P2 Contents management software question

C

ck chan

Member
Just downloaded the new P2 software from panasonic for mac users & I'm trying to understand a few things.
1. What is the difference between ingest, export, backup & archive? What is the best workflow out in the field? Ingest, then backup to external harddisk?

2. The software is suppose to allow the user to format the P2 card, according to the manual but I can't locate the format button.

Pls enlighten me. thanks guys
 
"ingest" copies the clips off of the card and onto an internal hard-disk-based database. The database treats every clip as its own P2 card (i.e., with its own CONTENTS folder, etc).

"export" copies the files off of a card or a hard disk (or out of the database) and out to another drive or P2 card.

Backup and Archive don't seem to work for me; I think they may only work when going to a blu-ray archiving system. No matter what I try it always complains about "no optical drive found".

2. The format button works on the Windows version, but apparently the Mac version doesn't have the format option. Instead you should select all the clips on a card and delete them in order to erase a card.
 
Thanks Barry! I'm amazed how to asked so quickly. I really think Panasonic came out with the Mac P2 software in a hurry cuz i found quite a few gramatical errors in the program & it is very buggy at this moment. Hope the Pana folks have an software update soon.

Just wondering how other mac users reformat the 16 GB cards in the computer before going back to the camera. I'm always afraid to reformat using the camera because of the fear that I might reformat the wrong card & erase all the data. Thats my biggest fear.
 
Well, you can't reformat cards on a Mac at all. So Mac users can format the cards in the camera, or in a P2 Store, or a P2 Gear.

Mac users used to delete the whole contents of the card, but that workflow doesn't work anymore. So erasing the cards through P2CMS is probably the only valid way.

(and there's plenty of spelling errors and grammatical errors in the Windows version too!)
 
So why is there no lastclip.txt in the database that P2CMS creates for the card? Is it because there is no last clip? Every folder is a different clip? That seems annoying. Do I need that lastclip file?

I've also noticed that Final Cut 6 lets me import the MXF file and edit using that. What's the deal there? I thought I couldn't do that. With P2CMS should I be importing files in FCP by edit>log & transfer?
 
The lastclip file is specifically related to a complete P2 volume. There's no need for it in the database. But if you export a P2-compatible volume, it'll create a new lastclip.txt.

I've also noticed that Final Cut 6 lets me import the MXF file and edit using that. What's the deal there? I thought I couldn't do that.
Click to expand...
P2CMS makes that possible; it installs an MXF import module. But it's not quite what you want, because you have to manually import the audio and sync 'em up on the timeline.
 
OK,

So I hook up the camera via firewire, open P2CMS, ingest the clips to a database. Then I hook up an external drive and export the files from the database to the external. It puts all the files in one "contents" folder, but there's no lastclip file. why not, and do I need it? I assume I do. I didn't see anything about P2-compatible. My options on export are "copy" and "link."

Also, when I highlight the clips on the card and click "delete" it says: Some files are not deleted. Please confirm if those files are locked.

My P2's aren't protected, so what does this mean? How can I format them on the computer? Sorry if these are dumb questions.
 
Er... there should be a lastclip on exported files, shouldn't there? Hmm, I'll have to delve more into P2CMS, I would have thought it'd create one.

As far as formatting -- are you on the Mac or PC? On the PC there's a "format" button. On the Mac, I don't know -- I would have thought you'd just select all the clips and choose "delete". We'll need to get a Mac user to verify this.
 
I'm on a Mac G5. FCP6, Quicktime 7.2.

However, I don't have the latest firmware downloaded for the HVX. So that could be the problem. I've been hesitant because I've heard there was a bug in the audio. But now that I say it, that sounds foolish to me...
 
Without starting another P2CMS thread i've just been playing around with the software and have managed to import files fine, and am now trying the whole export option.

I right click on the clip, click export, set my export target to a folder on my raid, the kind of export is set to copy. Move is grayed out as the p2 card has been write protected... i then click ok.

Then the whole is it okey to export box pops up, i click okey,

it starts the copy.. and then a new pop up box appears and says

'[/volumes/*cardname*] cannot be written. Please confirm if its locked.

Well yes it is locked. but why is it trying to save or write something to the card, as all im doing is copying the clip off the card to the drive?

fyi.. i am running qt 7.2
 
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