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AG HPX5000 Field Offload Directly To Drive
I’m the editor and am having a dickens of a time connecting an external drive to the HPX500 for field dumping in the PC Host Mode. I have an OWC bus powered drive that takes the tiny USB connector and the camera takes a square B connector and that cable does not exist – so far. I have cables w. the right connectors on one end each but the standard type a usb plug on the other. I ordered a fem to fem coupler and am crossing fingers. However for the moment field USB dumps are out of the question.
Which brings me to FW. I have connected my OWC bus powered drive using a FW400 to FC800 cable and get the warning “Too Many Targets”- and the drive does not seem to power as it does, say when I plug it into a pc or mac using the USB connection.
I have also connected the camera a 500gb My Book via fw 400 to fw 400 and get the hdd menu but all is grayed out except the bottom (verify?).
I have no trouble using log and transfer out of the camera into FCP, but the idea here is for the crew to bring me a hard drive with the day’s work and not be burdened with shuttling the camera back and forth.
So my problem in a nutshell is this – how do you offload directly to a HDD without a puter. I am trying to keep this simple for the crew so they don’t hav to mess w. a laptop.
Thanks in advance for an tips.
Cheers, Peter
Peter Tours
TnT Video Services, Inc.
Fort Lauderdale, FL -
17 Replies
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First thing I am going to tell you to do is offload your P2 cards the “safe” way.
Believe it or not, using a laptop is the most efficient and safest way to offload your cards. Having a program like Shotput Pro will make the job even easier. You even have the option to offloading your cards to as many as three hard Drives simultaneously.
When using an HD to offload your cards directly, the HD you are using will be completely reformatted by
the camera. There is also no verification that the files transfered completely.If you really insist on offloading your cards directly to an external HD, the HPX-500 manual explains exactly how to do it.
Steve Eisen
Eisen Video Productions
Board of Directors
Chicago Final Cut Pro Users Group -
Thanks – Have not only read the manual on the subject, but called Panny Tech Support – who read me the same manual!
Your suggestion about the laptop is a good one, which I respect, but I don’t know how it will fly with the crew.
Using the direct to HD method, our proecedure is to be that they cannot delete that media until I tell them it’s on the Raid AND on Blue Ray.
I have ordered some USB adaptors to make the connection from the camera to the drive, so I cannot check that.
Using 1394 host mode, I cannot connect to either of 2 drives – the bus powered doesn;t power from fw and the My Book results in all PC menu item being grayed out but “setup” > “verify”.
So much for the manual. So I will speak to the crew about the laptop option – kinda of a shame – this was a sellin point.
Thanks for your suggestions, you are very kind.
Peter Tours
TnT Video Services, Inc.
Fort Lauderdale, FL -
You are better off safe then sorry. Use the laptop in conjunction with ShotPut Pro from Imagine Products and you will be able to safely offload your P2 to cards and even backup the data to Blu-Ray.
You need to educate your crew on P2 workflow.
Offloading directly to HD should only to be used in emergency situations.
Steve Eisen
Eisen Video Productions
Board of Directors
Chicago Final Cut Pro Users Group -
I offload directly to Firewire HD all the time, but I use AC powered drives and have never tried a buss-powered FW drive. Are you trying to offload via Firewire or USB? As far as I know, the camera only supports Firewire Host mode and I do not believe you can dump directly via USB.
FYI – When I dump to FW (AC powered) I connect the drive, switch the camera into FW Host mode, wait 15 seconds or so and then power on the drive. You can also have the drive powered on and connect it ‘hot’ but I’ve read it’s a bad idea to connect drives like that so I avoid it.
The first time the drive is connected you will need to format it with the camera. Of course this will wipe all existing data. From then on, each card offloaded will create a new partition with size matching the card capacity. Note that there seems to be a limit to the number of partitions on a FAT32 drive (12?).
I dump most of my footage direct in this manner, and have yet to have any issue. However I’m generally not doing this in the field – I dump at my desk, connect to the edit system, spot check to verify the contents all seem to be there, then duplicate media with verify to 2 more drives before I truly feel safe wiping the cards.
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Video Photographer / Avid & Final Cut Editor -
Listen to Steve’s suggestion/wors of wisdom. P2 is an IT workflow. If you don’t treat your data as such you will be burned.
John
MacPro 8-core 2.8GHz 8 GB RAM OS 10.5.5 QT7.5.5 Kona 3 Dual Cinema 23 ATI Radeon HD 3870, 24″ TV-Logic Monitor, ATTO ExpressSAS R380 RAID Adapter, PDE enclosure with 8-drive 6TB RAID 5
FCS 2 (FCP 6.0.5, Comp 3.0.5, DVDSP 4.2.1, Color 1.0.3)Pro Tools HD w SYNC IO, Yamaha DM1000, Millennia Media HV-3C, Neumann U87, Schoeps Mk41 mics, Genelec Monitors, PrimaLT ISDN
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Thanks to all of you. Since I posted I have successfully used my old PC laptop to transfer data from a P2 card to a hard drive, move the drive to the mac, log and transfer all the clips and then burn the original P2 data from the drive to a blue ray, then copy the blue ray back to the mac and again log and transfer it to a new project to test the restore aspect of my plan – all worked.
Today – with the cards in the camera – I tried a different FW drive (previously unsuccessful w. 500gb “MY Book”) & successfully formatted the drive from the camera, offloaded directly to the drive and again brought the files into FCP (7) and also burned another blue ray with the original P2 files for good luck.
It appears I have a two practical workflows – now to see which parts the crew adopts.
Thanks again for all your valuable input.
Peter Tours
TnT Video Services, Inc.
Fort Lauderdale, FL -
Haven’t had a chance to try this thing out, but it might be a consideration:
https://www.abelcine.com/store/product.php?productid=1001603
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Looks like a great idea, again like the Panny box, wayyyyyy overpriced. Would be very nice to have though. Thank you so much for your thoughtfulness in suggesting it. peter
Peter Tours
TnT Video Services, Inc.
Fort Lauderdale, FL -
[peter tours] “wayyyyyy overpriced.”
It’s cheaper than a mac laptop and hard drives.
Jeremy
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This would be a more attractive product to me if it didn’t include the drive. As a card reader of many flavors, it’s very impressive.
John
MacPro 8-core 2.8GHz 8 GB RAM OS 10.5.5 QT7.5.5 Kona 3 Dual Cinema 23 ATI Radeon HD 3870, 24″ TV-Logic Monitor, ATTO ExpressSAS R380 RAID Adapter, PDE enclosure with 8-drive 6TB RAID 5
FCS 2 (FCP 6.0.5, Comp 3.0.5, DVDSP 4.2.1, Color 1.0.3)Pro Tools HD w SYNC IO, Yamaha DM1000, Millennia Media HV-3C, Neumann U87, Schoeps Mk41 mics, Genelec Monitors, PrimaLT ISDN
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