"I would like to capture from HDV to m2t files (at gop boundaries) to files that are about 1G each."

I can't think of anything that'd do that for you.

Even without scene detection depending on how the tape was recorded with HDV it may need to be split into seperate files. I'm not 100% certain exactly what the requirements are to avoid making recordings that don't have to be split but I suspect never rewinding the tape to review the recording to be one of them. I've recorded around 3 hours of HDV and it captured as two files, the split occured exactly where we lost power to the recorder.

Having captured your HDV as one file you could use Vegas with the No Recompress option to render out 1 GB files. I've never used it to know if it for sure if it produces closed GOPs or not. I sure wish Vegas had an I frame indicator like DVDA to assist with this.

Bob.

""I would like to capture from HDV to m2t files (at gop boundaries) to files that are about 1G each."

Ahh... this part I didn't catch. There are only 2 programs that I know of that will capture and split at points OTHER than scene changes; Avid Liquid and Pinnacle Studio.

Avid liquid has HDV batch capture so you can manually set up 'mark in/out' points and those points don't necessarily have to be at scene changes.

Pinnacle Studio has the ability to capture/split in terms of time... split every 10 minutes for example (or what ever you set it for).

Unfortunately you can not use these captures in anything else but these 2 programs because they don't actually split the tape. Instead they capture as a whole and write a separate file containing the split information while capturing.... which of course is then used by the programs to show the splits on the time line. This gives you the ability to split ANYWHERE without worrying about splitting gop's.... because you're not actually splitting during the capture.

As for capturing with a closed gop.... that's become a rather interesting, and unsettling problem with avchd cams. HDD's and flash cards are formatted as fat32 which of course has the 4 gig file limit so in a continuous shoot that file must be broken up. It seems that these cams pay no attention at all to the gop structure and simply chop the file (during the shoot) at a set size, close that file and then start a new one. The end result is a set of files with a pile of open gop structures and if you don't use the supplied software (or at least a dos 'join' command) prior to importing these files to Vegas, then what you get is red frames at the beginning and end of these files (Vegas can't read the incomplete gop's)

Now given how Vegas reacts with open gop's from avchd cams... then I would IMAGINE that other programs like HDVsplit either close the last gop when you stop the cam... or the cam itself is closing the gop at the end of the scenes.... otherwise (again I'm guessing here) you would see red frames at the beginning and end of your files similar to that of the avchd cams.

Hi,

Thx for your kind responces. My goal is just to archieve HDV material to FAT32 formatted disks. The file size limit of 4 Gbyte is the limiting factor. On the other hand, I could use the scene detection feature but that would again generate a huge pile of files - unnecessary complicating the whole thing.

Probably it would not be too complicated to add to the HDV Split program such a feature that just chops the files into predetermined chunks, would be very handy...

I remember that some other sw had this feature too (other than Pinnacle), but cannot remember wich...

Christian

Does it HAVE to be exactly 4 gig? You could simply time it. It's roughly .2 gigs per minute for HDV. Of course. you could set for no scene detect and stop the capture every 18 minutes or so. Of course you would have to experiment with the gop (whether or not hdvsplit completes the gop when you hit the stop button... I'm pretty sure it does though)

Yeah, probably I have to do this manually. I was hoping that I could let the system run unattended for one hour, now I have to baby sit it at least eventy 20...25 minutes or so. That's a way to solve the problem, albeit not what I hoped for...

Cheers

Christian

TSSplitter can split HDV .m2t files by whatever size you need.

http://www.videohelp.com/tools/TSSplitter

The comments for TSS splitter says you can't use the split files ( other than the first one ), as stand alone files. The pieces are useless unless you rejoin them ..

Doesn't sound like what the OP is looking for ..

I guess the comment writer could have been wrong ..
Might have to check it out..

"I guess the comment writer could have been wrong .."

I doubt it. By the sounds of it TSS spliter does the same thing that most avchd cams do.... split the video by size without taking gop into consideration.