Combining AVCHD files

I've having an issue with my Canon HF20 HD camcorder. For the first time last night, I shot constant video for ~1 hour at a time. I didn't realize that the HF20 would split up my .mts files into 1.9GB chunks. The chunks end right in the middle of people talking, so I would like to combine the 7 .mts files into a single file that I could then edit.

The problem is that every time I combine them, I get a slight gap in the audio at the points that the clips were merged.

I was wondering what I could use to combine the files and not have that gap. I currently only use Windows Live Movie Maker, as that has done what I've needed so far.

Thanks!

I have an HF20 also and I didn't know that it segments long videos. I'll have to keep than in mind. As far as combining them, can't you do that on Sony Vegas? I use Sony Vegas and I can combine several videos together to make one long one.

- Ed

ecub wrote in post #10180116
I have an HF20 also and I didn't know that it segments long videos. I'll have to keep than in mind. As far as combining them, can't you do that on Sony Vegas? I use Sony Vegas and I can combine several videos together to make one long one.

- Ed

I'm currently playing around with Sony Vegas. Some growing pains! The problem that I am getting is that there is a slightly noticeable stutter at the splices. Most people probably won't even see it, but I notice it.

It seems that 1.9GB is the file size limit for AVCHD for some reason. In my shooting conditions the other night, that worked out to about every 11 minutes and 30 seconds on the highest quality setting.

The playback in-camera is flawless, there is no stutter at all. The camera also only shows 2 clips, not all the separate files that I see in explorer.

I found some talk about this on a video forum that complained of the same problem. They ended up combining the files using the cmd prompt and doing a binary merge (or something like that, not sure what the technical name is).

Just a very annoying thing to deal with.

DDCSD wrote in post #10180798
I'm currently playing around with Sony Vegas. Some growing pains! The problem that I am getting is that there is a slightly noticeable stutter at the splices. Most people probably won't even see it, but I notice it.

It seems that 1.9GB is the file size limit for AVCHD for some reason. In my shooting conditions the other night, that worked out to about every 11 minutes and 30 seconds on the highest quality setting.

The playback in-camera is flawless, there is no stutter at all. The camera also only shows 2 clips, not all the separate files that I see in explorer.

I found some talk about this on a video forum that complained of the same problem. They ended up combining the files using the cmd prompt and doing a binary merge (or something like that, not sure what the technical name is).

Just a very annoying thing to deal with.

I've tried using Adobe Premiere and it was really hairy to use. Vegas was a little more easier to use. Unfortunately, those are the only 2 real decent AVCHD video editing software available.

The combining things, basically sounds like old school stuff, I used to do. Basically, you are appending one file to the other. The only reason I would stay away from appending files is it will take much longer to load a large video.

There shouldn't be any stutter between the splices. You could even cross over the splices if you want. Sony Vegas is pretty powerful.

treemme96 wrote in post #10519739
The camcorder was designed with the FAT32 file system built-in so that all of these MTS files have this 2GB file size limit. Reformatting the SD card would not do any good because of this inherent limitation built in to the camcorder.I recommend you Pavtube MTS Converter.You can join multiple videos into one bigger file for conversion.http://www.pavtube.com​/mts-converter/

File limit for FAT32 (and FAT16, but FAT16 is limited by the max disk size of 2GB) is 2^32-1, which is 4096MB, or exactly 4GB. .mts files don't have an actual limit, but they can be segmented however the company wants. Perhaps the firmware is shared with other camcorders that primarily used SD cards and SDHC support was based off of the legacy SD.

Try changing a few settings on your current program. Sometimes cameras add a bit of repetition to the files. Perhaps all you need is to change some sort of frame blending setting, or delete first few frames of every clip.

I f you have perfect playback in camera then you should be able to recreate it i your timeline. Make sure you are not doubling up on a frame. Make sure that the last frame of clip one is not the first frame of clip two. Dont know why that would be but thats a very common error i see.
I would avoid merging or screwing at all with your original files. If you mess those up your originals are gone and thos cannot be restored. Reshoots are expensive especially when YOU have to pay for them.

I've done quite a bit of research and it seems to be a common problem with (sadly) no easy solution. I guess they don't expect people to shoot more than ~10 minutes of video.

Every video editing software has a very slight stutter, regardless. There seems to be a frame or two that gets dropped or doesn't line up exactly

I've tried about everything and have come across only one good (although a bit tedious) solution. Doing a binary copy will merge the videos seamlessly.

Here's where I found how to do it:
http://elliottback.com …e-split-files-in-windows/

You can use * as a wildcard and not type out everything. Works perfectly.

Thanks for all of the suggestions, everyone. This was very frustrating.

DDCSD wrote in post #10168930
I've having an issue with my Canon HF20 HD camcorder. For the first time last night, I shot constant video for ~1 hour at a time. I didn't realize that the HF20 would split up my .mts files into 1.9GB chunks. The chunks end right in the middle of people talking, so I would like to combine the 7 .mts files into a single file that I could then edit.

The problem is that every time I combine them, I get a slight gap in the audio at the points that the clips were merged.

I was wondering what I could use to combine the files and not have that gap. I currently only use Windows Live Movie Maker, as that has done what I've needed so far.

Thanks!

Just curious - and I am going to show my age here... but, have you tried to open a DOS window (CMD) and copy the files "together"? Here is the command from the DOS prompt.

Copy /B file0003.mts+file0004.​mts newfile.mts

What this does is copy the files together (0003 and 0004) as newfile.mts The /B switch means that it is to be treated as a binary file and so copies it as 1's & 0's, effectively rejoining what 'man' has broken apart - If only there was such a command to fix broken marriages...

I am rendering a long file that I've done this with now and will let you know how it works out.

if you're getting 2gb limit, then it has to be fat16 file size, NO doubt about it. My HG10 does the same thing. There were complaint about the issue w/ missing one frame and its audio, and canon provided the utilities for cameras after HG10. so yours should have the utility included.

sounds like above know whats he doing. try his method.

ecub wrote in post #10206769
I've tried using Adobe Premiere and it was really hairy to use. Vegas was a little more easier to use. Unfortunately, those are the only 2 real decent AVCHD video editing software available. .

I hate to sound like a Pinnacle Pusher because I'm not really....but I use 14 a lot for simple tasks like this.

It will put the segments together seamlessly and it's simple to use. Just drag, drop and render.

Brother_Stink wrote in post #11197659
Just curious - and I am going to show my age here... but, have you tried to open a DOS window (CMD) and copy the files "together"? Here is the command from the DOS prompt.

Copy /B file0003.mts+file0004.​mts newfile.mts

What this does is copy the files together (0003 and 0004) as newfile.mts The /B switch means that it is to be treated as a binary file and so copies it as 1's & 0's, effectively rejoining what 'man' has broken apart - If only there was such a command to fix broken marriages...

I am rendering a long file that I've done this with now and will let you know how it works out.

Yep, that's what I ended up doing (post right above this one). Works like a charm.

I can't believe I need to revert back to DOS to get around this. Oh well, glad I still (kinda) remember how to use it!

Thanks for your input!

We recently came across the same issue with the 2GB file limit. The only solution was the copy /b command that you guys are talking about. We made a batch script that allows us to drag and drop the MTS files from the camera and merge them automatically.

You can find the details here: http://blog.artooro.co​m …s-avchd-clips-on-windows/