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Back to P2?
Hello!
Still trying to establish a workflow with HVX200/Matrox Axio. I bought the camera without P2 cards, but with the Firestore. I thought I could do a capture from playback from the Firestore as an interim workflow until the Axio has mxf support, but that turns out to not be possible. The vendor was kind enough to lend me 4 4Gb P2 cards, since it is possible to do a capture playing back from P2. I just tried it, and yes! It works! So now I can go out in the field, shoot full my 16Gb of P2 cards (DVCProHD 1080i/50i), offload them to an external harddrive as the P2s fill up, and at the end of the day transfer back files from the harddrive to the P2 cards so I can capture in Premiere/Axio, right..? I could have sworn I’ve read somewhere that it is possible to transfer mxf files back to the P2 cards after temporarily storing the files on a laptop or harddrive, but in the manual I am now discovering this:
“You cannot copy data from the hard disk drive to a P2 card.”
What am I misunderstanding here; is it really not possible to transfer mxf files back to the P2 cards after they’ve been stored on an external device? Please tell me this is possible! I need to store more than 16Gb of footage on my shoot, and the only way I have found to get my footage into my NLE is by playing from the P2 cards!
Any help/advise highly appreciated.
Kind regards,
Eric -
9 Replies
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If the Axio can capture from P2 directly it should recognize the cards you have copied to hard drive. As long as you copy the top level folder and the lastclip.txt file into a seperate folder for each there should be no issue. FCP for example easily recognizes P2 format whether it’s actually on a P2 card or in a folder on a hard drive. Though knowing Matrox and their gear I would not be surprised at all if it did not offer the same functionality.
Noah
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[i][Eric Steinberg] “”You cannot copy data from the hard disk drive to a P2 card.””
Not true, I do it all the time on the PC.
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Get the most from your DVX camera. The DVX Book and DVX DVD are now available on ebay and at Amazon (https://www.fiftv.com/db) -
Ok Barry, glad to hear that it can work, I’ll give it a try. My plan is to take my laptop and an external hardrive with me on my shoot, dump my P2 files onto the external harddrive as the cards fill up, and then when I’m back at the Axio, I’ll transfer the files back onto the P2 cards from the external HD, play the clips from the P2 cards in the camera and capture the playing stream in Premiere as DVCPro HD. A terrible workaround, but the Axio mxf/P2 support is supposed to come in October, so it won’t be for long.
Thanks again,
Eric -
Not really the worst workflow- this is how FCP currently does it. Though it kind of comes down to why would you ever want/need to put something back to P2? Playing back from the camera would be the only logical reason and if you’re doing that a lot you’d be far better served with a Blackmagic HD output card. Other than that stick with regular hard drives for media transfer and storage and you’ll avoid headaches.
Noah
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Another option may be to get Serious Magic’s DVCPRO-HD Decoder or RayLight. Download the trial versions and see if AXIO can work with the converted files. If so it should make your workflow tremendously easier.
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Get the most from your DVX camera. The DVX Book and DVX DVD are now available on ebay and at Amazon (https://www.fiftv.com/db) -
Noah Kadner:
“Though it kind of comes down to why would you ever want/need to put something back to P2?”
Well, so far it’s the only way I’ve been able to figure out how to get my footage into my NLE (playback and capture – not file transfer). Since I’m shooting out in the field and can’t bring my Axio workstation with me, and I don’t have enough P2 cards for my whole shoot, I have to store the files somewhere as I’m filling up my P2 cards. It didn’t work to play the footage from my Firestore for transfer to Axio, and transferring mxf from a harddrive won’t work because the Axio doesn’t recognize those.. yet! So soon my problem should be solved, so it’s not worth it to get a Blackmagic card. But thanks for the tip!
Kind regards,
Eric -
Actually, I have considered those. Any thoughts on which one is better (if Axio works with both)?
Kind regards,
Eric -
Have you considered another NLE? If you’re married to the PC world, Avid, Pinnacle, and Canopus are good options. In my past life I suffered many years with Matrox’s “tech support” before flying onto to greener pastures, first via DPS and finally via FCP on the Mac- which currently handles P2 footage transferred to a hard drive with zero issues.
Noah
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I’m a very small one-man boutique, and the Matrox Axio was a HUGE investment for me. I’m not in a position to abandon this major investment and buy something else. Besides, I’ve heard great things about the Axio with mxf/P2 support from beta testers and those who saw it at IBC, so I’m optimistic that pretty soon it will be great! There are always pros and cons to all systems, and I worked (and am still working) on a Matrox RT.X100 for about 4 years, and it has been a good machine. No matter what system someone says is great, there will alway be someone who has different opinions, which is why it always is such a challenging task to decide what to buy. This goes for NLE’s, cameras, plug-in suites..everything. I’m one of those guys who often falls into the trap of “over-researching” because I want to buy the best I can for my budget. Usually I just get more and more confused, so I try to find a good balance between doing some research and then just deciding and making the best out of my decision. So maybe there are better choices out there, but now I am going to do the best I can with what I’ve got. 🙂
Kind regards,
Eric
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