It is time to take stock of where I am with this process and to see whether there is actually a way forward here or not. The bottom line is that the trial version of the Mercalli software seems to work very well and be very convenient, up to a point.

On my machine I am able to analyse, stabilise and export a 15 second clip using a MOV clip from the ContourHD camera. However, if I try to do the same with a 47 minute clip from the same camera I can analyse the clip fine and play the analysed clip in the Mercalli package but NOT export it, this renders the package practically useless.

Given that I can get the package to import, analyse, and export a short clip this suggests that this is no longer a codec issue but "something else" and I'm awaiting further word from proDAD support.

If this software wasn't so costly I would take a gamble and buy it to see if the "official" version would deal with a 47 minute clip but the price would be too much of a gamble if it didn't work. This is an interesting thought because the version number of the trial version is 2.0.391 and the current version number of the official version is I think 2.0.73 so the trial and official versions are different in some way but of course the differences may not be relevant to my problems.

Could the trial version have a video clip length or file size limit in comparison with the "official" version? This possibility has been suggested by 2 friends from Ireland and Sweden who have been taking a particular interest in this case.

Is there anyone around with the full version of the SAL installed that I could post a 47 clip to on a DVD to try it?

I'll keep trying until I know one way or the other what the problem is.