Long video recording

[Freddy]

The dance teacher of the Mangkunagaran court (Solo, Central Java, Indonesia) asks me to make recordings during performances in the palace. Some dances last well over 30 minutes, e.g 45 mins.

The camera I use is an A7RII.

Last Wednesday I filmed during a rehearsal. The result was: two files, one 17 mins, 2 MB, the next one 12 mins, 1.5 MB. After that the recording stopped (the camera was not warm, I have firmware 3.0 installed), but the dance conitnued.

I do not make 4K recordings, as (1) I do not have Blue Ray equipment and (2) neither does the dance teacher or anyone else I know here.

My recordings have the MTS format. (I am a complete lay in the matter of video formats.)

 

How can I adjust the camera setting to enable long recordings?  I believe asking for 45 minutes is not too much.

Can I make MP-4 recordings? How?

If the recording consists of multiple files, how do I join them?

 

Thank you very much for your answers.

 

Kind regards,

 

Freddy

 

 

 

 

 

[boojoo007]

The camera has a recording max time of around  30 mins I believe. You need to stop recording for a short period during your recording and hit record again or buy an atoms external recorder. The atoms will give you unlimited recording time.

 

To join them you will need a video editing program. Fcpx or iMovie , or Premiere pro etc..

 

There should be a setting in your camera options for setting the file type. 

[Freddy]

Sorry for reacting so late, there were reasons: computer problems, illness etc. Thanks for your answer,.

 

The recording I mentioned had two parts: 0002.MTS, 17 mins and 14 sec, 2 MB, and 0003.MTS, 12:36 mins  and 1,5 MB

Together 29 mins 50 sec, almost 30 mins.

This is in accordance with what you wrote. I am only asking myself why on earth there is a limit of 30 mins. Not very useful!

Unfortunately 00003.MTS is corrupted, when I try to play it now and then the sound and the image both disappear, to start again a few seconds later. There are holes in the recording as it were.

 

The memory card is brand new (SanDisk Extreme Pro SDXC 95 MB/s 128 GB). Windows suggest I do a chkdsk on the card, but CHKDSK /f does not find any problem. Strange.  Any suggestions?

 

Kind regards,

 

Freddy

[boojoo007]

The 30 min recording rate is common for still cameras. It has to do with the taxation of still cameras vs. video cameras.

 

Not sure why you are getting sections for your files. I own a A7s. It might be a weird setting you have in your movie recording.

[Snowfun]

If the dance lasts 45 minutes I would be very tempted to use a two (at least) camera set up. Would increase the production value significantly and, of course, help get around the time limit. Is that an option for you?

[Freddy]

Not really, I hardly could afford one camera. I am an amateur and do not make any money from my video's. I am traveling to Indonesia to collect material for a dictionary, gamelan music is my hobby. No, I will use a stopwatch and press the RECORD button a second time after half an hour. That will have to do. (And pray that the recording will not be corrupted!)

 

Kind regards,

 

Rob.

[Snowfun]

Try to work with the person organising the dance to see if there is anyway of inserting "breaks" into the performance at predetermined times. This would at least enable you to ensure you dont miss a crucial bit (and might also allow for repositioning). Evan a few seconds down-time which might not even be obvious to an audience would allow you to stop and start a new file.

Tim

[Freddy]

No, breaks in a dance like this are not possible. These dances are holy court dances, highly traditional, and the music is continuous. The only solution for me is a short break in the recording, when I will have to push the RECORD button a second time.

BTW, the reason why the first recording was split into two was simply that the file had reached the 2GB limit after which a second file was being written. Why the 2GB limit? Canon has a 4 GB limit, so here is obviously room for improvement.

 

Kind regards,

 

Freddy.

[dbmiller]

2Gb is the filesize limit for a disk formatted in FAT-16 format. FAT-32 can go to 4Gb. NTFS goes to an impossibly large (16 Petabyte) filesize.

[Guest all8]

What you are doing sounds quite interesting (the dance). An external recorder, one with a large (6-7 inch) monitor to help with focus and exposure (can't remember the name) and a good microphone are probably going to help you get some outstanding results. Perhaps you can even rent that kind of equipment.

 

Yes, there are many limitations, but for what you are doing ... continuous recording ... Sony might rather sell you a X70 professional video camera. You see, if your A7r2 could do _everything_ a pro video cam could do (out of the box) ... then it would be hard for Sony to keep developing professional video cameras. Luckily an external recorder is a viable solution.

 

4k might be worth considering, right now perhaps no one has the playback equipment, but if the performance is "timeless" then making the recording at a higher fidelity might be a pursuit worth following up on.

[Freddy]

2Gb is the filesize limit for a disk formatted in FAT-16 format. FAT-32 can go to 4Gb. NTFS goes to an impossibly large (16 Petabyte) filesize.

The file format is exFAT, the file size limit is enormous. But still the file ends at 2GB. I do not think that can be altered.

Kind regards,

Fred.

[Freddy]

What you are doing sounds quite interesting (the dance). An external recorder, one with a large (6-7 inch) monitor to help with focus and exposure (can't remember the name) and a good microphone are probably going to help you get some outstanding results. Perhaps you can even rent that kind of equipment.

 

Yes, there are many limitations, but for what you are doing ... continuous recording ... Sony might rather sell you a X70 professional video camera. You see, if your A7r2 could do _everything_ a pro video cam could do (out of the box) ... then it would be hard for Sony to keep developing professional video cameras. Luckily an external recorder is a viable solution.

 

4k might be worth considering, right now perhaps no one has the playback equipment, but if the performance is "timeless" then making the recording at a higher fidelity might be a pursuit worth following up on.

 

Renting is a good idea. When my present flu (?) is over I will look into that. However, I am a bit doubtful, as Indonesia is a third world country and the quality of the equipment may not be as high as we would like. Moreover, as far as I know, most if not all of these rental places rent out their equipment with a recording team included, people who may have very different opinions about a good recording than I do.  Love insanely amplified sound, for instance.

For the time being: back to bed as I am running a high fever. Hope to be all right again in a few days.

Kind regards from Freddy.

[Guest all8]

I did look at a Shogun external recorder, its pretty interesting, and I'm even thinking of getting one my self. The price is "reasonable", and there are a few cheaper models. Worth looking into ... when you are better.

[dbmiller]

The file format is exFAT, the file size limit is enormous. But still the file ends at 2GB. I do not think that can be altered.

Kind regards,

Fred.

I believe you are correct - From Wikipedia:

 

exFAT allows individual files larger than 4 GiB, facilitating long continuous recording of HD video which can exceed the 4 GiB limit in less than an hour. Current digital cameras using FAT32 will break the video files into multiple segments of approximately 2 or 4 GiB.

 

So the camera is probably breaking it up so you can use the individual files on a system that doesn't support large files, and still be able to edit a video from these pieces.

[jmp060691]

Hello i have a question, i recording 20mins long in my sony a6400 but after the recording i checked the file and they splitted into 3 files which is 1 recording only, why is that happening to my camera? thanks for your answer ty.

[dbmiller]

6 hours ago, jmp060691 said:

Hello i have a question, i recording 20mins long in my sony a6400 but after the recording i checked the file and they splitted into 3 files which is 1 recording only, why is that happening to my camera? thanks for your answer ty.

See previous replies, and also see the note from the A6400 manual...

Note

• When [File Format] is set to [AVCHD], the file size of movies is limited to approx. 2 GB. If the movie file size reaches approx. 2 GB during recording, a new movie file will be created automatically.

[Makeev]

To remove time limits for recording, you can use Open Memories Tweak App

https://github.com/ma1co/OpenMemories-Tweak