P2 Cards - got me again @#$%!

Yep, transferring on a PowerBook can cause these glitches. Don't use a PowerBook to transfer whenever possible, use a PC laptop and you'll get flawless transfers.
 
Barry_Green said:
Yep, transferring on a PowerBook can cause these glitches. Don't use a PowerBook to transfer whenever possible, use a PC laptop and you'll get flawless transfers.
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Is the Powerbook glitch problem specific to a certain kind of transfer or does it happen either way? In other words, are we talking about it only happening when using the "drag P2 contents to a folder via the finder" method, or when using the "Import Panasonic P2" window in FCP, or both? Thus far I've only used the FCP-based method (in v5.1.2) and have had no issues, but I haven't done a great many transfers at this point.
 
Barry_Green said:
Yep, transferring on a PowerBook can cause these glitches. Don't use a PowerBook to transfer whenever possible, use a PC laptop and you'll get flawless transfers.
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Do you have some specs for a PC laptop that can be a designated transfer computer?
Also, I know how to transfer footage to a MAC and import to FCP, but how do you on a PC? And if FCP is the final destination...any tips on this?
 
Ted Spencer said:
Is the Powerbook glitch problem specific to a certain kind of transfer or does it happen either way?
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It happens in all sorts of different ways. We have reports of it glitching in drag 'n' drop, and glitching when importing directly from the cards, and glitching when not even importing the footage at all, just playing it back in P2 Log directly from the card.
 
ez_dbc said:
Do you have some specs for a PC laptop that can be a designated transfer computer?
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Anything would work. The cheapest, slowest $299 blowout special at Circuit City would work; just make sure it has a PCMCIA/CardBus slot on it. Lots of PCs still have it, but some are ExpressCard only, so make sure.

Also, I know how to transfer footage to a MAC and import to FCP, but how do you on a PC?
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Just drag 'n' drop the files from the card to an external FAT32-formatted hard disk.
And if FCP is the final destination...any tips on this?
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No different. Unplug the hard disk from the PC, plug it into the Mac, and import the footage.
 
Barry_Green said:
Anything would work. The cheapest, slowest $299 blowout special at Circuit City would work; just make sure it has a PCMCIA/CardBus slot on it. Lots of PCs still have it, but some are ExpressCard only, so make sure.


Just drag 'n' drop the files from the card to an external FAT32-formatted hard disk.

No different. Unplug the hard disk from the PC, plug it into the Mac, and import the footage.
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So don't use the PC laptop hard drive for footage transfer, only an external FAT-32?
 
JimmyTheSaint said:
No on the Norton. In fact the only thing that computer has on it is FCP 5.0.4 and OSX 10.4
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Did you install the P2 drivers? Have you ever used this computer with any other pcmcia devices? There have been some historic issues with QT&FCP transitioning from 6 to 7, which version of QT? Why not run 5.12? Good Luck.
 
ez_dbc said:
So don't use the PC laptop hard drive for footage transfer, only an external FAT-32?
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You could, but to get it to the Mac you're going to have to use an external drive anyway. In projects that I've done which were destined for the Mac, I always just use an external FAT32 drive. It's effortless, painless, easy, and reliable.

In fact, I'll frequently copy to both the internal and external drive. It takes no more time; you can copy to both drives in the same amount of time as to copy to just one drive. But that way I have data redundancy and protection in case the client does something silly like leave the drive on an airplane or drop it or format it or whatever.
 
for the record,

i've been using a powerbook g4 1.67ghz and an emac 1ghz and footage is flawless. macos10.4.8, fcp 5.0.4. 6 1/2 hours of footage from a firestore. one of the lucky ones but still considering a pc laptop just in case.

barry,

how are the transfer speed comparisons between firewire 400, 800 and usb? do they even make pc laptops w/ firewire 800? are p2 transfer times the same between the 3? thanks!

ps: i'm a mac guy, but if it takes a pc to get 100% reliability, i'm all for it! gotta keep an open mind!
 
Barry_Green said:
Anything would work. The cheapest, slowest $299 blowout special at Circuit City would work; just make sure it has a PCMCIA/CardBus slot on it. Lots of PCs still have it, but some are ExpressCard only, so make sure.
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I'm getting ready to upgrade to a newer PC laptop, I was looking at an Alienware and noticed they only had PCMCIA on one laptop, So I decided to check out some other vendors and I see the fad is increasing, while there are still a great many laptops out there with the PCMCIA there are quite a few that just don't have it, and so I need to ask, with everyone moving over to the Express slots on thier machines how will Panasonic compensate for the years to come when no machine will have a PCMCIA slot? I mean are we seeing the death of P2 as an unacceptable obsolete format?
 
Duel Systems' PCCard-to-ExpressCard adapter is either out now or will be in a few days. If you feel limited in your choice of a laptop, get one with an ExpressCard slot and pick up the adapter. I think the MSRP will be $119.
 
I have been hearing about the adaptor for some time now and it seems to be the same story with it, wondering if it will indeed ever see the light of day. The Mac guys have been talking about it quite frequently. I haven't purchased a new laptop yet, Alienware was just where I started looking before going everywhere else so I haven't limited myself to anything yet. Curious though, what good machines are out there that you could recommend?
 
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I am a complete newbie. Believe it or not, the HVX200 was my first camera ever -- HD, DV or otherwise (although I did play with a VHS camcorder as a kid).

I have shot a lot of stuff with my HVX on 2 P2 cards. Learning along the way. I have a pretty good Windows Laptop with P2 Genie for offloading to an external harddrive. Later, I dump that to my iMac's external harddrive for editing in FCP.

I've never lost a clip or a frame.

Maybe you got a P2 card that is a lemon. Or maybe it is workflow. I guess I'm just saying that it isn't inherently a problem with the camera or the P2. Make sure the equipment and hardware is working as it should and then proceed to doing jobs that your livelihood depends upon. And if it is a life and death deal, rent a second camera... or keep tape running at the same time and if your P2 does screw up... use InstantHD by RedGiant to fool everybody!
 
TimurCivan said:
Well theres your problem!

Its a known issue that macs and p2 have an uneasy truce. Theres like 2 bigthreads on this here and how to minimize problmes.
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No it isn't... and some of the stuff being recommended is questionable.

We're all Mac and have had ZERO problems with P2 cards, for an entire year now on two HVX's. I wouldn't even want to speculate how many ingests... terabytes of P2 clips. Three different Macs. We even recorded two hours straight once (spanning several clips) and brought it all into the Mac into a single video clip assembled from multiple cards and clips.
 
Lez said:
I must admit I've put my camera and PowerBooks through hell the past 7mths.. from shooting in Blizzards to 4x4 driving and micro light shoots.... I've yet to lose any footage... I'm keeping my data base by numbering all the cards as I shoot...I'm up to Disc 183..

I had issues with downloading on a PC laptop but have not lost footage yet.. (touch wood).. I've had powerbooks lose battery power while transferring and to my surprise after replacing the battery the system continued to transfer the material.. no lose of data.. (not sure how the powerbooks manage that as there was no other power to the system but seems to hold a level of charge internally)..

I had P2 cards accendently being ejected as they were downloading while driving along a bumpy tracks, filming and downloading on my lap as we were going.. still no lose of data...

I don't think P2 is impervious to loss.. but in my limited experience it's proved very robust...

Cheers
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Thanks LEZ... we have had the same experience.
 
DavidBeier said:
Currently, I've shot countless times with P2 and haven't had any issues. Once, when trying to offload from the camera, I got an error message and freaked out but it was fine once I restarted. Compared to the numerous dropped frames, weird blocks, and other issues I've had from tape, P2 has been a far preferible experience, so much so that I opt to do all my jobs with P2 when possible because of the easier workflow.
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Ditto

DavidBeier said:
I've seen you esposing the virtues of the FS-100 when other people have had issues with it. It all comes down to our own experiences and mine have been overwhelmingly posative.

Of course, if my cards fail me I'm sure all be full of riteous indignation if not pure rage.
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Ditto... I've lost footage on may occassions with those... none with P2 so far.
 
ozduc said:
I thought the last compatible OS with FCP v 5.0.4 was OS 10.3.9.
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Nope, we ran it on 10.4.3 up through 10.4.7. FWIW, I'm an Apple Certified Trainer for FCP and have been teaching it for 5-1/2 years.
 
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