Downloading questions for an older computer

2

2000lux

Member
I'm renting an HVX for a shoot this tomorrow. I've never had to deal with the joys of data transferring. I was wondering if you guys would answer a few questions?

1. Will my Powerbook G4 be able to handle the data transfer? It does have a port for the P2 cards. I want to put the data on an external hard drive, may be two.

2. I hear there is a program on the Panasonic site one can download to look at the clips with out having to open them in FCP or whatever. What's it called? Will it work on my computer? I was told FCP 5.14 should be able to view the clips.

4. If I record in 720P 24P Native, will my client have any trouble with the footage when they load it on to a 29.97 frame time line? Will it be sped up, or will FCP fill in the pull down frames? Should I shoot it in regular 24P?

5. If I'm shooting at 720P N, how many minutes per Gig should I get? The camera came with two 8 GB cards. I rented a 32 GB card just to be safe.

6. If one card fills up and the camera starts recording on the second card, will that create any problems? Do I need to stop the camera and start again on the second card? I know it's supposed to be seamless. However, a friend said she had some issues with this last year, getting the two to marry. Will the camera tell me when the card is just about full so I can stop it and start recording on the next card?

7. The slot on my G4 Powerbook does not seem to read the cards. Why and how do I fix it?

Bonus question: If I was to shoot with an EX 1/3, is there an adapter I could use with my computer so I don't have to buy a new computer?

I have a sinking feeling that if I want to shoot HD, I'm going to have to buy a new computer even though this one is otherwise perfectly good.
 
Steve Smull from this site gave me a link to a driver program from Panasonic. Now my port works. Hooray! THANK YOU!!!!

Every thing seems to be working now which is such a relief!

As I get more in to HD, I will most likely have to invest in a new computer. Hopefully I can hold that off for a little while though.
 
1. Will my Powerbook G4 be able to handle the data transfer? It does have a port for the P2 cards. I want to put the data on an external hard drive, may be two.
Should be fine. Firewire or USB, though I recommend firewire. You can use ShotputPro to offload the data onto up to three drives at a time from a single card, which is nice for redundancy sake. You can also do it manually, but I haven't heard any complaints from ShotputPro users.

4. If I record in 720P 24P Native, will my client have any trouble with the footage when they load it on to a 29.97 frame time line? Will it be sped up, or will FCP fill in the pull down frames? Should I shoot it in regular 24P?

Why would they put it onto a timeline like that? If they want 29.97, perhaps you should just shoot at that framerate? If your concern is transfering to SD, thats a different story, but typically, in my experience, people handling post that know what they are doing tend to complicate as minimally as possible, likewise with the production crew. I would check into that, see if your editor or director for that matter wants it 29.97 or 24.

5. If I'm shooting at 720P N, how many minutes per Gig should I get? The camera came with two 8 GB cards. I rented a 32 GB card just to be safe.

720pNative will give you about runs at a bitrate of 40Mb/second, so you can get approximately 20 minutes on a single 8 gig card, and 80 minutes (1 hour 20min) on a 32 gig card... UNTIL you overcrank or undercrank, that changes the framerate, and therefore changes the amount of record time.

6. If one card fills up and the camera starts recording on the second card, will that create any problems? Do I need to stop the camera and start again on the second card? I know it's supposed to be seamless. However, a friend said she had some issues with this last year, getting the two to marry. Will the camera tell me when the card is just about full so I can stop it and start recording on the next card?

Test it out. I haven't had issue, but if you know people who have, then take a day before the shoot (preferably more than a day before the shoot to give yourself time to work problems out), and do a full run through to be sure everything works smoothly. If it turns out it is an issue, depending on what you are shooting, you can schedule in breaks when you need to stop rolling and switch cards.

I have a sinking feeling that if I want to shoot HD, I'm going to have to buy a new computer even though this one is otherwise perfectly good.

Shooting isn't the issue, though if you want to edit comfortably and at visible ease, you may prefer to upgrade.
 
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