Digital “dropout” using AJ-PCD20 card reader

[Jan Crittenden livingston]

Hi,

To my knowledge this is not a common problem, but I can offer a few suggestions. First uninstall the P2 Drivers, reset your preferences and then re-intall the P2 drivers. Try an import from the camera, and see if that works without corruption. Then with the PCD20. If the camera transfer has no correption, and the PCD20 does, then that does point to the PCD20. Please know that this is pretty rare.

Also, you should use some sort of helper program that has a verify mode in it to offload your card, at the minimum, P2CMS, and better would be P2 Log, Shot Put or Raylight.

Good Luck,

Jan

Jan Crittenden Livingston
Product Manager, HPX500, HVX200, DVX100
Panasonic Broadcast & TV Systems

[Dave Beaty]

Buck,

Hi I have the SAME problem. I have called Panasonic support and was told they are unsure about it, but perhaps it may have something to due with Firewire bus overhead or overload when using a firewire hard drive to save too. Because the clips on the cards are fine, and it was appearing with the PCD20, we suspected it was an issue with it’s firmware.

If you use a firewire harddrive AND the PCD20 connected via firewire on a Mac, you will eventually have digital drop out. Have seen it on an iMac running 10.4 and a G5. If you erase your cards before you know about it, you’re screwed. So the suggestion of having a utility to compare the files is crutial if you own the AJ-PCD20 card reader.

We have been using P2CMS, which has “export” with a “compare” feature. This will fail on those corrupt clips we have found.

Next thing to try, hook it up via USB. I know it’s slow, but the slow transfer to an external firewire harddrive should allow you to export from cards without this corruption. This is the only way I got it to transfer a few clips when we first got the PCD20.

We are shooting with an HPX500. I don’t know how rare this is, but given the same set of gear, and mac computers, I bet every one of the PCD20’s from the same era, have this problem.

Dave Beaty

Dave Beaty
Dreamtime Entertainment
1625 SE 46th St
Cape Coral FL 33904
239-549-4081
800-446-7575
dave@dreamtimeentertainment.com
http://www.dreamtimeentertainment.com

[Helmut Kobler]

I seriously hope Panasonic takes care of this asap. P2 really needs to be rock-solid and bullet proof. People need absolute confidence that their video will transfer properly from the cards to a hard drive. There can’t be a sense of anxiety or any kind of question that the data may not be intact….

[Jan Crittenden livingston]

[Helmut Kobler] “I seriously hope Panasonic takes care of this asap. P2 really needs to be rock-solid and bullet proof. People need absolute confidence that their video will transfer properly from the cards to a hard drive. There can’t be a sense of anxiety or any kind of question that the data may not be intact….”

Panasonic’s response to this is that you should be using a helper program, be it P2CMS or something else that has a verify mode. Not only does Apple say that Drag and Drop is a bad idea, it just is a bad idea. You need to have something that verifies the integrity of the media. So P2 Log Pro and Shotput come to mind as excellent programs that also do this. Additionally you should never put a P2 Card into a device that is attached to a MAC without having the Write Protect switch on.

Best regards,

Jan

Jan Crittenden Livingston
Product Manager, HPX500, HVX200, DVX100
Panasonic Broadcast & TV Systems

[Dave Beaty]

I just don’t have a sense of how many people with the AJ-PCD20 have the digital drop out problem. We thought we had it beat with last year but it cropped up again.

Is it all hardware, or was there a lot of these that had a IC chip that causes it or something. But I suspect it has something to do with Firewire and Mac OS. I am posting a link to a 1 sec clip showing a frame of drop out. Remember the clip on the card seems to be OK visually. Also, when I switched the interface cable to USB on the PCD20, the clip then exported from P2CMS correctly…always choose the “compare” option! (I found it will transfer with errors the you do not know about when this is not checked in the “export” dialog)

In the case of the Error it was a G5 with an external FW800 harddrive using DVCPro50 material. The P2 reader was also via a FW800 cable daisy chained to the FW800 drive.

example
http://www.dreamtimeentertainment.com/p2/0042IK2.mov

Perhaps someone with technical knowledge can examine them and know what is causeing this error.

Dave Beaty
Dreamtime Entertainment
1625 SE 46th St
Cape Coral FL 33904
239-549-4081
800-446-7575
dave@dreamtimeentertainment.com
http://www.dreamtimeentertainment.com

[Jeremy Garchow]

[Dave Beaty] “example
http://www.dreamtimeentertainment.com/p2/0042IK2.mov “

Ouch. Perhaps you should separate the firewire bus and not daisy chain the firewire devices.

For example, if you are using a MacBookPro, get yourself a fw800 Express/34 card to put the PCD20 and fw800 drive on a different buses. For example, you’d put the PCD20 in to your mac fw800 port and then attach you fw800 storage to the Express34 fw card, or vice versa.

I have transferred many terrrbaytes worth of footage with a PCD20 using both P2CMS and ShotPro and I have never had these dropouts. The difference I see between your setup and mine is that I have a SATA stroage system that I use to connect to laptops via an Express34 card out in the field and I don’t use fw800. This leads me to believe that the fw bus can’t handle the data transfer reading and writing at the same time (similar to a fw drive and the ioHD, it’s just not possible).

I would suggest getting an Express34 card and Shoutput Pro. That should take care of the weirdness. Also, there are mac drivers for the PCD20, I would use those as well.

Jeremy

[Dave Beaty]

[Jeremy Garchow] “I would suggest getting an Express34 card and Shoutput Pro. That should take care of the weirdness. Also, there are mac drivers for the PCD20, I would use those as well.”

I didn’t think of that. It works without a driver, so I wonder if there’s anything in that that would correct it?

1394b Driver ver1.2.0 Mac

[Jeremy Garchow]

I would definitely use the PCD20 driver. I am not sure exactly what it does for the reader, but it does make it way more easy to discern what is what. After installing the driver, you will get little icons telling you which card is in what slot. So if you have 5 cards in there, you can tell exactly which card and from what slot you are transferring from. The drivers come in the mac p2 driver download package along with PCD35 and p2store drivers.

Jeremy

[Matthew Romanis]

I am having exactly the same issue with the HPX 3000, however it is only when the camera is recording PRO 50 DV only.
HD 100 and AVC Intra 50/100 have always been clean. We have had the problem with both the duel adapter and the PDC 20 using FW 800/1394b. I can view the fault directly off the card as well as any files transferred to any hard drive. The Panasonic agents believe it has something to do with the SD encoder in the camera.

[Matthew Romanis]

Another thing to consider is if you have “Perian” installed on your MAC. Check the system preferences custom panes at the bottom to see if it is installed, then click un-install to take it off-line.