Can we please get the P2 Viewer?

M

Morgan_Rozender

Active member
First, if this is deemed inappropriate, I apologize.

I'm sure I speak for many people on this forum when I say that we would like to be able to download the Panasonic P2 viewer without having to own a camera already. (I for one am waiting for the cam until next month, but am exploring p2 workflow etc. with downloaded mxf files and would like to try out the panasonic P2 viewer).

Can someone either post the software or a valid serial number so that we can all give the mxf file performance a test on our systems?

thanks
 
Jeez.

Jeez.

What is up with Panasonic? First no Windows codec, now you have to enter a camera serial number to download a free viewer? What excuse is there for this? Are they trying to sell this software separately? Are they confused about what business they're in?
 
stokestack said:
What is up with Panasonic? First no Windows codec, now you have to enter a camera serial number to download a free viewer? What excuse is there for this? Are they trying to sell this software separately? Are they confused about what business they're in?
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Yeah.... I thought the P2 viewer was on the CD that came with my HVX. It would be nice if they had a simple capture program as well for streaming onto a computer.

I'm grumpy because the dealer was out of P2 cards when they sent my HVX....

I've been looking at a live feed from the HVX into my LCD tv... that's all I've been doing....

OFFtopic sidenote:

I thought I'd test the camera in regular dv mode, and pointed the camera out the balcony at the building next door. The building has speckled walls with black pebbles embedded in concrete.

When I looked at my LCD monitor feed I almost fainted!

The speckles were shimmering and crawling... like ants. Then I realized I was in regular DV mode, and switched back to HD. The crawling ants stopped crawling... just an accurate, still picture of the building.

I don't know if the DVX would show crawling ants on the same scene. But I'm glad I didn't chicken out of buying the HVX and get the DVX.
 
True, this is ONE of the main reasons I have decided to wait on the HVX.

It's obvious there has been little support for PC users.

I'm not sure why the P2 viewer was not made available.
This would of promoted the camera even more.
 
You guys are blowing things out of proportion.

I agree that the viewer should be something you should be able to download.
Afterall, it is free anyway.

In other threads, there are serial numbers posted, or just search the way panasonic does their serial numbering to figure out one.

In any case, an mxf file is so huge that it would not really show you more than what a screen grab will show you. There are many screen grabs out there.
Any downloadable mxf files are basically screen grabs that play for like 10 frames.
These files are huge.

A better idea for internet are the movie files that can be played on most systems.
mxf files in all their glory are too large for you to see what your hoping to see.

The screen grabs, will show the "noise"
The recompressed video files will show what the moving image looks like.

THE MXF FILES ARE TOO HUGE TO REALISTICALLY EXPECT ANYONE TO UPLOAD, just to see a few frames of what you see in a still image.
 
Green Hornet,

you are correct in that the MXF files are large, but for those who don't mind setting the download and wating overnight etc. for a 1gig mxf file (and these mulit-minute long mxf's are availble for download), they offer a great way to test perfomrance on your system.

A still image can tell you alot about the image quality of the camera, but not how well the HD footage can play back on your current computer.
 
Stevet said:
True, this is ONE of the main reasons I have decided to wait on the HVX.

It's obvious there has been little support for PC users.

I'm not sure why the P2 viewer was not made available.
This would of promoted the camera even more.
Click to expand...

No doubt.
 
stabwound said:
I'm grumpy because the dealer was out of P2 cards when they sent my HVX.... I've been looking at a live feed from the HVX into my LCD tv... that's all I've been doing....
Click to expand...

:grin:

Ha, yeah, that's what I was doing up until today. My P2 cards finally arrived.

D~C
 
David S. said:
Atleast you can edit on a Mac.
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As a long time mac user, I must admit that I take a bit of pleasure in the fact that Apple was on top of this one so quickly. The next thing they need to do is get a 17" MacBook with a 1920X1080 display... and then I will be on cloud 9.
 
Morgan_Rozender said:
Green Hornet,

you are correct in that the MXF files are large, but for those who don't mind setting the download and wating overnight etc. for a 1gig mxf file (and these mulit-minute long mxf's are availble for download), they offer a great way to test perfomrance on your system.

A still image can tell you alot about the image quality of the camera, but not how well the HD footage can play back on your current computer.
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Playback?
Well, if you have a mac AND Final Cut Pro, then it will play back the way you imagine it to.

As of today, on the PC side, the only options that play back smoothly are Avid, and Canopus.

There. I just saved you the overnight download.

....All B.S. aside, you need something that was made specifically for this task, or it simply won't do it, or even open the file.
 
Green hornet,

I'm not disputing that Mac and Final Cut have the PC options beat, hands down for HVX200 support. - Although Avid works quite well with MXF based on my testing.

Also, you're forgetting about the raylight codec which enables P2 HD editing in Premiere and Sony Vegas for PC as well. (Although how well this works, is still being tested and debated on the forum).

All I was saying is that I wanted to try playing back an mxf with panasonic's software to see if the computer hardware I have can handle it without avid or canopus software. There is also something to be said for viewing the ORIGINAL file from the camera (not a h.246 or WMV copy ) to evaluate the image quality. People are willing to deal with the massive size of native MXF files to realistically evaluate the raw and un-altered performance of both the camera and the potetional editing system.

You really don't understand what I'm talking about here and you've saved me no download. Go crap on another thread.
 
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When I installed the P2 viewer on my notebook it made me insert P2 media before it would install. Maybe I did something wrong, but I got the feeling that even if you had a copy of the viewer you wouldn't be able to use it without proving that you had a P2 card. (I was at the dealer checking out the HVX when I installed the viewer, so luckily he let me stick his P2 card in my notebook to get the viewer to install).

I could be mistaken about having to have a card though... b/c then I don't see how you'd get the viewer installed on most desktops.
 
Morgan_Rozender said:
Green hornet,

I'm not disputing that Mac and Final Cut have the PC options beat, hands down for HVX200 support. - Although Avid works quite well with MXF based on my testing.

Also, you're forgetting about the raylight codec which enables P2 HD editing in Premiere and Sony Vegas for PC as well. (Although how well this works, is still being tested and debated on the forum).

All I was saying is that I wanted to try playing back an mxf with panasonic's software to see if the computer hardware I have can handle it without avid or canopus software. There is also something to be said for viewing the ORIGINAL file from the camera (not a h.246 or WMV copy ) to evaluate the image quality. People are willing to deal with the massive size of native MXF files to realistically evaluate the raw and un-altered performance of both the camera and the potetional editing system.

You really don't understand what I'm talking about here and you've saved me no download. Go crap on another thread.
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Dude, I am not crapping on you.
I am just trying to save you the steps that I and others have already taken.
If you think the ray light is the solution, I can send you a raylight avi, and you can see for yourself the 15 frame speed it plays at.

If you want me to leave you alone, I will. I am not trying to upset you.
I have just read most every thread pertaining to this matter, and also tried many myself. I don't feel that you have, or these questions you ask, would have already been answered, and or you would have found the serial numbers to download the p2 viewer.

The viewer offers little in real world use.
Viewing in an NLE will show you what it can do.
I don't use a mac, I use a PC, so I had to figure this out along with others.

Raylight is not a solution because you can not find the frame you wish to cut at, due to it not displaying real time. Then I suggest getting the fastest system out there for PC's, and then get told "you don't need it". With raylight you do. How will you know where to cut the clip if you can't see it real time?

If you really want to stay on the PC (Like I did) you have to be honest with how much you really want to spend. People always bring up AVID, but they don't seem to want to really spend that much money.

When I bought my HVX200, the seller was pushing his Avid on me. Yeah it was great, but when I did the math, it was 3 times more than anything else.
To me, I would go to a mac, before I did that.

For $800, you can edit with what you have using Canopus broadcast (I am assuming you have at least a P4)

I haven't found anything under $3,000 that can do that real time on a PC......your results may vary, do not pass go, do not collect $200.
 
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A QT codec would be nice enough as far as I'm concerned. Right now, I can pull stuff into Avid, then QT reference files don't work, so you have to export to a new Avid codec movie in order to do any actual compression. That's a pain for us Web monkeys.
 
Where can I buy Edius Broadcast online for 800$? Here in Switzerland it is 1140$, and I don't think it is tranlated in German...
 
To clarify something.

The performance of mxf files in the P2 viewing software is not any indication of how it will perform in actual editing software.

I have a 3ghz p4 laptop with a gig of RAM. P2 viewer playing clips form my internal hard drive at full screen is flawless. The same clips after being converted using Raylight play at 3-4 fps in Premiere, Vegas or media player. Taking native clips into AVID gets me choppy 15-16 fps.

So before we all get hopped up on the P2 viewing software, understand that it handles playing clips much better than any of the NLE do. So using it as a baseline is useless if you are trying to see how well your system will hold up.
 
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