Vegas Pro 11 loading long files over 5GB

[Dave Haynie]

I’m an HMC40 user… it has a similar behavior.

First of all, you don’t need tsMuxer to join files, and in fact, I’m not sure that’s a good idea. When your Panny breaks files up, it’s breaking them exactly at the 4GB mark. So there’s no logical boundry there.. it’ll break in the middle of any frame. That’s why you can sometimes get a dropout at the transition point.

Because of this, all you need to do is concatenate the pieces into one large file. I have historically used a Cygwin shell command for this:

> cat 00000.MTS 00001.MTS 00002.MTS >thewholeschmeggie.mts

But these days I get lazy and use JD Design’s “File Concatenate/Split Context Menu” application, which basically adds this function as a Windows shell extension.

As for the cut-off… I don’t have anything recently that went over 1:30 in a single take. But be careful about mixing takes. In theory, you can concatenate MPEG-2 transport stream files all day, and Vegas should read them. But I think you get some kind of end marker when you stop the camcorder, and that’s used by many programs in the usual PC world (MPEG2-TS was defined originally for never-ending streams, like satellite/cable TV) to signal an end-of-stream. So if you concatenate multiple files in a single take, great. If you put together two different takes, many programs will only see one of them. Check what the Windows file browser thinks of your file lengths, and see if they match what Vegas believes. I’ve done a little experimentation here, and was able to create a 95 minute file that shows up in Vegas and Windows as a 44 minute file, based on where one of the streams ended.

-Dave

[Tom Owen]

Dave, I tried ConCat/Split from JD Designs. It did the concatenation, but soften the files unacceptably. What was crisp, turned fuzzy. I’m going back and see what tsMuxer will do. In my original test it did not degrade the files.
Thanks for your suggestions. I’ll let you know what I find.
Incidentally, I fondly remember the Commodore days. I had one of the early one’s with 7″ drives. I wanted the Amiga so bad I could taste it. Our current machines do so much, but I don’t think we appreciate them.
Tom

[Dave Haynie]

[Tom Owen] “Dave, I tried ConCat/Split from JD Designs. It did the concatenation, but soften the files unacceptably. What was crisp, turned fuzzy. “

All that does is concatenate the files… it doesn’t even understand the file structure, much less change anything about the video. I claim it can’t make the video fuzzy — something else has to be wrong.

TSMuxer is also totally unable to change anything about the video, but it does re-mux the media stream. Which is also not a problem, as long as the end of file condition doesn’t trip it up. The real question I have for this merge operation is whether TSMuxer really handles abrupt EOFs properly.

-Dave

[Tom Owen]

You are correct. tsMuxer and ConCat/Split both do the same thing. And both will join files that have been broken in the camera. Incidentally, I erred in saying the chunks were 5GB. They are actually 4GB, almost to the bit.
I’m a little embarrassed to admit it, but by digging deeper into both programs, I finally was able to make them work. Your observation that ConCat/Split is easier, is also correct. Simply selecting the files and clicking a couple of times to join them is a whole lot easier than opening a program, searching for files, etc.
As for the “fuzziness” I complained about… well let’s just say I’m having the back focus on my camera checked. Fuzzy is not the fault of the joining programs.
I would like to thank you for your insights and information. It provided valuable clues to resolving the joining problem. Now if the camera manufacturers would consider “fixing” the underlying problem, users would find their cameras easier to use.