taping 60 minute segments

[kodean]

I recently purchased a vixia hf r600 to tape 60 minute counseling sessions for my school program. Yesterday I taped my first session and thought everything was fine. However, when I uploaded it to my computer, I found that the tape was in 3 segments. How do I keep this from happening? I need to show an unedited 50-60 minute sessions to my supervisor.

[Mykolas]

Hi kodean!

Thank you for posting about this.

The file system used by the camera requires that each video file be no more than 2GB.  If you record a long enough continuous video, you will end up with multiple files.  The video should still playback continuously, but if you download the files to your computer, you will need to use a video editing program to join the segments together into one continuous file.

[bksimon]

Hi MIke, the manual for the HF R60/62/600 disagrees with your reply. It states, "A single scene can be recorded continuously for 12 hours; at that point, the camcorder will stop for about 3 seconds. After that, recording will continue as a separate scene." (p. 292)

Like the OP kodean, I want a single, larger files, instead of multiple smaller ones. Is there a setting I/we can use to select this as an option?

I know I/we can use video-editing software to combine the segments, that's not the issue -- although a recent recording featured a bit of a hiccup between segments that took some work to fix. Seems when the file broke into two segments, the new one included a bit of pre-roll from the original file, so just lining them up on a timeline didn't work. I had to manually find the spot where the two sections matched, and then crossfade them, which allowed the video and audio to flow seamlessly.

Thanks in advance,

Bruce

[VideoGeek]

According to the Canon page for this camcorder:

32GB SD Memory Card in AVCHD*:
LP (1440 x 1080)**: 12 hours 15 min.
FXP (1920 x 1080)**: 4 hours 10 min.
MXP (1920 x 1080)**: 2 hours 55 min.
NTSC 60p (1920 x 1080)**: 2 hours 30 min.

32GB SD Memory Card in MP4*:
4Mbps (1280 x 720): 17 hrs. 20 min.
17Mbps (1920 x 1080): 4 hr. 10 min.
24Mbps (1920 x 1080): 2 hr. 55 min.
35Mbps (1920 x 1080): 2 hr. 20 min.

* When recording has continued for 12 hours, it will automatically stop and then start.
** Variable bit rate

On page 292 of the manual, as was previously mentioned, you see the same data mentioned above.  I'm guessing the file system used is FAT32 which has a 4GB limit.  Using the FAT32 file system makes the card (and clips) easier to use with older versions of Windows and Mac OS X.  In order for the clips to be longer than 4GB it would have to be formatted as NTFS or exFAT or some other file system.  The only way I know of to get a single scene that is not separated into different clips is to use an expensive external recorder ($600+) connected via the HDMI cable.