importing to mac and FCP7 questions

J

justaddcoffee

Member
wow, i really feel like i'm doing this the long way, maybe because my last station shot in quicktime native, but how long do you spend moving video off of the HPX500?

here's my work flow:

- shot 20 minutes of 720/60

- used P2CMS to ingest video via firewire into macbook pro (25+ minutes)

- used "log and transfer" to bring video from file into FCP7 (15 minutes)

- rename and batch export clips in quicktime mov format (20 minutes)

so essentially, before i can really start editing, i have to spend an hour getting the video ready to edit. am i doing this the hard way? is there a faster way to convert P2 into quicktime? dear god, if i was in the field with a 5pm live shot, this would kill me. and i have a two corporate shoots coming up that will generate a minimum of 2 hours of video each. based on my rough calculations, this will take about 6 hours each time. that's bloody brutal!

also, when i done ingesting the video from the camera and close P2CMS, the no name video cards cannot be ejected from the desktop. even after the camera is turned off, the icons will not go away. is there a more effective way to eject the camera and cards than dragging it to the trash can? and right-click/eject doesn't work either.

thanks for the help!

-scott.
 
- rename and batch export clips in quicktime mov format (20 minutes)
What is this part?Use a USB card reader to speed up the P2CMS ingest.
L&T into FCP name your clips @ this point and start editing.
 
Write protect your p2 cards.

Use Panasonic's USB card reader to mount on the desktop.

Ingest your cards using and log and transfer. My l/t occurs 2x to 4x real time.

If you want a backup the card, copy it to your back up drives.

A 16GB card take about 10 minutes.
 
videoatlanta said:
- rename and batch export clips in quicktime mov format (20 minutes)
What is this part?Use a USB card reader to speed up the P2CMS ingest.
L&T into FCP name your clips @ this point and start editing.
Click to expand...


i store all my clips as stand-alone quicktime .mov so they are able to FTP'd or handed off to other people who may not have any DVC/P2 compatible players. they're also easier for me to move around when i don't need to think about panasonic video/audio/clip/file/data/text tree structure, just too easy to screw up.
 
L&T converts everything to standalone QT files in the Capture Scratch, usable for FTP. Skip steps #2 and #4 and see how it goes.
 
I have built MAC pro systems for the government. I usually install Raylight for FCP P2 workflow. Once you drag over the Contents folder from the P2 to a folder on your Mac harddrive, you open Raylight and mark the folder where the new P2 contents are. It just rewraps the P2 video. You then just place the files in your bin and edit.

Now, saying that, I also pop in Bootcamp and show them a demo of GrassValley Edius, which is realtime. I hook up the HPX500 with P2 cards via USB, and using Edius and their P2 select, import directly to the Edius bin and edit right away. Takes about 10 sec to start editing. Yes, I can edit while Edius is still moving all the files to the Mac,s harddrive. Now, if that isn't the fastest, I don't what else would be faster. Even ABC news stations with P2 cameras have bought 100's of boxes of Edius, because it's just really fast, and no rendering. I shot a VNR (Video News Release) last month, and it saved my a**. I had to have the VNR uploaded to the FTP site for the evening news. They got a free demo.

JohnnyD
 
Last edited:
JohnnyD said:
I have built MAC pro systems for the government.
Now, saying that, I also pop in Bootcamp and show them a demo of GrassValley Edius, which is realtime. I hook up the HPX500 with P2 cards via USB, and using Edius and their P2 select, import directly to the Edius bin and edit right away. Takes about 10 sec to start editing. Yes, I can edit while Edius is still moving all the files to the Mac,s harddrive. Now, if that isn't the fastest, I don't what else would be faster. Even ABC news stations with P2 cameras have bought 100's of boxes of Edius, because it's just really fast, and no rendering. I shot a VNR (Video News Release) last month, and it saved my a**. I had to have the VNR uploaded to the FTP site for the evening news. They got a free demo.

JohnnyD
Click to expand...

Hi JohnnyD,
For News in the field I use a latest 2011 Mac lappie 2.3 quad core with FCP 7, most news roughs are 15-20mins total, that takes but a few mins to ingest ie about 6mins with the pana USB reader,
keeping the camera free can be vital on some jobs.
edit time is your choice and FTP encode time (3x realtime), I suppose Edius would save some time, but for me Bootcamp was very troublesome, so I deleted it.
I'll give Edius trial a spin on my backup windows/hackintosh box.

cheers
Tom 4
olinevideo.com.au
 
Update,

I downloaded the Edius Trial, 330mb, went to install on my windows computer, install locked up 2 mins in, so did a force quit,
I'll not persist with Edius, if it can't do a simple install it most likely won't work well either. we say downunder "if something begins badly, it only gets worse from there"
Back to trusty old FCP.

Tom 4
olinevideo.com.au
 
Will gee, I had the same problem with one of my FCP installs, but I found a way to make it work. If ABC doesn't have a problem with installing Edius, but you do, well I guess amateurs like you should stick to simple things.

JohnnyD


Tom 4 said:
Update,

I downloaded the Edius Trial, 330mb, went to install on my windows computer, install locked up 2 mins in, so did a force quit,
I'll not persist with Edius, if it can't do a simple install it most likely won't work well either. we say downunder "if something begins badly, it only gets worse from there"
Back to trusty old FCP.

Tom 4
olinevideo.com.au
Click to expand...
 
my ABC station went with JVC cameras because they shoot quicktime native in neatly self-contained wrappers. depending on the camera you had, we either dumped video from the firestore or just pulled out the SD cards and offloaded into the mac. worked great with final cut. only down time was the 6-7 minutes it took to load onto the laptop, and even then if you were on SD cards, no worries because the camera had two slots. it was fast. now, for the record, the JVC cameras were not the best. 1/3" CCDs and 4:2:0 color, but whatever,... i really wanted to get back to a 2/3" camera so P2 HPX-500 was the only sensible option. the picture is great. i just feel like panasonic quit trying to make user friendly camera in about 2003. even the P2 Content Management System is so not intuitive or flexible. anyway, i'm just bitching now.

i'll check out Raylight. if it can cut transfer time in half, i'll be grateful. i have two shoots coming up that will each require converting over 2 hours of video.

thanks! :)
 
JohnnyD said:
Will gee, I had the same problem with one of my FCP installs, but I found a way to make it work. If ABC doesn't have a problem with installing Edius, but you do, well I guess amateurs like you should stick to simple things.

JohnnyD
Click to expand...

Thanks JohnnyD,
my "simple things" have seen me work successfully full time with-in this ever changing industry since the early 80's, my first and second platforms were Avid's
Mac & Windows NT, Then Media 100 , Then FCP since , and have gone thru a load of camears etc as well.
thank you for your kind words and insights on behalf of all us Full time "amateurs" on this forum.

Cheers
Tom 4
 
Last edited:
well, i tried the raylight demo program. it looked nice but didn't find any of my mounted P2 cards. however, in frustration, it was nice to see that apple is at least trying to make life a little easier. final cut had no problem recognizing my P2 cards (write-protected) and the log and transfer function happens to create .mov of the P2 files and stash them in the capture scratch. it's about all the excitement i can handle right now.
 
Tom 4 said:
Thanks JohnnyD,
my "simple things" have seen me work successfully full time with-in this ever changing industry since the early 80's, my first and second platforms were Avid's
Mac & Windows NT, Then Media 100 , Then FCP since , and have gone thru a load of camears etc as well.
thank you for your kind words and insights on behalf of all us Full time "amateurs" on this forum.

Cheers
Tom 4
Click to expand...

I wasn't going to reply, but thought I'd give it one more. You can't be a quitter in business, ,,or in life. If things don't go right, you CAN'T quit trying. I'm lucky that I was building kit electronics in the 60's. Was an audio engineer at 14, recording everything that I possibly could. I learned how to repair equipment and cars. It wasn't easy. I had to learn how to repair and fix the problems. When computers arrived, I started to build and trouble shoot my own systems. In today's world, you do not only have to be a shooter and editor, but a tech as well. I know some great editors, but will call me for help, because they don't know anything about electronics or computers.

Now, with the HUGE data base of information on the web, I can't see how anyone can't get help for a problem. Forums are great for help. Here's a guy, that is a wizard of video, that lives downunder http://www.videoproductions.com.au/ Ask him for help. He is a Edius guru. Anton is a leader in N.L.E. We used to be in a forum for SpeedRazor editing sofware. Heh, that was a Great editor. I've used them all also. Been editing since 1976. Started on Convergence, GrassValley,etc.

Regards, JohnnyD
 
After P2CMS is done with the transfer Quit P2CMS and then drag the card from the desktop to the trash. This will eject the card/unmount. Then power down the cam.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top