Long Recordings

[Dan Keaton]

Dear Friends,

We had a question today about long recordings.

We split long recordings into multiple files.

This allows us to use a file system that is compatible with both the PC, the Mac and other systems.
This means that we use a FAT32 file system, so each file is limited to 4 GB.

When we reach approximately 3.7 Gigabytes, we close one file, then start another.

As we are writing the data to the next file, we write some important information, to the previous file. When done, we close the previous file.

The important point, is that this process is seamless. No audio or video is lost during this process.

This process also allows us to have one long recording and have it on multiple CompactFlash cards.

Each file is identified with a Clip Number (a sequential number indicating the recording number), and the File Number, which always starts with 001 for the first file in the sequence of files.

When editing, with most editors, one can select all of the files in one Clip, then drag and drop them into the timeline and they will be adjacent to each other on the timeline.


Some people, for various reasons, like or need to have very short files. The File Size parameter in the System Menu allows one to control the size of the files.

An example is when recording a police chase in a helicopter, while transmitting the chase to the station via microwave. With small files, it is very easy to retransmit a specific portion of the chase.

[Luben Izov]

Dear Dan,
The question I have has been asked before and it's very related to long recordings. Is the hot swap coming along? What is the foreseen future. This coming firmware or several more moons, perhaps next year? Thank you.
Luben

[Dan Keaton]

Dear Luben,

We have been concentrating on improving the reliability.

Hot Swapping has not, obviously been at the top of our list.

I am sorry, but I can not give you a date at this time.

[Tim Polster]

Hello Dan,

Regarding long recordings, I have inquired about this in the past but do not think anything definite was decided.

A utility to stich all of the short clips into one clip (in a quick manner) would be great. I do not know if this is possible but it would help a great deal in my multicamera editing software.

So one could take all of the clips on a card (or at least the continuous clips) and turn them into one clip via the software utility.

Or is there a way to add this functionality in the Nanoflash? Record short clips but the Nano is aware when you have recorded for 1:20 min and can turn this into one clip after you stop recording?

Just thinking out loud.

Thanks

[Piotr Wozniacki]

Tim,

The nano can't concatenate the files on the CF card due to the card's FAT32 limitations. However, a utility could be devised to do so on your HDD, after copying.

I used to use such an utility with Sony DR60 HDD drive. It seamlessly concatenated <4GB chunks into a single file per take, without any size limit.

Similarly, you can use ClipBrowser to stich the SxS chunks (or files spanned over 2 or more cards).

In multicamera edits I often do, it's very convenient to have one full file per each take (clip).

Therefore, I'd like to add such an utility for the nanoFlash files to my wishlist. Of course, the priority being lower than my top 2, which currently are:

- hot-swapping
- mixing embedded audio with the extra analog channel(s)

Wha do you say, Dan?

[Dan Keaton]

Dear Piotr,

I like the idea of a utility to copy the files off of the CompactFlash card, then writing all of the files in one Clip to one larger file on a PC or a Mac.

But, as you noted, with your wishlist, we are very busy at this time.

[Bob Griffiths]

The idea of a utility to stitch together files is something we discussed back in September:

<snip>
- Have you considered consolidating your contiguous files with Reference Movies that are generated by the nanoFlash. FireStore has this feature and it is a great one... cutting down on bin clutter and giving the editor logical files to work with, particularly with long interviews. The FireStore implementation is that, just prior to dumping the disk, you run a utility that creates the Ref Movie and then it downloads with everything else. Possible?

Here's a link to the FireStore manual on Reference files:
Focus Enhancements - Europe | Middle East | Africa : Download Center . The section on Reference movies is on page 78 of the FS-100 Manual.
(Focus Enhancements US website is down. This is from the EMEA website)
<snip>

Thanks for reviving this idea!