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Automatically subdivide clips while logging and transferring in FCP7

When I Log and Transfer files from my camera's SDHC cards, is there a way to have FCP import them as a sequence of smaller, more manageable files? I often record 1-2 hour long continuos events and don't want to end up with one ridiculously large movie file. Also, I want to be able to archive the raw footage to cheap external hard drives that only handle files smaller than 4gig. So far, I've been setting in and out points, adding to cue, rinse, repeat. Very laborious and time consuming. I've googled and googled but have been dead-ending with my search words. I shoot with the Sony NX5U. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Posted on Nov 27, 2011 11:44 AM

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Posted on Nov 27, 2011 12:18 PM

FCP can only work with stop and start indications inserted by the camera. If you ran a long clip then it will capture just that , all the clip from start point to end of tape or end / stop marker. You could use MpegStream clip to manually break it down before ingressing. Do you have space issues ?

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Nov 27, 2011 12:43 PM in response to JimKells

Thanks for the reply Jim. No, space is not an issue, just more of an efficiency issue. Thankfully, I've been busy enough to not have enough time to edit. ;-) I used to shoot in the JVC HD100 and for some reason FCP was quirky capturing it. So I used a firestore to capture the video, then pulled it over to edit. The FS would chop the video into nice 2Gig pieces that would drag seamlessly onto a timeline.

Now I shoot on either my Markii or the aforementioned NX5U. A segmention feature seems like a reasonable option to have. I'm surprised it doesn't already exist. I'll try sending it through Streamclip like you suggested but that's still one more step I'd rather not waste time doing.

I'm new to the AVCHD and SD card thing. I understand from my literature that the NX5 actually chops the files into smaller pieces, even when it's a long shot. Why can't I transfer it that way. I fell like screaming, "Don't go changing, I love you just the way you are!" When I look at the contents of the SD card through finder I'm even more confused. I guess I'm just old-school, dragging my feet since the 3/4-inch days!

Thanks for the advice!

Automatically subdivide clips while logging and transferring in FCP7

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