Sim Card recording limits??? Mine splits video at 14 minutes

Bahamasboy · Jul 12, 2015

I was out at Catalina Island this past week and all of my videos split right at the 14 minute mark. This is a pain when editing as I will have to splice them together. Is there some setting that can be changed so that I can record a full flight without having separate video files?? I've got a 64 GB card which is not nearly full.

Thanks,

ScottyT · Jul 13, 2015

4GB File size limit on the Fat32 formatted sd card, which is when a new file is started. Nothing you can do about it.

Bahamasboy · Jul 13, 2015

Thanks Scotty! BOOOOOO!!!!! LOL

spskaya · Jul 13, 2015

It's not a pain to splice two clips together. Bring in your clips and put it on a timeline. Takes seconds.

Gunflight · Jul 13, 2015

Its a Micro SD not a SIM card.

Synnic · Jul 13, 2015

You might want to change the thread title to SD card recording limits.

Mako79 · Jul 13, 2015

I don't have any files that record over 4Gig to test.
Try using windows or mac to format the SD card. Instead of Fat32, nominate exFAT. This will allow files over 4Gig.

ScottyT · Jul 13, 2015

Mako79 said:
I don't have any files that record over 4Gig to test.
Try using windows or mac to format the SD card. Instead of Fat32, nominate exFAT. This will allow files over 4Gig.

The P3 can't read that format unfortunately...already tried it as I found it a tad of pain especially for videos I wanted to use as is, reading straight from the sd card

Danderse · Jul 13, 2015

Looks like 4GB limit for a FAT32 format...

russiarulez · Jul 13, 2015

This has always been an issue for me as well. I used to record a bunch using my Contour helmet cam and it would split the videos.
But yeah it's the limitation of the FAT32 format.

ctp · Jul 13, 2015

IIRC FAT32 is limited to 32GB cards. When I format 64GB cards in the P3, they are formatted exFAT.

I have not attempted a video larger than 4GB, might be a good bench test exercise.

nhoover · Jul 13, 2015

The 4GB split is about 9:20 when recording 4k@30.

ctp · Jul 13, 2015

Ran a bench test for the fun of it since I also wanted to do some conditioning on battery #4.

I formatted the card in the app (64GB Sandisk Extreme Ultra 80MB/s (Sandisk Pixtor).

Checked the card in the laptop to verify exFAT format and copy on firmware (double checking camera issue).

Restarted the P3P with the mSD card. Checked the settings (UHD 30fps (3840x2160))

Hit record, left it running about 1 hour, 20 minutes until DJI Pilot app crashed.

Result - 9 files all about 4GB, except the last at 3.2GB. Video's split at roughly 9:20.

Conclusion - Video's split at 4GB. This is a limitation of the camera firmware. The exFAT file system supports files up to 16EB.

Other tests:

Firmware upgrade: Nothing needed upgrading, including the new battery. The P3 may have copied over the full firmware log file since the initial upgrade to 1.2.6. I'm pretty sure there was no upgrade file, but will have to try again to reverify.

spskaya · Jul 13, 2015

Pretty sure that the exFAT has nothing to do with the firmware. ExFAT has a 4GB since it is a 64-bit file system.

ctp · Jul 13, 2015

Did some more research and exFAT supports files up to 16EB, so the 4GB limitation is definitely written into the camera firmware.

spskaya · Jul 13, 2015

So your telling me that exFAT has the capability to record bigger files than 4GB on another camera if that cameras firmware says that it will allow such files on an exFAT formatted card?

SnoozeDoggyDog · Jul 15, 2015

Just what I was looking for. Mine chopped at 14mins last night, right in the middle of a great asending pan shot

Chuck Young · Jul 15, 2015

So I have a Canon point and shoot it is EXFAT and has a 4 GB limit.

Mako79 · Jul 15, 2015

ctp said:
Ran a bench test for the fun of it since I also wanted to do some conditioning on battery #4.

I formatted the card in the app (64GB Sandisk Extreme Ultra 80MB/s (Sandisk Pixtor).

Checked the card in the laptop to verify exFAT format and copy on firmware (double checking camera issue).

Restarted the P3P with the mSD card. Checked the settings (UHD 30fps (3840x2160))

Hit record, left it running about 1 hour, 20 minutes until DJI Pilot app crashed.

Result - 9 files all about 4GB, except the last at 3.2GB. Video's split at roughly 9:20.

Conclusion - Video's split at 4GB. This is a limitation of the camera firmware. The exFAT file system supports files up to 16EB.

Other tests:

Firmware upgrade: Nothing needed upgrading, including the new battery. The P3 may have copied over the full firmware log file since the initial upgrade to 1.2.6. I'm pretty sure there was no upgrade file, but will have to try again to reverify.

Try formatting exFAT on the PC then insert into phantom and redo test.

Ezookiel · Jul 15, 2015

Files split at about the same size on a P2 with a GoPro, and you don't lose any of the footage at all, so I'm sure it will be the same with the P3 camera. It splits the files, but they should go back together seamlessly with whatever software you edit them with. I use Premiere Pro, and it creates completely seamless joins, you'd never know there was a file change - even in the middle of an ascending pan shot.