upgrate firmware ???

[cane]

How get I the put the upgrate software in the HVX with my mac ??
Must I do this when get put the new16gb P2 card ?

I dont have the HVX but would know everything before invest in this kind of camera

[brokenjack]

It's easy, I just did it on my iMac. I put a SD card in my camera, formatted it, then stuck it in a USB card reader hooked up to my mac. Then I copied the firmware folder to the SD card that I downloaded from panasonic, and then stuck it back in the camera, and did the upgrade. I think the file system is nothing more than fat32, so there's no problem with the mac. I think if you get the camera it will probably have the upgrade already on it, if it came from Panasonic recently. And yes you do need the upgrade for 16GB P2.

[David S.]

I believe that post May 2006 shipped cams have the latest firmware for the 16 Gb cards.

But updating it requires a cam formatted SD 64 MB card, a download from the web, and a couple of menu commands that are detailed in the manual

Pretty easy on a Mac or PC.

[THoff]

May 2007, not 2006.

[David S.]

Isn't this 2006?

:)

[Indywannabe]

I can hardly wait till last year.

[David S.]

It's just around the corner.

[Barry_Green]

On the May thing, the way you'd know is if your serial number starts with "E7". Any cam that has an "E7xxxxxx" serial number should have the 16GB firmware already installed.

Or you can go into the MCR menu, look at property->system and check the firmware version number; if it's 4.05 or later you have the ability to use 16GB cards, if it's 2.xxx or whatever you need to run the firmware update.

[cjohnsen]

Do you need to run the firmware if you are not using 16g cards?
thanx
curt

[David S.]

It does add some new features, like an hour meter.

[Xrayspecs]

I have a Mac but I don't have a USB card reader (and Macs don't have built-in SD card slots). Is there another way to get the firmware onto my camera? (BTW, my HVX200 is a pre-May 2007 model.)

[THoff]

Nope, you need to copy the firmware image to the SD card. Doesn't matter how you do it, it can be done on a PC a Mac, using a digital camera that accepts SD cards and is connected using a USB cable, using a printer that has an SD slot, you name it.

I would get a multimedia card reader, they are only $20 or so and are useful for transferring scene files and user files, but if all else fails, I might be able to meet you somewhere with my laptop and put the firmware image on a SD card for you.

[David S.]

You can buy a SD reader (USB) for any computer at most stores, including places like Walgreens for under ten dollars.

CompUSA or BB will also have them

[Xrayspecs]

...but if all else fails, I might be able to meet you somewhere with my laptop and put the firmware image on a SD card for you.

Thanks for the kind offer, but I'll take your advice and buy myself a reader. I didn't realize they were that inexpensive.

[Justyn]

you also only need a really small SD card since it's a small file. I got a card reader and card both for 8 bucks online. I need to get around to doing the firmware update with the hvx and the p2store. Anyone update the firmware on the P2store too?


thanks all.. and I wish it was 2006 again so I could go through the joy of opening the HVX box. I opened it... then put it all back in.. and opened it again just because I'm a dork.

[David S.]

There is a post by Jan at dvinfo.net that indicates that the p2 store 16 gb firmware isn't yet available.

[reidc]

Must the SD card be 64MB or will any larger size card do?

Reid C

[THoff]

Larger is fine -- the camera will accept SD cards up to 2GB, or SDHC card with a size of 4GB. Don't go overboard, you'll never use most of the card capacity.

The firmware image is about 18MB, so 16MB is too small and 32MB is more than needed.

[reidc]

...which now brings me to my problem & the reason I asked about card size. Following Panasonic's instructions for the update, the update process fails. I've tried it a couple of times with the same result. Format the SD card in the camera, move it to a PC (a Mac in this case), copy the "Private" folder to the card, move the card back to the camera, start the update...fails. Any thoughts as to what might be going wrong? Thank you for your help!

Reid C

[David S.]

The firmware upgrade weighs in at 17 MB/s.

Panasonic stipulates the SD card must be at least 64 MBs

How big is your SD card?

[reidc]

the card I was using is 2GB.

Reid C

[David S.]

I don't know what to tell you.

I've upgrade our HVX200 twice now on a Mac using a 64 GB SD card and the process outlined in the manual.

You have the cam on AC power and you are following the procedure exactly?

Exactly which firmware did you download?

You aren't trying to use an Asian or European version?

And what is your existing firmware?

[reidc]

Thank you for your help:

>You have the cam on AC power and you are following the procedure exactly?

Yes.

>Exactly which firmware did you download?

4.06-00-0.00

>You aren't trying to use an Asian or European version?

I don't think so, but how does one tell? The link 'm following was one found here & on another HVX board.

>And what is your existing firmware?

2.03-00-0.00

[steadicamsteel]

Had a friend who's done the update and called me to say he's lost the fuctionality of switching between 16x9 etc.....Is anyone aware of any gremlins or bugs in the firmware update?

[THoff]

You can only switch to 4:3 in DV25 and DVCPro50 mode -- you can't do that in DVCProHD.

[Haskell]

I made the update and it worked...I shot using the two 16gb cards, all seemed to work well. Now in post trying to download the cards but my comp see them when I try and mount I get a bad disk error from FCP. I put the cards back in the camera and all the clip numbers are red and they wont play back, should I freak out now?

Thanks for the feedback....double checking that I did ALL the updates.

[Haskell]

FIXED it...never mind last post. But to warn anyone who is upgrading to 16gb P2 cards...GO ahead and update all your gear now so you never have to think about it, nothing is worse then the morning of the shoot you realize you need to upgrade.