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Sony HDR CX240 - filming as one long video

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andy_from_sligo
Explorer

Sony HDR CX240 - filming as one long video

hello - on a Sony HDR CX240  full HD camcorder every time i film , on playback I get 'chunks' of films when pressing the 'start/stop' button at the back of the camcorder... i suppose they are chapters and i know I can 'join them chunks' together when editing with the pay memories software - but thing is that i want it to record as 1 large (or larger) mp4 or MTS chunk onto the SD card insted of seperate chunks/chapters - is there something i have not selected in the menu settings or have sony not designed the camcorder to operate in this way? .... if they havent designed to operate it in this way or made it an option .... why? 

thanks.


7 REPLIES 7
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darkframe
Expert

Hi @andy_from_sligo,

 

well, why don't you simply use the "play" button which you'll find on the monitor? The Start/Stop button is not the right one for playing back your clips.

 

Cheers,

 

darkframe

Wo kämen wir hin, wenn jeder sagte, wo kämen wir hin und keiner ginge, um zu sehen, wohin wir kämen, wenn wir gingen... (© by Kurt Marti)
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andy_from_sligo
Explorer


@darkframewrote:

Hi @andy_from_sligo,

 

well, why don't you simply use the "play" button which you'll find on the monitor? The Start/Stop button is not the right one for playing back your clips.

 

Cheers,

 

darkframe


I do use the play button to play back my videos - I am talking about when you are filming and press the start stop buton with your thumb it seems to start recording another chapter/chunk each time when you press start rather than just add to the last bit of filming you have done. hard to explain but what I mean is that I would rather there be a setting where the start stop button you press with your thumb acted as a 'pause' button when in recording mode

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darkframe
Expert

Hi @andy_from_sligo,

 

sorry for my misunderstanding. Now I see what you're looking for.

 

Well, I don't know any modern digital camera which offers something like a "pause" feature while filming. When pressing "start/stop" for the first time, recording starts and a new file is being generated. When pressing the button for the second time, recording ends and the file is being closed. So every time you begin a new shot a new file is being created.

 

Digital cameras do not produce one large file with chapter marks but store single files each time. That's a bit different from e. g. an old analog VHS camera, using video tapes. I believe to remember that on those cameras you were able to pause a recording and to continue a bit later.

 

Well, in the digital world I can't see the benefit of having a "pause" mode. Stopping a recording is like a pause anyhow, except that you're not getting one single file in the end but several files. But it's easy to connect those single files and to produce one large file in the end. Well, that large file is finally your movie.

 

Actually a "pause" mode in your sense would make video editing much more complicated.

Example: Imagine that you've created a clip of let's say 10 minutes by using "pause" several times. You would get one large file. What in case there's a bad recording somewhere in the middle of the clip (shaky, unsharp or whatsoever)? You would need to cut out that bad clip and to re-write the complete rest of the file. When using single files you can easily decide beforehand which clips you'll take for the final movie and only connect those which are really worth being shown.

 

Additionally, I rarely use my clips in chronological order when producing the final version.

Example: Last year I've been to Malta and was walking around Valletta taking several clips in the historical centre. The final result (after editing) does not at all show the order in which I took my clips. Most clips did not even make it into the film finally. Some takes were bad, others were simply unnecessary and of course I had lots of duplicates of the same buildings but from different angles. In case I would have had one large file only I would have gone crazy in trying to produce a final version.

 

So finally I'd say yes, there's a good reason for not having a "pause" mode and that reason is, that it makes cutting the final movie much more easy than having one large file which you would need to cut into pieces anyhow. In case you're not cutting your takes it's still easy to simply connect all your single clips to one big file but the other way around is much more complicated. Actually I don't know any film maker who would use a "pause" feature.

 

Hope that it's a bit clearer now.

 

Cheers

darkframe

Wo kämen wir hin, wenn jeder sagte, wo kämen wir hin und keiner ginge, um zu sehen, wohin wir kämen, wenn wir gingen... (© by Kurt Marti)
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andy_from_sligo
Explorer

Thank you for the reply - yes i see where you are coming from. I was  using the 'in camera' highlight feature on the Sony camcorder the other day to play back what I had filmed , and at the end of each clip it paused briefly (only for a second) before playing the next clip instead of flowing smoothly into the next clip, and just though to myself if that would have filmed a whole sequence in one go instead of splitting into seperate files that it wouldnt have done this 'freeze' before it went onto the next piece of filming - I had set the highlight settings to 'simple' so it wasnt using any kind of action feature on the highlights 'slide show' feature. 

I have had a few mobile phones over the years and why a lot of them didnt have a pause feature when using the camcorder function of the mobile phone a couple of phones did indeed have a pause feature on them, and in fact in their marketing material and listed as a special feature they used to say "now you can pause your videos - just like you used to with a camcorder, and pick right up where you left off!" - I cannot remember which phones I had that could do this , but yes you could pause and restart and it would be recorded down as 1 mp4 video ... then I think to actually stop recording you just exited back to the home screen of the phone or press the square black button on the screen to stop recording. 


profile.country.DE.title
darkframe
Expert

Hi @andy_from_sligo,

 

I see what you mean, but, well, a camcorder is not a phone and actually it's not meant for the purpose you're talking about.

 

From my point of view all of this "highlight feature" stuff is simply needless and not even worth looking at it. I can't see any benefit in those "features" anyhow so I do not bother in no way if a camera introduces a short break before switching to the next clip which it "believes" to be worth being part of a "highlight" movie.

 

Well, maybe smart phones are doing better with a - from my point of view again - meaningless feature, but so what? The purpose of taking movies should be to produce an interesting (short) movie in the end of those clips taken but NOT to let the software decide.

Sorry, but I can't give you any better advice as this kind of movie making is not my world, absolutely.

 

Cheers

darkframe

Wo kämen wir hin, wenn jeder sagte, wo kämen wir hin und keiner ginge, um zu sehen, wohin wir kämen, wenn wir gingen... (© by Kurt Marti)
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MrJamesMorgan
Explorer

>> Well, in the digital world I can't see the benefit of having a "pause" mode. 


I can give you a perfect example where it would be beneficial.  I'm recording my daughters volleyball match and would like to pause in between every play - so I don't have to record things like player swaps, chasing the ball down, referee disagreements, coaching challenges, etc, etc.  If I stop the video after every play I'd end up with thousands of files.  I could join those all together using some sort of video editing software, but that's not what I'm wanting to spend my time doing.  I just want to copy the one file (that I paused between plays) to my hard drive for filing and call it a day.  Plus I often get home and hook the camcorder up to the TV for us to watch.  I don't want to have it stop and have to hit play button after each play in the game.  

 

My Samsung S7 allows me to pause.  My expensive and dedicated camcorder doesn't.  Silly.  This scenerio for needing to pause can apply to any sporting event... or any event for that matter that has small downtown durations that you don't want to record.

 

James

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andy_from_sligo
Explorer


@MrJamesMorgan wrote:

>> Well, in the digital world I can't see the benefit of having a "pause" mode. 


I can give you a perfect example where it would be beneficial.  I'm recording my daughters volleyball match and would like to pause in between every play - so I don't have to record things like player swaps, chasing the ball down, referee disagreements, coaching challenges, etc, etc.  If I stop the video after every play I'd end up with thousands of files.  I could join those all together using some sort of video editing software, but that's not what I'm wanting to spend my time doing.  I just want to copy the one file (that I paused between plays) to my hard drive for filing and call it a day.  Plus I often get home and hook the camcorder up to the TV for us to watch.  I don't want to have it stop and have to hit play button after each play in the game.  

 

My Samsung S7 allows me to pause.  My expensive and dedicated camcorder doesn't.  Silly.  This scenerio for needing to pause can apply to any sporting event... or any event for that matter that has small downtown durations that you don't want to record.

 

James


Indeed James - I just cannot see really why they did not include the feature. It is after all technically possible.