This needs to be fixed! Rode Wireless Pro

A simple video showing a problem I found with the Rode Wireless Pro's hour long recorded clips. I also run through a quick fix to try address this in your editing software.
Firmware at time of recording: v1.2.8
Recorded with Canon R5c
Audio via Rode Podmic USB
:00 Intro
:12 The problem
1:14 Showing the files in Final Cut Pro X
2:16 more examples
3:35 My solution
5:11 What did Rode say?
5:29 An issue exporting out of Rode Central app
6:49 Wrap up

[@TheRealBarkinMadd]

Are you using timecode in the Wireless Pro? I haven't seen this problem when recording internally with 23.976 fps timecode and placing it on a timeline with the same frame rate but you raise a good point and I will certainly perform a few tests to see if I can replicate this issue. Thanks for posting. I do hope that RODE can fix this - I wonder why they break the audio at 1 hr boundaries - is it a file system issue (file size limit) or are they trying to minimize lost data in the case of file corruption?

[@videographerstuff539]

Yes generally I have tc on @ 25fps. Thats an interesting though I’m going to run another test with tc off and check. Yeah I have no idea about why stop at 1hour, shouldn’t be a EU tax issue right hahaha
Weird that the go ii did 31min blocks fine.
I’m sure they’ll figure it out, surely it just a program issue with the cut/continue file write code.
Thanks for taking the time to comment:)

[@TheRealBarkinMadd]

@@videographerstuff539 OK - I gave this a run of 6.5 hours until the batteries died on the two transmitters. I simply recorded Sirius XM playing in the background. Wireless Pro was setup with timecode mode @23.976 fps and let the two transmitters record internally to 32-bit float. Afterwards I used Rode Central to copy these as 32-bit float (no conversion) to separate TX1 and TX2 folders. I then used DaVinci Resolve to bring these into the media pool. I setup a timeline with a matching timecode so that I could insert a track of TX1 and a separate track of TX2 clips aligned by timeline (this is important). What I found was that there were often gaps between the end of one 1 hour clip and the start of the next, however, if I dragged the two clips together, the music played through without any interruptions or clicks (as far as I could tell). Resolve will force audio to align with video frames but you can also work at the subframe level. I think the gaps I was seeing were timecode errors, not actual gaps in recording, however, I also noticed that even though the clip boundaries were aligned to frame boundaries, some of the clips appeared to have 'handles' to the sub-video-frame level which tells me that if I were to allow those additional bits beyond the video frame boundary, I would have heard the clicks you reported. I still need to do a bit more testing to see if this is true (if I hear the clicks). I suspect Final Cut X allows you to lay-down the entire audio clips irrespective of video frame boundaries and so you are actually playing an overlap between the end-to-end clips. I'll report back here once I try a sub-video-frame extension of the audio clip boundaries to test my theory.
Edit - I should note that my ability to detect 'clicks' between adjacent clips is poor with the sort of media I was listening to (my ears aren't good enough to detect sample-level discontinuities, it would seem - see my next post).

[@TheRealBarkinMadd]

OK - did a bit more testing and down at the sample level I can't make the samples line up no matter how I manipulate the outgoing and incoming clip (regardless of video frame boundaries) so as you suggested, it really does look like there are samples missing between the end of one clip and the start of the next. It would be easier you see this if I used a tone generator (a sinusoid) so that I could judge the distance between peaks across the boundary between clips (yet another test). RODE, of course, is in a much better position to establish this sort of test and to correct their firmware. I really do hope that they can correct this issue. Thanks again for bringing this to my attention. Cheers.

[@JeanLoyens]

surely the last anwer (safety) is an argument, but it can also be that it would take too long for its processor to process a long(er) file after you stop recording, longer than what you would allow it to do, like starting again or shutting down, risking a loss of the file.

[@videographerstuff539]

What an effort! With that level of testing you are basically a scientist in my books!

[@JeanLoyens]

Thanks for this video. The workaround is of course a solution, I use it also for 'unreparable' issues, where a cut can't be done unnoted, but it shouldn't happen indeed. Just like in a camera, the pro should have some kind of pre-recording for its files, surely in a continuous recording. And the issue with the app... Rode is the only one where you need an app to export your files. They should change that.

[@videographerstuff539]

Thanks for the comment! It will be interesting to see how long it takes them to fix it. Regarding the app and files, don’t forget you can copy files across from the unit without using the app. Your computer should see the unit as a ‘mass storage device’. Open that up and your recordings should all be there.
Cheers!

[@TheReelport]

They actually changed the app situation in a recent firmware/app update on my Rode wireless 2, weird format but maybe a conversion stitch on Audacity or similar would work better ?

[@JeanLoyens]

@@TheReelport Thank you, I usually don't record over an hour in one piece, but it would be good to know to to have to worry about that issue. after all, the on board recording was meant as a backup...

[@TheReelport]

@@JeanLoyens well on board recording is 32bit, so I'd see it as a master, the on-camera as backup.

[@JeanLoyens]

@@TheReelport True, and I like to use it that way, but if the problem arises at the 60'th minute, you may just try to recall when that's gonna happen, so that you have an on stream record going on, or that you just quite on an ongoing recording and you start again. That's the way I would choose it... then you just start a new recording and thus a new file... going strong for the coming 60 minutes...

[@petercofrancesco9812]

This issue sounds similar to what people have experience with cameras that segmented video files in the past there be a gap between split files. Some companies would require you to concatenate using their utility. I believe previously you need the Rode app to import files to the computer. I suspect the audio is there but it's getting truncated. I do find it irritating that many devices split files. Some say it's the limitation of the file system or file format and others say it's intentionally designed that way to avoid losing your entire session if the file corrupts. I would think they should be able to fix it, new products take time to work out the bugs.

[@videographerstuff539]

Yeah I have no doubt that they will fix at some stage. Definitely not a deal breaker but tricky all the same. As a user, I simply marvel at the innovation and have no idea how they even come close to programming this stuff.
I noticed on my go pros the other day that the 10 splits files while the 11 doesn’t. Interesting

[@TheRealBarkinMadd]

Based on my testing the audio is there if you copy the files directly from the transmitters, but the split does not occur at the designated frame boundaries which is problematic if you are using timecode to align your internally recorded audio (in the transmitters) to your video. I am somewhat disheartened that RODE has not come out with a fix yet (at least for the download problem from RODE Central).

[@videographerstuff539]

Maybe they’re thinking most people won’t record passed the hour?

[@petercofrancesco9812]

@@videographerstuff539 I don't know what file size your getting but most people are unaware of that the WAV file format has a 4 gb limitation.

[@videographerstuff539]

Yeah that makes sense as well, I’ll have a look at the size.