P2 Workflow Troubleshooting

Am I risking my footage by using finder to drag and drop from one Hard drive to another?
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Thousands of people do this every day without problems.

Of course, several write in every week talking about issues they've had.

I am not sure what to tell people, because it's all Mac stuff. I've tried to create as bulletproof a workflow as is possible. Using P2CMS to do the copying will give you data verification and will avoid any chance of user error. If you know exactly what you're doing, you can probably get away with a finder copy. Problem is, everybody thinks they know what they're doing, yet the problems keep occurring.

I wouldn't do it. And I'm not comforted by all those who say "I do it all the time and it works just fine", because that doesn't help those who are having problems.

One thing I've heard is that you shouldn't try to copy from one FAT32 device to another FAT32 device on MacOS, that it's less stable. Don't know why that would be, but that's what I was told. Also, that it's not the most resilient thing to do, to try copying from one external firewire FAT32 device to another external FAT32 device through firewire. I asked if they were asserting that copying from one external fAT32 firewire hard disk to another external fat32 firewire hard disk could lead to occasional/rare file corruption and was told "yes, it could happen." So, take that for what it's worth, which is not much. I'd use P2CMS with verification if I was working on a Mac. Or some other tool, like P2 Genie maybe, as long as it does a proper verification.
 
Thanks Barry,

I will modify my workflow to incorporate P2CMS on all transfers. Also thanks for advising on the Fat32 issue as I was moments away from doing the exact workflow that you recommend against. Again thanks from all of us who gain valuable info from you.

paul
 
I've been using P2CMS on a Macbookpro for a while now for P2 card backups it is very easy to use and seams to be very stable. One problem I do have with it is that all the media files it copies to the backup destination become locked. In order to erase them I need to open up each individual file and unlock them. At the end of a long shoot that could easily result in having hundreds of files to unlock this is a headache. Is there a setting for the program to copy over the files to the database unlocked?
Thanks.
 
Hi Guys,
I'm having issues tranferring files from my HVX via Firewire to OSX 10.5.5..
They dont load on Desktop using the correct procedure....
Have i missed something...btw it worked fine b4...But i dont remember when the problem started...I am using the Firewire 800 port for my Caldigit...would this effect it??
Any ideas??
cheers
 
I don't trust tape or drives

I don't trust tape or drives

For camera dude and dudettes that don't run and gun.

HPX500 Production flow. (you're always fighting bus speed, drive write speed, CPU speed)

I have one 32 gig card (for now).

USB2.0 from cam to a 4gigRAM MACPRO laptop. (for strange reasons USB is faster than firewire on MACPRO, I think it's a bus throughput issue) I generally save to an 7200rpm external 750gig estata drive using an estata card in the newer mac superduper pci slot. (Slow firewire: I think the firewire and PCI share the same bus, not sure). I don't save to the laptop drive because it's only a 4200rpm drive with a slow write speed. If you buy the latest mac laptop they come with a 7200rpm fast write speed which should be faster than my esata set up because you won't be bogging down multiple bus buffers.

Everyone take a coffee break!

Load FCP, select FILE, Click: Log and Transfer
All clips show up with thumbnails.
Select and drag the clips you want to transfer
See the progress of each clip download.
If one clip has a data drop, it gets flagged and you can reimport the clip until it works.
I like this method because I can instantly check video to be sure it's saved before I
Reformat the p2 card in the camera.
Reformat card in cam with cam menu for best results.
This maybe a slow process but it's a fail safe. I like to know I've got the shot before I delete it.
This also allows for on site editing, for client review or to make sure you've got all your shots before you wrap.

{why estata?: Playback! At up to 3gigs a second I can view multiple tracks of full res HD on a laptop and edit, render and compress super fast. Keeping me portable. If you do this get a cooler for the laptop.}


Sometimes for double back up I'll drag and drop the contents file as well.
 
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any thoughts?

any thoughts?

Barry_Green said:
I am not sure what to tell people, because it's all Mac stuff. I've tried to create as bulletproof a workflow as is possible. Using P2CMS to do the copying will give you data verification and will avoid any chance of user error. If you know exactly what you're doing, you can probably get away with a finder copy. Problem is, everybody thinks they know what they're doing, yet the problems keep occurring.
Click to expand...

Hey Barry,
Thanks for your book, the workflow, and the addendums at the beginning of this post.

Have you heard of blown or damaged firewire/USB ports, not from physical tampering or harm but from P2 transfer? We have two HVX200 here and one MacPro. One of the HVX200s has a broken firewire port, the Mac Pro has a broken firewire, USB and a failing USB in the back (when i say broken on the MacPro, the machine will not mount any external drive). This is a multi-user environment and most of our clients are rejecting the P2CMS because it adds extra time to their workflow that led me to start wondering: while transferring P2 from the camera, are they holding down the MCR button before checking to make sure that the HVX200 is set to the proper mode: USB device, 1394 device or host..... could this be zapping the mac?

I'm going to try an all around firmware update to see if something can be solved but this last bit above encourages me to pick your brain.
in the meantime, have you heard of any one else who has had this problem?

thanks for your stickies!
B
 
end of file tag missing

end of file tag missing

I have a problem with one FS-100 file which I already offloaded and reformatted the Fs 100.
Now I find myself with the last file ( 1.72GB) which is a QT.mov. Somehow the FS 100 when it was full, did not write the end of file tag. Is there a way to open this .mov Quicktime file? I tried VLC and what not, none of the apps I have can open the file.

If anybody has an idea how to salvage this file I would be tremendously relieved
:dankk2:
 
Ha! I found it myself: load the corrupted file back into the Fs 100 and run its file repair utility....
had to do it 5 times but in the end I got the file back !!!! This after weeks of having recorded over the disc, reformatted it and recorded again over it.....the file was backed up and has now been resurrected!!!
 
P2CMS doesnt recognize files, orange light blinking on card slot of hpx170

P2CMS doesnt recognize files, orange light blinking on card slot of hpx170

I cant figure out why the p2 card slot flashes orange, and P2CMS doesnt recognize my files to ingest them.. Anyone have any ideas? Thanks
 
Help!
I imported the P2 footage into P2CMS.
Launch Final Cut Pro 6... Open "Log and Transfer"..... As I preview the footage in the log and transfer window (before adding clip to queue), the image freezes and I get this message Warning "...contains unsupported media or has an invalid directory structure. Please choose a folder whose directory structure matches supported media".. The Warning message is inconsistent, though, only pops up on a couple of the clips from the P2CMS folder.
Suggestions?
 
First Time I've had P2 weirdness. Strange

First Time I've had P2 weirdness. Strange

Well, It finally happened to me. I had my fist P2 weirdness. I offloaded several P2 cards today with Log and Transfer without problems. On the last card the card showed up in the log and transfer window, but without any clips. I checked the video folder and all the mxf clips were there. The .txt file was there as well. Everything seemed as usual. (I've been doing this for over 2 years without any problems.) I couldn't get anything to work. Then I remembered "Raylight" software. I downloaded it and converted the .mxf files to .Mov files with that without any serious issues.

I still have no idea what was wrong with the original data. As I said, strange
Drogar-Thinking%28DBG%29.gif
 
Am I missing a step here? I load my P2 card to a folder with the P2CMS program and its under CONTENTS.

Then I open FCP and IMPORT the CONTENTS folder, but I get an error. What gives?
 
davidnssbm said:
6.0.6
Click to expand...
Hmmmm. Interesting. What I do is set up a folder for each card and export the clips to that folder. The P2 Management transfers the clips to that folder creating a new contents folder inside the folder I reserved for that card. Opening Log and Transfer and setting custom path to the folder containing your contents folder with your clips should show the folder and the clips. Make sure you use copy, not move. Also check the compare button. It seems you are attempting to import the clips. In earlier versions of FCP there was an import P2. This is handled by Log and Transfer in FCS2 (aka FCP 6).
 
i am having a lot of trouble getting my p2 footage onto the computer... i can easily attribute this to being a new p2 user and such, but please help me!

so i have final cut pro 6, i connect my hvx via firewire, the two p2 cards show up as NO NAME drives on my desktop, open final cut, open log and transfer... i see all my clips, i can even view them (though choppy) on the preview window..... all seems well.

so then i try to use log and transfer, i drag the clip into the part where it says " drag here .. blah blah" and it starts to transfer, giving a moving icon, saying transferring 1 clip etc.... but then it just goes idle.... i have googled this to no avail, finding many with similar problems, but none with any solutions that have worked for me yet...

i tried trashing my fcp preferences... nothing...

i restarted the computer, nothing... quit final cut, reopened.. nothing...

can anybody help me? has this happened to you? i am sooooo frustrated witht this! ive had the hvx for almost a week now, and have not been able to use it, because i cannot get any test footage onto my comptuer!

thanks in advance, wes.
 
You might try using the P2CMS transfer program to import the P2 footage and THEN import the CONTENTS folder via log and transfer? That's a potential solution I can think of off the top of my head.

I only have experience dumping P2 via PCMCIA slot on my laptop, so maybe try another method aside from direct connect via firewire if you can.

There are weird bugs with P2 sadly. You might just need to find a way around them. For instance, I have the convenience of a PCMCIA slot on my laptop, but after I dump the footage, I must REBOOT my computer before ejecting the P2 card. Otherwise the whole computer goes into a HARD LOCK. Hows that for throwing a wrench into this "convenient workflow"
 
i have snow leopard installed on my computer, and p2cms is not compatible with snow leopard.... i was just looking into it...

so far, nothing but headaches, i havent even gotten to use the camera because i wanted to figure this all out before filming with it, make sure i could come home and just get my footage.... here i am a week later still trying to figure this out.... so much less than pleased.
 
Run, don't walk, to get Raylight or Calibrated's MXF Importer. Ditch FCP's Log & Transfer and you will avoid all these and future problems.
 
i downloaded the free trial of raylight, to see if i could figure it out and stuff... and i was very confused... is there any reading available on how to use it? possibly tutorials? that would be a very helpful link... i will search myself as well.. thanks for the heads up barry
 
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