Nano Flash clip names

[Paul Cronin]

Dan,

What are the options on naming the clips coming out of the Nano?

Sorry I searched the site and can't find anything on the subject.

[Dan Keaton]

Dear Paul,

The first two digits are the "Unit ID", set via the menu.

The next three digitss are the "Clip Number". This starts out at 001, goes to 999, then recycles back to 001.

The clip number is remembered even when you power off the unit.

The clip number is reset to zero if the Unit ID is changed or even if you just goes to the Unit ID menu item and selects it.

The next three digits is the file number. For a given Clip, this starts at 001 and goes to 999, then recycles. (Of course this would have to be a very long take for it to recycle.)

The file extensions are MOV, MXF, MPG or M2V.

I hope this helps.

[Mark Job]

Originally Posted by Dan Keaton

Dear Paul,

The file extensions are MOV, MXF, MPG or M2V.

I hope this helps.

...Forgive me if you've already answered this question, but are the MPG and M2V formats also available on the XDR ?

[Dan Keaton]

Dear Mark,

We will be releasing a new version of the Flash XDR firmware which will include these new features.

We have been testing the new firmware, and adding a few enhancments. Specifically, we are attempting to improve reliability and improving our new MPG and M2V formats.

We offered these MPG and M2V as "Beta" fetures in the nanoFlash. We have improved certain aspects of these, including audio performance.

My best guess at this time is that this new release for the Flash XDR will be within 15 days.

[Mark Job]

Originally Posted by Dan Keaton

Dear Mark,

We will be releasing a new version of the Flash XDR firmware which will include these new features.

We have been testing the new firmware, and adding a few enhancments. Specifically, we are attempting to improve reliability and improving our new MPG and M2V formats.

We offered these MPG and M2V as "Beta" fetures in the nanoFlash. We have improved certain aspects of these, including audio performance.

My best guess at this time is that this new release for the Flash XDR will be within 15 days.

....Wow ! Great Dan :) Is this the one which will give XDR users the timelapse feature as well ? I have an idea about the transport & elementary DVD streams. Now, let me also qualify what I'm about to express by also acknowledging I don't know how you folks are working on this in the lab, so I'm taking a total stab in the dark here.

.....If you are having difficulty with the seperate audio stream recording for elementary streams creation, then may I suggest the implimentation of a simple *Demux* program approach. This is a sort of alternative approach to your main direct stream creation. Simply record your MPG program stream and use a button push combination to initiate a "demux" of the recorded transport stream MPG file and then copy out the two seperate files. You may not want to do it this way because of the limited space on he CF media, or because you have perfected direct recording in this manner already. You could initiate an *auto-delete* of the original TS MPG after it has completed the demux to conserve valuable CF card space.

OR this is a really dumb idea and I don't know what the h*** I'm talking about ! ;-)

[Paul Cronin]

Thanks Dan all this makes sense since Alister has this in a earlier post. What are the options after 999 when you shoot for a company and there will be 1500 clips as I will with a current job?

[Dan Keaton]

Dear Paul,

There are multiple ways to handle this.

Since it is highly unlikely that you will have over 999 clips in one day, you could store your clips in different folders, either by Day, Week, or Month.

Another easy way is to monitor your clip number, then when you approach 999, change the Unit ID.

For example, if you have 10 cameras or less on a shoot, then add 10 to the Unit ID.

Unit ID 01 becomes 11. Now you have 999 more clips, and the clip number automatically resets to 001. And the files sort automatically into the proper numerical sequence, in the destination Folder.

You can change the Unit ID at any time, you do not have to wait until you get near 999.


We adopted this method of naming clips as it worked well with 8 character filenames, and the files naturally sort into a reasonable and proper order, even if one copies the files from CompactFlash cards to a computer system out of order.

Then, if one wants to sort the clips from multiple cameras, one can just sort by File Creation Date and Time. (Of course, this requires one to properly set the Date and Time in your Flash XDR or nanoFlash.


If for some reason, one reuses the same Filename on the same project, you will be warned by the Operating System. Just reply no to "Overwrite Existing File" (or similar message), then create a new folder.

[Dan Keaton]

Originally Posted by Mark Job

....Wow ! Great Dan :) Is this the one which will give XDR users the timelapse feature as well ? I have an idea about the transport & elementary DVD streams. Now, let me also qualify what I'm about to express by also acknowledging I don't know how you folks are working on this in the lab, so I'm taking a total stab in the dark here.

.....If you are having difficulty with the seperate audio stream recording for elementary streams creation, then may I suggest the implimentation of a simple *Demux* program approach. This is a sort of alternative approach to your main direct stream creation. Simply record your MPG program stream and use a button push combination to initiate a "demux" of the recorded transport stream MPG file and then copy out the two seperate files. You may not want to do it this way because of the limited space on he CF media, or because you have perfected direct recording in this manner already. You could initiate an *auto-delete* of the original TS MPG after it has completed the demux to conserve valuable CF card space.

OR this is a really dumb idea and I don't know what the h*** I'm talking about ! ;-)

Dear Mark,

We have been working on the MPG and M2V file formats. Our engineers feel that the iniital issues have already been resolved.

We understand that some nice, free, fast software can be run to create (demux) a MPG file and create a M2V file. While we expect to support both, it may make more sense for us to drop the M2V file format.

Thus users will just create MPG files and demux to create the two elementary streams, if desired.

Of course, we can write our own demuxer.

Personally, I think keeping our M2V file format is not a great idea. I am worried about someone creating a M2V file, not realizing that audio will not be recorded. This danger is avoided by us by by just creating MPG files.

I would be interested in what others feel about dropping our M2V file support.

[Aaron Newsome]

I agree Dan. I see absolutely no reason to create m2v files. Just create an MPG and there are countless ways out there to demux already.

When I record MOS (no sound), it's interesting that I could probably get a few more seconds of recording time on the CF without the sound but it's probably more of a hassle than it's worth.

[Dan Keaton]

Dear Aaron,

Thanks, we appreciate your input.

[Mark Job]

Originally Posted by Dan Keaton

Dear Mark,

Of course, we can write our own demuxer.

.....Yes, please do. I was suggesting you could actually program it into your Eprom Memmory in the XDR and auto activate the process on a file by a combination button press on the XDR or Nano.

Originally Posted by Dan Keaton

Personally, I think keeping our M2V file format is not a great idea. I am worried about someone creating a M2V file, not realizing that audio will not be recorded. This danger is avoided by us just creating MPG files.

I would be interested in what others feel about dropping our M2V file support.

....Yes, please drop the M2V file record unless you can also record an elementary audio stream to go with it. Demux the MPG instead.

[Paul Cronin]

Thanks Dan I will discuss the options with the client.