fs-4 continuous recording
 

I have a problem when I record my video to focus fs-4 because it automatically splits the video clip into about 9min videos. I want to use my recording for multi cam productions but have not been able to record one continuous clip which I really need for my editing.

Hope you can help.

Einar Arnarsson

The FireStore FS-4 hard disk is formatted using the FAT32 file system. This limits the individual clip lengths to 2GB each, or roughly 9 minutes per clip. There are no dropped frames between clips, so you can simply use a clip-joiner utility program to combine multiple 2GB clips into a single large one, if your system can handle it. You're not saying which NLE software you're using though.

Thanks for that
 

I am using adobe Premiere Pro with Matrox RTX100pro.

Hello,

Chris is correct with his description of the FireStore FAT32 file system and why clips are split into 9 minute segments. You can use the FireStore DV File Converter software application to join multiple DV clips together. Check it out at: http://www.focusinfo.com/products/fi.../dvcsuite.html

Hope that helps,

Matt

Hi Matt,

I'm wondering if the only way to get at the four audio channels captured by an XL-1 "Extract DV Audio (any audio channels, mono, stereo, or quad; written to AIFF or WAV)" is to use this software.

I have been having trouble getting the second stereo pair into FCP, from video material which I captured with the FS-4 (they just don't seem to be there). Quicktime doesn't see them either.

Thanks,

Hi Daniel,

I had a play around with this today. I set an XL1s to 12-bit ST-1,2 mode and recorded the file as a RawDV. I looked at the clips within Final Cut Pro 4. RawDV is the file format where we record the raw stream as it is recorded to tape.

In this setup, we do record all four channels of audio, but they appeared to be mixed together when imported into Final Cut. Although I could hear all four channels, I could not isolate ST-1 to ST-2. Also, none of the Final Cut project settings seemed to allow you to select a 12-bit, 32kHz (4-ch.) sequence...all seemed to be based around 48kHz. I was able to edit the Capture sequence to set capture to 32kHz, but it was either at 8-bit or 16-bit. How do you currently capture 32kHz, 12-bit audio into Final Cut? Do you set the capture settings to 16-bit, 32kHz and then do two separate captures of "First 2 channels" then "second 2 channels"?

We ignore the second two channels when we record in QuickTime format as Final Cut does not seem to support 12-bit, 32kHz audio.

I hope that helps. let me know any additional information you may have.

Thanks,

Matt

Hi Daniel,

Forgot to answer your question...The DV File Converter application will extract the audio out of a FireStore 32k, 12-bit, 4 channel RawDV recording. It is possible to extract in either WAV or AIFF format as single channels (4 files), stereo channels (1&2 and 3&4) or as a single file mix.

A full featured demo version of DV File Converter can be downloaded at our website: http://www.focusinfo.com/products/fi.../dvcsuite.html

Hope that helps,

Matt

Thanks Matt,

I'll try capturing to RAW format and see what that does.

Unfortunately there is no application for Mac (that I know of) which can capture all four tracks of audio in one capture pass from tape. I have to do two captures, one for picture and ch.1,2 and then another for audio ch.3,4. And yes, capture settings, set to 16-bit, 32kHz. This is a big hassle, and I was hoping that the FS-4 would simplify this process.

I wonder why there are no programs for the Mac that deal with this issue. I've heard of at least one for PCs.

I think I may have asked this before, and I'm pretty sure of the answer... are there any plans for a Mac compatible version of the "DV File Converter" in the future?

Thanks

Hi Daniel,

We do not have plans for a Mac version of DV File Converter at this stage, but anything is possible in the future. I have it on my G4 running in Virtual PC and it works quite well. That is one option possibly.

Hope that helps,

Matt

Good to know.

Thanks