saving HD footage onto TV HDD unit

[Cozzie]

G'day everyone,

Recently I bought a Canon HF20 video camera, based partially on advice from these forums. (thanks again for that, I'm really happy with the camera). I've been recording & editing in HD, then burning onto DVD. I recorded in HD so that when BluRay burning technology decreases in price, I can re-burn all my footage in HD.

I have a HD plasma TV and a couple of weeks ago, I bought a HD HDD & DVD burner for it, so now I (or, more accurately, my kids) can record TV shows very easily for viewing at a more convenient time. The DHH is 500Gb, so has plenty of room for this kind of thing. With all this room, I was struck by (what I thought was) a cunning plan: I should 'burn' my HD home videos (I only have one currently) in HD format onto a folder on the computer, then transfer them onto a 32Gb flash drive, then to the HDD, so the family could watch them in HD at any time, or at least until the kids fill up the drive recording teenage pop stars...

This all sounded fine in theory, but when I went to 'burn' I was faced with a whole list of 20 presents. I tried to research a little and took a stab in the dark and used MPEG2 1920x1080I 25 (I'm in Australia, if that makes any difference). Anyway, this burned into a computer folder nicely and ended up with 2 files XMPSES, 23Mb and M2T at about 13Gb. At this point I thougth all was well, but when I tried to copy it onto my 32Gb flash drive for transfering to the HDD, I keep getting errors saying that the file is too large for the destination file system.

So. I guess I have 2 questions:

1. Did I 'burn' in the correct format for playing on a HDD?
2. Does anyone have any ideas about why a 13Gb file can't be copied onto an otherwise empty 32Gb memory stick?

Any anybody may have would be greatly appreciated. Clearly I'm still a novice at this kind of thing.

Thanks,
Cozzie.

[Paul LS]

Yes, the flashdrive is FAT32 with a maximum 4GB file size. You need to transfer it directly to your TV HDD.

[Cozzie]

Thanks Paul for your quick response. I wish I'd known this before I laid out 130 bucks for a 32Gb flash drive. Not to worry, I'm sure it'll come in handy for other stuff.

Because the file was so big after I'd joined the clips & edited, I couldn't copy it back to the video camera (it has flash memory as well) to transfer to the TV HDD. I tried connecting my computer to the TV HHD via USB, but they didn't recognise each other. I also tried copying the file from my computuer to an external drive, then to the HDD, but again, the Panasonic HDD unit did not recognise the external drive. Hmmm.

I think I've come to the conclusion that I'll need to buy a bluray burner at some point to watch HD recordings on the TV. I guess I could run it from my computer to the TV directly thru a HDMI cable, but that's a bit of messing around.

Anyway, thanks again for your help. My next plan is to keep an eye on the DVD burner prices til they become reasonable.

Cozzie.

[Bobby]

...I think I've come to the conclusion that I'll need to buy a bluray burner at some point to watch HD recordings on the TV...

Cozzie, there are a few media player boxes now that will take any USB device (flash or external hard drive) and generate a HDMI signal to go to your TV, such as

http://www.amazon.com/Patriot-Office-De ... B002Q4U9PY

These devices are an alternative to BluRay. I have not gone that route myself yet, but certainly looking at it.

[John 'twosheds' McDonald]

Cozzie, just insert the flash drive into your PC and reformat it NTFS. That's what I did with mine.

Also, for when we have house guests we bought a cheapish laptop so that they could get e-mails and stuff without having to use our (home) office PCs. When there are no visitors that laptop is connected via HDMI to our 46" 1080p LCD.

Finally, as Bobby mentioned, there are a number of HD based devices that also connect to your TV via HDMI - Western Digital, Popcorn Hour, HDX, etc.

[Paul LS]

Good suggestion John regarding re-formatting to NTSC... however, I thought I tried this on one of mine but it did not work. Perhaps I am mistaken... gets harder and harder to recall whether things actually happened or I dreamt it... the dementia must be setting in

[John 'twosheds' McDonald]

.. the dementia must be setting in

Tell me about it, Paul. I seem to be having more and more senior moments. Now what was I saying....

[Bobby]

I am trying to recall here, but I believe there are in fact some limitations on formatting of a flash drive. We tend to mentally treat all members of the USB Storage Class as if they were the same, because the Storage Class specs make it appear so to the PC. But of course physically they are not all the same, and hence possible limitations of the software support.

But this reference looks fairly authoritative (ntfs.com) and doesn't mention any limitation.

http://www.ntfs.com/quest22.htm

[Cozzie]

Hi all,

Thanks again for the ideas. Just a quick update. I tried reformatting the flash drive to NTFS. The reformatting worked well and the large file copied successfully to the flash drive (so far, so good), but when I inserted it into the TV HDD, the unit did not recognise it as a USB flash drive. I then reformatted to exFAT (whatever that is) and the same thing happened. The file copied ok, but the unit did not recognise the flash drive. Hmmm.

Thanks once again everyone.

Cozzie.

[Ron]

Coincidentally, I just ran into a similar problem. I have the Patriot Box Office (PBO - that Bobby mentions) and I recently purchased a 128GB flash drive thinking I'd be all set. I inserted the new drive into my USB port on my computer and proceeded to format it NTFS - wouldn't do it. After further research and intense investigation, my only option was the new exFAT format (you can read about the new file system here - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ExFAT - it sounds promising, but is currently limited in application). I gave it a shot and though it formats nicely/quickly, it didn't work in the PBO, just isn't supported yet. I have a firmware update request in. I have a Hard Disk/Network option as well, but I wanted the convenience of a small thumb drive to easily transfer media to/from.

So, I'm guessing that your HDD unit only accepts FAT32 formatting? Seems kind of odd considering the file size limitation for a designated media player.

[John 'twosheds' McDonald]

I couldn't load large video files onto my 32Gb USB key so I reformatted it to NTFS which works OK with my HDX1000. As FAT32 is, relatively speaking, 'old technology' and USB key capacities are becoming larger and larger, methinks it would be good to have some standardisation here.
EDIT: end of moan.

[Bobby]

I am going to have to do a little checking. I have put both a FAT32 thumb drive and an NTFS external hard drive into the front USB port on my PBO and both worked OK. The thumb drive use was only for a firmware upgrade.

I would think that the PBO would recognize NTFS on anything storage class device plugged into the USB port, but who knows what lurks? I will try a FAT 32 test and then format the thumb drive for NTFS and see but can't get to it until tomorrow (family guests in).

[Ron]

No, I never said that NTFS/FAT32 thumb drives don't work in the PBO (OP is having the problem), exFAT thumb drive currently does not work in PBO.

[Bobby]

No, I never said that NTFS/FAT32 thumb drives don't work in the PBO (OP is having the problem), exFAT thumb drive currently does not work in PBO.

Was this aimed at me Ron - thanks!

[Ron]

Yeah, but I think we're confusing each other. Maybe we'll wait for the OP to come back. I was just using the PBO as an example is all.