After A Year p2 Card or Film or DTE or Software

After A Year p2 Card or Film or DTE or Software

  • Total voters
    185
David Saraceno

David Saraceno

Moderator
Staff member
Just wondering given the HVX200 has had a birthday and we've all dealt with new technology and "professional plug-in" p2 cards.

What do you prefer after a year?
 
I'd love to check the first three options. Since I can't, I won't vote because it would not reflect how I shoot.

I use P2 cards for their ruggedness, reliability and compactness.

I use DV Rack 2.1 HD for long-term recording of events and studio work, and I'm in love with its monitoring capabilities.

And I'm on the Group Buy List for the Cineporter so I can be mobile without having to give any thought whatsoever to offloading P2 cards. Even when I have the Cineporter, I will likely continue to use P2 cards in some situations, and I will probably also use the Cineporter in combination with DV Rack.

Every situation is different, and each recording option has its advantages and disadvantages.
 
P2, but I will augment it with a portable storage solution...

Right now I am planning to build a small portable 12V mini-ATX computer that will have a PCMCIA slot and four laptop drives in a RAID 5 configuration. It should give me the capacity (360GB) fault tolerance and portability I am looking for and should cost as much as a cheap laptop.

I have already built and tested a batch script that automatically mounts, copies to disk, verifies, and deletes the contents, and unmounts a P2 card. I should be able to tie in user feedback to an LCD screen so I know what stage the process is currently in. This should make card workflow pretty easy and I think I will be able to shoot all day and not run out of storage.

Take a look at http://www.mini-box.com/M300-LCD-Enclosure?sc=8&category=87 to see more of what I'm planning.
 
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I checked FS & Cineporter. However, I don't like the FS as it's not as secure as the Cineporter taking the P2 slot. And the camera will, (in theory) see the CP as just a huge P2 card making all applications available.
With that said, it's actually P2 all the way. So maybe I shouldn't have checked FS-CP afterall. I should have said P2. :(
 
I would take a Sony mini XDCAM version of the F350, for travel. P2, lack of the Cineporter availablity, costs of the P2 cards, and a one man operation I need a better work flow, with tight deadlines. Just cannot do it with P2 on loacation as a one person operation. The transfer of the data- P2 cards is eating up my time. The FS-store is not suitable for mobility and moving about quickly vers the Cineporter concept. If I can get 12 P2 8 gig cards and Imagine Products HD-log then a better workflow is welcomed.
 
Look to AVC-HD for that workflow. You can choose either a mini-DVD or SD memory cards to record to, and 24 megabits of AVC-HD should match 36 megabits of XDCAM-HD for recording quality (obviously the camera head would play a huge role; I'm only talking about the recording format).
 
Probably not giving this a fair shake but here is my .02

I do live events as my main source of video income. This is not because I enjoy doing them, but that is what pays the bills. For this scenario the Firestore is perfect. Running around with a firestore is a pain, but since this is not the norm for me it is a non issue. I have my free P2 card, and everything I have shot on it I love, especially the thumbnails. I think once the cineporter does come out it will be awesome, and give me the best of both worlds, but for now I am quite happy with the firestore.
 
stevec said:
The transfer of the data- P2 cards is eating up my time.
Click to expand...

Hi Steve,

Digitizing footage can also eat up your time, it really is a pay me now or m=pay me later reality. I think as we watch the Iditarod team work in very fast runraround times, you will see, the transfertime is not that big of a deal. They had a clip on the web in 20 minutes, from the time the P2 card showed up in the room for the transfer in.

Best regards,

Jan
 
Applications like Vegas and Premier have third-party support for native MXF editing. I could see an argument in having to convert to AVI or another format, but the transfer of card data (20 minutes in 8) is nothing compared to 1:1 tape batching.

Forget about logging footage without thumbnails - what a horror show that is. Has anyone seen the transcripts for Jacksonville / Day 24?!

e
 
My laptop can copy a full 8GB card in 5:15. So 720/24pN footage is coming in at 4x faster than realtime when copying to a card. Of course, my new preferred workflow is to not copy it at all, just to edit straight off the card whenever possible. So that way your ingest time is instant.
 
P2 has been amazing for me so far. The firestore is nice for long shooting but I don't like constantly changing settings on two machines if I want to shoot in different modes. I prefer to hot swap with two cards; it takes a little getting used to but once you've got it down it's a breeze. I also love being able to edit in the field. if you know your last shot was shite axe it and save space for the good stuff. all beautiful aspects of digital shooting with P2....
 
I loved the idea of p2 and its workflow, but expected current size limitations to be a bit of a problem. So far... it hasn't been at all. two 8 gigs in cam gives me at least the same effective record time as an hour tape. Being able to preview and delete on the spot is great, and the workflow is just so absolutely painless with my NLE. It's just a joy.

16 gig'ers will make life sweet as can be for 720pn. 32gig'ers will make it just as sweet with 1080p. Everything on top of that is just gravy, and the truest benefit of the workflow will be had by anyone who can edit directly off the cards at that point.

Love my p2.

Jason
 
Barry_Green said:
My laptop can copy a full 8GB card in 5:15. So 720/24pN footage is coming in at 4x faster than realtime when copying to a card. Of course, my new preferred workflow is to not copy it at all, just to edit straight off the card whenever possible. So that way your ingest time is instant.
Click to expand...

And if you ever upgrade beyond EDIUS 3.6x (even though I know you're really a Vegas guy), you will find that you can start editing right away, even if you are transferring your footage. The transfer is done in the background, and editing begins on the card, and is re-linked to the HDD when transfer is finished. That is sweet :)

Jason
 
The P2 card is perfect for what we mostly do which is producing stock clips. If I have any regrets it's the P2Store which has not earned its keep for our workflow, being slow and clumsy to use (its inability to make incremental back-ups is a disappointment). Had it had been more compact or cheaper, we'd be happier with it. As it use, we mostly sub-clip straight off the camera using FCP's import controls into MacBook Pro. But we're very happy with the camera. And it's been great that Apple has supported P2 workflow so well.
 
hey there!... I'm in bed because i got an operation in my back (L4-L5) and well...
i´ve been sealing on the net looking for HVX P2 recording solutions.. and i just can not find any good improve.... 8 Gigs cards... mhmm.. not good enough.

so...

i live in Mexico, I'm a little far of the TEC LAND..
would you guys tell me about the last news of P2 solutions for HVX?...

I'm going to Egypt, Israel, Petra and Italy next August 13th to make a documentary video and i´m worried about this capacity issue of P2 cards... then i want to REC in 720 PN (slow motion) so... FireStore is not for me, right?....

any BRAND NEW option??? or suggestions???

thanks.

i got the money to buy my HVX, but i´m waiting for this P2 situation.

Thanks for your help and once again: sorry about my English!!! :beer:

Fer
 
16GB cards are available right now. 32GB cards will be available starting in November, but that's probably too late for you.

Hoodman has announced they'll be making P2-compatible cards, but since their announcement we haven't heard another word so -- who knows about that.
 
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