I'm baffled - again.

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Peter Stedman
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I'm baffled - again.

Post by Peter Stedman »

A friend has just returned from a family holiday of several weeks in Thailand and called in with his Pan camcorder SD card to show me a couple of clips from over 400. (Wow). I put the card into the PC and brought up the view showing the files from 00000 to 000400+. Clicking on the first my friend said, No that clip was from about two weeks in. I said that it was the very first file on the card as the number proved it. We tried a couple of other with same result. We then looked at the files in large icon view and proved to him that 00000 to 00005 were indeed the first files on the card.

We were baffled so then looked at the files in the detail list and at once spotted that whilst the individual files were grouped in date order, the dates seemed to be in a haphazard order. I hope that explains it, as he was correct in saying that the first files showing on the card – from 00000 were indeed taken about two weeks after they had arrived. Later on I also discovered a couple of instances where a date having (say) 20 clips was split and a couple from another day inserted. I’m totally baffled.

My friend says that when at home he copied the files from the card onto his Apple Mac they all came into his editing programme in the proper date order. I’m on a PC of course.

Can anyone explain all this to me, and my friend, as we are both very confused?

Thanks.

Pete.
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TimStannard
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Re: I'm baffled - again.

Post by TimStannard »

Peter, I'm guessing that "in order" simply means the sort order that your computer is displaying the files in. If a file has a name of 00005.mt2s then that is the file's name. It won't appear differently on different computers.
My guess is that the view you are looking at is sorted by file name order, and the view your friend is looking at is sorted by date order.
You can change this in Windows explorer by clicking at the top of a column. Click at the top of the column named "name" and it will be sorted in name order. Do it again and it will be sorted in reverse name order. Click at the top of the column labelled "date created" and, guess what? , the files will be listed in date order.

This obviously begs the question "why is 00000 not the earliest". My guess is files on the card have been deleted and so new files are numbered to fill the gaps. I do not know this, it's just an educated guess.

Hope that helps.
Tim
Proud to be an amateur film maker - I do it for the love of it
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John Roberts
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Re: I'm baffled - again.

Post by John Roberts »

TimStannard wrote: This obviously begs the question "why is 00000 not the earliest". My guess is files on the card have been deleted and so new files are numbered to fill the gaps. I do not know this, it's just an educated guess.

Hope that helps.
I did a bit of digging into my old (sic) film's journals because I couldn't remember for certain, but I did indeed find that my Panasonic camcorder used to reset the file numbers and count again from 00000.mts whenever files were deleted. So you might well be right Tim regarding the camcorder 'filling the gaps' with unused file numbers. In contrast the GH3 remembers the numbers so every new project starts from the file number the previous project finished at. At least there's less confusion in the numbering system like that, but it always seems odd when a new project's first file reads something like P1063422...! :lol:

John
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Peter Stedman
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Re: I'm baffled - again.

Post by Peter Stedman »

Thanks for your thoughts. Sorry I didn't get back yesterday - I was away. Spoke to my friend who reminded me that the camera is a Sony - not a Panasonic and that he was using a brand new unused card. I reckon it will just remain a mystery.

Needless to say I had my arm twisted to do a basic edit and I am wondering that, when I have done this on my Prem. CS6, what format (File type) shall I save it for him? This will go on either a memory stick or an SD card. It's HD of course and he will want it saved in the highest quality for showing on his super large TV.

Thanks again for your advice. Pete.
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TimStannard
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Re: I'm baffled - again.

Post by TimStannard »

The card may well have been new, but are you sure he didn't delete some clips after reviewing and before filming some more?
Tim
Proud to be an amateur film maker - I do it for the love of it
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Peter Stedman
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Re: I'm baffled - again.

Post by Peter Stedman »

Thanks Tim, No, he just put it into the camera a recorded as normal. No deletions or anything. He just removed the card on returning home. Well so he tells me. Pete.
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TimStannard
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Re: I'm baffled - again.

Post by TimStannard »

Then I'm as baffled as you, Peter!
As for output, I don't use Adobe CS and I'm not sure my settings ard optimal anyway!
Tim
Proud to be an amateur film maker - I do it for the love of it
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