help: file not recorded

[George Bean]

I recently purchased the fs3. On two separate occasions it indicated it was recording, upon reviewing the footage it has not all been recorded to the drive.

This morning I recorded one continuos clip of around 45 minutes. It is not on the fs3.

There is over an hour of separate clips after the opening clip of 45 minutes. Why can I not find the first clip?

There are three files appearing in my computer when the drive is mounted. Double clicking any of these three files launches windows media player, then a dialog box appear stating the file format is invalid. Please help.

I am recording on a canon xl1, 16 bit audio fs3 is set to syncro control. I am editing on win xp, adobe premiere and a matrox rtx 100. I have run the disk repair from the utility menu and it finds no error.

Again, when I was recording everything reported to be working properly. Any help is much appreciated.

[Matt McEwen]

Hi George,

One thing that may be causing your problem is if the drive is being removed while the unit is still in Rec-Pause mode (when the unit is in Syncro Slave mode, it is actually still in Rec-Pause mode), it can corrupt the file. But, the repair feature on FS-3 should restore the clip. Does the clip appear on the computer? Can you play it back on FS-3?

Also, verify that you are in Normal Record mode. What file format are you recording in (see under the Rec Format menu)? What extension does the file have?

I would encourage you to contact Focus tech support at support@focusinfo.com.

Matt McEwen

[George Bean]

Hi Matt,

Thanks for the quick response. I am recording in normal mode avi 2. I cannot see the clip on the fs3. I copied the files from the fs3 to my av drive in the computer. I then formatted the fs3 and recorded another clip of an hour.

It is arts day at my sons' school so this is all a practice run, if I make a mistake it is not critical. I am trying to get acquainted with the operation of the fs3.

The afternoon show was of the blues brothers and it ran an hour. All clips appear on the fs3 disk and seem to play correctly. There are still clips that appear in the windows explorer that say data file invalid when opened in media player. Are these placeholders for the fat32 file size limitation?

Is there a proper sequence for powering down the fs3 when in syncro slave mode? I do not remove the firewire drive until it is powered down. My procedure so far has been to stop the camera recording and power down only the camera. If it is a tape change or battery change I leave the fs3 powered on. After all taping is finished I power down the camera first, then the fs3.

The only difference between the hour clip that did record and the 45-minute clip that didn’t is the power source. For the 45-minute event I powered the camera with an onboard battery and the fs3 with a 12 volt battery belt(full charge) to the 4 pin xlr.
Is there a low battery indicator for the fs3? Everything appeared to work but the clip did not record.

For the hour clip I again powered the camera with the same on board battery but used an anton bauer proformer battery for the fs3. It did record to the fs3.

Any insight on the operation of the firestore fs3 is welcome. I have read the instructions and believe most of the trouble I am experiencing is operator error.

Thanks again for helping a newbie.

Bean

[Matt McEwen]

Hi George,

As a power down sequence when using FS-3 in Syncro mode, do the following...

1) Stop the recording on the camcorder (FS-3 should go into REC-PAUSE mode).

2) Press the FS-3 MENU soft key which will take you directly to the CONTROL MODE menu. Cycle FS-3 to LOCAL control mode and then EXIT (FS-3 is now stopped).

3) Now, remove the drive.

I think removing the drive in REC-PAUSE mode may be causing the problem. In order to recover, you can try scan disk on your computer or the repair function on FireStore.

If you record a one hour long segment with FireStore, the clip will appear as one track (e.g. 1-001) on FS-3. If the disk drive is brought to a computer, each clip is split up into 9 minute, 13 second (2GB) segments with sequential numbering (each clip has the same base name followed by -01.avi, -02.avi etc.) This allows for FS-3's FAT32 disk format. New 2GB segments are created automatically without losing frames or breaking timecode.

I am not sure why Windows Explorer does not play the clips. Can you play them back in Premiere, QuickTime Player or Windows Media Player? AVI 2 is fairly generic with Windows systems.

Hope this helps.

Matt McEwen

[George Bean]

With the Fs3 set to syncro slave mode, if I wanted to save battery life by placing both the camera and fs3 in standby would this be the correct way to do so?


Put camera in standby or turn completely off.
Put fs3 in local control mode and power off.
To resume recording power camera on.
Power on fs3, place in syncro slave mode.


Thanks

[Matt McEwen]

Hi George,

Yes that would work.

You could also just switch off the camera and put FS-3 into Local mode and not power it off. At NAB recently, I ran an FS-3 on its own mostly in stop mode all day with an Anton Bauer Hytron 50 battery - and still had some juice left. FS-3 obviously uses a lot less power than a camera, especially when stopped. For extended, operation, you can also disable the FS-3 LCD backlight in the Setup menu.

Hope this helps,

Matt McEwen

[Bankim Jain]

Hi Matt, Sorry to use this thread but my problem is somewht similar. I use FS3 with Panny D200.

I have been using the FS3 in syncro slave mode...and

1. either I turn off the camera and leave th fs3 in rec pause mode so that i dont have to wait for boot time for my immdt shots.

or

2. to save power i turn off th camera and whilst the fs3 in syncro slave rec pause mode i turn off the fs3 also and when i need to shoot i turnboth of them ON and get going.

Am i doing something wrong in step 2.

Thanks...

[Matt McEwen]

Hi Bankim,

We recommend that you take the FS-3 out of Syncro Slave mode before powering down. See post I sent to George Bean in this thread.

Hope that helps.

Matt McEwen