Help help help please

indybones

indybones

Well-known member
Hi Guys,

I could really do with some help here please.

I have been using A series P2 card for over a year now on HVX-200 E.
Recently got an E series 32 GB card.
I shot about 35 minutes on the E series yesterday everything was fine,
dumped it into FCP ok.

Went on another shoot today, I got about 35 clips altogether on the E series,
the 1st 11 clips worked fine, then when I got to import into FCP from the 12th image down to 35 every clip is distorted with pixels, please see image below.
The squares last for about 3 seconds then disappear, then come back about 3 seconds later, then go.
When I look at the playback of the clips on the camera I can see this problme as well.



I have pressed the reset button.
I have recorded new clips (test) onto my A series card.
I have taken the battery out and used the panasonic power supply.
I have switched between tape and P2, tried on 720PN, the image above was 1080 HD.
I have done a quick test recording to tape SD and it seems to be working fine, its only in HD that this happens.

Any ideas thank you for your time and help.

Indy
 
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It really sounds like the card is bad (especially since you see this when playing back in-camera) and you probably will not be able to recover the footage intact. Sorry.
 
I'll bet you dimes to doughnuts that there's nothing wrong with your card. Play the footage back from the card and I bet you it's fine. The problem looks like the infamous "glitch" that happens when transferring the footage to a Mac, especially when using an external firewire drive. Search for "glitch" and you should find many threads on it. If you're using log 'n' transfer right from the card, this'll happen. If you are using an external firewire drive, this can happen. If you're using drag 'n' drop to offload the cards, this can happen. 99% of Mac users never have a problem, but when they do, it looks like this.

Use P2CMS to do a bit-for-bit verified copy and it should put an end to the problem.
 
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Barry_Green said:
I'll bet you dimes to doughnuts that there's nothing wrong with your card. Play the footage back from the card and I bet you it's fine. The problem looks like the infamous "glitch" that happens when transferring the footage to a Mac, especially when using an external firewire drive. Search for "glitch" and you should find many threads on it. If you're using log 'n' transfer right from the card, this'll happen. If you are using an external firewire drive, this can happen. If you're using drag 'n' drop to offload the cards, this can happen. 99% of Mac users never have a problem, but when they do, it looks like this.

Use P2CMS to do a bit-for-bit verified copy and it should put an end to the problem.
Click to expand...

Hi guys and thank you for your very speedy replies. I forgot to say
ay that I am using a WD 1 terabyte external harddrive.
I'll search for glitch and this p2cms is that a free software.
Oh and when. I imported I went to import Panasonic p2

Thank you

Ps I forgot to say that it happens on the a series card aswell, even when I reformat it, just searched for the glitch and couldn't really find much.
 
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WD as in a WD self-contained external drive that you got from frys or best buy or office depot?

as much as i hate broad strokes of accusations. WD external drives are second only to LaCie in frequency of corrupting data.
 
wgzn said:
WD as in a WD self-contained external drive that you got from frys or best buy or office depot?

as much as i hate broad strokes of accusations. WD external drives are second only to LaCie in frequency of corrupting data.
Click to expand...

Not to hijak this thread but, I've used WD hard drives (internal and external) for years and have had NO problems with them.
 
Western digital external hardrive, but like say if I only put my a series card in, format it, record some footage then play it back to view on the camera the same thing happens, thats with no firewire connection or anything plugged in only running with battery.
 
I dunno... shoot some footage, and play it back in camera. Don't remove the card, don't let the Mac even look at it, just shoot it and play it back, and see if you encounter any glitching in the footage whatsoever. I would be floored if you did.

I still say it's the Mac computer transfer that's causing the problem. It's been the answer every single time we've encountered this issue.

After you shoot footage, write-protect the card before the computer ever gets a chance to look at it. Then transfer it, and don't erase the card! See if any clips on the computer have the glitches. If they do, go back to the camera and play the original clip that's still on the card. Dimes and doughnuts, there won't be any glitches there.

When transferring the footage over, use P2CMS and make certain to choose the data verification copy mode.
 
If the problem is consistently at the same points in the footage, and it will not play from the card properly in the camera (not from some external device), it's more than likely that the memory chips are toast.
 
Barry_Green said:
I still say it's the Mac computer transfer that's causing the problem. It's been the answer every single time we've encountered this issue.

After you shoot footage, write-protect the card before the computer ever gets a chance to look at it...
Click to expand...

Does a Mac write back to the card, when merely transferring footage??? If so, there's a bona fide reason to favor PCs for editing if you have a P2 camera! (That's sort of a really bad thingy - a built in virus of sorts!)
 
Yes, agreed entirely. I just question whether that's the case. I've never, in four years of usage, heard of a P2 card failing after it's worked. I've heard of one case of an initial failure, the card was dead on arrival, but not from one that behaves the way indybones is describing. I have, however, heard of many, many cases of exactly this happening to footage that's been transferred on a Mac.

So that's why I say a controlled test should be conducted -- start from scratch. Shoot new footage, then write-protect the card (because Macs write files onto a card when it's mounted to the desktop, and we've previously identified that as being the primary factor in causing "the glitch", and people who have write-protected their cards before ever letting the computer see the card subsequently report that "the glitch" goes away). I fear indybones' current footage on that card may already have been compromised. So I'm saying a new test would determine whether the card bears any fault or not. Format the card, shoot new footage, and write-protect the card. Then follow the rest of the workflow as normal. If indeed new clips end up with glitches, you can then compare against the footage that's still on the card. And I am willing to bet a box of Krispy Kremes that in that scenario, indybones will find that the footage on the card plays back perfectly well from the camera onto its own LCD, whereas the footage on the computer may be glitchy.

And if that's the case, there's an ironclad guarantee that there's nothing wrong with the card at all. It's important to narrow down where the problem is occurring.

And if people still think it's the card, I'll be willing to buy that card right now for $50 cash. Because a glitchy card shouldn't be worth ten cents, but I'm very confident that the card is not the issue.
 
Robert M Wright said:
Does a Mac write back to the card, when merely transferring footage???
Click to expand...
Yes. If the card is not write-protected, the Mac will write some files onto it, I believe it has something to do with Spotlight indexing; it writes a "trashes" folder and some other files. That's why for years we've been telling Mac users that the very first thing they must do is write-protect the cards immediately, before ever letting the computer see it.
 
If the Mac overwrites data on an SDHC card properly formatted to SDHC specs, when doing it's thingy, that's a genuine bug (a rather serious one), and Apple should feel obligated to fix it ASAP.

If somehow, merely adding files to the card somehow results in corrupted playback, Panasonic should feel obligated to remedy the problem ASAP, with at least a recovery utility if nothing else.
 
That's why for years we've been telling Mac users that the very first thing they must do is write-protect the cards immediately, before ever letting the computer see it.
Click to expand...
i hate, hate, hate to sound like a broken record. but since you guys keep bringing it up - i feel compelled

i have NEVER ever write protected a card. and in 3 years of P2/mac use, ive never had even a hint of problem. i wonder if you guys arent creating your own problems...? im not saying that you are. just presenting my own experience...
 
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People who have had the problem, and who have started write-protecting their cards, have reported that the problems stop.

To me that points to there being perhaps something else wrong, and that write-protecting does prevent it, but you must be doing something differently than they are. Whether that's as simple as offloading from a P2 slot instead of a Duel, or from a USB Device instead of a Firewire Device, or into an internal drive instead of to an external drive, or whether your external drive is a 1394 firewire drive or USB or e-Sata... as far as I know, nobody has ever gone through and done an exhaustive scientific evaluation to find out where exactly the problem is and eliminate it.

But write-protecting is advice that has worked for others who do have the problem.
 
reformat card, record and play new footage on card from in camera with out any connections...Yep still has the problem with out connecting to anything. Thats the new e-series card

I also reformatted an A-series card which has been fine for the last year and a half and now the same thing happens on that card.
Everything seems fine when recording to SD tape.

By write protecting are you saying the little tab on the side of the card, just flip it to save ( i think it is )?

P2CMS I'll try that again....

Thanks again guys for your help and advice.
 
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I also reformatted an A-series card which has been fine for the last year and a half and now the same thing happens on that card.
Everything seems fine when recording to SD tape.
 
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