Hello,

I'm shooting a short film in August and will be using the HVX200, but I've run into a problem. My editor owns Final Cut 4.5, and, according to another source the P2 data isn't compatible with that software. I'm curious to know what the compatability issue is, and what I can do about it. Thanks.

The compatibility issue is that the HVX camera was introduced two years after FCP 4.5 was released...therefore that version of FCP doesn't support that camera.

You need FCP version 5.0.4 or later, and Quicktime version 7.0.3 or later in order to import and work with footage from this camera. Now is a good time to update to 5.1, as the cost is VERY cheap. Like $200 for current FCP 4.5 users.

See my P2 tutorial at http://forums.creativecow.net/cgi-bin/page_wrapper.cgi?forumid=8&page=http://www.creativecow.net/articles/ross_shane/p2_workflow/index.html

You can sort of have limited compatibility with 4.5. What you'd have to do is play the footage from the camera and capture via the firewire port.

However, it would be far easier to just upgrade to 5.1...

Yes, I 2nd Barry on that. Running 5.1.1 here with no issues.
I would upgrade NOW and test workflow before shooting.
What mode are you planning on shooting in?
It seems most filmakers are going 1080 24pA......

Yes, I 2nd Barry on that. Running 5.1.1 here with no issues.
I would upgrade NOW and test workflow before shooting.
What mode are you planning on shooting in?
It seems most filmakers are going 1080 24pA......

720p 24/60fps.

Another question. Is there any way of dumping the footage to an external w/ laptop without the compatible editing software. If I had access to a Final Cut 5.1.1 system get the footage from the external drive, use 5.1.1 to create compatible movie files, then throw them back onto the drive(s) and hand the drive(s) to my editor? Uhhh....nothing's simple. Thx everyone.

Is there any way of dumping the footage to an external w/ laptop without the compatible editing software. If I had access to a Final Cut 5.1.1 system get the footage from the external drive, use 5.1.1 to create compatible movie files, then throw them back onto the drive(s) and hand the drive(s) to my editor? Uhhh....nothing's simple. Thx everyone.

YOu don't need a computer with editing software to copy the footage off the P2 cards. All you need is a PC or Mac laptop with a PCMCIA slot and the P2 driver software. You copy all the footage (every folder, every clip) onto an external drive. This is in essense your master tape. This drive, or several drives will be used for archiving. When you get back to the office or the post facility, you then use FCP to import (add the quicktime wrapper to) the footage onto Media drives for editing. Then you put the drives with the master MXF files onto a shelf, or back up onto another medium (DVD, Blue-Ray).

[...] Is there any way of dumping the footage to an external w/ laptop without the compatible editing software [...] In addition to dumping files to a laptop (as Shane Ross writes, there is no need to have editing software on the laptop to do this), however, you might want to view, log, and edit metadata on the set. For that you can use the new P2 Log application for Macintosh which was introduced today. See this thread: http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=69838