the 21 minute tape problem
 

I shot a documentary last weekend and I shot on one digital Master tape... and the rest were mini dv. This was only because I had one DM tape and couldn't find a local source for them as I was on a very tight timeframe. When capturing the DM, I got the whole 63 minutes into Premiere Pro 2. I was very busy so I just captured all of the tapes (or so I thought). The mini dv's appeared to be capturing the entire length of the tape - but when I went back in to check, they stopped capturing at 21 minutes - EVERY TIME, every tape. Has anyone had this happen? I managed to get all the footage I needed by doing it in 20 minute intervals. I'll certainly not make the mistake of using mini dv tapes in my A1 again. just thought it was weird.

Thanks

File system
 

Hi Keith,

might it be possible that you have a FAT32 file system on your hard drive where you have captured the mini DV tapes? The maximum file size for FAT32 is 4 GB. This could explain the 21 minutes time limit. Maybe you have captured the DM tape on a NTFS hard drive.

Axel

I wish it were that simple to explain Axel... all tapes went to the same drive... it's a relatively fresh separate drive and I still have appx 250gb left on it... I've captured other DM tapes no prob.

Keith... 1st of all "miniDV" is just the tape form factor & nothing else. The Digital Mastering tape you refer to is STILL miniDV. With that out of the way... your problem is something else entirely & Axel's thoughts do make more sense than it being a DM vs. non-DM matter.

Bill

I'm still using the same mini dv tapes in my A1 as I've used in the past in my SD panasonic GS400 recorder.

Never had a problem. No dropouts, no dramas.