It seemed like a few of you were curious about transferring the footage directly to HDD from a P2 in the HVX as discussed in this thread [ http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=62478 ]. So tonight I took photos and screenshots from start to finish while I was doing this the second time around. I wanted you to be able to see it from a first person perspective to show the process and how simple it is. I'll be uploading direct links to those below over the next few minutes. Once again I used the same 250GB G-Drive Q so I did not need to Format the HDD this time.

Here are the first 13 photos. I'll write a few notes about each one a little later. Next I'll be adding screegrabs that show what happens after you plug the SATA drive into your G5.

Back of HDD without anything plugged in (except the power from the wall outlet) and turned off.
http://www.thisis24p.com/HVX200DirectToHDD-pic1.html

First you turn ON the HDD, THEN you connect the FireWire.
http://www.thisis24p.com/HVX200DirectToHDD-pic2.html

FireWire now connected AFTER HDD was turned on.
http://www.thisis24p.com/HVX200DirectToHDD-pic3.html

Other end of FireWire plugged into HVX200 FireWirePort. Nice port by the way. The plastic protective covering moves out of the way (and stays out of the way) easily.
http://www.thisis24p.com/HVX200DirectToHDD-pic4.html

As instructed in step #2 on page 84 of the manual. Select 1394HOST for PC MODE. Tonight it was already selected for me. I guess the camera remembers.
http://www.thisis24p.com/HVX200DirectToHDD-pic5.html

I just wanted to show a picture of the HVX200 side by side with the G-Drive Q with the connections.
http://www.thisis24p.com/HVX200DirectToHDD-pic6.html

After you press the menu button twice (#3 pg. 84) and press the mode button you will skip straight to #6 (since this HDD was already formatted the day before). #6 instructs you to choose where you want the data to come from. In this case I shot with the 8GB card in slot 2 for the day. So I selected it. And YES, "I was sure?"
http://www.thisis24p.com/HVX200DirectToHDD-pic7.html

Photo of HVX LCD screen while the transfer is taking place.
http://www.thisis24p.com/HVX200DirectToHDD-pic8.html

Another photo of the only equipment needed for this process.
http://www.thisis24p.com/HVX200DirectToHDD-pic9.html

Verifying. I was not watching the screen very close, but I don't think that Verifying started over at 1%. I think at some point the % stayed the same and the word copying turned into verfiying. I don't know this for sure. Also, I did not time it but the whole time to transfer from the P2 in the HVX directly to the HDD was minimal.
http://www.thisis24p.com/HVX200DirectToHDD-pic10.html

Copy Completed!
http://www.thisis24p.com/HVX200DirectToHDD-pic11.html

Now that the copying is completed, #8 on pg. 84 instructs you to turn the HVX off and the reasoning behind it. So I turn the HVX off. I also turn the HDD off. And get the SATA plug.
http://www.thisis24p.com/HVX200DirectToHDD-pic12.html

Then I plug the SATA in, turn on the G5, turn on the SATA. You may not have to have your G5 off while plugging the SATA in or the HDD for that matter. I just play it on the safe side.
http://www.thisis24p.com/HVX200DirectToHDD-pic13.html

I'll now put up the screen grabs. Followed by notes on those.

This pops up when the G5 and G-Drive are connected and the computer is turned on.
http://www.thisis24p.com/HVX200DirectToHDD-picA.html

I'm going to jump over to the Apple WhitePaper instructions now. If you have not downloaded it and printed it yet, you should. I'm jumping into page 10 #5

At first I was kind of scared when I saw 2 "No Name" 's. But then I figured out that the one on top contained the footage I downloaded the night before. I move over the folder next to it so you could see how I named the footage for it.
http://www.thisis24p.com/HVX200DirectToHDD-picB.html

Creating an empty folder on the desktop as instructed in step #6.
http://www.thisis24p.com/HVX200DirectToHDD-picC.html

Naming it something similar to the other folder created the night before.
http://www.thisis24p.com/HVX200DirectToHDD-picD.html

Drag the P2 card icon over to the new folder while HOLDING OPTION. Apple didn't capitalize the OPTION part, but so many things are done on a Mac by just dragging. I think this is the first time I've ever "OPTION dragged." I'm not sure what happens if you don't, but I don't ever want to find out. After you OPTION drag it over to the new folder the copying process begins immediately.
http://www.thisis24p.com/HVX200DirectToHDD-picE.html

Open FCP. At this time I changed my "easy setup" to "DVCPRO HD - 720p24" which is what I plan to shoot most everything in. Everyone's own preference on this will be different so just "easy setup" whatever format you plan on using here. After Final Cut Pro 5.0.4 is open this is what the upper left hand corner would look like. The Brower is on the far left. The viewer is in the middle to the right. The browser is empty since it's a new project and the P2 footage has not been imported yet. This would be a good time for you to look at page 11 in the Apple WhitePaper and follow along there. I could not Screen Grab everything at this point.
http://www.thisis24p.com/HVX200DirectToHDD-picF.html

After you choose File > Import > Panasonic P2 you have a few naming options here and you can also see thumbs next to all the clips in the volume you select.
http://www.thisis24p.com/HVX200DirectToHDD-picG.html

If you select all they just all start copying over. All you have to do is sit there. Just watching all those files with out having to capture or batch capture and FF and RW and this and that, etc. etc. is SO great. It's kind of like now how you can use a cell phone and you wonder what you ever did without one?
http://www.thisis24p.com/HVX200DirectToHDD-picH.html

Here's my Browser window after all the footage is copied over.
http://www.thisis24p.com/HVX200DirectToHDD-picI.html

That's it. Just click on the clip and it pops up in the viewer (like normal) and you're set to edit away.
http://www.thisis24p.com/HVX200DirectToHDD-picJ.html

Here's a shot of the clip I selected in the viewer.
http://www.thisis24p.com/HVX200DirectToHDD-picK.html

Well, that's it. It looks like a long list above, but it's not and several of the photos and screen grabs were just to show what things looked like. If I was not taking photos and screen shots of all this on my 2nd time of doing the above I think a good estimate of time would have been about 7 to 10 minutes.

I hope everyone finds this intereting / informative / helpful.

Pict 5 seems to show you setting the camera to be a 1394 host. If that's the case, could the camera write to any FireWire device such as a DVD-R or DVR-RAM?

How did format the disk?

Steve, not sure on that, maybe someone more experienced like Barry or Steev may know this. Sorry :(

Great photos! Thanks for putting this together Derek,

Great photos! Thanks for putting this together Derek,
You are welcome. Robert Lane posted something really nice a while back about how much he appreciates this forum and its members and all that he has learned from them. I feel the same. I'm just glad that I can post something that I think people will find informative and interesting and maybe even helpful.

If anyone see's any corrections, please let me know and I'll make the revisions.

Appreciate you Chris!

Thanks Derek -- I met Robert in Phoenix the other night; hope to see you as well sometime soon in the DFW area. Very useful thread you've posted; this is just the kind of thing we're looking for on this site. Thanks again,