Crashing the HVX-200

puredrifting

puredrifting

Major Contributor
Hi all:

Can anyone verify exactly what happens if I am shooting with the HVX, P2 cards and the AC adaptor and there is a power outage or I blow a circuit? I know that the clip shows up on the thumbnail mode with an X through it. Does the P2 format need to write a header/footer file before a clip is "complete"?

Has anyone lost power to the camera while recording? What happened to your clips? I have been paranoid to shoot with the AC adaptor because we have frequent brownouts, I only shoot with batteries.

Best,

Dan
 
never lost power so cannot answer that part of your post but will say that it is smart to be paranoid about shooting with the AC as most recommended to shoot with batteries.

had my DVX for about a year and a half, had the AC hooked up for a total of maybe 3X's

never once connected the AC to my HVX
 
I haven't lost power yet while recording because the two batteries I have seem to last long enough for what I do, but if you do lose power while recording on P2 cards, your best bet would be to upgrade the firmware to V4.05 if you haven't done so already, and then use the "REPAIR CLIP(LOOP)" option.

There is no real information on how this function is different from the "REPAIR CLIP" function that existed in earlier firmware revisions, but the name suggests that it is more aggressive and may make multiple passes.
 
So nobody has had this unfortunate thing happen to them? That's it, I am going to run some tests tomorrow.

Will report back on what I find.

Dan
 
If you turn the power off, or eject the card, while it's still writing to the card, then yes the file system is incomplete and you'll get the "X" on the clip. You'd then need to use the "repair clip" function (don't use "loop" unless the clip you're trying to repair was shot in Loop Record mode).

The P2 system "closes" its file system every two seconds, committing and flushing its buffer and sealing the file. If recording is interrupted (via power outage or ejecting the card during recording) then it can't finish and close the file, so you get the "X". Repairing the clip discards that last unfinished section and closes the file out at the last every-two-second interval that was performed (as far as I know).

It is not a good idea to go powering down or ejecting cards while recording, but if it happens to you it shouldn't be too bad, you should be able to recover.
 
Actually, this happened to me yesterday. I had too many lights hooked up, and blew the circuit, in the middle of a take.

I uploaded the footage yesteday, but do not recall seeing the take that had started recording when this happened. I have a clip on my p2 that has a purple exclamation point in the upper right hand corner, but when I watch it back, it's not the scene that was the same as the one where we lost power. The other p2 cards are back at my work. When I go back on Monday I could check on this....

Once power was on everything worked fine :) somehow I doubt my FS100 would have been as forgiving, if it had been in use at the time.
 
Purple exclamation mark means it's a spanned clip (part recorded on one card, and the rest recorded on another card). The exclamation mark shows up when only one part of a spanned clip is loaded; if you put both cards in the exclamation mark would go away.
 
Hi Barry:

Thanks for that explananation, my testing bears out your theory. Still would make me nervous though, what if you are interviewing Scorsese and the power cuts out and you lose the clip? I have been in this position twice, although only once with the HVX.

I shoot a lot of once in a lifetime types of interviews and BTS footage so batteries are it for me. Can't wait for Panasonic to ship my Anton Bauer Elipsz battery.

Best,

Dan
 
be careful cuz their is a big difference between a brown out and a black out. brown outs are incredibly dangerous for electronics because it is a drop in voltage not total loss of power and people lose many electronics to these. so be careful black out, chances everything will be fine, brownout no telling how badly things can get hurt
 
What is dangerous about a brownout it not the drop of voltage, but the surge that usually follows. You can't get to a power off / blackout condition without going throigh a voltage drop / brownout.

I never plug anything expensive into a bare outlet connected to the grid. At home in my loft I have two large UPSs for my computer gear etc., and everything else is plugged into surge protectors. When I shoot events and I'm not on battery power, I use heavy-duty outdoor-rated extension cords with built-in circuit breakers to feed power strips with surge protectors.
 
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