Long-clip b g in HMC150 software! - Poll to collect evidence

[ullanta]

Greetings! I'm trying to collect evidence on the current viability of the HMC150 for shooting long clips (> 30 minutes). So far, all evidence points to the fact that now workflow for this is currently functional. Please explain your successes or failures with long clips in as much detail as you can... what platform, software, framerate, etc!

[Barry_Green]

Didn't we have someone roll a 12-hour clip already?

[Justyn]

I just got the cam and I'll test it tomorrow... Thanks Barry for giving this one a great review. The 150 will be a great camera for me and it will be paid off by a series of gigs before the end of the new year.. Cheers to all.

[ullanta]

Didn't we have someone roll a 12-hour clip already?

Not PH... it was HE! HE, HA, HG seem to work for many different workflows without problems (I've dealt with dozens of 60-90 minute clips in those modes, via FCP, with no problem). PH... I've heard and experienced problematic reports for every workflow, and no positive ones.

[studio1972]

Please check out the following clip:

http://www.vimeo.com/2238186

I did a test letting my camera record for 91 mins in PH mode 1080i 50.

When I bought it into FCE using log and transfer I got these results at the joins. I haven't tested this yet to see if the lower bit rates are ok. Hopefully Apple will do something soon!!!

BTW I uploaded a SD sample as I only get one HD upload per week :(

[ullanta]

Hmmm... that's pretty unpleasant.

[Justyn]

Is this a FCP problem or a camera problem? Either way, I'll be capturing my footage via the intensity card as I know that works... or atleast I'm hoping it does.

[Thomas Lew]

currently doing a re-test so I will let you know

[Barry_Green]

Is this a FCP problem or a camera problem?
I'll bet a thousand bucks it's an FCP problem. PH mode works. PH mode came out after FCP. FCP probably needs an update to be 100% compliant with PH mode.

[ullanta]

Which problem? The long PH clip problem is plaguing me in the MainConcept transcoder... Barry, can you point to anything that definitively handles long (> 1 hour) PH mode clips?

[Barry_Green]

I don't have any such clips to test with. Check your version of the MainConcept encoder, they did introduce an update, I'm currently running version 2.0.

I am fairly certain CS4 and EDIUS 5 and EDIUS Neo would all handle any PH-mode clip, since all those programs are claiming HMC150/PH compatibility. I would also expect the 2.0 version of the MainConcept encoder to work.

[ullanta]

Aaagh! I just typed a long report and accidentally closed the page before posting!

Anyway,

1. I downloaded the MainConcept transcoder just yesterday; it's a frsh 2.0!

2. Though my Thinkpad T42 "p2 card server" is wretchedly slowat this transcoding (about 8 x realtime), I was able to muck around a bit today, and did seem to get it to transcode a 1h 21m PH mode clip (I haven't been able to examine it closely yet... it's now transcoding from P2 to quickTime... gotta love the workflow!). How? It turns out, it stopped in the middle of the long clip every time I tried to import the whole SDHC card at once... but when I asked it to transcode only the big clip, it woked.. The card has 5 clips ranging from 5 to 40 seconds, and the big 81 minute clip... so, time and space-wise, there's an insignificant difference between the whole card and the long clip... strange...

Anyway, Edius seems to be on the ball, but I've heard of issues with CS4 (which I'd kinda expect at this early stage of the game).

I'll keep on testing... but at 10 hours a clip/test, I appreciate any input from folks with faster machines!

-B

[studio1972]

Hmmm... that's pretty unpleasant.

Hope you're talking about the glitch and not the back of my head

[ilauzirika]

the panasonic converter handles files perfectly with no glitches nor dropped frames. And dvchd is an outstanding codec!

[ullanta]

Well, the P2 data resulting from the transcode of the big clip is NOT working in Final Cut Pro... it stops transferring after a while with a "No Data" error... hmmm...

I wonder if any of this is related to the drive I'm using for the windows machine being NTFS...

[ullanta]

Well, for what it's worth... I transferred the P2 data off the NTFS drive, onto an HFS+ drive, and it log'n'transferred... so, 1 81 minute clip successfully transferred, in just 53 hours or so of trying!

I have new footage shot tonight... I'll see if the lessons learned give repeatabhle results that'll cut down my transfer time!

Lessons learned so far:
1) Export P2 from MainConcept clip-by-clip for big clips (not the whole card)
2) Don't log'n'transfer in FCP from an NTFS drive


-Barry