<p>I'm working on a software application that needs to process the video of legal depositions, which is just someone talking for a potentially long period of time. Potentially, they could leave the camera running for 8 straight hours, but certainly a single session of testimony could run for an hour or more without pause.</p>

<p>Even with decent compression, this will produce enormous files, and I'm concerned about how to manage these files, how to prevent them getting corrupted, and how to minimize the amount of testimony lost if a file does get corrupted.</p>

<p>Are there tools or techniques for splitting a video <em>during capture</em> so that I could, for example, break up the capture into 5 minute chunks, so that each chunk has a manageable file? Or is there a better way of handling this problem?</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-12-20T15:24:59.873Z
Are you worried about the recording stopping due to errors, or are you only dealing with the full recording and can assume those to be in good condition? Also, it depends on what your software is doing in terms of "processing". You won't really gain anything from splitting the files if you're worried about overall size.  See also http://download.das-werkstatt.com/pb/mthk/info/video/comparison_video_codecs_containers.html and http://download.das-werkstatt.com/pb/mthk/info/video/FAQ-digital_video_archiving.html
slhck
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-12-20T17:15:41.637Z
@slhck: I will read those links, thanks. My concern is, as you say, that the application will crash in the middle of recording, perhaps for some reason totally unrelated to the recording, and this will corrupt the video file. I'm secondarily concerned that a 20GB file, say, will be very hard to manage. In both cases, having a large number of small files seems like it would minimize exposure to such issues.
Joshua Frank
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-12-21T08:31:17.760Z
Perhaps you need to tell us more about the setup. What camera is being used, how are the streams being recorded, what is your application doing in terms of processing? I assumed you'd already get the recorded files from the camera (e.g., from an SD card). Or are you capturing them live, directly from the device onto a hard drive?
slhck
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-01-04T13:20:47.403Z
@slhck: I'm using a standard HD webcam, attached to my computer by USB cable, and the streams are being recorded however I want to implement that, but definitely by saving the video to files on the hard drive. There's no intermediate SD card.
Joshua Frank
<software><workflow>
How can I handle extremely long recordings?
Joshua Frank
# How can I handle extremely long recordings?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2018-12-19)

I'm working on a software application that needs to process the video of legal depositions, which is just someone talking for a potentially long period of time. Potentially, they could leave the camera running for 8 straight hours, but certainly a single session of testimony could run for an hour or more without pause.

Even with decent compression, this will produce enormous files, and I'm concerned about how to manage these files, how to prevent them getting corrupted, and how to minimize the amount of testimony lost if a file does get corrupted.

Are there tools or techniques for splitting a video *during capture* so that I could, for example, break up the capture into 5 minute chunks, so that each chunk has a manageable file? Or is there a better way of handling this problem?

**Tags:** software, workflow

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Are you worried about the recording stopping due to errors, or are you only dealing with the full recording and can assume those to be in good condition? Also, it depends on what your software is doing in terms of "processing". You won't really gain anything from splitting the files if you're worried about overall size.  See also http://download.das-werkstatt.com/pb/mthk/info/video/comparison_video_codecs_containers.html and http://download.das-werkstatt.com/pb/mthk/info/video/FAQ-digital_video_archiving.html  
> **username_0**: @username_1: I will read those links, thanks. My concern is, as you say, that the application will crash in the middle of recording, perhaps for some reason totally unrelated to the recording, and this will corrupt the video file. I'm secondarily concerned that a 20GB file, say, will be very hard to manage. In both cases, having a large number of small files seems like it would minimize exposure to such issues.  
> **username_1**: Perhaps you need to tell us more about the setup. What camera is being used, how are the streams being recorded, what is your application doing in terms of processing? I assumed you'd already get the recorded files from the camera (e.g., from an SD card). Or are you capturing them live, directly from the device onto a hard drive?  
> **username_0**: @username_1: I'm using a standard HD webcam, attached to my computer by USB cable, and the streams are being recorded however I want to implement that, but definitely by saving the video to files on the hard drive. There's no intermediate SD card.  

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## 0 answers

