I have both these camcorders and both have a "relay record" function which on the face of it seems pretty straightforward:
From the manuals "It is possible to continuously record motion picture to an SD card when there is no space available in the built in memory. Menu > Record Setup > Relay Record > On
The function is usually described in reviews as a straight switch from internal to card memory when the internal fills up e.g. from SimplyDV
"Another major benefit of twin-media (or twin-memory) storage - especially if you're inclined to record lengthy events such as plays, concerts or sporting events - is Relay Record. If you're recording to the internal Flash memory and you run out of space then the camera will switch to the SDHC/SDXC card and continue recording seamlessly - provided that you pre-selected this option in the menu system before you start.
However when I used it for the first time yesterday (TM900) I discovered that the recording started on the SD card long before the internal memory was exhausted. The 1st file in question was 4.19gb and the 2nd file 850mb and these were recorded as duplicates on the SD card (n.b. I stopped recording during the 2nd file because the job was finished).
Therefore the camcorder duplicated files - with different names but identical content, swallowing up half of what was supposed to be my 8gb emergency use only SD card!
I now see the manuals that there is a procedure called Relay Scene Combine which presumably dumps one of the duplicates - though its unclear whether the remaining one is located on the card or in the internal memory; the latter I would hope.
Am I missing something? Or is this a stupid stupid stupid way of simply switching from one memory to the other invented by Panasonic to frustrate us? Seems to me its only useful if you use very large SD cards and I certainly wouldn't want to rely on it if the cam is locked down unattended.
Pete
From the manuals "It is possible to continuously record motion picture to an SD card when there is no space available in the built in memory. Menu > Record Setup > Relay Record > On
The function is usually described in reviews as a straight switch from internal to card memory when the internal fills up e.g. from SimplyDV
"Another major benefit of twin-media (or twin-memory) storage - especially if you're inclined to record lengthy events such as plays, concerts or sporting events - is Relay Record. If you're recording to the internal Flash memory and you run out of space then the camera will switch to the SDHC/SDXC card and continue recording seamlessly - provided that you pre-selected this option in the menu system before you start.
However when I used it for the first time yesterday (TM900) I discovered that the recording started on the SD card long before the internal memory was exhausted. The 1st file in question was 4.19gb and the 2nd file 850mb and these were recorded as duplicates on the SD card (n.b. I stopped recording during the 2nd file because the job was finished).
Therefore the camcorder duplicated files - with different names but identical content, swallowing up half of what was supposed to be my 8gb emergency use only SD card!
I now see the manuals that there is a procedure called Relay Scene Combine which presumably dumps one of the duplicates - though its unclear whether the remaining one is located on the card or in the internal memory; the latter I would hope.
Am I missing something? Or is this a stupid stupid stupid way of simply switching from one memory to the other invented by Panasonic to frustrate us? Seems to me its only useful if you use very large SD cards and I certainly wouldn't want to rely on it if the cam is locked down unattended.
Pete
