Can’t get P2 files from PC laptop to Mac

[Mike Schrengohst]

Sounds like you need a MAC laptop??
Maybe Jan can help on that one.
I would like too know as well,
I need to decide if to get a
MAC laptop for compatibility with
all the FCP users????

[Leonard Levy]

I have a Mac laptop that I bought for the HVX.
I’m actually trying to edit some files that were however downloaded to a PC laptop.
This should be simple, and will occur all the time in the workflow from this camera.

[Jan Crittenden livingston]

The only way the MAC is going to know that it is supposed to open P2 files is if there are still in the same file structure they were in when residing on the P2 Card. So the Contents folder needs to be visible to the MAC. So let’s say I have P2 Card and I transferred it to the HDD and filed it under a folder named Card 1. Under that I would have saved the CONTENTS folder, complete and not messed with at all. So when using the Import P2 command, I would direct the MAC to the Card 1 folder and open that and that is where I would stop. The mac would then see the rest based on seeing the CONTENTS folder.

Hope that helps,

Jan

Jan Crittenden Livingston
Product Manager, DVCPRO, DVCPRO50, AG-DVX100
Panasonic Broadcast & TV Systems

[Gary Adcock]

[Leonard Levy] “We Burned the packets onto a DVD and brought into the Mac runnig FCP 5.04.
However Final Cut Pro won’t open them and keeps asking for a “translation file”
Can’t figure any other way to open them either.”

See my note from earlier.

To open the HVX200’s MXF files on a mac you need to have both items that are written on the card.
You MUST have both the “LastClip.Txt” file and the “Contents” folder from the card for the mac to be able to read the contents. Without both parts on the mac you are dead in the water.

Gary Adcock
Studio37
HD and Film Consultation
Chicago, IL USA

[Leonard Levy]

Jan and Gary,

We have all the Contents untouched and the LASTCLIP.TXT and they are both in the same folder.

When I try to import VIA FCP 5.04 through the Panasonic P2 option it does see the contents of the card (in the P2 viewer) but when I hit import it says there was an error or something was wrong with the files- and notheing opens.
NOW: A Caveat, these files were moved to the Mac from a PC laptop via FTP since the PC didn’t have a burner.
Might they have gotten screwed up in transit?

Also shouldn’t Quicktime be able to translate these files also , or does that only happen when you put a P2 card in directly?
Would burning a card’s contents onto a DVD be the same as inserting the original P2 card, or is it different depending on whether the file was first encountered in a MAC or a PC?

[Leonard Levy]

Jan and Gary,

We have all the Contents untouched and the LASTCLIP.TXT and they are both in the same folder.

When I try to import VIA FCP 5.04 through the Panasonic P2 option it does see the contents of the card (in the P2 viewer) but when I hit import it says there was an error or something was wrong with the files- and notheing opens.
NOW: A Caveat, these files were moved to the Mac from a PC laptop via FTP since the PC didn’t have a burner.
Might they have gotten screwed up in transit?

Also shouldn’t Quicktime be able to translate these files also , or does that only happen when you put a P2 card in directly?
Would burning a card’s contents onto a DVD be the same as inserting the original P2 card, or is it different depending on whether the file was first encountered in a MAC or a PC?

[Leonard Levy]

Sorry For the Double Post.
I got it working thanks. I’m not exactly sure what I did differentlt but it opened fine in FCP this time.

but my other questions are still open :

Shouldn’t Quicktime be able to translate these files also , or does that only happen when you put a P2 card in directly?
Would burning a card’s contents onto a DVD be the same as inserting the original P2 card, or is it different depending on whether the file was first encountered in a MAC or a PC?

[Leonard Levy]

OK now i’ll try answering my own post so if anybody is looking tell me if I’ve got this right.

Only way to look at P2 HVX files on a Mac is thru FCP which the app that translates it MFX into Quicktime.

The Mac could just copy the files over though and copy them onto a ghard doisk or whatever and leave opening them till later, but that way you couldn’t see them & be sure of what you had.

As soon as you do open them in the Mac you are neccessarily writing the Quicktime files somewhere that FCP is choosing.

[Gary Adcock]

[Leonard Levy] ” got it working thanks. I’m not exactly sure what I did differentlt but it opened fine in FCP this time.”

Maybe you reset the camera to the same settings as the clips are, just like when you capture, often seems to help these types of problems ( but in actuality you should not have to)

[Leonard Levy] “Shouldn’t Quicktime be able to translate these files also , or does that only happen when you put a P2 card in directly?”
NO only FCP (via QT) can translate the files currently. if this was true there would not be a need for a 3rd party reader on the mac.

[Leonard Levy] “Would burning a card’s contents onto a DVD be the same as inserting the original P2 card, or is it different depending on whether the file was first encountered in a MAC or a PC?”

I have worked with content passed from both platforms without issue and my guess is that something on the camera or the file structure was messed up. you have to have all of the parts and the FTP translation most likely was the culprit.

Gary Adcock
Studio37
HD and Film Consultation
Chicago, IL USA

[Rainer Wirth]

Hi folks,

if you copy the whole Card (it shows as a harddisk) with all its contenet onto a firewire volume, plug in the firewire volume into a laptop or computer which runs fcp 5, you are able to import the files into FCP. If not, something is missing.

Rainer