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Why not write files >4GB to SDXC cards?
  • karlkarl

    I understand that the "spanning"-feature is required to allow recordings bigger than 4 GB on SDHC cards - since they use FAT32 filesystems, files cannot get bigger.

    But what is the slicing of recordings good for when writing to SDXC cards? They use ExFAT, thus files can get much bigger than any existing SDXC card.

    Do you know why Panasonic chose to slice the files into pieces, anyway?

    And do you think that the hacked firmware could just avoid to open a new file after 4GB (for people using SDXC, only)?

    (BTW: BluRay disks use the UDF filesystem, and there files not only can get but are in fact often much bigger than 4GB - so "compatibility to BluRay players" cannot be the issue, here.)

  • 11 Replies sorted by
  • balazerbalazer

    The GH2 uses FAT32 on SDXC cards, not exFAT.

  • karlkarl

    @balazer: I am absolutely sure that the SDCX card I formatted and use with my GH2 does have an exFAT filesystem on it.

    mount -t vfat -o ro /dev/sdd1 /sdcard

    mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/sdd1

    mount -t exfat -o ro /dev/sdd1 /sdcard

    FUSE exfat 0.9.7

    (... works fine...)

    exfatfsck /dev/sdd1

    exfatfsck 0.9.7

    Checking file system on /dev/sdd1.

    File system version 1.0

    Sector size 512 bytes

    Cluster size 128 KB

    Volume size 59 GB

    Used space 27 GB

    Available space 32 GB

    Totally 12 directories and 140 files.

    File system checking finished. No errors found.

    Maybe the GH2 also accepts SDXC cards with a FAT filesystem on them, but if you format the SDXC card with your GH2, it will put an exFAT filesystem on it.

  • tinbeotinbeo

    I format sdxc but gh2 won't read. I have to re format the card. The strange thing is the name reading "untitled" instead of "no name" as with other sd cards.

  • stoneystoney

    Always let GH2 format a memory card.

  • balazerbalazer

    karl, then maybe I am wrong. Several other people had reported that SDXC cards were being formatted in FAT32 in the GH2. I don't have any SDXC cards myself to test.

  • BenibubeBenibube

    a till now not clearly answered question, for many:

    Panasonic North-America GH2: Type Digital interchangeable lens system camera Recording Media SD memory card, SDH C memory card, SD XC memory card

    Panasonic Germany GH2: Typ Digitale Wechselobjektiv-Systemkamera im MicroFourThirds-Standard Speichermedium SDXC-, SDHC-, SD-Karten

  • abaciabaci

    @karl Best to read tinbeo's reply. It's not what the card is capable of, it's what the camera chooses as a file system. I'm not sure if Vitaly could work the hack to change things, but as it stands now, the GH2 only works with the FAT32 file system and can not work with ExFAT.

  • karlkarl

    @Benibube: What is the question about the texts you cite? The English and German sentences make the same statement, just that the English version contains spaces and upper-case letters in unusual places and the German version is missing a "." or ";" before "Speichermedium" to make it grammatically correct.

    @abaci: As I already wrote above: I am absolutely sure that my GH2 does use exFAT on my SDXC happily every day. And btw, if it did not, it would violate the SDXC standard (even though I consider it a stupid choice from the SD consortium to have mandated the patent-encumbered exFAT filesystem for SDXC).

  • BenibubeBenibube

    @karl 11:16AM

    I didnt have a question !

    I just copied the original text from the Pan website in both market areas.

    Its just a clear answer concerning what SD cards can be used in a GH2. (SD - SDHC - SDXC, not concerning FAT32 or exFAT..)

    Please read the questions...discussions...without answers...dont teach, Herr Lehrer !

  • karlkarl

    @Benibube: There's no reason to get upset. You said there was a yet unanswered question open, and I honestly thought I just hadn't gotten the point what the actual question was.

    And by the way, my profession is not being a teacher.

  • karlkarl

    Just out of curiousity I changed the partition type on my SDXC 64GB card to 0x0b ("Win 95 FAT32"), and put a 32-bit FAT filesystem on it (using mkdosfs under Linux). Then I put the card formatted this way into the GH2, just to see whether it would use it that way. It does not.

    When I switched on the GH2 with the FAT formatted SDXC card in it, it displayed the usual warning that the card was not usable and asked whether I wanted to format it. After that was done, the partition table and file system were back to exFAT.

    But back to the original topic: If spanning would be the only obstacle to make use of even higher bitrates, then disabling the maximum file size limit when recording on SDXC cards could be of some benefit. Regarding feasibility: Vitaly already identified other file limits (such as the "30 minute"-one or the arbitrary ones for different modes), so maybe enabling a higher maximum file size than 4GB is not too difficult.

    Then again, it's not unlikely there will be adverse side effects from doing so. If you record for a long time to one file, and this fails for some reason (like battery drained or such), you might lose more than just the last 4 minutes. If the in-camera playback is done via some 32bit microcontroller, it may well happen that it would not be capable of replaying >4GB files.

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