Video Bigger Than 4gb

A primer for a newbie

[markd]

Hello all

I have been mucking around with some consumer level video capture software, taking footage from a DVD camcorder, and hoping to 'preserve' the footage by 'digitising it' and saving it to a hard disc.

Unfortunately, I have fallen foul of Windows preventing me from copying/storing a file which is bigger than the 4gb limit.

Is there a way around this to enable me to digitise about an hour's worth of footage - approx. 38gb?

I was wondering how professionals who may have to 'digitise' a training seminar, wedding video etc. to DVD. Are they similarly constrained if they want to 'manipulate' the taped footage digitally via a PC?

Sorry for some v. beginner type questions :)

[smokeyb]

Hi Mark
The 4gb issue is the filesize limit for any FAT32 system like 98 or ME. You have to be running a NTFS operating system like NT Win2K or XP and have your disks formatted with NTFS, then I think the limit goes into terrabytes! It really is as simple as that and I personally run Win2K professional, but XP has a lot more built in bits and bobs especially designed for the handling of video.
HTH Smokey

[edited by: smokeyb at 9:45 pm (utc) on Nov. 2, 2004]

[smokeyb]

PS
Uncompressed video weighs in at about 1gb per 5 mintues of video. That means an hour should be around 12gb.
Thought that might help.

[markd]

Thanks Smokie - that is a big help for a newbie to this like me!

Does that mean a complete reformatting of my hard disc (or removable hard disc), or can you somehow 'switch' without loosing existing data?

I am running XP on the PC I'm using, but it must have shipped with the FAT32 formatting for the HD

Thanks again for your help!

[Macro]

>> but it must have shipped with the FAT32 formatting for the HD

You can convert your file system to NTFS without any loss of data (but you can't then go back to FAT32 without a re-format). A lot of video editing forums have covered this in some depth.

[Leosghost]

There is also a programme for those with fat 32 who need the possibility to store bigger than a 4 gig file of video ..but I can't mention it here ..Tos and DMCA..

[markd]

I had heard/read that some software running under FAT32 will not run under NTFS?

Are they any 'usual suspects' to check before converting?

[smokeyb]

I have all my software (tons of it) both on a machine running Win2K in NTFS and another running 98SE FAT32, with no problems whatsoever. The software that handles big video files on FAT32, actually splits the recording into seperate 4GB files on the fly. I have never used it because it can be a fiddly process without having to merge cut up footage. Besides, I bet it screws your memory with all that swapping. I don't run XP but you may have a tool called "Drive converter" in your sytem tools, and that will convert your drives to NTFS with no change to your files or software (AFAIK).
HTH

[moe2000]

If you want to go the quick and dirty route, just digitize 4 gb of video at a time. You really don't need one big 1 hour long file of video anyway -- better to have several smaller files.

[markd]

<< The software that handles big video files on FAT32, actually splits the recording into seperate 4GB files on the fly. >>

EXACTLY what has happened and want to avoid Smokey.

As I run only 'standard' stuff on the PC I want to convert, it sounds as though all will be OK.

Will give it a go, and hopefully won't be starting a thread called: 'It there anyway to reverse a converstion' :) (which I don't think there is!)

Thanks again

[Macro]

Bear in mind that with an NTFS partition there are some things that you can't do - like creating a boot floppy (well, there are some tricks around that but that's another story). Otherwise, you won't notice anything different in acually using most programs, saving or transferring files, or using Windows Explorer. Good luck.

[smokeyb]

If you are in any doubts? Look here to answer all your questions [ntfs.com...]
HTH