My current P2 workflow

DC

DC

Cinematographiliac
FYI

My experience is that two 4GB P2 cards work GREAT in combination with a laptop, especially in 720p 24N mode as I get about 10 minutes of storage per card. And they're cheaper!

Here is my workflow that NEVER has me waiting more than 5 seconds between cards:

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[1] I have my DMA (Digital Media Assistant) on set who grabs my full card and hands me a blank.

[2] He quickly spot checks the clips on the card with the P2 Viewer software on my laptop (HP nx9600 - 3.6Ghz P4, ATI x600).

[3] He then offloads the card (using P2 Genie) onto my external (intermediate storage) hard drive connected to my laptop. {This is my personal hard drive and is meant to be formatted at least once by the end of the shoot.} There is already a pre-created directory structure in place (implemented during pre-production) to keep track of which P2 cards came from which shooting days. Around this point, he also creates a text file shot log in the P2 Card folder which will be kept and tranferred along with the footage.

[4] Then he transfers the footage to the editor's external (extended storage) hard drive which is also connected to my laptop. Someone will eventually deliver this hard drive to the editor/NLE.

[5] He quickly verifies the new data on the two hard drives by spot checking clips with the P2 Viewer software's Virtual P2 card function.

[6] Then he erases formats that P2 card (also using P2 Genie).

[7] And finally, he uses Nero to start burning a DVD-R (single-layer) backup - about 11 minutes burn-time for a typical 3.5GB or so.

[8] Go back to Step 1 and repeat until the end of the shoot. :)

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All this takes maybe 15-20 minutes of work per card and most of the time you are just standing by while files transfer. By the time I'm done filling up the next card, my DMA is standing right behind me with a another blank card.

Anyway, it works out very nicely. I also have Avid on my laptop so we can start cutting native MXF files on the set, if need be. And simply by viewing the clips with the P2 Viewer software, we can evaluate any and all previous clips for whatever reason. We move quickly, easily and have all the data/archival backups we need.

P2 rules! Death to tape! :)

 p.s. I have a tiny B-Cam (called 'Supacam') on the set that records stills/video onto a single SD Card. We use this as the "behind-the-scenes" cam. It interfaces to the laptop via USB.

http://supacam.com/home.html

My DMA (or sometimes various others) record the B-cam footage and then transfers all of this extra footage to the editor's hard drive by the day's wrap. So, the person who walks off the set at the end of the day not only has all the P2 footage on one hard drive, but also the "behind-the-scenes" footage/stills on the same hard drive AND the DVD-R archived P2 media.
 
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BUMP

I've made some more notes to the above workflow, for those that are interested in reading about it.
 
KOVAROVA said:
DMA - where can i buy one of those? do they come in female? :evil:
Click to expand...
Ha! I wish. Mine is studly though. There he is in this picture with his back to the camera, ever vigilant to swap P2 cards. :thumbsup: I didn't get permission to show his face. :Drogar-BigGrin(DBG)

DMA_below.jpg

Next time, I may have to hire a DMA with more attractive features, I mean "skills." :grin:

GuitarSkillz.jpg

I mean, c'mon, does she not look like a great DMA?! And she's an awesome guitar player! See her holding that axe with the grip of a prodigy! :Drogar-BigGrin(DBG)
 
D-C,

Great googly moogly!!

That would be a swell DMA...drooool....I think I'm in love!
 
Got any clips from that Supacam? Currently my DVX has been demoted to behind the scenes cam, but something like that Supacam would be really nice to have around as well. I wouldn't feel so nervous passing it around to random people on-set for shooting behind the scenes stuff.
 
:)

Yeah, the Supacam is great to pass around to people. Simple, easy, fun. I have plenty of behind-the-scenes clips from the Supacam. I don't plan on releasing any until after the film is done though.

Are you looking just to see what Supacam footage looks like? If so, I can just shoot anything for 30 seconds and then upload it.

Forget about the girl. :)
 
Yeah -- I was just wondering what the footage looked like... not necessarily clips of your bts... just something to show the quality.
 
No prob, PM your email to me and I'll send you a link to a file you can download.
 
nice workflow. never thought about it, but its another good reason to get the 4gb cards... they fit perfectly onto a standard dvd...

currently, im working with 1 8gb per camera (2 hvx's), and we're stuck with a 15-20 minute break in between transfers... it sucks!!

thanks for the tips!
 
Yeah, you have to have two cards. That's why I think two 4gb's are a much better solution than one 8gb (and less expensive too).

Of course, two 8gb's totally trump two 4gb's... :thumbsup:
 
Barry_Green said:
Yeah, you have to have two cards. That's why I think two 4gb's are a much better solution than one 8gb (and less expensive too).

Of course, two 8gb's totally trump two 4gb's... :thumbsup:
Click to expand...

lol... i know... we learned the hard way! we've got 6 8g p2's on order... lol... needless to say, i doubt we'll be running into the waiting problem again...

looking forward to the bootcamp in july, barry!

peace,
john
 
Barry_Green said:
Yeah, you have to have two cards. That's why I think two 4gb's are a much better solution than one 8gb (and less expensive too).

Of course, two 8gb's totally trump two 4gb's... :thumbsup:
Click to expand...

Indeed. Except the only reason I'm sticking with 4GB cards for now is because of the ease of archiving to DVD's. Within a couple of years, I'll move up to something like 32GB P2 cards that I can archive to Blu-ray or HD-DVD. :)

I've got it all figured out!! :Drogar-BigGrin(DBG)
 
DC said:
Indeed. Except the only reason I'm sticking with 4GB cards for now is because of the ease of archiving to DVD's. Within a couple of years, I'll move up to something like 32GB P2 cards that I can archive to Blu-ray or HD-DVD. :)

I've got it all figured out!! :Drogar-BigGrin(DBG)
Click to expand...

32GB P2 (x2)... Your DMA will have to get a new job. :Drogar-BigGrin(DBG)
 
My Experiences with HXV200-P2-MXF and Avid XpressPro 5.2.4

My Experiences with HXV200-P2-MXF and Avid XpressPro 5.2.4

Hi.

I want to relate my experiences with (versions of) this workflow:

On June 8, a client of mine shot DVCPROHD footage on their HVX200 using two 4Gb P2 cards. I played the role of 'DIT,' or Digital Intermediate Technician. I sat at the DP's Mac Powerbook on-set, dumping one card's contents while the DP shot on the other card. Each dump was made to the DP's internal drive AND copies to a LaCie d2 drive for backup. The DP chose to reformat the cards in-camera in case there was a last-minute error in copying or P2 formatting error in the computer.

The DP is the lead editor and will be cutting on FCP. Opening and QC checking the clips on his laptop running FCP (v5.x [I'm not sure]) on-site was a snap:
    • File>Import>PanasonicP2 (browse for "Contents" folder in directory created for card dump)
The same was not true with AXP 5.2.4 once I got home:
    • First: I had to copy the MXF media from the backup LaCie d2 drive used on site to my own LaCie d2 via (USB 2.0). I had to use MediaFour's 'MacDrive 6' for this step, because the drive was first used by the DP's Mac.
    • Second: I created the Avid MediaFiles folder and subdirectories, using this thread as a guide. Then I copied the audio & video files from the original P2 folders to the subdirectories.
    • Third: (I determined that) AXP would not launch with the Panasonic P2 drivers installed from the CD shipped with the camera. I installed the drivers in advance of the shoot, not knowing that they would interfere with AXP's stability. After reading this thread I concluded that one must hook the camera, with P2 cards installed, to the computer via USB 2.0 for full functionality. My question to that is: "What happens when you don't have the camera connected and launch AXP 5.2.4?"
    • Fourth: After importing test clips with Media Tool, I found that DVCPROHD playback was staggered via USB 2.0. I have a dual-core 3.8 Ghz P4 with 3 Gb RAM, so I guess the bottleneck is in USB 2.0 transfer.
    • Fifth: I transfered the pertinent video & audio files from external USB 2.0 to local SCSI RAID-0.
    • Sixth: I imported said video & audio clips via Media Tool and organized my bins. THEN I was ready to go.
That took nine hours. Unfourtunately it took 10 hours to export 46 stills. Under any other workflow I would have been done in less than an hour.

The video looks and plays great, but the audio plays distorted (though the levels look good on the audio tool). Fortunately I am acting as an assistant editor on this project, and have only had to export still images for client reference. My system is being used for backup in case of emergency .

It is clear from my experience and reading various forum posts that Avid's P2 / DVCPROHD / MXF workflow needs tweaking. I'd guess they're already working on, or have completed, fixes for the next release of AXP. I seem to remeber reading that AXP 5.5 for Windows & Mac is due soon.

I hope my feedback is helpful, and I hope someone has a suggestion on my audio issue.

My system specs are in my profile, so you can see what I'm running on.

Best wishes to all.

--Jesse--
 
Thanks, Jesse. I just saw your post. I've worked on that version of Avid with no problems. While it could use some tweaking, it has overall been working well. With v5.5.1, I'm having some issues with naming the MXF folders. Still working through it.

You don't need the camera attached. You should only transfer the MXF files to Avid's media drive. I don't know what the other problems are that you described. Seems like you're going about it in an overly complex way.

I think 'Second Copy' and soon 'P2 Genie' will help. But Avid really needs to simplify and make the process more robust, which they will.

Check this out and maybe it will help a bit:
http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?t=57544
 
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