Utility to joinn congruent mxf files

[David Cherniack]

I finding dealing with split files in post a bit of a pita with my work flow. Is there a utility somewhere that can join them into a single file? (The sooner C-D moves to an exFat, option the better)

David

[Aaron Newsome]

cat *.mxf > large.mxf

that works for me.

[David Cherniack]

does it retain timecode across the boundaries?

[Bob Griffiths]

Originally Posted by David Cherniack

Is there a utility somewhere that can join them into a single file?David

David,

There is something similar on the FireStore that I would advocate for in the nano and XDR in both .mxf and .mov flavors. Here's the description from the FS-100 product page:

<snip>
QuickTime Reference Movies
The FS-100 uses the FAT32 disk format, allowing up to 2GB of recorded video per clip. While recording, the FS-100 automatically creates a new clip when the 2GB limit is reached, ensuring that no frames are dropped. Depending on the length of your recording, you may have multiple 2GB clips.

After your recording is complete, you can go to the FS-100 Utilities menu and create a *QuickTime reference movie. This movie acts as a pointer, referencing your multiple clips to form one movie. This feature makes clip management more efficient, especially when editing—your NLE will import the reference movie as one clip.
*Because the QuickTime reference movie points to your original 2GB clips, the clips and the reference movie should always be archived together.
<snip>

David, does this sound like what you are looking for? I have used this utility with FireStore files and it works well.

Thoughts?

[John Mitchell]

I agree there is an urgent need for a utility or even a metadata format that allows you to use something akin to the Sony EX Clipbrowser.

Whilst Aaron's solution will work, if you only want to join the files that actually belong together in one clip it is much more time consuming than a structured format and solution.

The Sony metadata format automatically allows NLE's to concatenate concurrent files into one file. This is extremely handy for multicam shoots where multiple files mean at least twice the work when syncing..

thanks

John

[David Cherniack]

John, All very true. One would hope that C-D will implement the Sony solution that is used by NLEs to treat congruent clips as one.