FS-100 Work Flow with MacBook

[Margie Smith]

We would like to dump the HD content of our FS-100 Firestore onto an an external 7200 RPM hard drive via MacBook so that we can expand record time while on the road without access to an edit room. We would like to have playback capability in the field via the hard drive. We are in the process of setting ourselves up with P2-awaiting delivery of a G5 with FCP for in house. This is new technology for us and our first experience with Mac.

Is anybody else handling their work flow this way? What is the smallest MacBook that will handle the job? The smaller (13") MacBook evidently does not have a graphics processor that will work with FCP. What other software will playback P2 files? We'd like to avoid purchasing a more expensive MacBook Pro if possible.

 

[bbalser]

I'm doing this for a large documentary project. Get the 17" MacBook or 17" Powerbook.

Be sure you're running FCP 5.1.1.

It's very simple, you plug the FS-100 into your laptop, you plug your media hard drive into your laptop. You copy the CONTENTS folder and LASTCLIP.TXT file onto your media hard drive (in a folder named something appropriate).

Simple as that.

OR, open FCP on the laptop and set the media drive as the scratch disk, then simply use the Import Panasonic P2 option in FCP to ingest the footage as QT files ready to edit.