Solution and Procedure

[Danny Fye]

Problem: *.m2t files won’t load seamlessly into Vegas 7.


Start of Solution and Procedure:


Disclaimer, I am not responsible if you mess-up your system by trying this Solution-Procedure for reasons including but not limited to errors you make in typing the commands and/or your inability to do this Solution-Procedure.


I have tried to explain this the best I can. Those who can explain it better, please share it.


!!!Please proceed with caution!!!


On my system I have three hard drives. I have drive ‘c’ for programs, ‘t’ for work and keep files and ‘v’ is the large video work drive. I am using Windows XP Home.


This Solution-Procedure assumes that there is an hour of video and that there are seven *.m2t files. Drive ‘t’ has a folder named “fs” for Fire Store and drive ‘v’ has a folder named “work”. To successfully test this procedure it is best to create these 2 folders. Note: This procedure is this way because copying from and to the same drive can take quite a long time. So it is best to copy from one hard drive to another. Even then, because this procedure uses DOS and there is no cache to work with so the copying speed is slower. I have no idea if this will work with RAID drives so a word of caution.


Copy all of the *.m2t files from the FS-4 HD to the “fs” folder.


To make the procedure a whole lot easier, rename the files as follows starting from the first one to: 001.m2t, 002.m2t, 003.m2t, 004.m2t, 005.m2t, 006.m2t, and 007.m2t. Trying to work with the original filenames can be a major pain.


Do not type the quotes “ ” in the following instructions. Just type what is between the quotes.


Click on Start, Run and then type the word “command” and press enter. You will now be in DOS.


Note: my system defaults to C:\DOCUME~1\DANNYF~1 which is the same as c:\documents and settings\dannyfye.


Type “cd c:\” and press enter.
Type “t:” and press enter. Important Note: If your drive that has the “fs” folder is other than ‘t’ use its drive letter instead. So if the “fs” folder is in drive ‘e’ type “e:” and then press enter.
Type “cd fs” and press enter.


You should now be in the directory that the above files are in.


You can type “dir” and enter to verify this.


Next, type:


“copy /b 001.m2t+002.m2t+003.m2t+004.m2t+005.m2t+006.m2t+007.m2t v:\work\final.m2t” and press enter.


Note: The v: assumes the ‘work’ folder is in drive v. If the drive letter is ‘f’ for instance then substitute the letter ‘f’ for ‘v’ in the above copy command. So the last part of the above copy command would be, “f:\work\final.m2t”.


This will take a good while so don’t think your computer is locked up because it isn’t. So find something else to do while waiting...


After the copying is done be sure to type: “exit” and then press enter. Do not try to close the DOS window by clicking on the ‘X’ in the upper right corner.


You should now have one long file named, “final.m2t” that will work properly with Vegas.


End of Solution-Procedure.


It takes a lot longer to explain this than to do it except for the time it takes to copy and combine the files.


This procedure solves the non-seamless file problem with Vegas and it may also help with other issues that those who have the FS-4 HD are having.


Please feel free to polish this procedure to make it more simpler and let us know what you came-up with. Those who know how to write software should find it easy to create a short utility to make this whole thing a lot easier for those who are a bit shy about trying it.

Final Note: The only reason I figured this out was because I was getting very frustrated with this problem and got down on my knees and prayed and so this is the answer to my prayer.

Hope this helps,
Danny Fye
www.dannyfye.com
www.vidmus.com/scolvs

[Danny Fye]

Update:

It is best to do the following procedure with a test video, not an important video you don't want to loose.

I have refined my procedure a bit so as to take less time to do this. The main advantage of this refined procedure is that the files are copied once instead of twice. Copy time from FS-4 HD to hard drive on my system using this procedure is approx 5.5 minutes for one hour of video with 7 *.m2t files.

The following assumes: Drive "V" is the destination video work drive with a folder named "capture". The FS-4 HD is drive "F". Also it assumes that there is an hour of video on the FS-4 HD and there are 7 *.m2t files. Also the destination file will be named, "cam1.m2t". All commands that I type do not include the quotes. So "command" is simply typed as command.

Once the FS-4 HD is mounted, use Windows to go to the FS-4 HD drive "F". I rename the folder with the video files to "fs".
Rename the video files to 001.m2t, 002.m2t, 003.m2t, 004.m2t, 005.m2t, 006.m2t and 007.m2t. This assures that they stay in order.

The purpose of all this renaming is to avoid major hassling with the default and very long original file names in the next part, reduce a ton of typing and possibilities for errors.

Close the window and then click Start, Run and type "command" and press enter.

You should now be in DOS.

Next type "f:" and press enter. You should now be at the root dir of the FS-4 HD's drive.
Next type "cd fs" and press enter. You should now be at the "fs" folder.
Next type "copy /b 001.m2t+002.m2t+003.m2t+004.m2t+005.m2t+006.m2t+007.m2t v:\capture\cam1.m2t" and press enter. Be absolutely sure to include the /b which is for binary or the destination file will be unuseable. On my system it takes approx 5.5 minutes to finish the copying so it will take a little while.
type "exit" and press enter to leave DOS.

Unmount the FS-4 HD, shut it down and you are done.

I hope this helps those who use Vegas 7. For those who use other NLE's, I hope it helps you with the time code and other issues.

Please let me know what you think, what your comments are and especially any suggestions to make this whole thing easier.

The purpose of this in a nut shell is to simply combine the files into one file so it is seamless in Vegas 7 and when it comes to editing, not to have to deal with a bunch of little files. Not quite NTFS but at least it is something.

Danny Fye
www.dannyfye.com
www.vidmus.com/scolvs