Importing P2 Files

iDV8

iDV8

Well-known member
For some reason when I try to access my Avid Express Pro help it freezes up and is no help at all. Hence my seemingly dumb question.

I am trying to to import my footage from my new 16GB P2 card and another hard drive that it was saved to.

When I go to "Import P2" "Clips to bin..." and locate the files it says it doesn't recognize the file types. I've never imported these files before, can some one give me a walk through or refer me to something online?

I appreciate the help.
 
When you go through the "Import P2 > Clips to Bin" process, be sure to select the FOLDER that contains the CONTENTS folder and all the media underneath. You don't actually select the clips themselves. The application will look into that containing folder and import the master clips.

Let's say your client is ABC Company, and you shot 4 cards full of material that you offload on to a hard drive. What I'd do is create a folder at the root of the drive called 'ABC Company', and then create folders inside that one to contain each P2 card's contents. Usually, I'd do something like 'P2_091807_01', 'P2_091807_02', and so on. Each of those folders will hold the CONTENTS folder and the LASTCLIP.TXT file from each respective P2 card offload. In the Avid, in the "Import P2" dialog, you'd select each folder called 'P2_091807_0x'. The Avid will dig into those folders and import the clips.

Seems like a few steps, but it helps with organization and is actually a pretty smooth process once you get used to it. Hope that helps/works!
 
Wow, it didn't even take a second to import! Thanks a lot cbrougham!!!!!!!

And that is good advice with the content folders. I can see things getting messy real quick and taking the time to put it in order would pay off.

Again, thanks! You saved the day.
 
Glad to help!

One caveat: when you close the Avid, clips that you imported using "Import P2 > Clips to Bin" will go offline. When relaunching the software, all your clips will show as "Media Offline". Kind of a weird issue I hope that Avid finds a better solution for, but in the meantime, follow up the "Clips to Bin" process like this:

After all your masterclips show in the bin (remember that masterclips are just pointers to the media files, and at this stage in the game, the media clips are on your offload drive or P2 card), select all of them. Next, go back to "Import P2", but this time, select "Media". This essentially conducts a consolidate process that copies the media from the original source (ie. your offload drive) to your editing/media drive. The masterclips will then be relinked to those copied files, and all will be right with the world when you exit and restart the application.

NOTE: this process will take SIGNIFICANTLY longer than "Clips to Bin", because media is actually being copied from one drive to another. Depending on how much media you have, it might be a good thing to start right before your lunch break ;)
 
I was just wondering about that and thought I'd see if you could read minds... It turns out you are very good at it.

Thanks again!
 
What can I say? It's a gift :D

If you've got any other questions, post back here, and I'll see if I can help. Have fun!
 
Yeah I noticed that my clips went offline on a project I was working on last week. Freaked me out, they went offline right when I opened Avid to export files. I re-imported P2 clips to bin, and it made duplicate pointers in the bin, but it re linked to all of the clips in the timeline without having to rename or anything.

also, the scanning and indexing of media drives finally cleared up and stopped doing it
 
Sweet, dude. I wondered where you were with that. Glad to hear it's operating well for you.

The Avid is generally pretty good about relinking files. Sometimes it just needs to be... "reminded"...
 
So tell me what I'm doing wrong here.

I took some shots and simply copied them to a second hard drive on my computer and then tried to import clips to bin but it says "no clips were found." It scans and imports when it's from the P2 card, external HD I attached and even a memory stick. So what am I doing wrong by just copying files to my computers hard drives?
 
Oh it only works sometimes, didnt you read that in the Avid fine print?

jk, I can't get P2 files to import that were copied onto HD from DVD data disks, avid says no clips were found. Still working on a solution, i think its an avid problem
 
I found that the work flow that CB mentioned works sometimes because now when I go to import p2 and select media nothing happens but my last project worked and copied everything over to the 1 folder on the root drive like its supposed to.
 
import-p2-media

import-p2-media

once you go through the steps of importing p2 clips to the bin, then importing p2 media so that it doesnt offline your files, can you then delete the original p2 card data? (while holding onto optical backup discs just in case) i remember final cut doing something similar when importing p2 data; it transcoded the mxf files into dvcprohd quicktime files. at that point the original mxf's were basically just taking up space.
 
Hey CB,

I'm having the same problem somewhat.

I shot an event yesterday, and offloaded through a new laptop, loaded with the P2 drivers. All media was going to a new drive.

Everytime I dragged and dropped, Contents, and Last Clip, I renamed the Contents folder once it was done, "xxx.1", "xxx.2", and so forth.

All the media is sitting there--when I open the drive, I see the folders I named, then within those, Audio Video Proxy....etc., but it's not structured the way Avid wants it, at least compared to other projects that I'm looking at. I had this problem before, and I recall you helped a bit, but the steps I'm taking don't seem to be working.

As I recall, don't I have to create a folder in my new drive, called Avid MediaFiles? Then a folder within that called, "MXF", then a folder, "1"????

I've tried that, dragged and dropped, along with copying the Avid msm icons that are in other drives, but still no luck. I'm guessing that since Avid didn't create the file structure when I initially copied over, that it's having trouble seeing the media.

Any suggestions?
 
BradFu,

You don't want to rename the CONTENTS folders. Instead, make new folders named however you'd like, and place each CONTENTS folder collection and LASTCLIP.TXT file inside those. If you're using v5.7.x of Avid and the Import P2 command, then I'm pretty sure you need to construct the folder hierarchy this way. However, if you plan to just drag and drop the MXF video and audio files into an AvidMediafiles/MXF/# folder, then it probably doesn't matter if you keep the original P2 folder structure--but it'll make rebuilding your project later a bit of a pain. I don't think there's any need to ever use this method of using P2 media any longer now that the Import P2 command is available.

Do you have a separate drive that you're using as an offload drive and one that you're using as a media drive for your Avid? I guess that's the first question to answer...
 
Heya!

Sorry to drop out of communication there, CB.

You pretty much nailed it: out in the field, as I would drag/drop each Contents and Last Clip.txt, I would be asked the usual, "This file already exists. etc. etc.", so I thought that I would just rename it right then and there. Well, sure enough, that wasn't the best idea, and it bit me in the ass later. I've read through these boards hundreds of times, but until you're in the pressure situation, I guess I just did whatever worked at the time so I could get back to shooting. I knew that I was somewhat safe since I could see the actual files, but for organizational purposes, I didn't do things so great.

In either case, this past weekend, after posting my call for help, I let the caffeine wear out, calmed down, and slowly read the sticky at the top of this board posted by DC. I created the necessary folders in my external drive, and dragged the video and audio only, then Avid recognized everything just fine.

A little stressful, but a good experience. I gotta tell you, copying the files in the field, then wiping that card clean knowing you're blowing away all that footage was hard the first time! Now that I'm editing though, I don't think I ever want to go back to tape.

Now the next part: upgrading my whole system to output a BluRay dvd.

Cheers,

-bfu
 
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