Please help.

Every time i record for a long period of time my clips keep on getting split into 1.97gb (11:47mins) individual clips. I loose about 1 frame on vision and about 4 frames of audio. Very frustrating as you would imagine.

Does anyone have a solution? i have tried on multiple cards the fastest being a Sandisk Extreme Pro 95mbs and it still does it. All cards a formatted in camera before starting.

Is it a card thing or a camera setting i am missing.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers

it's not just your camera. if you're using windows and the segments are consecutive you should copy into a 1 file using the command prompt (MS-DOS) copy /b function
something like this:
open command prompt
as an example you have the segments in the card :
000001.mts
000002.mts
000003.mts

type this:

copy /b 000001.mts + 000002.mts + 000003.mts full.mts

now the footage is in the full.mts file

open that file and edit. the gaps are gone

It's the nature of any camcorder that uses the FAT32 file system. Your software should be stitching it back together without dropping any frames.

Stu, what editing software are you using?

Thanks for the help Guys.

I am using Prem CC. I have since sorted the problem. I was just importing straight from the bin and thats when they were coming in individually.
I have since learnt that going through the media browser automatically stitches them together.

thanks again.

Stu

Download Sony's 'Content Management Utility'. It has been replaced by Sony content Browser but...

Sony | Micro Site NXCAM & AVCHD (http://pro.sony.com/bbsc/ssr/micro-nxcamsite/resource.downloads.bbsccms-assets-micro-nxcam-downloads-NXCAMContentManagementUtility.shtml)

On importing the card contents to the hard drive it has the ability to stitch the files together correctly from either the camera's SD card OR a hard drive. This is as far as I know the only piece of software that will correctly stitch all clips into one clip from a card image on a hard drive.

Most important point here to remember though is the fact that the ENTIRE "PRIVATE" folder structure on the SD card must be copied onto the hard drive for this to be able to take place. Great for freeing up your cards.

Quite a few NLE software packages, if you imported the footage correctly, will show you a single clip in your bin that will play and edit correctly but if you go and look in the card or drive you will see they are still a bunch of ten minute individual clips. Content Management Utility will make consecutive time code "spanned" clips into one clip. Clips that don't break the Fat 32 2GB file size limit will come in as single clips.

Chris Young
CYV Productions
Sydney

Hi Chris

It works very well too. Any user just needs to be careful not to use the Content Browser that often is shipped with the camera ..that doesn't do the job correctly!

The Content Management Utility is a free download from Sony BTW guys!

When you load files into the Utility if will automatically do the stitching before you even export the files

If you have say, 6 x MTS files that are all split files from one continuous footage shoot, the utility will just show one single thumbnail ...with all the other 5 files already included. All you then do is export the file to wherever you need it in the NLE and it will show as one file.

Just a point here? If you drag the split files onto a timeline the video is seamless but you will find that there is a 12 frame audio gap on each file. If you use the DOS command does it also fix the audio gap the same as the Sony Utility does??

Chris

Last time I used the sony content browser to copy clips from a card to HDD, Premiere CC wouldn't recognise the timecode, resulting in TC starting at zero for every clip! It seems that content browser was creating a slightly different structure than the camera and Premiere was looking for the camera recorded metadata maybe?

Not sure if there's been an update since but best to check to see if you get that problem, particularly if TC is critical to you.

Hey Paul

Scrap the content browser ..you need the Sony Content Management Utility not the Content Browser as Chris has already mentioned! Do yourself a favour and uninstall the Content Browser ..it just confuses people!! Chris Young's post has the link for you!

Chris

OK will have a look.

I always used to use the content browser with EX3 and PMW-350 - thought that was the app to replace all others?

Cheers.

Well CMU was no good - looks like it'll only connect to a supported device / camera - not a USB 3 card reader :( Don't want to have to connect the camera every time (and it's only USB 2 speeds isn't it?)

Back to manual copying of files.

.

Just a point here? If you drag the split files onto a timeline the video is seamless but you will find that there is a 12 frame audio gap on each file. If you use the DOS command does it also fix the audio gap the same as the Sony Utility does??

Chris

Yes, I use the DOS copy /b to manage footage from different cameras to sync via pluraleyes. It worked well so far on canon, Panasonic and sony cameras in the same timeline. There are no gaps in the audio as well. The DOS function works only if the segments are consecutive. (in the cards)

Well CMU was no good - looks like it'll only connect to a supported device / camera - not a USB 3 card reader :( Don't want to have to connect the camera every time (and it's only USB 2 speeds isn't it?)

Back to manual copying of files.

From memory you HAVE to connect the camera the first time when CMU is installed. I have never had to that since. I just drop the card into an SD card reader and off I go. A very smooth process. It also works for video footage off the NEX 'still' cams.

As Chris H. says don't use Content Browser for the AVC clips. For the EX footage to .MXF imports etc then I use Content Browser.

Chris Young
CYV Productions
Sydney

Hi Paul

Chris is 100% correct. Connect the camera so the software can identify it and save it. After the initial connect you do NOT need the camera again ..you can choose whatever slot the card is in in your computer's card reader.

Chris

Ok thanks guys. Will do that.

Still having problems with that install - FS700R plugged in, operating and I can see the card as the normal windows drive.

Installer says it can't find a compatible device.

Windows 8.1 though. Wonder if it's either Windows version not supported or camera version? Ran it as admin and also compatibility mode for Win 7.

I've not connected the camera to a PC before as never needed to - it's just using a standard MS USB driver "Sony Camcorder USB Device". Is that what you have on your systems or is there a specific Sony USB driver?

Thanks.

Ah, solved it - that link was for an older version (1.1). I found a version 2.1 on the Sony Asia site here:

Content Management Utility Ver.2.1 : Download : Sony Asia Pacific (http://www.sony-asia.com/support/download/401976)

It can now see my camera and attached card reader :)

Why is it always so difficult to find Sony software - they're not very good at that - there always seem to be different versions in different territories. I've had that with XDCAM software in the past.

Are you guys on Mac or PC - and what edit s/w?

Just tried CMU to import clips to HDD and still Premiere Pro CC doesn't read the timecode - all clips have zero starting TC. I'm presuming this is an Adobe issue, not reading the different structure that Content Browser and CMU create on an import which is a flat folder structure.

Sorry about the link to the outdated version. I'm running 2.1 here so I should have rumbled to that.

Just remembered CMU also has Flash Band Correction which works reasonably well. Saving some shots that may be unusable otherwise.

Chris Young
CYV Productions
Sydney

Hi Chris

I saw that on the utility but never used it. Does it correct the banding while exporting the clip? Often I will get flash banding especially during wedding cake cutting where there is a million guests all trying to get the bride and groom cutting their cake so there is at least one flash band visible.

Does it just scan the entire clip or do you have to find the banding and tell the software to correct it?

Chris

Sorry about the link to the outdated version. I'm running 2.1 here so I should have rumbled to that.

Just remembered CMU also has Flash Band Correction which works reasonably well. Saving some shots that may be unusable otherwise.

Chris Young
CYV Productions
Sydney

No Problem :)

Unfortunately I still can't use CMU as Premiere doesn't read the timecode of the imported clips :(

Back to manual copying of the structure - no great problem though.

The Content Management Utility is a free download from Sony BTW guys!

Chris

Where can I find a free version of the Content Management Utility, Chris? For Mac, the only ones I've found so far are not free. Which I find disgusting, by the way. I use Clipwrap instead now.