Mac/Raylight Workflow

[G-Man]

Okay, after about a year of deliberation, I finally took the plunge and bought a new mac for my hvx. Prior to doing this, I would only use the mini-dv on the hvx (on my old mac which was a quicksilver I purchased in 2000-I shot 24pAdvanced mini-dv and edited it on a i-movie hd), therefore, I'm completely new to the p2 workflow and am soliciting recommendations. I'm new to this process and I am technologically challanged so please excuse my ignorance.

I have the Mac and downloaded Raylight in order to work with the mxf files natively. I also installed the p2 driver that came with the hvx. I will be purchasing a firewire 800 cable and will be using that to bring over the p2 footage to my computer.

Now, here are my questions/concerns:

1) I had read that one can fry the firewire port on the camera if one plugs in the firewire cable while the camera is on, is this correct? Should I shut off the camera and the desktop, plug in the cable and then turn everything on?

2) I've read Barry's comments about P2CMS. Do I need this program even though I have raylight? I ask because I'm trying to set up the simplest workflow possible and will download it if this will accomplish that-if it I can do it without causing any systems issues.

3) I know raylight will allow me to work with native mxf files, and I've read that you can skip the import procedure altogether with it, but what does that mean exactly? If I connect the p2 card to the desktop via firewire, how do I see it as an mxf file in fcp? What would the steps be once I connect the camera to the desktop? I'm thinking with raylight, I can edit right off of the card, but how do I save the footage to my harddrive?

I'll probably have to look into Noah's workflow dvd to refine my workflow, but I'm trying to get started and I'm hoping to get specific answers to my specific situation.

I guess that's it for now, I appreciate any recommendations/advice.

Thanks

 

[G-Man]

Anyone?

 

[Nexis]

1) I had read that one can fry the firewire port on the camera if one plugs in the firewire cable while the camera is on, is this correct? Should I shut off the camera and the desktop, plug in the cable and then turn everything on?

You do not need to turn off your computer before plugging in the firewire cable, but you definitely need to ensure the camera is turned off before you plug it in.

2) I've read Barry's comments about P2CMS. Do I need this program even though I have raylight? I ask because I'm trying to set up the simplest workflow possible and will download it if this will accomplish that-if it I can do it without causing any systems issues.

If you're using a Mac (and FCP) P2CMS is not required.

3) I know raylight will allow me to work with native mxf files, and I've read that you can skip the import procedure altogether with it, but what does that mean exactly? If I connect the p2 card to the desktop via firewire, how do I see it as an mxf file in fcp? What would the steps be once I connect the camera to the desktop?

I haven't used FCP + Raylight, so I can't really help you with these questions. I don't want to speculate and steer you in the wrong direction.

I'm thinking with raylight, I can edit right off of the card, but how do I save the footage to my harddrive?

I would strongly recommend that you offload all contents of the P2 card onto a separate (external) hard drive rather than accessing and editing them in camera with firewire. It's simply more reliable.

 

[n8ture]

I use HD Log Demo to offload my P2 cards to an external hard drive.
I fire up Raylight and scan the hard drive for the P2 Cards.
It makes small QuickTime reference files to the P2 MXF files.

I dump Raylight folder into my FCP bin and start editing. The reference files work just like a regular QT file so you don't have to worry about Log and Transfer and using up all that hard drive space to import the MXF files as QuickTime files.

 

[G-Man]

Thanks for the replies guys. I appreciate the input.

 

[Coldpizza]

Use P2CMS for backing up your P2 content and reviewing shots. Raylight is good but not essential as DVCPROHD is a very processor friendly codec. Editing 1080 res DVCPROHD QT files can be very easy. I have used many a Mac old and new to edit DVCPROHD at 1080 and 720 res, only time I had a problem and once at that, was on an old G4 low amount of ram, but that's it.

The HVX has a firewire 400 not 800 or is there a newer model with an 800?

No matter what you do do not edit of the card! Can't stress this enough. You want to record onto card, backup the P2 card content and preferably use Edius by Canopus to edit (native MXF) or FCP depends on your preferences.

Can't include all aspects of the workflow into one post. But may be good for you to search through as many threads as possible to better understand the possible P2 work flows.
Hope I helped.