"Movie automatically stopped recording" - fed up after several memory cards, please help!

[Merrick]

Hi everyone,

Before I describe my situation, I would like to state that I have done many hours of online research about this "movie automatically stopped recording" issue with the rebel t3i. I am aware that the t3i is not ideal for videos and how this problem is very common (yet there has not been one universal agreed-on solution yet). 

Basic info: I shoot videos at 1920x1080 at 30fps

PROBLEM:

I started off with the Lexar Professional 400x (60mb/s read, 20mb/s write, class 10). The "movie automatically stopped recording" appeared several times so I did some research and found out my write speed was not fast enough. I switched to the Lexar Professional 633x (95mb/s read, 45mb/s write, class 10). To my surprise, again, the "movie automatically stopped recording" STILL appeared. It did not appear all the time but randomly - like sometimes I could record for 4 minutes before it showed up and other times it popped up within 10 seconds of hitting record. Very frustrating to say the least, gave me a lot of anxiety. 

I have read online that the max write speed for the t3i camera is 45mb/s and since the Lexar 633x's write speed is 45mb/s, shouldn't the memory card work? Is the problem with Lexar? However, my research showed that Lexar is a very reputatable brand so I don't understand. Also there is plenty of space on the memory card.

I honestly don't know what to do now. I've read that the SanDisk Extreme Plus (80mb/s read, 60mb/s write, class 10) is the best memory card for videos on t3i. HOWEVER, I still read two comments that even this memory card did not get rid of the problem.

I've bought my memory cards at Best Buy and they are not refundable which is the most annoying part. I really don't want to waste any more money, which is why I'm hesistant of buying the SanDisk Extreme Plus because of the comments about the Extreme not fixing the problem. 

Any and all help, comments, and your personal experiences will be greatly appreciated.

Side questions:

- I've noticed that right before my video automatically stops recording there is a bar or meter that fills up with one, and then two dots on the right side of the view finder. What is this? I've read online that it's called a buffering meter? All I know is as soon as I see the bar/meter, I know that my video will stop recording soon.

- What does the low-level format do? Will it get rid of this problem? What will I give up in return for a low-level formatted video?

- Will shooting at 24 fps get rid of this problem? I prefer to shoot at 30 fps.

[RobertTheFat]

It may be a file system issue. Files don't get written to disk as a continuous swath of data; if they did, you'd have no way of bypassing bad sectors, etc. Instead the file is represented as a chain of smaller segments, and finding the next free space affects the write speed. If the write speed required by the camera approximates the maximum speed of which the card is capable, the file system machinery may slow it down enough to be a problem. If that's what's happening, low-level formatting may help, because it tries to merge blocks and clean up unnecessary chaining. Lesser forms of formatting, which are faster but less effective, don't necessarily do that.

[Waddizzle]

Here's a thought.  Your camera could also be shutting down due to heat buildup on the image sensor!