AJ-PCS060G 60 GB P2 Store

[dolph2000]

Has anybody used this P2 store.
I can't find reviews. 2 questions (probably already discussed a couple of times):

1. Can you also record directly to this store from hvx.
2. Is this store mac compatible.

For those who didn't know. Here a Pdf of the HVX

Thanks

[P2metoo]

P2 storer is a simple push button device works using battery. THe hard drive has gyroscopic error detector. The only way you can record to it is by inserting P2 card in it. It copies 15 p2 card of 4GB capacity. It has USB port for connecting to the computer. It is build very tough for the field uses. Even button are to be press and hold in order to activate. It can format the card for you.

[dolph2000]

thanks

[evinsky]

Should show up just like a drive on a mac. You will have to ingest P2 through FCP5.

[FatBird19]

How much are they?

I would want to have two on a set for my own little faux raid1 configuration. Just in case. :engel017:

[evinsky]

$1600 street, if you can find one.

[digima24.com]

I canoot get fcp 5 to recocnize p2 store .it only has usb 2 connection out.mac use firewire.would not load or show up on desktop. manual says nothing about macs:(

[puredrifting]

Hi digima:

Same story here, I downloaded the P2 driver and the P2 cards show up fine from the PCMCIA slot on my G4 PB but when I hook up the P2 store, same thing, the Mac (OS 10.4) cannot recognize it. Anyone know what we are not doing right to use the P2 store with a Mac.

Also, with the P2 cards, they show up with all of the information in different subfolders, how do I turn this into QT?

Best,

Dan

[Barry_Green]

Saw this on another site. The P2 Store needs to be rebooted to work in Mac mode. They put out some sort of technical advisory bulletin to describe the situation.

Here's what you're supposed to do:
Plug in the USB cable to the Mac and the P2 Store.
Make sure the USB light lights up.
Press and hold down the Cancel button, the Battery Level indicator, and the Hard Disk Drive capacity indicator simultaneously, and hold 'em down for five seconds.

The USB LED light should change color. It should go orange for Mac, and green for Windows.

[puredrifting]

Hi Barry:

I must either be incompetent at this or have a defective unit. When I try what you are detailing, nothing happens, the light just stays on and stays green. Upon rebooting the device, all I get is a disk error, like the Mac doesn't recognize it, I can only "ignore" or "eject".

Let me know if you know if any other ideas to try, this is depressing.

Dan

[Barry_Green]

Try the thread on DVInfo, someone over there was having the exact same problem and he got the instructions and was able to make it work...

[Cees Mutsaers]

why does the P2 store have a limited capacity of 60 G only. Is it because Pana want's you to buy 2 if you want more capacity or is it a hardware limitation????

[bgundu]

why does the P2 store have a limited capacity of 60 G only. Is it because Pana want's you to buy 2 if you want more capacity or is it a hardware limitation????

Since the P2 can only be transfered 15 times, 4GB cards can only be transfered to a max of 60GB. I suspect that when the P2 Store was designed they only had the 4GB in mind for the initial release. I also suspect the battery only lasts enough to transfer 60GB. I'm sure they'll update the specs on this unit pretty soon.

[puredrifting]

Hi all:

As an update, we discovered yesterday that the P2 store we were shipped was only setup to use 4GB cards. Since we have only 8GB cards, the P2 store didn't want to work with them, it wasn't just my technical incompetence ;-) A few calls to Panasonic support resulted in Panasonic sending us a driver update.

So if your P2 store keeps reporting HDD errors and you are using 8GB cards, call Panasonic to get this driver update.

Dan

[puredrifting]

Hi all:

Finally got the P2 store to mount on the G5. It only shows up as multiple hard drives labeled "no name", there is no cool P2 management software like there is for PC unfortunately. Oh well, maybe Panasonic will get a clue that a LARGE percentage of HVX-200 users are on the Mac.

Best,

Dan

[thefilmaddict]

That's good news that your mac can read the P2 store now. You mentioned that there is no cool P2 management software for the mac. I ordered a P2 store for my HVX200/Final Cut Pro System today. Will not having P2 management software cause any problems?

Please tell us your workflow with the P2 store. I know that in the field you dump your P2 cards onto the P2 store, but what do you do when you want to copy your footage to a mac scratch disk? Do you just drag and drop after the mac recognizes the p2 store as a drive?

Do you then delete all of the files off of the P2 store on the mac destop by dragging the p2 files ino the trash? Does this give you a clean P2 store ready to suck up more P2 footage (no formatting or other steps involved)?

Thanks!

[puredrifting]

Will not having P2 management software cause any problems?
No, as long as you are careful about what you are transferring and deleting. The problem is that the P2 store has a 60 GB drive with 15 partitions. When it shows up on your Mac desktop, you just see a varying number of disc images, all with the name, "no name" so you have to open each one and check the icon folder to see thumbnails of what is on that card/partition. It's just a pain in comparison to the PC software.


Please tell us your workflow with the P2 store. I know that in the field you dump your P2 cards onto the P2 store, but what do you do when you want to copy your footage to a mac scratch disk? Do you just drag and drop after the mac recognizes the p2 store as a drive?
Yes.


Do you then delete all of the files off of the P2 store on the mac destop by dragging the p2 files ino the trash? Does this give you a clean P2 store ready to suck up more P2 footage (no formatting or other steps involved)?
No, you are supposed to reformat the P2 store with some button commands on the P2 store itself. It's pretty quick.

Best,

Dan

[Herb Forsberg]

I'm trying to import from a P2 Store to Xpress Pro HD and getting a message "The import file is not a supported XDCAM MXF file".

Can anyone help with this.

Thanks

[Barry_Green]

Yeah, you can't do it like that. You have to use the media tool to import HVX/P2 MXF files.

[Herb Forsberg]

When I attempt import from P2 through Media Tool, the Media Tool opens empty. Here's my method that's not working:

I open a project, and open a bin. Then open Media Tool, and the Media Tool Display comes up. I select one or more of the drives from the P2 Store which are listed in the Media Tool under 'Media Drives", select current project, select Master Clips, deselect Precompute clips, deselect Media Files, then click OK. When the Media Tool window comes up, it's blank.

When that method didn't work, I looked through the 'Help' of Xpress and tried the procedure listed under 'Copying P2 Files to a Local Media Drive' as a possible alternative, which is when I got the message "The import file is not a supported XDCAM MXF file".

Any suggestion?

Thanks

[Josh Wallace]

Does anyone know of a way to delete individual cards off the P2 Store without having to reformat the whole thing?
As you can only copy one card off at a time ( painful ) a good way to keep track of where you are at, ( on a Mac the cards all have the same name - Also painful ) is to delete each card from the P2 Store once it's been successfully copied over to the edit suite.
I have a bad feeling this is not possible.
Also, has anyone tried using Automator to create an "automated" 1-Click workflow for copying multiple cards off a P2 Store?

[electricpig]

Probably not because P2 Genie does such an ace job.

[Josh Wallace]

Probably not because P2 Genie does such an ace job.
Yeah I've just discovered the benefits of P2 genie.
Still wondering if there's any way to delete an individual card off a P2 Store with multiple cards on it?

[rgbuser]

All P2 Store users: why don't you check out

http://catalog2.panasonic.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ModelDetail?storeId=11201&catalogId=13051&itemId=94262&catGroupId=14595&surfModel=AJ-PCS060G&displayTab=R

which is the resources page for the P2 Store. There's a new, illustrated guide (called UG_AJ-PCS060G.pdf) to using the P2 Store (which I love for its rugged, stubborn ways) which is much easier to follow than the instruction manual. Shows Panasonic are responsive to difficulties people are having, by the way.

One little thing Mac users must be aware of: if there's no data on the P2Store, Mac OS doesn't recognize a mountable volume ('cos no volume was created to hold your video) so it asks whether you want to eject or format. Of course you will eject. As soon as you have data, it will appear on the Desktop as NO NAME (which DOES drive me crazy): the more times you backed up, the more NO NAME volumes you'll have. Fortunately, FCP 5.1.1 on recognizes this and adds a numerator to them when importing (BTW import P2 volumes, do not drag and copy from P2Store as that takes ages because of the way Mac OS handles FAT32 - or something). Hope this helps.

But, guys and dolls, do RTFM!

[Mike McNeese]

FYI, I was able to get the P2 Store to load up on the Mac using the sequence Barry was talking about. Once the Mac recognizes it, I use P2 Genie to load the footage as MXF, then ingest into FCP. The workflow is a little more complex than it needs to be, but it's a ton better than logging and capturing!

[palmerman]

I sware by my P2 Store. I love my HVX.. but without 3 4GB cards and the P@ store... it would be unusable for me.