Problems with P2 cards and FCP?

[Peter Richardson]

A friend is producing a documentary and would like to shoot with the HVX, but he said he's been hearing reports of problems with the P2 cards and FCP. Specifically, the footage is imported from the cards into FCP, and then the cards are formatted, but somehow FCP "loses" the footage...and it's gone. I told him I hadn't heard of this happening. But he says he was on a shoot the other day and a Panasonic rep was called in because they were having this problem and the rep supposedly disclosed that this is a known problem with the P2 cards and FCP.

Frankly, I find this a little hard to believe, especially as there is nothing showing up on these boards regarding these sorts of problems. I got my HVX a couple weeks ago but don't yet have the P2 cards (waiting till NAB) so I can't corroborate first-hand.

Basically, is there any truth to these claims? Can anyone else attest or comment on these "problems" (Jan?). Thanks!

Peter

[Anders Holck Petersen]

Haven't herd anything about such a problem.

What I have experienced with DVCPRO25 PAL footage from a SPX-800 is very very rare occasional digital dropouts in a few clips (2 out of about 1000) after import from a P2 card.
A reimport fixed the problem.
Could be a problem with the Powerbook, the software or the P2 cardreader. I have only experienced it with this peticular setup (SPX-800, PB G4 1.2, fcp 5.0.4 and AJ-PCD10)

Anyways I will advice you to always backup the original P2 card content to a Firewire disk. That way you can always do a P2 reimport and relink if something bad happens to your system. Also you don't lock yourself into using FCP as you would do if you make backup of the converted qt files.

[Shane Ross]

Not in my experience. But it is always ALWAYS have backups. You should never import the footage from the card and then erase the MXF files from the card. No. What he should be doing is copying the entire contents of the card, CONTENTS folder and LASTCLIP.txt, onto a hard drive. Then you can delete the P2 card. Import those files into FCP but NEVER DELETE THOSE FILES. Those, in essence, are your source master tapes. You wouldn't shoot footage onto a tape, capture it into FCP, then immediately erase the tape would you? I would hope not.

No...tell your friend to get a drive to store all this footage on. If a files goes missing in FCP...as many people have reported, and most of those are flies captured from tape so all they have to do is re-capture...then all he has to do is hook up the drive and re-import. The same TC ande clip name will be present.

Lordy...give a 35 year old man a heart attack with that story.

:^)

[Anders Holck Petersen]

Also it's really a good idea to get a naming scheme made up on your P2 cards. All P2 cards bear the same name to the filesystem.
I usually use a system of naming my backup folder for each card the creation date/time of the cards Lastclip.txt. file. This way I get unique names of all P2 cards. If I ever need to reconnect any files I can quickly find the correct card again.

[Ash Greyson]

You have to be careful to copy all the right files, if you forget to copy over the file with the metadata, the file is corrupt forever. P2 cards all have their own serial which is unique to help avoid lots of these things but the middleware is PC only right now.


ash =o)

[Peter Richardson]

Thanks for all the great feedback guys. I will be sure to pass this along to my friend, and keep in mind when I start using the camera. For my personal use I plan to purchase a P2 Store and dump the cards to this. Then, when done shooting for the day/days, move all this data onto a RAID array, and then eventually archive to Blu-Ray.

Shane, I'm curious about something you wrote in your post:

"If a files goes missing in FCP...as many people have reported, and most of those are flies captured from tape so all they have to do is re-capture...then all he has to do is hook up the drive and re-import."

I assume you are speaking in reference to any media type captured into FCP, not just P2 media?

Thanks again guys and I will be sure to let you know if my friend decides to use the HVX, and how it goes. Best,

Peter

[Shane Ross]

Yes Peter, I am referring to any media, not just P2. I haven't heard of amy P2 going offline, but that is because it is too new...just media in general. Big mystery.

Hey, ANDERS! What is up with your FCP Rescue site? We have been having to put the FCP Rescue apps on another host site since yours is apparently down: http://www.pistolerapost2.com/fcprescue

[David Eggerichs]

My P2 experience has been interesting. But good.

No files have ever gone "missing." I don't quite understand how this is possible. If you capture footage it's captured. It's there to stay unless you toss it in the trash.

However one thing you might run into is an error message that the clips are corrupt and this can be remedied once you upgrade to FCP 5.0.4

Also if you are working with the P2 card in the Powerbook you need to be aware that the write-protect needs to be turned off. So there is a little orange showing on the back of the card. Sort of like a "safety" on a gun.

If not it will not mount. If you have mounting issues you can always get footage through the PC Connect method using firewire.

After I had some issues I ended up talking with one of the top technicians at Panasonic and he did a trouble shoot with me. However, he also mentioned that the P2 card was never really built to work seamlessly with a Powerbook or Apple for that matter. It was made for the PC. For example you can "write" back to the P2 card when working on a PC however you cannot do this when working with a Mac. Everything is write protected even if you change the switch from write protected to unprotected.

But after I was done with the trouble shoot with the guy from Panasonic and I was telling him what the P2 card was doing etc. etc. he was amazed because he basically said it wasn't supposed to be doing what it was capable of doing.

That's all for now.

[Dan Brockett]

Originally Posted by David Eggerichs

For example you can "write" back to the P2 card when working on a PC however you cannot do this when working with a Mac.

Hi David:

Strange, I have been doing this every day. The files from the Mac desktop can easily be transfered back to the cards, that's how I retrieve files to be dubbed back to Mini DV for offline editing on our Mac-based Xpress DV Pro systems here. But so far, I can only do this with P2 cards on my PB, you cannot write back to the cards when they are in the camera and the camera is hooked up to your Mac via FW. Yet.

I agree, the P2 integration is pretty cheesy, it works but the way it all works on the PC is much better.

Best,

Dan

[David Eggerichs]

Ah I stand corrected...good to know...I guess I hadn't even tried doing that yet...I was just going off of what the Panasonic techy told me.

Sorry for not doing my research.

David

[Barry Green]

At one point the Mac did require the cards to be write-protected before they could be mounted on the desktop. It's not that way anymore, I believe.

[Jack D. Hubbard]

A pal of mine is thinking about the Panny HVX 200. Can it record on tape and the card at the same time?

[David Eggerichs]

It's one or the other from what I've been able to achieve. You can have the P2 card and a miniDV tape in the camera at the same time but as for recording you have to choose which one. You can go back and forth if you like but nothing simultaneously.

[Jack D. Hubbard]

Thanks Dave.
JH