ALL: 160/130 - any way around this?

Michael Carter

Michael Carter

Veteran
I'm getting really frustrated with one little thing on the AC cameras... when you power up and you get the "dual card recording possible" for what feels like seven minutes. Yeah, you can start shooting, but you can't see a damn thing...

Any way to shut this off? Does Panasonic have a firmware wish list somewhere? I wouldn't mind a couple seconds... I wouldn't mind if it would shut off when you hit the rec. button (that's absolutely the correct way to handle this)... I wouldn't even mind if it was just a bar across the bottom or top.

It sounds nit-pickey, but I've had plenty of run & gun gigs where I'll eventually start minding the battery and powering down. Or times when nothing's expected to happen for 20 minutes and I power down, only for someone to say "hey, catch this please" or, I dunno, a meteor suddenly streaks across the sky or a president gets shot or a dinosaur eats somebody and I miss my chance at 00:15 of fame. Because I'm reading about my card recording setup at mouth-breather speed.

Maybe I'm just venting, unless Jan C. still hangs out around here... other than that, love the camera more the longer I shoot with it.
 
I have never seen this message at startup on my Ag-AC160A.

I would be happy to list out the menu options that I have set relating to cards so that you can hopefully get the message to go away.

What type of cards are you using might be a prelude to documenting settings.
 
OK, I see it. The message posts for about 4 seconds when you power on the camcorder.

The options seeem to be to leave the camera on pause and change batteries more frequently or endure the annoying message.

I have never done dual recording - since the option exists, I suppose it makes sense to have it on for any critical work.
 
Michael Carter said:
I'm getting really frustrated with one little thing on the AC cameras... when you power up and you get the "dual card recording possible" for what feels like seven minutes. Yeah, you can start shooting, but you can't see a damn thing...

Any way to shut this off? Does Panasonic have a firmware wish list somewhere? I wouldn't mind a couple seconds... I wouldn't mind if it would shut off when you hit the rec. button (that's absolutely the correct way to handle this)... I wouldn't even mind if it was just a bar across the bottom or top.

It sounds nit-pickey, but I've had plenty of run & gun gigs where I'll eventually start minding the battery and powering down. Or times when nothing's expected to happen for 20 minutes and I power down, only for someone to say "hey, catch this please" or, I dunno, a meteor suddenly streaks across the sky or a president gets shot or a dinosaur eats somebody and I miss my chance at 00:15 of fame. Because I'm reading about my card recording setup at mouth-breather speed.

Maybe I'm just venting, unless Jan C. still hangs out around here... other than that, love the camera more the longer I shoot with it.
Click to expand...

I use an AC 90 and can report this quirk does not occur during dual record setup.
One would think the Pana boffins could provide a firmware update to solve this.

Al
 
Yeah, it's not a bug, it's a "feature" - it's just kind of silly. I suppose if you think you're recording dual and only have one card in (or a bad card), you'd like some notification. Plenty of times I'm hissing "GO AWAY DAMMIT!!!"

But yes, I'm a 100% dual-card guy. My son borrowed my HMC150 to shoot a project (he's a film school kid and my boom op when he's in town) and a bad card cost him most of a day's work.

I figure if it's worth aiming the camera and hitting the red button, it's worth some insurance. SD cards = a lot of eggs in one little basket.
 
You can press the Menu button twice to get rid of it. Or maybe once. Can't quite remember. It's just sometimes that 4 or 5 seconds is crucial, so a press or two of that button will get you there quicker.

I always dual record. I've never had a problem with a card, ever, but you can't be too careful.
 
Awesome - one press did it for me!

Cards - I stuck one in my pocket at a busy shoot. The Mrs. ran those jeans through the wash and the dryer. I was about to toss it but thought I'd see if the data was readable. It was. It ended up getting mixed up with my other cards. I must use it often, no idea which card it was... they are pretty robust. Until they're not...
 
Re SDs.

Seems to be the best is to give each of them a perm number, keep them in a little kit case where they cannot touch each other/get bent, Include a mini notebook in the kit (one page per day) where you indicate what you recorded on which sd card on which day.

Next in line for things to cause trouble are duplicated file numbers on each SD - my technique (anxious to improve) is to copy the entire structure of each sd to a new empty directory where the name of the directory has 3-4 leading characters for the event, followed by the date time of the earliest file on the SD.

I suppose I should then go to the directory and rename the STREAM fields so they acquire the 3-4 chars event designation at the front end of the 000nn file names because we often have to in an NLE, bring in files from different SDs. Probably best to copy over any files you need from other directories because if you move the other directory, I think it breaks the links.

Lots of tricky stuff to worry about when you are rushing around and have several separate events to do on the same day.

I find in Sony Vegas that if you put a spilt in any file you can separately edit the audio but NOT the video. (i.e. shift the brightness in one split section and it seems to carry over to all). Is there a workaround or I am not using some feature the right way?


Any other ideas?
 
Hey Walter - In Vegas if you need to change any parameters in any video file whether it's ungrouped or grouped, you need to use the VFX icon at the end of the event (ie: that piece of video) and not the same icon on the track header. The track header icon on the left with the track number in it affects all video events on the track whilst the individual icon at the end of each track only affect that bit of video. If you want to apply a correction/adjust just part of a long clip all you do is split it and then you can adjust each piece however you wish
 
I usually have the Panasonic and a DSLR at most shoots, even just so I have a backup.

I format plenty of cards in advance, and tape their cases closed with blue tape, and mark a "P" (Panny) or "N" (Nikon) on the tape. If I need to switch cards, the used cards go in empty cases without tape. So I know to (a) only grab a sealed case and (b) grab the right format. All of this in a media card case.

My batteries get blue tape over the contacts as well so I can spot charged vs. dead. Thing is, I have rarely filled up even a 16GB card shooting DSLR or AVCHD. And I've never had a take or clip long enough that it split, far as I can tell anyway.
 
One other cool thing - I rail mount my 130 - even on a tripod I can shoulder-mount it in a second. Lately I've been clamping my manfrotto focus-iris remote to the front rail. Gives me a follow focus and iris I can run while shoulder mounted without releasing the grip. Thinking it's time to get zoom and start-stop on the other grip. it is really, really freaking awesome.
 
kwkeirstead said:
Next in line for things to cause trouble are duplicated file numbers on each SD - my technique (anxious to improve) is to copy the entire structure of each sd to a new empty directory where the name of the directory has 3-4 leading characters for the event, followed by the date time of the earliest file on the SD.

I suppose I should then go to the directory and rename the STREAM fields so they acquire the 3-4 chars event designation at the front end of the 000nn file names because we often have to in an NLE, bring in files from different SDs. Probably best to copy over any files you need from other directories because if you move the other directory, I think it breaks the links.
Click to expand...

I'd say YES to putting the entire structure of the SD card in its own directory, and a definite NO to renaming and files within that structure. People who work with the MTS files directly are losing many benefits of the AVCHD format. The footage really exists in its full glory ONLY when you address the entire file structure properly. Otherwise, much metadata and linking information is lost. This information will also be lost if you much about in the folders renaming files (e.g., breaking links). Most (all?) current NLEs have a proper import function for AVCHD cards... use it! It should present you with the clips as shot (e.g., a 2-hour clip will be a single 2-hour clip, rather than a bunch of 4GB segments), and allow you to rename them during the logging/importing process.

I will pause briefly to commend the one feature in Mac OS X Mountain Lion which has been a clear improvement to my workflow - it now recognizes AVCHD footage natively, and represents the entire "PRIVATE" folder structure as a single file (well, a package, really, that you can get inside if you want to); and natively offers you the CLIPS-AS-SHOT rather than CLIPS-AS-BROKEN-INTO-4GB-SEGMENTS. All the conscientious folks shooting AVCHD that i have known have been acting this way for years; but it's nice to have the OS make this easier for us (and provide nice viewing options).
 
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