P2 Viewer Plus

[EDV]

So I dusted off my old P2 Cam after many years to see if I could use it again. Camera is still good, now I wanted to view the clips on my P2 cards on the laptop ( Windows 8 ) As I remember, for a quick view and editing of the MetaData P2 Viewer was the way to go. So after a tedious download and install of both the P2 drivers and the P2 Viewer Plus software ( it took me more than half an hour with all those "restart your computer" prompts ), it turns out the software is useless ?? What a waste of my time !! I couldn't watch a single clip and when I tried to "ingest" ( again, this was the way to do it back in the day ) it tells me I have to buy a key code ? WTF !!
Now as inquisitive as I am, I don't think this is very user friendly AT ALL, too many hurdles, P2 Viewer is totally counter-intuitive and the help section is garbage. So is my ONLY option now to move into a NLE like Edius ? Again, this is a huge turn off for a casual user who just wants to view the clips, not edit them. ( last time I checked Edius X is $ 850 )

 

[NorBro]

Stuff like the above and similar was created during a time when technology was a super privilege and you had to pay for the most simplest creations.

With that said, do you have to pay to view it or just to ingest it?

I used P2 cards between 2013-2014 and used FCP X. So maybe that's an option for $299 if there is nothing else IF that software is still able to read P2 files (because eventually time moves on too much and software becomes too new to know and understand what yesteryear technology is).

 

[EDV]

As always I will be the one answering my own question...

 

[EDV]

Just one final comment for the Panasonic fanboys here... if P2Viewer is discontinued... does that mean P2 Cards were also discontinued ? So much for a "future-proof" technology ! But in case someone else is still using P2 Cards, WTF will happen to all that metadata functionality now ( Text Memos, Clip info, Scenario Data, Memo, etc ) ? Is that all gone now ? Glad I switched to Sony...