Cant copy p2 card contents to mac - FCP 6 HELP please

[mdezz]

Hey gang-
I am experienced post person both in FCP and After EFfects- but I am new to the hvx 200 and now own one- I shot some 720p 24pn fps to my single 16 gig P2 card- I can get the card to mount to the desktop- "no name" is what its called. However when I try to copy the whole contents folder , or any part of the contents folder to my media drive or my desktop -the progress bar goes nowhere and the system kinds just hangs. When tyring to import using log and transfer in FCP 6 sometimes the media will show up and other times it wont. However, if it does and I select a clip and say add to que -I get the Spinning beach ball of death. As you can imagine Im anxious to see my very first clips that I shot with this camera but cant get them into or onto the mac

I am under the impression no drivers are required with FCP 6 and I can get the p2 card to mount but what gives? Brand new camera and p2 card 2.66 quad 5gigs of ram and running 10.4.1

ANYONE else experience what I am?

ANY advice appreciated.
Thanks
Matt

[THoff]

Are these current versions of the P2 driver from the Panasonic website (https://eww.pavc.panasonic.co.jp/pro-av/support/desk/e/index.htm), or the one that came on the CD with the camera?

[mdezz]

its what was on the CD - HOWEVER I thought I did not need any drivers if I had FCP6
Is that not true?

[mdezz]

OK UPDATE- Out of desperation I hooked up the hvx via firewire to my old g4 laptop 12" and its copying over the mounted p2 card contents fine- so now IM like WTF? Same Cable so its not the cable- its obviously the Mac Dual core quad - some how its getting hung up when the p2 contents are attempted to be copied to it. Maybe some kinda of bus conflict or something? Grasphing here I know but I never really had a firewire issue before in any way

[Justin Kuhn]

You might want to get the latest drivers off of Panny's website. Also, when copying the files off of the cards, make sure you copy the LASTCLIP.TXT file into the same folder you're putting the entire contents folder, and make it the first thing you copy over, the contents copying will go much faster after that.

Your trouble with the spinning wheel is wierd, though--I've got an iMac with only 4GB of RAM that does the job fine.

[mdezz]

I guess the question is do I need drivers at all with FCP 6- ??

[CAdams]

My understanding is that you must have the *new* P2 device drivers from the website in order to use the 16GB on your Mac.

[THoff]

FCP doesn't need drivers, but the Mac does.

[HoGiHung]

A problem I have noticed is which Firewire port I plug into, especially when other devices are plugged in and on. For example, I have my mixer plugged in to the Firewire port on the front of my Dual G5. The Firewire on the rear goes to my 23" Cinema Display. I plug in the HVX200 to the Cinema Display. Oh, and I hang a 500GB firewire drive off the back of the Mixer (Mackie Onyx 1220.) If all devices are plugged in, sometimes my P2 card won't mount or, sound wont pass from my mixer to the Mac.

J.

[Barry_Green]

I guess the question is do I need drivers at all with FCP 6- ??

FCP doesn't install any drivers by itself. If you want that Mac to work with P2 equipment, you'll have to install the drivers -- and be sure to get the latest ones off the web; the ones on the CD you have may be outdated.

[mdezz]

OK - oddly I got the data on the p2 card to transfer over to my desktop only after I plugged the camera into the firewire port on the back of the cinema display. NOT the on on the front of my quad. How odd? Another interesting point is that I was able to transfer the material via firewire to my 12" powerbook g4 easily without any drivers. The p2 card just comes up andmounts as a no name device (just like on my quad using the cinema display firewire port) and then its drag and drop from there. FWIW I beielve I do have the latest drivers installed and the CD I got with the camera was the latest since the camera also had the latest firmware already laoded. The camera is bran new.

[andypaintguns]

the front bus doesnt work ever.. never worked for me.. i always gotta pull my shit out of the corner and goto the back... luckily u have a cinema display to plug it into.

[craigom]

Were you transferring the clips to FCP using the File/Log & Transfer function?

[benjiblanco]

FYI, you are right in saying that you dont need any drivers with a macpro.
It states that in the manual, and i can confirm it. (I always use the front socket)

I think you have also confirmed that that is not the issue. If it is working in some fw sockets but not others on your mac.
Have you tried unplugging your mac pro completely and leaving for half an hour? This resets the FW bus.

[mdezz]

I have just continued to use the FW bus on my cinema display and it works fine.
I also have copied p2 media to my 12" laptop with no drivers and no problem

[David Saraceno]

There is only one FW bus on a Mac, and you using a FW hub if you use the Cinema display port.

I would really stay away from that and stick with a back port.

[Bill Nelson]

this REALLY bugs me as well. You have to hold your mouth JUST right or you're stuck. In fact, I installed a firewire card in my G5 on a separate bus to accomplish the P2 imports.

I'm not even saying that this will work for you, but this is a pretty sure way to get footage into my Mac... first I dismount every external firewire device. Then, I go into the firewire card I installed with the HVX200 NO NAME volume mounted. Pull over the 'LASTCLIP.TXT' file to the desired location, then the CONTENTS folder. No guarantees, as the Mac OS is notoriously grouchy with this camera's data for some reason... USB is quirky as well. What's that about? Others will tell you to get a PC and go. Whatever.

Then open up the 'virtual drive' with P2CMS or P2 Log Pro or whatever and make sure you're golden.

[xmephestox]

too many firewire devices can lead choking in the system too, keep that in mind. i know everybody thinks they have a crazy powerful machine, but bandwidth has it's limits. after daisy chaining 4+ hd's to my system things started going nutty. and make sure you look for intel mac drivers for your mac if that's what your running.