Good to know. Were your tests on freshly formatted cards? Which cards?

I guess the main question now is whether anybody doesn't have this problem. If not, why not? What is different?

Chris

PS - Patriot 16G class10, DANE-ELEC 32G Proline 200x. The latter is definitely the superior card. But even it failed the spanning test with ptool 3.62, 24H 44mbps and 66 mbps. However 24L at 32 mbps spanned OK on the same test shot.

These results surprised me as kae (I think) on another thread had previously been spanning 66 mbs under ptool 3.61.

Here are the links to the medium sized resolution charts cbrandin is using.

http://tinyurl.com/3apq5ff

I've had the spanning problem with everything over 32mbit. Except 1 time with a low detail static scene and 44mbit it did not manifest. So basically > 32mbit = not spanning.

As mentioned by others... the clip that does not spans gets written to the memory card. As this happens, you can't play other files anymore on the card and Final Cut Pro X does not recognize it anymore. The clips play fine in VLC/Movist/ClipWrap etc. If 0000.mts spans (but fails), the next clip will be 0002.mts. So something goes wrong there. I guess it is related to a buffer or memory or something that overflows.

@cbrandin

Yes, I think that's a pretty good summary of the spanning problem.

A further clue perhaps is that, on a card where a spanning error has occured, Final Cut Pro X fails to recognize the card as a valid camera card. I'm guessing that there is some auxiliary data that doesn't get written to the containing directory when the spanning fails. Might also relate to the skipped file number.

RE: file spanning problem. I think there could be an issue with Transcend class 10 16GB SDHC cards.

Quoting from an email sent to a UK customer;

'Transcend 16GB SDHC Class 10 Memory Card

Transcend recalls the above product due to possible failure on data transfer with over 4GB usage.

Due to manufacture process issue, item subjected to this recall might cause read/write blocking if in use capacity is over 4GB.

Please follow these steps in order to determine whether your memory card is subject to this recall:

Printed at the back of the SDHC Card is a 10-digit serial number, look at the first 6-digits to determine if your product is subject to this recall:

http://www.transcend-uk.com/Support/ShowSNImg.asp?PartNo=ts16gsdhc10

Serial Numbers subject to recall are: 446136 XXXX and 446121 XXXX
(XXXX represents numbers from 0001 to 9999)

@cbrandin

As mentioned: when you don't hit the 4GB limit with any clip in any bitrate (i.e. 66mbit), the SD card is detected by Final Cut Pro X and you can preview clips. They also playback fine in camera and you can switch between clips. Once 1 clip on the card hits the 4GB mark and does not span correctly, the entire card gets 'corrupted' i.e. it is not playable in camera or in AVCHD devices, only on a computer with certain programs. I guess this has to do with a file structure on the card that gets corrupted because of the failed spanning.

@cbrandin I agree that http://www.personal-view.com/talks/discussion/comment/12993#Comment_12993 describes the spanning issue precisely. I have it with a patriot LX series class 10 card. Not the best card, but decent i think. I can get spanning at 32M for both SH and 24H with 3.61 (SH sometimes errors out after spanning and creating a small 2nd file (12-70 MB) usually with a really complex scene like leaves blowing in wind - but i think this is another problem - maybe my card - if i drop the bitrate to 28M SH always spans fine). With 3.62 I could not get 24H or SH to span at 32M no matter what, if i was shooting my tree of death. 3.62 24H spanned fine at 32M if i shot a scene with much less motion that averaged ~22M when looked at in quicktime.

@bdegazio I once successfully repaired an AVCHD directory from a canon camcorder so that Final Cut Express could read it. The owner had deleted some of the previous .MTS files using a card reader (because he was using vegas and using the MTS files directly) and so stuff i shot on it would not be recognized and imported in the Final Cut. I looked in another directory in the structure that had tiny files with numerical names corresponding to the .MTS files to find out which files were missing. I then tricked final cut by putting empty text files in place of the numbered .MTS files (named ie 000003.MTS) that were missing so when it looked for that MTS file, it found it, despite that fact that it was an empty file. This worked in fine FCE as long as I did not try to import any of the clips that were now empty files :)

@v10tdi
Thank you, these Panasonic utility apps look like exactly what was asked for!
I can't try them out right now as I'm on the road without my GH2. Will test when returned on MOnday.

(later)
I tried out the AVCCamRestorer.app with some random .MTS files I had on my laptop. It created the entire PRIVATE directory structure and supporting info files. Looks good. This utility might provide some clues as to what is happening to the directory when the spanning goes awry.

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