It sounds simple. Put the P2 card into your laptop, put the footage onto your HDD, clean it out, reuse.

With the LOW cost of 300-400 GB HDD's these days, why not just archive/master on HDD for your project. Maybe backup onto tape at the end. Does this make sense?

But will there be any special software or codec for the DVCPRO-HD files? Is it drap and drop to copy, like any other file? What editing software will use it now? Premiere? 6.5? Vegas? Final Cut?

Will this be easy or a nightmare?

Heck, you don't even need a laptop! Just plug in a standard, cheap off-the-shelf Firewire Hard Disk directly to the HVX. You'll transfer all the footage from the P2 cards directly to the hard disk.

For narrative features, the workflow is very easy. Just shoot until the P2 card is full, then dump to hard disk. Resume shooting.

Event videography requires longer record times without interruption, so the Firestore seems better suited for that.

But will there be any special software or codec for the DVCPRO-HD files? Is it drap and drop to copy, like any other file? What editing software will use it now? Premiere? 6.5? Vegas? Final Cut?

Will this be easy or a nightmare?

I guess it could be either, depending on what system you go with. Some editors have native support, such as Canopus Edius Pro and Avid Express Pro HD. Those editors (AFAIK) have native DVCPRO-HD (or, as Avid calls it, DV100) codec support, and they have the ability to read the .MXF files directly.

Apple's a little different, they don't work with .MXF files directly as far as I know, so I believe you have to convert the clips to Quicktime. As for Premiere Pro and Vegas, well, the jury's still out on those. You can get the codec easily enough, Avid makes it available in a free download. But I don't believe they support MXF files (Vegas chose to support only the Sony XDCAM version of MXF, and I don't know if Premiere Pro has any support at all for MXF). Marcus Van Bavel of DVFilm.com has announced that he's going to support DVCPRO-HD for Vegas and Premiere Pro, by modifying his DVFIlm Maker software program so it can convert a native .MXF into a .MOV or .AVI file, or if you want, it'll transcode to CineForm format so you can use the Cineform intermediate codec.

Heck, you don't even need a laptop! Just plug in a standard, cheap off-the-shelf Firewire Hard Disk directly to the HVX. You'll transfer all the footage from the P2 cards directly to the hard disk.

For narrative features, the workflow is very easy. Just shoot until the P2 card is full, then dump to hard disk. Resume shooting.

Event videography requires longer record times without interruption, so the Firestore seems better suited for that.

you're kidding. That sounds too good to be true. Firewire output from the HVX to a firewire drive and you can transfer 1080i footage off the P2 card to the drive...no computer required? No pointing device? (i.e. mouse?).

This will help things significantly if true.

you're kidding. That sounds too good to be true. Firewire output from the HVX to a firewire drive and you can transfer 1080i footage off the P2 card to the drive...no computer required? No pointing device? (i.e. mouse?).

This will help things significantly if true.

It's true! As long as you record to a P2 card first, you can then transfer the footage from the camera to the firewire hard disk directly; no mouse, trackpad, monitor, or software needed. What you can't do is record footage to the hard disk WITHOUT P2 card(s). To do that, you'd need a "smart" hard disk, like the Firestore.

One thing... You need to provide power to the Firewire hard disk. The camera won't power the disk via the Firewire bus, so you either need to have an A/C adapter for the hard disk (like all desktop external drives), or have an external drive that has a built-in battery. They do exist, somewhere... Actually, even an iPod would do the trick, as long as it's one of the Firewire models, not USB2. It'll be slow, because that drive is not designed for high speeds, but it should work, and has a built-in battery (great for middle-of-nowhere shoots). But an iPod is not ideal... THIS is more like it:

http://www.dvvideo.com/shop/storage/buyEnclosurePortable.htm

I'm going to do narrative filmmaking, with plenty of time between takes. So, all I need is the HVX200 ($5500), one 4GB P2 card (~$700), and one 250GB External Firewire HDD ($175). I'll just shoot until the 4GB card is full (around 4 minutes of 1080/24p HD) and then plug in the disk to the HVX, transfer the footage, rinse and repeat. 1080/24p for only $6400!!!!

That's AWESOME!!!

I have a tons of fireware external drives and can always swap new and larger HDD into them. With this set up, my documentary could work..... don 't really need the firestore. Perhaps a second camera or will the P2 store (60GB) also allow you to clean it out by sending the info from it to the firewire drive? If so, then it's continous shooting with two P2 cards.