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Gaps in long footage
I am unsure whether this is a camera issue or a Vegas issue, but I have noticed while using my Canon Legria HFS20 Camcorder and also my work video camera, a Sony NXCAM, that when I record long events such as talks or performances that may go for an hour or more that I get gaps in my footage, of between 1-4 frames, when I put all the files in order on the timeline.
Obviously this is a bit of a nightmare!
I am happy to explain all the technical details with this issue, but I am guessing I am not the first to encounter it. Here is an image which details the problem. Also note there is a frames worth of audio missing from the file on the left – this always happens in this situation.
Thanks again
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14 Replies
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[Ryan McRobb] “I am unsure whether this is a camera issue or a Vegas issue, but I have noticed while using my Canon Legria HFS20 Camcorder and also my work video camera, a Sony NXCAM, that when I record long events such as talks or performances that may go for an hour or more that I get gaps in my footage, of between 1-4 frames, when I put all the files in order on the timeline.”
How are you importing the footage from the camera? If you are just dragging the files from your camera card to your hard drive then that is what’s causing the problem. You need to import the files using the Vegas Pro Device Explorer so that the files can be properly stitched back together. Your camera may also come with a utility to do this. In either case, they need to be imported properly to eliminate any gaps.
~jr
http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com -
Yep. That fixed it. How I wish I had known this earlier!
Thankyou so much John, I am most grateful.
Have an awesome day. -
You’re welcome Ryan. If you are archiving these cards (and why wouldn’t you be?) you should also archive the whole card. In my case, I have an AVCHD camera so I create a folder on my archive drive with the name of the event that was videoed and then I drag the AVCHD folder from the root of the card into the new folder on my archive drive. This way I have all of the information that was originally recorded.
This also allows you to go back and re-capture these cards at a later date. In my case, I switched from PC to Mac last year and because I saved my entire card structure, I can easily import them on my Mac just as if they had come directly from the camera. Had I just saved the files, FCP X would not have been able to import them like this. It’s very important to archive the entire card structure and not just the video files.
~jr
http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com -
Thanks Ryan for asking & John for answering a question of mine. No more lost frames!
[John Rofrano] “I drag the AVCHD folder from the root of the card into the new folder on my archive drive.”
John, does this mean dragging all the folders from your camcorder or SD card so you capture all the info?
J. Paul
System Specs: I7 3.4 Ghz Quad Core 16GB Ram Win 7 Home Prem x64 VegasPro 11 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 550
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[Joseph Tessier] “John, does this mean dragging all the folders from your camcorder or SD card so you capture all the info?”
Yes, usually there is only one folder if you only shot video. If you also shot stills there may be a DCM or other folder. Just take the folders from the root of the SD card and drag and drop them into the folder you made on your hard drive for archive. This preserves the structure of the original card which has metadata about the shoot.
~jr
http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com -
Ok, so to be clear, in your workflow you import your media twice?
One in Vegas Pro Device Explorer, then you additionally copy the root folder of AVCHD folder from you card in Windows Explorer?And if you need to use this backup footage(copied from your card) how do you then open it in Vegas and avoid the gaps in the clips?
Thankyou again
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[Ryan McRobb] “Ok, so to be clear, in your workflow you import your media twice?
One in Vegas Pro Device Explorer, then you additionally copy the root folder of AVCHD folder from you card in Windows Explorer?”Kind of but let me be more clear about my workflow because I think I may have confused you with two different topics:
- I shoot with a tapeless camera.
- I take the card out of my camera and plug it into my PC.
- I create a folder on my RAID 5 archive drive and I drag the contents of the root of the card into the folder. This is my ARCHIVE.
- I plug my off-line backup drive into my computer.
- I copy the folder that I just made on the RAID 5 archive drive to the off-line backup drive. This is my BACKUP
That is done regardless of whether I’m going to edit the footage in Vegas Pro at that time or not. I ALWAYS have TWO copies of my ORIGINAL media before I start any editing. I never erase an SD Card unless I have at least two copies of it’s contents on two different drives. Then I reuse the media.
If I am going to edit the footage in Vegas Pro while the footage is still on the memory card, I use Device Explorer to import the footage into Vegas Pro on my editing drive (which is separate and distinct from my Archive drive or my Backup drive). So I import the footage just once into Vegas Pro. The others are archives and backups.
[Ryan McRobb] “And if you need to use this backup footage(copied from your card) how do you then open it in Vegas and avoid the gaps in the clips?”
If you right-click on the left panel in the Device Explorer you will get an option to browse. I just browse to the folder that I made on my Archive drive and Vegas Pro sees the AVCHD folder and treats it just like the original SD card. So the archive drive serves as a big SD card library.
~jr
http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com -
I’ll have to try John’s suggestion – I did not know about that feature in Vegas Pro.
I deal with this routinely with my Panny GH3, which does not come with any software to seamlessly join long cam video into a single file.
My poor man’s fix is to use Windows copy to concatenate the files into a single binary file, i.e.
copy /B file-1 + file-2 … +file-n result
Works like a charm for me …
Steve
Win7 Pro X64 on Dell T7500, MultiTB SATA, 12GB RAM, nVidia Quadro 2000, Vegas 12, 11, 10, 9 DVDA 6.0 & 5.2(build 135) Sony HDR-CX550V, Panasonic GH3 with LUMIX G X VARIO 12-35mm / F2.8 ASPH, LUMIX G X VARIO 35-100mm / F2.8
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Thankyou for your detailed response John, it is very helpful.
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Always glad to help Ryan. Workflows are important to get right.
~jr
http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com
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