Program To Splice Together HG10 MTS Files
 

All,

I found this discussion yesterday after searching the web for info on the 2GB size-limited files produced by the Canon HG10. After reading the entire thread, I was happy to see that you had found a work-around solution that didn't corrupt the splice-points of the files. That got me to thinking about writing a Windows-base program to do the same thing. So... I did just that! It's not as slick and robust as it could be, but it does the job. Here's some info...

The program's first dialog allows you to select multiple files from the same directory. These are the pieces that the HG10 broke your files into. You select the files by clicking on the first one to highlight it and the depressing the "shift" key and click on the last one in the list. All of your files should then be highlighted. (this is just standard Windows file-selection stuff here, but in case there's someone that's not familiar...) Alternately, you can press the "Ctrl" key and select individual files until you've highlighted all that are in the sequence.

The program DOES NOT try to figure out if two video files actually belong in the same resultant file. I trust you to identify only the files that made up the original sequence. With that said, my program DOES make sure that the files that you select are processed in the right order. That is, in the numbering sequence as produced by the HG10. For instance, file "00055.MTS" comes before file "00056.MTS".

The second file-selection dialog allows you to specify a directory and file name for the resultant, contiguous file.

Once you've identified all files, the program goes about building the contiguous file. I currently use 10MB buffers for reading and writing data. This allows pretty fast operation. For a couple of segments, this amounts to about 3 minutes 11.5 seconds on my 2.3Ghz Core 2 Duo. It's single-threaded so it ties up one processor. If folks want a more robust operation, I'll try to find time to work on it and smooth it out. I just thought you'd want to get it ASAP...

There are 2 files to this program... the "MTS_FileJoinerProj.exe" file which is the executable and weighs in at about 30KB, and the "borlndmm.dll" file which is only another 24KB. Put them in a folder called "FileJoiner" and hook them up to your "Start" button by moving the folder to "C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs". Start the program by clicking "Start->Programs->FileJoiner->MTS_FileJoiner.exe"

I haven't had any problems with it, but cannot guarantee its operation. Test it on copies of your files, just to gain confidence that it's working properly.

If you like it and it helps you, please consider throwing a couple of bucks in my Paypal account (thesuperstitions@gmail.com). Anything collected will be donated to my son's Cub Scout Pack (Pack 618).

Thanks!

P.S. As an aside... while I was reading the thread, I was shocked to see MY NAME as the author of a thread!! Turns out, the author, "Ken Ross" wasn't me! So... Hi Ken!!

Hey Ken,

Do you know if it will work under Vista (particularily Vista 64)?

Maybe...
 

It's just a plain vanilla Windows program so it should run under any version since Windows 95. I haven't used it on a Vista machine, primarily because my employer doesn't want to go to Vista and I'm in no hurry either.

Hope this answers your question... I'll be interested in your feedback after you've tried it.

Ken

Thundering Silence!
 

I thought that folks that inhabit this thread would be all over this program to splice together HG10 files. If anyone has used it, I hope that you found it useful.

Testing it out currently...

Looks awesome, I was wishing I had some basic coding experience. I was considering taking one of the software programmers out to lunch or otherwise bribing them into writing something for this purpose. Hope it works!

J

Got an error message-

"This Application has failed to start because Vcl40.bpl was not found. Re-installing the application may fix this problem."

Any Ideas?

J.

System:

Windows XP SP2
Q6600
3.25G RAM
500G HD

Edit-
I also added a "Readme.txt" to the folder with your post in it about the program, in case I forgot some of the information, and did not want to look the post back up again.

I tried the Copy /b fix, however Vegas 8.0b locks up when I try and import them to the story board, anyone else have this issue?

Improvements
 

Jared,

I'd be interested in how your tests go. I've used it several times now and had no problems. The resultant files seems to be totally intact but I've not examined them frame by frame to guarantee it.

I've been kicking around some ideas to make the program better, but just haven't had the chance to implement them yet.

Please let me know the results of your use of the program.

Thanks,
Ken

Ken-

This was the result- Error message

Error Message
 

Jared,

Sorry... I tested this on a machine that I didn't think had any Borland compiler stuff on it, but it must have had some of the .dll and .bpl files loaded by some other program that I use if you're getting an error. So, I've packaged up all of the .dll files that you could possibly need into the zip file along with the program. Just unpack them into your "C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs" directory. You'll end up with a folder called "FileJoiner" that contains the program and the dll/bpl files. Could you please give it another shot?

A quick look through and while one person said it sort of I just wanted to confirm that the 2GiB limit is indeed not due to the video codec but rather the file system that the hard drive is using on the camera which is most likely FAT32 to insure compatibility with most Operating Systems. The same issue is present in any Hard drive capturing system that use FAT32.

The binary copy is a good solution that can be found on this forum in other posts as the issue has been around for a while.

Sadly I know of no way to format the drives to NTFS and still allow its operating device (the camera) to use it.

Ken-

The program worked great! It seemed faster than the command line, but probably was just a psychological thing.

I am still having problems importing the finished file into Vegas 8.0b. After changing the file extension to m2ts it locks up the program when I click on the file. Granted the combined file is 9.25gig, perhaps it just takes a real long time to read the file, and I give up after several minutes?

Anyone seen this before? Anyone?!

Jared.

"Faster than the command line"
 

It should be faster since I use a huge buffer to read and write the data. My own tests show that combining a couple of files into one takes about a minutes less than the binary copy. Thanks for the report. Like I said, I have some ideas to make it run faster, I just need time to put it together!

Just wanted to say thank you, Ken. I've only had my Canon HF-10 for a few days - hardly long enough to be aware of the problem of dropped audio and video between files. However, I was looking for a quick, easy way to join the files from the SDHC card. Your program seems to work just fine. I'll be upgrading from Aspect HD (older version 4) to Prospect HD (latest version) soon for editing in Premiere.

As I read this thread today, I was thinking that some kind soul might write such a program. Deeper into the thread I found your link. Voila. Problem discovered, problem solved.

Glad it helped you out...
 

I'm glad that it worked out for you. I just haven't had the time to update the program to be multi-threaded yet!

Thanks Kenneth, I used your program to fix a Local Concert I recorded with my HG10, well over 2 hours long, ran the file joiner on my footage and playback is now smooth as silk, no dropped frames at all, same project rendered before your program suffered from the dropout issue;now its perfect, I even pointed out the program to my co-worker who also has a HG10, he thanks you as well, really stupid of canon not to offer the fix themselves.....

I couldn't believe how fast it was. I have a RAID 0 array with 2x500GB SATA drives. Your utility joined my 2 hours 30+ minutes into one file in just a few minutes.

The software that came with the Canon HD10 (Pixela ImageMixer 3 SE) choked on the long file, as did a trial version of the latest PowerDirector (slow, slow responses), but I figured that was a problem with those programs not being able to deal with large AVCHD files. The Cineform web site says that Prospect HD's HDLink utility can convert AVCHD files if a couple of components are installed on the system (the AVCHD decoder built into Premiere CS3 and the Haali Media Splitter). Does anyone here work with Premiere CS3 and AVCHD files?

Ok I have several large files as I went to an event this weekend EVO 2008 Championship Series and recorded a bunch of footage. After I used the command promt commands vegas would lock up and or the file would only show the audio portion in the timeline.

Could this be I didnt combine at the start of the first clip where the long sequence of video started why this is happening? I tried joining clips that were the second or third clip into the sequence.

I tried the file joiner program but it wouldnt operate on my PC.

thank you!!! this works perfectly! :)

File Joiner Website
 

All,

I've created a small website where I've posted my program for joining the 2GB mts files generated by some video cameras.

The site is at : MTS File Joiner ?(MTS File Joiner?)

I'm just trying to spread the word to those that may be looking, that there's a way to splice the files together.

I hope that those that of you that have used my program aren't having any problems. I've recently heard from a couple of folks, one in Denmark and one in the US. The guy in the US was using a Panasonic HDC-SD9, which apparantly has the same problem as the Canon. I wonder if it's due to a common 32-bit chip that they're using?

Anyway, I hope you'll visit my site and leave comments if you've used it and describe any problems you had.

Thanks!!

Ken

The joiner works however the joined file afterward can not be dropped into Sony Vegas 9.0c. It hangs up and closes instantly.

Also when the file is played in win media player 12.0.7600.16415 It reflects the length of the original file in the status bar. Eventually it reaches completely across the player but plays the remainder of the clip in it's entirety. Not sure if that's related to the Vegas issue.

I've been getting by with the /b copy command. I haven't been able to do it for more than 2 parts though. Which is fine. I just merge the new copy with the remaining parts, one at a time.