FS-4 split QT files into 1.95 GB sections !

[Phil Johnston]

We bought 2 units...Our test was a live dance show...1st unit worked fine with our Sony HD FX-1 in DV mode. The 2nd unit had problems connecting with our XL-2 the only way we could make this unit work on the night was to put the unit into tapless mode the main drawback being that the camera had full control of the unit, this was not satisfactory as I would prefer it to work independantly of the camera...we tried several modes both in the XL-2 and FS-4 on the night. Ok back at base to my horror instead of having 3 seperate quicktime files we were presented with several 1.95 GB sections which have to be joined together, this is not satisfactory as we were hoping to use tis unit with Multicam lite a 3 camera post vision cutter...which does not allow seperate quicktimes on the one timeline. I don't know why FOCUS decided to go down this road I hope there is a fix to this from Digital Heaven.

[Edward Troxel]

It is NOT a surprise that it would split it into separate files. As the hard drive is (I believe) formatted as FAT32 and FAT32 has a 4 gig file size limit it would have to. Now, as to why it used 2 gig and not 4 gig files - I don't know.

[Rob Lohman]

2 GB is actually considered the safe limit for AVI on FAT32. It was
the first limit. Later this was changed from 2 GB to 4 GB, but to
maintain full compatability it is a good idea to stick to 2 GB (on
FAT32).

[Matt McEwen]

Hi Phil,

Rob and Edward are correct. It does split the file up into separate 1.95GB (about 9 minutes, 13 second) clips. However, there will be no dropped frames between the segments.

You can simply drop the clips directly into your timeline (they are sequentially numbered so they will automatically line up) and they will playback seamlessly.

Hope that helps,

Matt

[Matt McEwen]

Hi Phil,

Forgot to mention...

Did you try the Local control mode on your FS-4? This should work fine for independent control of Record and Stop on the FS-4 front panel when connected to the XL2.

If you are still having problems, please contact Focus tech support at support@focusinfo.com or 408-866-4859. We have this camcorder in our test lab and should be able to get you going.

Hope that helps,

Matt

[Steve Hawley]

The size limitations made me nervous at first, but it's great at preventing audio synch drift (a rare problem for me capturing live to a laptop).

If you're using Multicam Lite, then I'm assuming you're using Final Cut.

If so, then Martin Baker suggested following a work-around on the digital-heaven website. Go to Multicam's website, select support, then there is one article describing the work-around.

Essentially, you put your clips in your timeline, synch them up, turn off (green dot) all but one timeline, export a reference movie. Then, move on to the next timeline and the next.

Then, import the XML file to Multicam or those reference movies to Livecut and cut away.

I tried this yesterday on a Saturday wedding using Livecut (free) and it worked fabulously.

GOOD PART:
1) you don't really eat up any more memory if using reference movies as opposed to self-contained clips
B) those programs ROCK for multi-camera shoots. SOOOO much better than the other ways in FCP!

BAD PART: the time it takes to write the reference movies. but given the advantages, even that's not too bad.

I'll be trying it again tonight after a long, boring county council meeting.

- Steve

[Phil Johnston]

So far so good...I have edited my 1st 3 camera shoot using 2
FS-4s and a Canon XM2 in DV SP mode. The FS-4s hooked onto my G5 transfered the footage... each 1.95 GB file in no time.
My workaround for multicam is to make a QT file of the 5 bits of footage. The main thing is that the FS-4s worked and this will take the bottle neck out of the system when loading footage onto my video drive. I will suss out the XL-2 before my next shoot.

Thanks again for all your replies.