Okay so I've been reading about 80% of all threads containing P2CMS in one way or another.
And above that I've also tried to figure out if I want to like the software or not. At first...No. But then, when you get a huge amount of P2 cards you need to log and take care of the data so you can search for clips, you start to see some light in the darkness.
Anyhow there are some weird things and differences between my PC version and my Mac version. I believe both are the latest versions.
This is what I have concluded so far after weeks of testing
-It wont work under Windows7 not 32bit and not 64bit
-PC-version crashes when trying to use the options menu or if it was the settings... cant recall which it was. Maybe it has something to do with .NET
-Its very slow because it somehow needs to recalculate and redraw the view when you have done a search or export.
-It has to rebuild the database when you switch from PC to Mac and the other way around connection to the same database (I have the database on a windows servershare). If you have a big database like me it takes huge amount of time.
-In the PC version there is the hard link option in the export window. And you cant export using hard link to other drives than the one with the database.
-The hard link copies the files and do not make reference files, that I read Barry wrote in a early thread. The file has the same file size as the original.
-In the Mac version it is just called link and there it can export to any drive. And the file is just a couple of kb, it makes reference files from what I understand.
-If you make a link on the Mac, you cant use the link-file on a PC
-But if you make a hard link you can use it elsewhere.
-You cant see as many thumbnails as you like, if you i.e do a search - in the PC version it just stops after searching after it reaches its limit and dont show a singel file.
-In the Mac version it stops and at least shows the clips/thumbnails it came up with before the limit.
-It seems overall that the Mac version is much more stable and well written than the PC version.
-The SQL-database the program uses could probably be exported somehow. The tools I found was not that user friendly.
-I tried to see if I could combine the Mac version and PC version of the database, without success.
-If you use the P2CMS for ingest to database its useless trying to reach and find the clips with explorer or finder.
P2CMS is a very nice program if you need to handle ingest and to manage the metadata. The search function is ..okay, but not more. To be able to export to a verified P2 structure is very useful. Even better in my Mac version where you can make links wherever from a server storage.
BUT it could have been so much better. And why the differences between the platforms? The translation from Japanese I presume is horrible. In some dialog it actually says it will erase the clips after export, but it don't do it, fortunately.
There are too many glitches for you to feel really comfortable with it other than using it for copying P2 cards here and there.
Anyway if you choose not to use the P2CMS in the future, you CAN reach the files, no metadata is lost beacaust that information is saved within the P2-files. I'm going to ingest about 10TB of P2 video using P2CMS, we'll see how that goes.
(edit: I had to re edit the whole text because I first used the mobile version of the forum... it messed my text up pretty bad)
And above that I've also tried to figure out if I want to like the software or not. At first...No. But then, when you get a huge amount of P2 cards you need to log and take care of the data so you can search for clips, you start to see some light in the darkness.
Anyhow there are some weird things and differences between my PC version and my Mac version. I believe both are the latest versions.
This is what I have concluded so far after weeks of testing
-It wont work under Windows7 not 32bit and not 64bit
-PC-version crashes when trying to use the options menu or if it was the settings... cant recall which it was. Maybe it has something to do with .NET
-Its very slow because it somehow needs to recalculate and redraw the view when you have done a search or export.
-It has to rebuild the database when you switch from PC to Mac and the other way around connection to the same database (I have the database on a windows servershare). If you have a big database like me it takes huge amount of time.
-In the PC version there is the hard link option in the export window. And you cant export using hard link to other drives than the one with the database.
-The hard link copies the files and do not make reference files, that I read Barry wrote in a early thread. The file has the same file size as the original.
-In the Mac version it is just called link and there it can export to any drive. And the file is just a couple of kb, it makes reference files from what I understand.
-If you make a link on the Mac, you cant use the link-file on a PC
-But if you make a hard link you can use it elsewhere.
-You cant see as many thumbnails as you like, if you i.e do a search - in the PC version it just stops after searching after it reaches its limit and dont show a singel file.
-In the Mac version it stops and at least shows the clips/thumbnails it came up with before the limit.
-It seems overall that the Mac version is much more stable and well written than the PC version.
-The SQL-database the program uses could probably be exported somehow. The tools I found was not that user friendly.
-I tried to see if I could combine the Mac version and PC version of the database, without success.
-If you use the P2CMS for ingest to database its useless trying to reach and find the clips with explorer or finder.
P2CMS is a very nice program if you need to handle ingest and to manage the metadata. The search function is ..okay, but not more. To be able to export to a verified P2 structure is very useful. Even better in my Mac version where you can make links wherever from a server storage.
BUT it could have been so much better. And why the differences between the platforms? The translation from Japanese I presume is horrible. In some dialog it actually says it will erase the clips after export, but it don't do it, fortunately.
There are too many glitches for you to feel really comfortable with it other than using it for copying P2 cards here and there.
Anyway if you choose not to use the P2CMS in the future, you CAN reach the files, no metadata is lost beacaust that information is saved within the P2-files. I'm going to ingest about 10TB of P2 video using P2CMS, we'll see how that goes.
(edit: I had to re edit the whole text because I first used the mobile version of the forum... it messed my text up pretty bad)
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