Let's solve this glitch once and for all

Segarza said:
If you get hit by it, you have to reimport it from the P2 card right? However by then you've probably formatted the card.
Right. Which is why I strongly encourage everyone to scream and yell and fill out the feedback form, to get this stupid thing FIXED.

And until it is fixed, I think you're just much safer using a PC to offload the footage. The PC works. You can still edit in FCP to your heart's content, just offload using a PC to an external FAT32 drive. That will be completely reliable.

Short of that, if importing the footage on a Mac, you have to use the "disk image" process instead of just importing straight from the card. The "disk image" gives some manner of CRC protection against failed imports, and it does a sector-by-sector copy so it should be more reliable than a direct import is.
 
Apple's workflow tells you to make a DMG image from the P2 card. You then back that up to HD and DVD and then import. If you have a problem, reimport from the dmg.

That being said, I have had 2 DMG's get corrupted and lost 8 gigs of shots on my feature. Back up a copy before importing to FINAL cut if you can.
 
BenB said:
Once again, PLEASE everyone fill out the FCP Feedback Page! The more of you who fill it out about this speicfic problem, the faster it gets fixed!

http://www.apple.com/feedback/finalcutpro.html


How about putting the text we should send here, like this we can copy, paste and send them a unified clear message in stead of tens of random queries regarding some problem. Would make it easier toto us less tech oriented fellows and would be an extra incentive to fill out the form.

Just a suggestion of course.
 
Ok, one last time, the .DMG method never worked, period. Apple, I think, came up with that to buy time. I doesn't work. I find MORE problems using that method than a simple import. Extra bit parity protection? Yes. But that obviously does not translate into more reliable P2 import.

Case in point. Use the .DMG method, files won't import. Straight copy, files won't import. Use P2 Log, files won't import. Re-copy to my local hard drive (umteen times), everything works.

So no, IMHO, the .DMG method is a smoke screen...

HVX2006 said:
How about putting the text we should send here, like this we can copy, paste and send them a unified clear message in stead of tens of random queries regarding some problem.

No, then they see it as a copy and paste campaign. It has to be in everyone's specific words. What you did, what didn't work, what happened to you specifically.

Copy and paste will not communicate all the details that are unique to each situation that may provide clues. I used to be an IT Engineer, worked for several software companies, and if we got the same verbatim complaint, we ignored it as a slander campaign.

Hope that makes sense. It's both political, and more importantly, practical. Everyone needs to send in their version of FCP, hardware set up, specifics about their experience, in order for the software engineers at Apple (who I'll now say are some of the best there are) to really understand and figure out a fix.

I'm solid in my belief that Apple knows and is working on it. In that same breath, they need to know each and ever one of your individual stories to get to the real meat and potatoes of this problem.

A standard "It doesn't work right" copy and paste submission won't give them the vital data needed to create a fix.

Think of it this way; we're not forcing Apple to do something, as I'm sure they already are. We're HELPING them to figure it out and fix it with our individual, unique, feed back submissions.
 
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At the risk of constant repetition, files which refused to import in FCP 5.1.2 imported fine in 5.1.1.

Ned
 
thanks everyone for the board, post etc..and hopefully apple/panasonic will feel the sense of urgency that we do through feedback.

would we be able to avoid buying a pc if we have one of the intel core 2 duo macs that can reboot and run windows natively? if we run the cpu booted as a pc with windows os and then use the p2 viewer software are our problems solved or would that still not work? anyway since i have this new cpu and dropped 3 grand on it i want to explore all options..
 
My problem was in Final Cut 5.04

EDIT- Sent my feedback. Hope it helps...(we did got 720p25 in FCP with our feedback, so its worth a try!)
 
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berserkerfilms said:
would we be able to avoid buying a pc if we have one of the intel core 2 duo macs that can reboot and run windows natively?
Maybe. It depends on how you plan to offload the card. If you want to use the camera as a card reader, I would trust a Bootcamp WinXP Mac attached to an HVX through USB a whole lot more than I would trust a G4 Powerbook reading the card right in the slot.

But that means tying up the camcorder as a card reader, which is usually not desirable.

If you're using the P2 Store, I'd also think you'd find it much more pleasant to use the WinXP BootCamp module of the Mac rather than OSX, as you'll get rock-solid transfers with no "disappearing volumes" and you won't see 15 "no name" volumes sprayed across your desktop.

But if you want to import the card directly, there's currently no way to do that on a Macbook Pro. Eventually there'll be an adapter for the expresscard slot. Right now the only way to import a card directly would be to use the P2 Store as a pass-thru slot, or get one of the $2,000 external 5-slot readers. Either way looks prohibitively expensive when contrasted against the $500 PC laptop.
 
Regardless of Apple being the actual programmer for Panasonic's P2 drivers.. shouldn't we be sending feedback to Panasonic? Apparently it's not a FCP problem, but a driver problem... Panasonic is free to choose who codes the drivers, but eventually they're responsible for the drivers functioning properly.
 
Nope... it is an Apple problem. You might contend that if Panasonic hears from enough users they will goad Apple into responding, however, we still don't know for certain that Apple isn't responding. I know that Apple is aware and that means they are testing and troubleshooting. The only question is when and how they respond.

Ned Soltz
 
Mmm still don't understand how it's an Apple problem. If we agree it's the drivers...it's a Panasonic problem. If it's both the drivers and fcp, it's both Panasonic and Apple's problem.
 
That's completely clear to me, but who delivers/offers the drivers? CCDs in the camera for example, are most probably not manufactured by Panasonic, however if there's aproblem with them, do you take it with the CCD manufacturer or Panasonic?
 
If Panasonic offers P2 drivers for mac or integration of its P2 product line in a mac environment, the consumer could care less who coded the software/driver, from the consumer's standpoint it's Panasonic's responsibility to stand by their statements/offer.
 
But you're missing the point. Panasonic cannot fix it. Apple wrote the code, Apple has to fix it. You can point the finger of blame at whoever you want, but that's just finger-pointing. If you want a problem fixed, you have to go to the person who can fix it.

Only Apple can fix it. They wrote the software, they need to correct the bugs. They are the only ones who can.

Let's put it a different way -- say Brother introduces a new printer. They need a driver. They hire some company to write a driver for them, for Windows. Let's say there's an incompatibility. Do we blame Windows? Of course not -- Brother screams at the company that wrote the driver, and that company has to fix it.

But now let's look at this circumstance -- Panasonic introduces this P2 product, and they hire Apple to write the driver. So who is responsible for fixing it? Apple wrote the operating system, and Apple wrote the driver. What can Panasonic do? They can scream at the company that wrote the driver (which is Apple, of course) but the ultimate responsibility to fix it is squarely, firmly, and solely on Apple's shoulders. Nobody else CAN fix it. There's nobody else in the loop. The circle of blame starts with, ends with, and consists entirely of, Apple's software department who wrote the driver.
 
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I completely agree with you Barry. Ultimately it will be Apple's programmers who'll solve the problem. No doubt about that. However we didn't hire Apple for the job. So we must recognize it's Panasonic's job to scream at Apple and ours to scream at Panasonic. We can hold Panasonic responsible, and Panasonic can hold Apple responsible. What I really don't get is that we're sending feedback to a FCP support page that has absolutely nothing to do with the driver. The way I see things is that we bought the cam from Panasonic not from Apple. And the cam's workflow is not performing like advertised. Don't get me wrong, I know the bugs are ultimately Apple's fault, but don't you think Panasonic can do a better job of putting pressure on them? Are they? I don't know, all I know is that we should be putting pressure on Panasonic.
 
We should ask ourselves this, where are we going to see the new driver/solution posted? Apple's Downloads? or Panasonic support site? My bets are on the latter.
 
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