Have you recorded long continuous videos and discovered your clips are split into multiple files?
Have you tried joining the clips with your video editing software but found an annoying glitch at the seam?
Sony MC50 split MTS files at 2GB
What’s the problem?
I am referring to camcorders that record videos on memory cards or hard disks as MTS files.
Currently these recording media cannot hold files larger than 2GB or 4GB. Hence long videos end up being split into separate files.
My Sony MC50 records on hard disk and split long videos at every 2GB, while my Panasonic HMC 151 at every 4GB.
A long video recording may be a seminar, a play or a speech, where your video camera runs continuously for an hour or more.
A one-hour talk may be split into 2 to 3 files depending on the recording quality you set.
Why is it a problem?
At first, it may seem like a simple task to join the files using your video editing software.
Until an improved video editing software comes along, there will be a glitch at the joint.
The glitch is most obvious if the video is a speech or a singing performance.
My friend’s client refused to pay him because of that glitch!
That glitch is a split second silence. A spoken word may go missing in that moment.
Sometimes, that split second is a still frame that looks like a bad jump cut.
The Solution
If a video editing software cannot join the files properly, what can?
Before editing the video, you have to merge the MTS files back into one continuous clip in order to avoid the glitch.
I have tried two solutions that worked very well.
MTSMerger
MTSMerger is a software written by a good man known as Pailes. The software is easy to use. Just import the MTS files in the right sequence and it will quickly join them seamlessly without recoding. That means you will get a new 8GB file when you join two 4GB files. There is a Mac version as well.
http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?161735-mts-clip-join-tool
I have been using MTSMerger for years until I changed my laptop and lost the software in transition.
So I searched the web for MTSMerger, but found another software instead.
MTS File Joiner
MTS File Joiner is similar to MTSMerger, except a little more unpolished. I mean it worked well, but while processing the files, the software seemed to hang or I thought it crashed in the middle. It is just a user interface issue. Anyway, it saved another of my seminar shoot.
https://sites.google.com/site/mtsfilejoiner/Home/files
Panasonic HMC151 multiple MTS files joined
There are other software like the tsMuxer and the Final Mate, but I have not tried them yet.
MTSMerger and MTS File Joiner solved the problem of joining multiple MTS files together.
Did I mention they are free?
Please note that this solution is for joining files from a continuous shoot and not multiple files from different shots.
Do you know of a video editing tool to automatically combine split files into one? Please comment.
Adrian Lee
http://VideoLane.com
