I just recently purchased my AG-HPX170 and have not been able to figure out how to transfer from the P2 card to the PC using firewire. Is this impossible? Can you only transfer to PC using USB 2.0?? This is my first HD camera/P2 card camera so I am trying to familiarize myself with the work flow. I must say it is way better than using tapes, just a little confusing at first.

Also, I currently edit using Sony Vegas and was wondering what would be the best way to be able to convert the .MXF files so I can edit them in Vegas? I also have Premier CS4 which works with .mxf files but, I am not familiar with the program well enough to edit a simple piece together so I would still like to be able to use Vegas. Is DVFilm's Raylight the only program to use to get the .mxf files to work in vegas? What program/encoder/plugin would work best for getting a very efficient work flow going?

Thanks,
Robert

Yeah USB-2 is what a PC likes most.

Noah

Robert - the USB transfer works very well. I have used it for a couple of years with the HVX-200, and now also with the HPX-170. Connect the camera to the PC with a USB cable with the P2 cards still in the camera, create two new folders on your PC, then copy the CONTENTS folder from the P2 card to the new folder. You can also ingest directly from the camera into Edius Broadcast for editing if desired, and then write the edited file to the folder on the PC (although its faster to write the edited file to a different hard drive, either internal or external). Other NLEs may have a different work-flow if they do not accept P2 files natively.

I have been using both Firewire and USB2 on a PC - no problems at all.

For transferring P2 data, I use the Panny's 60GB HDD with the card-reader, connect them using USB2 and just copy the data across.

Or If you have a laptop with a PCMCIA (Cardbus) slot, you can also plug in the P2 card into there and just copy the data across - just like any other hard-disks in the PC.

For editing, I use EDIUS 4 Broadcast, and now, EDIUS 5 (which comes with everything).