know anything about this?

All AVCHD camcorders do this. It was an engineering decision made to avoid certain software patents and to ensure compatibility with computers built more than 20 years ago. There are many utilities and ways to join the files back together. Here is one thread where possibile solutions are discussed:

AC130: NLE makes a glitch when camera closes the file and starting the next file. (http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?281261-NLE-makes-a-glitch-when-camera-closes-the-file-and-starting-the-next-file)

I am humbled and infinitely grateful to you Eric.
Thanks so much for the quick response!!!

for the record I went with:
https://sites.google.com/site/mtsfilejoiner/Home/files

and never looked back...