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Importing .mxf files from an external hard drive…
Any advice or tips would be greatly appreciated ( also posted this on FCP Discussions). My problem comes close to others discussed, but I haven’t been able to find a duplicate post. And I apologize for the length; I just want to give you as much info. as possible (I also put details in my signature) to help you help me.
I shot a short film using Panasonic’s HVX200 camera, filming in HD 720p/24p, and downloaded each P2 card through a PC laptop into a LaCie Brick external hard drive. I was originally planning on editing the footage with Adobe Premiere Pro 2.0, but became frustrated with how much trouble it was having handling the .mxf files. Assured by Apple salespeople that FCP 5 would have no problem importing the footage from an external hard drive, I purchased the computer described in my signature.
Now I know that FCP/Apple only supports importing footage from the P2 card directly, and not from an external hard drive. A representative from ProMax.com was able to help me out, however. First, he had me copy the footage files onto my Mac internal drive from the external hard drive. Then, he had me select IMPORT -> PANASONIC P2. Then, I was to highlight the CONTENTS folder and import away. And it worked… sort of.
There are two major problems: 1) During this transfer, not all of the footage is making it across. I import it, and then get the much-talked about “one or more P2 clips failed to import; probable incomplete or corrupt clips” warning. After checking the original video folder on the internal hard drive and comparing it to the number of clips FCP imported, I learned that I had lost around 20 clips/video files at one point. Other shooting day transfers worked completely smoothly with all of the files imported (we split up the footage by shooting day, without touching or changing the CONTENTS folders). So, some transfers work and some don’t. And 2) When I try to import the files from our 4th day of shooting, I get a “Selected path does not contain a P2 volume.” Nothing is imported.
So, that’s my situation, and I’m getting very desperate. I know that I’m not doing things in the Apple-supported way, but I’m really hoping there’s still someway to successfully get the files from the external hard drive into FCP completely. It seems to work some of the time.
Final notes: 1) I am using the DVCPRO HD 720p24 Easy Setup in FCP. 2) When importing, I make sure to import the entire CONTENTS folder. There is never a LASTCLIP.TXT file listed under it in the window, but some of the days of footage have transferred perfectly, so I’m hoping that’s not a dealbreaker. If it is, isn’t there some way to rebuild a lastclip.txt file? I don’t even know if that’s the issue. 3) In most of my folders, the “CLIP” folder has a number of files in it. In the 4th day’s footage that I can’t import at all, I noticed that the CLIP folder is empty. And on the days where FCP isn’t importing all the files (like I mentioned above), there isn’t a CLIP file for every single VIDEO file. Could this be the main problem? Along this line, is there a way to somehow put the footage on the external hard drive back through a p2 card and then into the Mac?
Okay, I’ll stop typing. Thank you so, so much for any help.
Tom
PowerMac G5 (Dual 2.3 GHz) Mac OS X (10.4.6) Quicktime 7.1.1 – Final Cut Pro 5.1 – Aforementioned External Hard Drive: LaCie Brick (FAT 32 based)
PowerMac G5 Mac OS X (10.4.6)
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1 Reply
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The CLIP folder contains pictures that represent the first frame of footage on a given clip. If that clip was deleted in camera then the video file would be gone but the CLIP file will remain. Unfortunately this also appears in the IMPORT window when you import the P2 footage, so while you count 20 shots, really only 15 might be on the card. What I tend to do when get that error is note the video files that I have and then import them one at a time.
The issue you are having is that the CLIP folder is empty. Without those files, FCP doesn’t have a needed reference to the actual video files so it is giving you that error. Somehow these might have gotten erased. And I am not sure if you can import without them.
Nope…you can’t. I just did a test where I removed the files in the CLIP folder and they won’t import. I even tried HD LOG and it wouldn’t import without the CLIP folder. This doesn’t look hopeful. This is why I stress the need to copy everything.
There are other P2 gurus out there and hopefully they will have a better answer for you.
Shane
Alokut Productions
http://www.lfhd.net
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