Ann: New Mac P2 offload software. Beta testers needed....

p2 genie card emptying and copying question

p2 genie card emptying and copying question

Anders,

Read through the P2 Genie documentation online, a couple of quick questions just so I'm clear. If I have 2 external HD mounted via firewire (named Media & Backup), I can have P2 Genie on automatic copying files to both drives. Then when it's time to empty the P2 card "No Name" Genie will only empty the card and not the other mounted media drives. Also, how are the files copied over... I've read another thread that making a disc image is a good "safety" solution for data integrity... is this an option say for 2nd Destination copy which would be going to the Backup Drive? Or are both 1st and 2nd destination copied over in the same fashion. Planning a shoot with a PowerBook g4 with PCMCIA slot and FCP loaded on it, however don't want files to be copied to the internal hard drive.

Thanks
 
Finally got the upgrade to 10.4

Finally got the upgrade to 10.4

Anders,

I finally upgraded and had a chance to run Genie through it's paces with my brand new G5 Dual Duo (a far cry better than my poor old 800mhz G4! :badputer: ) and I must say this app is a God-send! One suggestion for your next release and a word of caution for those using the current build. The portable USB HDD's that I use as loaner drives for clients are all formated fat32 since I never know what system the client will use. They are often named NO NAME and P2 Genie doesn't distiguish it from a P2 card. I noticed it when the display told me I had 17 cards to transfer from my P2 store otherwise I would have had an interesting problem. I named the drive and Genie adjusted appropriately.

Perhaps you could have Genie use the drive size as a way to ensure that it is infact seeing a card (4g 8g ect.)

Thanks and look for my order soon...

-filmstox
 
Just a few notes:
- Im very sorry to report that a bug is present in the current build. It only affects the "name & Date" naming scheme, and not "reelname" scheme. The bug shows up VERY rarely and only affects some installations.
Im currently tracking down this bug and will post an update as soon as possible.
The bug is in the date tracking algorithm that reads the date of the lastclip.txt file from the P2 card, and causes P2 genie to break just before it starts to offload. It will NOT cause any data corruption, but causes P2 Genie to stop functioning on rare occations, when in "name & date" mode.

- The card detection algorithm is also going to be improved in the next point update. Currently it detects all devices called noname as P2 cards.

- P2 genie will currently only empty PArtitions called "No Name", so you destination disks will never be affected as long as they are named something else.
I will enhance the detection with a new algorithm in the next version to make it bullit proof. Both destinations are copied the same way, one at a time.
 
Last edited:
Hi.
I had some issues with hostng of the Demo .Zip files on the site.

Tony Lorentzen has stepped up and is now generously hosting it on his servers.

So the demo is now available again....
 
Anders,

I just read about your app and downloaded the trial version. Great app but there's a problem. Maybe it's a bug with the trial version only and you may have already fixed this, but when the drives you are copying to are filled to capacity and you continue to copy using P2 genie, it'll say that the files tranferred successfully when in fact they didn't. You can verify this by using "Apple I" and plainly see that the folder isn't nearly the size it should be. I watch my drive space carefully so I wouldn't run into this problem on purpose, but for those of us who might overlook how much space they have left would continue to copy using the app and unknowingly not have their footage.

Is there any way for you to write into the code a warning about not enough disk drive space to copy over all the data instead of having the app say it copied all the data over successfully when in fact it didn't. Thanks
 
A space meter and fail when the drive is full is already implemented in my development version. This features will be included in version 1.5
 
p2 genie

p2 genie

Dear Anders,

Glad you put thios together. Working on a multicam feature, all P2. Have a few challenges here in addition to data mangement and assembly edits: bwf file conversions, red rocks micro image inversion, and an inexperienced production co. What's new??

yers,
 
Anders:

Last night I used p2 Genie for the first time during a shoot. When I inserted the card, p2 genie read it, showed frames from the video it was importing, then formatted the card. When I looked in the folder where the video should have been, there was nothing. I tried several times, but I couldn't get it to work. When I looked at the space free on the hard drive, it indicated that nothing had been copied. Just thought I'd offer a heads up.

Powerbook 15" 1.5 Ghz, 8 Gig P2 card, 160 G internal drive, 1 Gig ram, os x 10.4.6
 
This sounds very serious!

Can you please send a full report on your setup, settings and procedure to P2genie@andersholck.com

I want to investigate this ASAP!!!

doccutter said:
Anders:

Last night I used p2 Genie for the first time during a shoot. When I inserted the card, p2 genie read it, showed frames from the video it was importing, then formatted the card. When I looked in the folder where the video should have been, there was nothing. I tried several times, but I couldn't get it to work. When I looked at the space free on the hard drive, it indicated that nothing had been copied. Just thought I'd offer a heads up.

Powerbook 15" 1.5 Ghz, 8 Gig P2 card, 160 G internal drive, 1 Gig ram, os x 10.4.6
Click to expand...
 
perfect. I hear the cineporter will be out soon. From what Spec-comm is saying the footage will be recorded in 4GB clips. The HDD is 320GB so imagine how many of those clips will be present for offloading.

Will your app be able to handle the cineporter?

P.S.
Are you creating a P2 Viewer for Mac? there's a missing link.
 
I've been in contact with Andrew over at Spec-Comm and you're right; The CinePorter will mount itself as individual partitions so I don't see any reason why the P2 Genie shouldn't work with the CinePorter... I'm not sure if he's tried the Mac version with the CinePorter yet, though...
 
Tony, I don't think that is correct, from the cineporter faq thread:
"Currently and subject to change, a separate directory is created on the HDD for each 4Gb virtual P2 card. Not a partition with a separate drive letter like on a P2 store, but a uniquely named folder. The camera writes in 4GB chunks and links them together through meta data. You will notice that an 8GB card contains 2 4GB clips even though you were recording continuously. The camera creates a separate clip every time you stop and start as well. We are keeping the naming convention the same as P2 cards for now. "

So only one partition with a folder for every 4 GB
 
Just used P2 Genie for the first time with a half full P2 Store and I must say the SW works great. The copying went extremely fast (faster then doing a straight drag and drop copy) and for the first time I actually got all my files copied without any errors!

This is with a MBP going in USB2 (obviously) and out to a FW800 GRaid. Anyhow thanks Anders I will be sending you some $ here shortly, keep up the good work on this program!
 
Anders Holck said:
Tony, I don't think that is correct, from the cineporter faq thread:
"Currently and subject to change, a separate directory is created on the HDD for each 4Gb virtual P2 card. Not a partition with a separate drive letter like on a P2 store, but a uniquely named folder. The camera writes in 4GB chunks and links them together through meta data. You will notice that an 8GB card contains 2 4GB clips even though you were recording continuously. The camera creates a separate clip every time you stop and start as well. We are keeping the naming convention the same as P2 cards for now. "

So only one partition with a folder for every 4 GB
Click to expand...


so will your app work with the cineporter?
 
Yes, when the cineporter is awailable it will. Currently with the pre-release specs and P2 genie v1.0 it wouldn't work. The Cineporter is slated for a q3 release, around start september.... so there is quite some time for the specs to change and for me to prep the software.
 
thanks for such a great affordable app.

would you ever consider doing a p2 viewer? or integrating Genie with a viewer? something like the OVER priced HD Log, but with your own Genious
 
A small issue has been found in the current build. I have sent out a warning email to my registered users, but I will put it here as well.

It is regarding naming conventions in the projectname, in the destination filepath and the 2'nd destination filepath.
Some characters (non alphabetic and numerals) might cause P2 genie to fail it's copy operation without notice.
If this case is combined with the automatic empty and eject mode, data loss might happen.

So in the current build IT'S VERY IMPORTANT THAT YOU ONLY USE ALPHABETIC AND NUMERALS IN THE PROJECT NAME, IN THE DESTINATION FILE PATH AND I THE 2'ND DESTINATION FILE PATH!

Best Regards
Anders
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top