I’m not understanding the behavior of some GoPro clips in FCPX

[Andy Mees]

Hey Fredy

The format of the SD Card in the GoPro is FAT32 … which limits file sizes to a maximum 4GB. When you record a for a long time then the resulting clip’s file size would exceed that limit, so the camera will automatically break the clip into 4GB (3.5GB apparently) chunks. If you play these clips back to back then you should see that everything is there.

Hope it helps
Andy

[Fredy Schwerdtner]

Thanks Andy for your response.
I had realized that when I plyback the clips. Everything was there if I take all clips and put them in timeline.
I’m happy that you have mentioned “the format process”. That is another hard time for me. My iMac doesn’t read the card when I format it with the GoPro. A friend of my came here to help me last week and he format the card on my Mac as ExFat, something that “could be red” by Macs and PCs. After I had downloaded the clips I wanted to erase the clips from the card to use it again and could not find a way to do it. Selecting the folder with clips or even the clips itself, they were grayed. Not even with iDisk in Utilities I could do it. Do you have an idea on how to do it ?

Thanks in advance for your advices.

iMac 2.7 GHz Intel 4 Core i5
16 GB memory

MacBook Pro 17″
2.5 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
6GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM

OS X 10.7.3
FCPX
Final Cut Studio “3”

[Fredy Schwerdtner]

By the way, the SD Card was formated as ExFat ….. not FAT32.

Thanks.

iMac 2.7 GHz Intel 4 Core i5
16 GB memory

MacBook Pro 17″
2.5 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
6GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM

OS X 10.7.3
FCPX
Final Cut Studio “3”

[Mike Drew]

Hey Fredy, it is very easy – and preferable – to format the card in the camera. Just select format from the menu on the GoPro and you’re done.

[Fredy Schwerdtner]

You are right ! But I wish it was as easy as it (should be). In the high technology age that we live I just can not understand a company that has just released a new product, like the GoPro Hero 3, needing an update, downloading files to be inserted in the SD Cards to work properly.
Moreover, the usb cable that came along is a cheap one and it doesn’t fit tight on camera. And I believe it was supposed to be the way to do that update I’ve mentioned before but as I connect the cable on camera and on my iMac, the camera is not recognized.
So I can not insert in the card the update files since I can’t make the camera recognizable. But I found out a way to take files from camera. Thanks god my iMac has a card hole. That way I can insert the Sandisk micro sd card into a card adapter and that one in my iMac. Despite the fact that it is formatted as FAT32 (I did as you advised- on camera), my Mac recognized and I could get the files but as the card is not with the updated files downloaded from GoPro website, I do not know if the files are on the best quality it could be.

Thanks Mike.

iMac 2.7 GHz Intel 4 Core i5
16 GB memory

MacBook Pro 17″
2.5 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
6GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM

OS X 10.7.3
FCPX
Final Cut Studio “3”

[Mike Drew]

Fredy, none of this reflects anything in my experience with GoPro 3. I can edit without transcoding, the camera shows up when I plug it in and the firmware update is easy as pie using the GoPro app. I have to think that you maybe got a bad camera or that maybe there’s something you’re inadvertently doing that’s causing your problems.
Good luck. I hope you get it sorted out. I really love my GoPro.

[Fredy Schwerdtner]

“the firmware update is easy as pie using the GoPro app”
Did you mean the iPhone App ? Can you do the update via iPhone ? How do I do it ?

Probably you are right. I can have a bad camera. I’ve sent an email to them on their website to see and analyze what is going on …. .

iMac 2.7 GHz Intel 4 Core i5
16 GB memory

MacBook Pro 17″
2.5 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
6GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM

OS X 10.7.3
FCPX
Final Cut Studio “3”

[Mike Drew]

I believe it’s the GoPro Cineform Studio application on your Mac. It’s been a while since I used it but I’m sure that was the vector for updates. You can import clips that way as well but to be honest, I usually just grab them from the folder icon that appears on the desktop when I plug in the camera and copy them to whatever folder I’m using for my event in FCPX.
The phone app is just used to control the camera. Very handy but the wifi on the GoPro really sucks down the battery.