Does anyone dump P2 footage directly to External Hard drive?

Richard J. Johnson

Richard J. Johnson

Joystick Member
I have read sevral threads involving dumping p2 footage in the field and no one seems to use the method involving plugging a External firewire Hard drive directly to camera without the use of a computer. I know it can be done according to Barry's book, but no one seems to do it. I was trying to figure out why. I have a shoot coming up and I really don't want to buy a laptop or more p2 cards (I have 2 8's) this close to christmas, I have 2 kids that want stuff.:cry:
 
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I've done it. I know others have also.

I use it as a last resort because you can't 100% verify the card contents copied over without a laptop. Also the process is a little finnicky. Be sure to practice dumping a few cards at home.

Oh yeah, I seem to recall there was something weird in the process like once you access your drive via laptop, you can no longer write new P2 to it without formatting it again or something like that... In any case, shoot some footage, follow barry's book to dump it directly, then repeat the process to make sure your workflow is going to have success.
 
the reason i don't do it in the field is that i like the comfort of seeing the footage i transferred. that's why i use a duel-adapter and my macbook pro. otherwise i would be freaking out once i wiped my p2 card since i hadn't verified the transfer visually.
 
I think one of the big reasons is that battery powered firewire drives are hard to come by (camera does not provide power you know), and if you need mains power, might as well use a laptop. I echo others sentiments of verifying footage, which is why I also use Duel Adaptor/laptop.
 
filthrich said:
I have read sevral threads involving dumping p2 footage in the field and no one seems to use the method involving plugging a External firewire Hard drive directly to camera without the use of a computer. I know it can be done according to Barry's book, but no one seems to do it. I was trying to figure out why. I have a shoot coming up and I really don't want to buy a laptop or more p2 cards (I have 2 8's) this close to christmas, I have 2 kids that want stuff.:cry:
Click to expand...

YEs this is done in a number of ways. For me I wanted a SELF POWERED FIREWIRE DISK.

I can recommend the NEXTODI CF ND2525. It has its own (self) power . It is about 120mm x25x90mm and takes any PATA disk. I have a 200GB in mine at the moment.

cost for the is enclosure is about $HK1390 ... (€130 say $USD172). Just ad a PATA 200GB+ DDM.. buy a few of these DDMs if you have to go on a long trip and just insert them with the use of the supplied screwdriver and a few fingers..

here's a detailed post I made some time back.

http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?t=114853&highlight=nextodi

Thsi works like a charm and is very cheap.

Simply,
  • you set the HVX-200 into 1394 HOST mode.
  • plug in you 4pin FW400 cable into the side of the HVX-200
  • pluisg the other into the 6pin FW800 female socket of the NEXTODI disk enclosure.
  • hit the button on the NEXTODI
  • navigate the menus on the HVX-200
  • the camera does a copy & verify the P2 card(s) contents to the NEXTTO DI

Back at the camp, you use your MACBOOKPRO or your MAc or other to suck/transfer the P@ stuff of the NEXTODI as you would with any FW400 disk.

The file system on the NEXTODI is FAT32 that is SET UP BY THE HVX-200 when it is formatted/initialised!..the disk so a limit of 15 partitions. Each OFFLONE/COPY is a partition.

So if you run out of disk.. get a few more PATA disks and use the accompanying screwdriver to change the PATA DDM over.

Its a very good and simple solution and inexpensive and works really well!

NOTE: you cannot RECORD DIRECTLY to the attached FW/DISk in the 1394 HOST MODE as you know. unlke an FS100..the NEXTTODICF ND2525 enclosure is a SELPOWERED , portable FW400 DISK... It comes with extra batteries.

TRansfer is the usual 1GB/min that you get with any FW400 device. Thus 10 mins of 720P/25N for exaple takes just over 10 mins to transfer/offload, while 10 mins of DVCPROHD 1080P tapes over 20mins...

If you need a better option for space, those new 64GB P2's look nice!.

HTH.. see the post at http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?t=114853&highlight=nextodi and search the forums for other users of it.

Beats lugging a laptop with you.

HTH

w
 
thanks. not being able to see the footage is a little scary. I think I might try it out at home and see if it is best for me. I have an old PC laptop that I dug up out of the basement it has a pcmcia slot, I think I will try this to see what happens.
 
Those drives look awesome. I can't seem to find out how much they cost though. P2 offloading seems to be one of their strengths since it is advertised on the website that way. I will look into these if this old gateway does not work.

warwickt said:
YEs this is done in a number of ways. For me I wanted a SELF POWERED FIREWIRE DISK.

I can recommend the NEXTODI CF ND2525. It has its own (self) power . It is about 120mm x25x90mm and takes any PATA disk. I have a 200GB in mine at the moment.

cost for the is enclosure is about $HK1390 ... (€130 say $USD172). Just ad a PATA 200GB+ DDM.. buy a few of these DDMs if you have to go on a long trip and just insert them with the use of the supplied screwdriver and a few fingers..

here's a detailed post I made some time back.

http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?t=114853&highlight=nextodi

Thsi works like a charm and is very cheap.


Simply,
  • you set the HVX-200 into 1394 HOST mode.
  • plug in you 4pin FW400 cable into the side of the HVX-200
  • pluisg the other into the 6pin FW800 female socket of the NEXTODI disk enclosure.
  • hit the button on the NEXTODI
  • navigate the menus on the HVX-200
  • the camera does a copy & verify the P2 card(s) contents to the NEXTTO DI
Back at the camp, you use your MACBOOKPRO or your MAc or other to suck/transfer the P@ stuff of the NEXTODI as you would with any FW400 disk.

The file system on the NEXTODI is FAT32 that is SET UP BY THE HVX-200 when it is formatted/initialised!..the disk so a limit of 15 partitions. Each OFFLONE/COPY is a partition.

So if you run out of disk.. get a few more PATA disks and use the accompanying screwdriver to change the PATA DDM over.

Its a very good and simple solution and inexpensive and works really well!

NOTE: you cannot RECORD DIRECTLY to the attached FW/DISk in the 1394 HOST MODE as you know. unlke an FS100..the NEXTTODICF ND2525 enclosure is a SELPOWERED , portable FW400 DISK... It comes with extra batteries.

TRansfer is the usual 1GB/min that you get with any FW400 device. Thus 10 mins of 720P/25N for exaple takes just over 10 mins to transfer/offload, while 10 mins of DVCPROHD 1080P tapes over 20mins...

If you need a better option for space, those new 64GB P2's look nice!.

HTH.. see the post at http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?t=114853&highlight=nextodi and search the forums for other users of it.

Beats lugging a laptop with you.

HTH

w
Click to expand...
 
I've done it when my laptop went down on a multi-day shoot. It works fine. It's slow as hell.

I would never do it again unless I had to.

Dan
 
puredrifting said:
I've done it when my laptop went down on a multi-day shoot. It works fine. It's slow as hell.

I would never do it again unless I had to.

Dan
Click to expand...

Speed is definately important. The old Gateway seems to do the trick so far. the P2CMS is installed. I have not tested it yet though.
 
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