Intersting

Walter_Graff

Walter_Graff

Carbonite Member
Just found out that you can't simply plug the Panasonic P2 card into any computer. Instead you need the special Panasonic software driver that allows a computer to see the card. This could be a glitch for folks that think they can just give the disks to clients or that they can plug them in anywhere.

This comes from Phil Rhodes hands-on review of the camera for Newsreel magazine. He says they never included the CD with the drivers that he was supposed to get with the camera so it was a problem until they got it.
 
Hmm.... thats very strange, I far as I know, the P2 is nothing more than a PCMCIA housing with 4 SD cards and they conform to the cardbus 32 standard and there sould be no need to install any drivers

But I oculd be wrong its been a long time since I looked up on P2 information.

Anhar Hussain
 
Are you sure Phil Rhodes wasn't using a Mac, I have heard that the drivers in Mac's need to be updated to see P2.
 
That's what I thought but to acces the video you need the driver. Panavision is making a P2 system and they are using their own proprietary version just like Panasonic. From Phil's article:

"A P2 card is, as we know, essentially a PCMCIA flash memory card. PCMCIA
memory cards have been standard for over a decade and can be read
without fuss by practically any computer with a slot the right shape.
Except, that is, if they’re P2 cards. For reasons of its own, Panasonic
has chosen to design P2 cards with a proprietary interface that requires
a software driver to be installed on the host machine.
All this we found because we didn’t receive a P2 driver CD with the
camera we were testing – a glitch, you could say, a simple mistake, but
a good demonstration of a single point of failure, resulting in the
laptop not being able to read the card.

P2 storage does appear to be more expensive than its capacity or mode of
operation would suggest – a 4Gb card is around €1200, whereas a
hypothetical array of four 1Gb compactflash cards would set you back no
more than €300 for similar technology."
 
"P2, which stands for Professional Plug-in, is a compact solid-state memory card designed for professional AV use. Compliant with PC Card standards (Type II), the P2 card plugs directly into the card slot of a laptop PC.*

*The P2 card driver (bundled with all P2 cams, decks and drives) must be installed. "
 
Walter_Graff said:
Just found out that you can't simply plug the Panasonic P2 card into any computer. Instead you need the special Panasonic software driver that allows a computer to see the card. This could be a glitch for folks that think they can just give the disks to clients or that they can plug them in anywhere.
QUOTE]

I hardly think that qualifies as a glitch. Drivers are often required for PC cards that use extra electronics. Since the cards are RAIDed, it's likely the standard PC Card HD driver is not up to task.

If someone bugs Microsoft, a driver could be added to Vista.
Click to expand...
 
I don't see that this should be surprising to anyone! We have known that these are not standard flash cards or we could use whats on the market currently, so why would anyone think it would not require a driver? Secondly I'd be very disappointed if you didn't need a driver, because that would mean the memory wasn't optimized for the single task of HD video files.
 
For one, externally ( ie towards the PC) the card uses FAT32, for compatibilty. Internally, the card uses a higher level storage system, to take advantage of the higher speed, raid, size-limitations,...
Part of this might be handled by the driver.

Anyway, I don't think it's a good idea handing a $2K card to someone, and asking them to return it 'in a week or two'.
 
I don't think drivers will be a major issue, they'll probably be on the Pany website.

However, if P2 is not compatible with Apple, that is. I think someone at IBC said that Apple may have solved that problem... I hope so.
 
Phil Rhodes has been essentially negative in everything he's ever said related to the HVX. I wouldn't let his opinions sway you.

From what I've heard, the "driver issue" is confined to Macs only, but with three months until the camera comes out, I'm sure they're working on a viable solution.
 
You MUST install drivers on your pc in order to use P2 anything (card, drive, camera. deck). Driver comes with the hardware, so there's no issue.
 
Maybe not for you guys but there is in the pro world and maybe that was why I was concerned. Called my friend at a P2 station today and asked what kinds of trouble they have. He said they have been shooting with it for 3 months. Once or twice folks said they were given P2s that were supposed to have something on them, they had time-code and nothing else. I said maybe they were blank and wiped. He said no something happened. And without me asking he said that they have lots of trouble using Laptops with them because everyone (Panasonic/Avid, etc) has their own proprietary stuff going on and the cards cause trouble when trying to use various systems. Means nothing to the folks here but glad I looked into it. Hopefully someone will agree to agree and everyone will talk universally if P2 ever takes off outside of some of the news stations that use it.
 
Personally I find P2 the least appealling thing about the HVX... oh and the bread loaf made of lead design.
 
A Sad but true fact is the Sex Appeal built into cameras (Canon has sex appeal). Of course in the long run we all know the guts are what work but still; I wish Panasonic took the time to care what the HVX looked like (And the DVX for that matter).

I'm excited about Solid State technology in the digital filmmaking world but am not ready for it personally; I'm not gonna die here.
 
I'm not sure if the Canon actually appeals to me sexually, but hey, whatever does it for you! :thumbsup:

Image is crucial in marketing, that's for sure! The HVX looks like the fat kid at school who did his all his homework and had twice as many colouring pencils as everyone else, but when it came to sports, he always had a sick note.
 
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