Deleting Clips from SxS via Computer

[Bernard Racelis]

Originally Posted by Piotr Wozniacki

Will the camera do it right upon the card insertion and without interruption to recording to the other card, or only when say the other card becomes full, and the camera tries to switch to the card in question (in the latter case, I guess a recording interruption would be unavoidable)?

I just performed the test you described.
I started shooting with card (A), then inserted the 'bad' card (B), and it prompts you to restore card (B) while continuing to record in card (A). I selected "Execute" and it restored the card (B), and it did not interrupt the recording in card (A). Just to confirm, I played the clip that I just shot and it's fine.

[Piotr Wozniacki]

That's good news; thanks!

[Bernard Racelis]

Better yet, you can just delete the entire "BPAV" directory as I previously mentioned.

I did another test - I started shooting in card (A), then inserted card (B) (the one where I just deleted the BPAV directory), and the camera automatically recreated the directory structure with no interruption to the recording in (A). And the LCD now shows card (B) with 57 minutes remaining (it's a 16G card ).

[Peter Kraft]

Now that's most helpful news.
Thanx.

[Craig Seeman]

This workflow scares me though.

To get fastest USB xfer speed one copies the BPAV folder . . . risking overwriting an already existing folder. The assistant then must delete the BPAV folder from the card. It seems like an accident waiting to happen. I'd rather be able to delete the clips from the Xfer tool or Clip Browser.

[Bernard Racelis]

You can rename the BPAV directory before starting the copy.

And even if you don't rename the main BPAV directory, it won't overwrite the existing clips on the PC/Mac, because each clip resides in its own subdirectory with a different name:

Directory of G:\BPAV\CLPR

12/26/2007 08:37 PM <DIR> .
12/26/2007 08:37 PM <DIR> ..
12/26/2007 08:40 PM <DIR> 083_0270_01
12/26/2007 08:43 PM <DIR> 083_0271_01
12/26/2007 08:45 PM <DIR> 083_0272_01

This should work as long as you don't reset the clip (subdirectory) numbering in the camera during a shoot -- each new clip will have a different subdirectory name.

[Craig Seeman]

But won't you be overwriting the "main" files pointing to the clips

CUEUP.XML
MEDIAPRO.XML

I suspect this is one of several reasons why there's "warnings" in the manual against doing this from the desktop rather than in software.

Sony REALLY needs to improve the Xfer and Clip Browser tools.

Originally Posted by Bernard Racelis

You can rename the BPAV directory before starting the copy.

And even if you don't rename the main BPAV directory, it won't overwrite the existing clips on the PC/Mac, because each clip resides in its own subdirectory with a different name:

Directory of G:\BPAV\CLPR

12/26/2007 08:37 PM <DIR> .
12/26/2007 08:37 PM <DIR> ..
12/26/2007 08:40 PM <DIR> 083_0270_01
12/26/2007 08:43 PM <DIR> 083_0271_01
12/26/2007 08:45 PM <DIR> 083_0272_01

This should work as long as you don't reset the clip (subdirectory) numbering in the camera during a shoot -- each new clip will have a different subdirectory name.

[Bernard Racelis]

Originally Posted by Craig Seeman

But won't you be overwriting the "main" files pointing to the clips

CUEUP.XML
MEDIAPRO.XML

Good point, the Clip Browser uses the MEDIAPRO.XML file as a 'table of contents'.

At least you still have the clips (MP4, etc). Worst case (if you accidentally overwrite the main XML files), you can manually edit the MEDIAPRO.XML file and add the missing directory entries. This is straightforward -- you can copy the existing entries and add the missing subdirectory names.

Also, at least in Windows, it always prompts you to confirm if you want to overwrite an existing file (yes/no) when performing a file/directory copy.