HMC150 Firmware Update to version 1.19

[Barry_Green]

Panasonic has released a firmware update for the HMC150 series (including the 151, 152, 153 and 154). According to the release notes, the purpose of this firmware update is:

1. Remedy of “CARD FULL” warning display
“CARD FULL” warning might not be displayed with SD card end rarely.
* In this case, “Media capacity display (Remain recording time)” is displayed normally. This problem has been solved.
2. Remedy of character display
Characters (TC, Audio level meters and etc.) might not be displayed during playback with condition that the LCD display is rotated at 180 degrees. This problem has been solved.

This firmware update was released on February 16, 2009. You can download it from their support page at:
https://eww.pavc.panasonic.co.jp/pro-av/support/cs/csregistp2m/ep2main/soft/upglist_e.htm

[Gymnut808]

Hmm...it appears the only way to do the firmware update is if you're running a PC. Does this mean us Mac users are the designated homeless?

[David Saraceno]

Sadly, this does appear to be a PC based upgrade.

If this is correct, I am again disappointed that Panasonic ignores such a substantial percentage of its user base.

With the HVX, all you needed was a SD card.

Someone tell me that I am incorrect on this one.

[aalleexx]

sadly yes, it looks like you will need a windows computer to install the update :(

[matt s.]

yes that would be lame if its PC only. Dont see why it cant be upgraded by SD card?

[Everts]

Thanks Barry

[Baatfam]

Looks like you need a USB cable...

Did I get one with my HMC?

[ESTEBEVERDE]

bootcamp

[Barry_Green]

It does appear that yes, you need a Windows computer to execute the firmware update on an HMC150. I posted wrong info here earlier about using the SD card to update; that info is relevant to the HPX170 but not the HMC150 (I thought I was replying to the HPX170 version of this thread; sorry!)

[Baatfam]

OK done! That was somewhat simple...:dankk2:

As long as you have windows...and a USB cable...:huh:

[aalleexx]

so you already did the update? results are good yes?


OK done! That was somewhat simple...:dankk2:

As long as you have windows...and a USB cable...:huh:

[Baatfam]

so you already did the update? results are good yes?

Well the camera still works, which is good...:)

It was a minor update, just a couple of bugs I haven't seen, so nothing really to notice.

[Strobe Media]

this is my chance to make some cash......

HMC150 firmware updates, only $10!!!!

[BrianMurphy]

I would seriously like to hear from Jan regarding this or some other person from Panasonic. This is absolute BS. I have no intention of moving this to a Mac versus WIN thing. It just seems to me that Panasonic needs to cut the crap and service ALL the customers who have gone out and supported their move to AVCHD and bought the HMC150. There is NO excuse for this lack of support and even less excuse for Panasonic not to explain their actions, be it through Jan on this forum or elsewhere. It is bad enough that those of us with a major investment in Apple equipment and software are having to deal with Apple dragging its feet in bringing their "Professional and World Class" editing software up to date and many of us are and have been waging the letter/email war to get this to change now. We hardly need this nonsense from Panasonic. If Panasonic were not going to support ALL their customers with this camera they should have told us so to begin with and we could have decided before the purchase. And I don't accept the use BOOTCAMP nonsense either! Why should I have to buy a new OS and go through the hassle of loading it on my computer?
Speak up Panasonic!

[nfc565]

Just as another plus....64 bit windows is not supported either!!! YAY!!! Panasonic never seems to disappoint!!! I just want to thank you Panasonic for your never ending support of various operating systems!!! I really appreciate it!!! Keep up the great work! Thanks!

[David Saraceno]

The odd thing about this situation is the using a SD card is platform independent.

Why cause such a ruckus with whatever design limitation this is.

[jpmulligan]

The odd thing about this situation is the using a SD card is platform independent.

Why cause such a ruckus with whatever design limitation this is.

Agreed, but even if this ability was introduced, it would require at least one upgrade cycle via a PC in order to install a firmware release supporting updates via SD card ...

[jpmulligan]

Just as another plus....64 bit windows is not supported either!!! YAY!!! Panasonic never seems to disappoint!!! I just want to thank you Panasonic for your never ending support of various operating systems!!! I really appreciate it!!! Keep up the great work! Thanks!

I would imagine that running the updater on Vista 64 in XP Compatability mode would work, but I'll let you try it and tell the rest of us if that technique works! :Drogar-Love(DBG):

[Retrospective]

I hope I don't need to purchase a Windows license just to install it on Bootcamp so I can install the firmware. :(

Panasonic should give Mac users free Windows license so they can install it on Bootcamp.

[BrianMurphy]

My apology to Jan for dragging her name into this thread. I now know from reading a post by Barry Green that she is not the person responsible for the HMC 150. There is another person from Panasonic who deals with our camera. Barry has posted that he passed on the other thread to "him".
I think this would be a splendid time for this person to meet everyone here and help us all with the problem as well as "join the club" as Jan has done.
It goes without saying that we all have tremendous respect for Jan's integrity and sense of security that comes with knowing someone is listening and helping.

[Gary Stone]

surely you guys know someone with a PC that is running windows. i agree it should be platform independent but, c'mon, you could even do it at kinko's if you had to...

[David Saraceno]

Gary:

Many, some Mac users are pretty much unfamiliar with windows machines.

Secondly, firmware updates can go wrong. I don't particularly like them.

Hence the need to have a Mac version.

[Retrospective]

What would be cool is they make a Java applet for updating the firmware. All we need is the Java runtime. :)

[jeff9329]

Im surprised these two items even warranted an update to the firmware.

The only thing I can even think of for a firmware update is for SDXC in the future. And even that won't really be needed.

But at least the HMC-150 is getting some TLC from Panasonic engineering.

[puredrifting]

If I were the HMC150 rep, I wouldn't join in on this thread. Too many angry people ;-)

FWIW, I totally am in agreement about the Mac support but you have to give the people in question some time to reply.

Dan

[SPrimeau]

I agree about the Mac support in the future.

If you don't need the fix, just don't update the firmware. But if you need it now, simply find a Windows system.

You don't need to know Windows to do the update. You just have to double click the extracted file and follow the instructions.

[David Saraceno]

If you don't need the fix, just don't update the firmware. But if you need it now, simply find a Windows system.

You don't need to know Windows to do the update.

I understand your sentiment. If a Mac user were to say to you:

"But if you need it now, simply find a Macintosh system.

You don't need to know Mac OS X to do the update."

How would you respond?

My point is this.

Firmware should be released in platform agnostic manner, especially for bug fixes.

No purchaser should be required to locate hardware and operating system they don't use, are unfamiliar with, and don't have ready access to in order to install it.

[puredrifting]

I agree David. I thought with the poll in 2007 that showed the large majority of HVX200 users were on Macs and with the introduction/conversion of P2CMS for the Mac finally, I thought we were well past PC only software from Panasonic?

Perhaps it is on its way for Mac users, it just took longer?

Dan

[LeftyLarry]

The link I followed from my e-mail gave a Mac procedure for the update. I have both, but since the XP version seems to require XP Pro, which I don't have, guess I'll have to crank up the Mac.

[mcsmooth]

Considering the procedure needed to make the upgrade, I am thinking the device does not have the ability to upgrade through the card reader. Maybe they can (or did) add this in a future update. I can't complain as much having a PC, but if it were mac only, I'd find someone with one and take care of it there, not like its something you will have to do often. (I would be more upset about the other software that you could actually use on a daily basis like the card tool and transcoder.) At least you don't have to take it to a tech or get it serviced... and its nice to know they are providing updates at all.

Not saying I don't agree, but I'd guess most of the people who are complaining didn't know about or aren't affected by the bugs, more just put off by the anti-mac gesture. I noticed the audio levels problem a few times, but thought it was something I did wrong, not a show stopper.

[Gymnut808]

The link I followed from my e-mail gave a Mac procedure for the update. I have both, but since the XP version seems to require XP Pro, which I don't have, guess I'll have to crank up the Mac.

You sure? By the looks of it the firmware updater is still a .exe based utility.

[ChrisPrine]

How many of you have done the update? I still have some shots to get for my current project, so I am going to wait to update (just in case).
I have run into the 2nd issue a few times.
"Hey, where'd the audio meters go?"
"Did you press the display button?"
"I don't think so..."

[mcsmooth]

^ I did, and I also had the same issue a few times, but had not nailed it down to a certain circumstance. The notes say it can happen when the screen is rotated 180. Didn't confirm this before doing the update, but do not notice the problem anymore.

I also remember having a time or two where my auto iris was out of whack but similarly couldn't pin it down to a special instance or dumb user error. Not sure if anybody else has seen that, but I took it more as a scolding of "stop using your damn auto iris!"

[DaFireMedic]

How many of you have done the update? I still have some shots to get for my current project, so I am going to wait to update (just in case).


If this were a critical update, that'd be one thing. But its really not, so I'd finish your shots, not that I've heard of anyone crashing their camera yet.

[Bokes]

Just picked the HMC150 and it has 1.16.
I notice the latest is 1.19.
I'm also stuck on all mac. I'm not getting bootcamp just for this.
I don't 1.19 has anything I need but:
Is there anything I must have from firmware 1.17, 1.18 ?

[Barry_Green]

AFAIK there was no firmware release of 1.17 or 1.18. The only firmware update I've seen listed on their site was this jump to 1.19. Could be wrong, but I haven't seen any indications of any other firmware releases.

[jamesrobertwatt]

Hi. i am mac based but have gone into windows via bootcamp and installed this firmware update. it all seems to work fine, and is confirmed as 1.19 in the system info menu... however i have no idea how to connect to the "p2 status logger", which i would quite like to use, just for my own piece of mind to check the camera is healthy, as recommended in the instructions for the firmware update

i registered my camera for the extended warranty online, however this user name and password do not seem to work on the PASS website, and if i try to register, it tries to take me through registering the camera again with my service pack number, which it wont let me do a second time as it is already registered.

could somebody please explain to me how to connect to the p2 status logger via the PASS website... how i even log in?? is it a simple case that my registration details are not yet active, and i should try being patient?

[jamesrobertwatt]

i tried logging in again today, and my user name and password had been activated. its a bit annoying that it wasn't accessible instantly.

[dcloud]

mine is 1.15

[bgreenstone]

Has anyone been able to make this firmware updater work using Parallels on the Mac? I keep trying, and it recognizes the HMC150, but then when it goes to actually upload the new firmware it just sits there for a minute until it times out saying there was a USB connection problem.

If Parallels doesn't work, will it work via Boot Camp? Can anyone confirm this?

Thanks,

-Brian

[david61]

Hi all,

I really don't understand how to make the update for mac? I don't have a windows machine...
Is someone can help me ?

On https://eww.pavc.panasonic.co.jp/pro-av/support/cs/pass_e/, they say to use P2 Status logger... is that true?

Thank you so much. Really.

[Barry_Green]

You can't use MacOS to do it. You have to use Windows.

[rtmst3k]

I used Windows Vista "virtualized" inside a VMWARE Fusion window on my Mac. This was 32-bit Vista so both the p2 status logger and the 1.19 download app loaded and ran ok - I followed the directions from the PDF and all the appropriate windows popped up and did the correct thing according to the documentation - when the window popped up saying "downloading" with a status bar, the status bar never showed any progress and eventually timed out telling me to "check my cables and try again".

I tried 3 or 4 times with the same result - now my camera will not come up normally with the firmware that WAS loaded prior to the update. The LCD is always black and I hear NO indication that anything is happening when I power the unit on and off.

Any one have any ideas on how to get this thing running again, with the original firmware? OR is it basically a $3200 paper weight at this point?

THanks,
Randy

[Jordan Berry]

This isn't the first time I've heard of this happening. I would contact Panasonic immediately.

[rtmst3k]

** Whew...that was close **

I talked to a friend of mine who is a Panasonic guru and he said to unplug the HMC 150 from the wall, make sure there's absolutely no power into the camera (no battery, no wall power), and let it sit for a minute. Then, plug wall power or battery back into the camera and power it up.

Sure enough, my camera came back up with the original 1.16 firmware.

I was ticked off at Panny or not supporting MacOS or even 64-bit windows, so I tried to do an end-run around them and use virtualization on my mac, but something didn't work, not sure why. I've used USB peripherals this way before, but I guess there is something about the drivers from Panny that don't like virtualization. Not sure.

Now I'm even afraid to try and do it from a "Bootcamp'd" windows on a Mac.
I think I'm going to find a good ole' Dell running Vista and try it again.

Thanks,
Randy

[sagedrummer]

I am running a HMC 150 with version 1.16 and another HMC 150 with 1.19. I am synching timecode and hope that the differences in firmware will not affect how they sync?? I am on a Mac and have no access to a PC to do the update. How important is updating the firmware?