Could have sworn I was able to have Edius "auto-link" AVCHD files from Canon XA, no?

[OneQuickSix]

As most of you know, the "great file size limit" (because they're still inexplicably requiring FAT32 for SD cards) for recorded AVCHD (or MP4, etc.) is around 4gb. The camcorder's automatically split the files after the 4GB limit is reached (sometimes sooner, but that's another story) ... about the 20-minute mark for 24mb/s video.

Anyway, a while back I could have sworn upon importing AVCHD from either a Canon XA10 or XA25 (same as XA20), that Edius would see the first file from one of these split-file long-format videos, and upon placing it on the timeline it would automatically join them together an appear as one long file.

I know that if I had simply copied the .MTS files off the SD card it would NOT work, but I thought if I either, A) Hooked the camera up an imported directly, or B) Copied the entire directory structure from the card, it would work fine.

I can't seem to replicate this now (using the XA25), and it is very possible the last time I did it was with the XA10 as I haven't shot any long format items in quite a while.

Any clues/ideas? I know I can manually join them together with a DOS command, but I was hoping I wasn't just dreaming/goiing-crazy about Edius doing it for me.

Thanks,
Tim

[John Lewis]

its usually the camera software that does this, did you use it

[OneQuickSix]

No, John, I have never used the camera software before. Nice thought though, thanks.

[CentralEurope]

try it over the "Souce Browser"

if you have spanned (AVCHD) clips and no tool from the cam-company

Sony have the tool .. but only for his own cams

Panasonic prosumer cams, need a NLE who can handle "spanned (AVCHD) clips"
Like "Souce Browser" in Edius / Media-Browser in Adobe and a similat tool in Vegas
.

[OneQuickSix]

try it over the "Souce Browser"

Yeah, I tried using the source browser when both hooking the camera up directly and with an SD card with directory structure. In fact, I could have sworn that is the way it worked before.

I'm doing another long shoot (2+ hours) with an XA25 and two G20's, so I'll try again. If that doesn't work, I don't know ... I'll have to get an XA10 again to satisfy my curiosity I suppose.

[CentralEurope]

IIRC... you need the
Source Browser
SD card with directory structure
and the correct folder in this structure

if you convert to HQ (HQX) ... the AVCHD_converter_v440 (or prior versions)
will do it automatically => assemble "spanned clips" to one file

aside from "spanned clips" :) ... maybe i am a old and blindly men...
I see a lot of your PC in your signature + AE CS5.5PP ... but no hint to your usesd Edius version
.

[OneQuickSix]

IIRC... you need the
Source Browser
SD card with directory structure
and the correct folder in this structure

if you convert to HQ (HQX) ... the AVCHD_converter_v440 (or prior versions)
will do it automatically => assemble "spanned clips" to one file

aside from "spanned clips" :) ... maybe i am a old and blindly men...
I see a lot of your PC in your signature + AE CS5.5PP ... but no hint to your usesd Edius version
.

Thanks, yeah I still have the AVCHD converter, which would save me from doing it DOS if I need to, nice to know, thanks. Although, I hate to convert to HQX (even though I like HQ/HQX), because Edius handles AVCHD so well on my system.

[OneQuickSix]

Uggggh, ok ... now I feel like an idiot. Figure it out ...

Apparently I had a small break (accidentally stopped rolling) at one point, thus the files would NOT be continious. Although two of the files were, but as it was the intermission the second file was only three minutes, so it broke again.

Actually, you don't even need the directory structure it looks like, just all the MTS files in the same directory. If you look at the "Expansion Info" tab on the first clip's properties, it will actually list the linked files. (And that is what I remembered seeing before.)

Ok, mystery solved. Thanks for the input, and I learned something about AVCHD Converter.