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P2 Micon Error disappeard, then no error but would only import 1 or 2 clips at a time???
Okay, I pulled my shiny new HVX camera from the box, charged the battery, went out with a sony 9inch field monitor, stix, and HVX manual, and shot a 8GB card full of skateboarders doing tricks, nature in the forest, and historical sites. I primarily shot in 24pn, and for the skateboarders, overcranked the framerate to 60fps for some nice slowmo. All the footage looked great, played back in the camera great, out to the field monitor great, out to a TV in the skateshop great, and even the remote worked very well.
When I got home last night I plugged the camera into my MacPro via firewire and after seeing that 6GB of footage was going to take about 30 minutes to transfer, I cancelled that operation and fired up FCP. Every clip seem to play in the P2 import window fine. I added all the clips to the que and when it said 30 minutes, I walked away.
When I returned, Final Cut was locked up solid – having only imported a handful of clips. I shut everything down, rebooted, and then my camera displayed the “System Error. P2 Micon Error.” Nothing was happening. The footage that did ingest was fine, and I could still watch all of the footage in the camera without fault.
After a dozen or so attempts the error message went away. I didn’t change anything, just rebooted and switched the camera on and off, and the message magically disappeared. However, the camera, when connected would still only allow me to import one or two clips before locking up again. I finally got my footage off the card, after a few HOURS. I reformatted the card, and shot around the office in the preset HVX default mode – I’ve yet to create my scene settings. When I went to import that footage, same thing. One, maybe two clips, then lock up. I gave up at 1am after sitting down to this at 7pm and went to bed.
I decided to give it another go this morning before boxing it up and shipping it back to B&H – they’re on holiday anyway, so what the heck.
Everything seems to be working as it should today. No problems importing using the P2 import, straight from the card to the HDD, or to a firewire drive in host mode. I shot long clips and short clips. They all seem fine. However, I’ve not shot in 24pn or overcranked the frame rate yet. I’ll keep you posted on how that goes.
Has anyone else ran into this illogical problem? I did nothing different and still ended up with a different result! Can I trust this camera? Is this how it should operate? Should I send it back? I believe that if electronics don’t work out of the box, they won’t work well ever, but is this a normal occurrence for a new HVX200?
Concerned,
BradBrad Bear
br*******@***oo.com -
11 Replies
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Copy the entire directory structure from the p2 card to your hard drive into its own folder, then import from there. Apparently the version of FCP you use is important as several versions (5.1.2 that I know of) have P2 issues.
Copying a full 8 gig p2 should take about 4 minutes via fw,usb, or pcmcia slot.
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I have tried copy the card via firewire and usb. but i get same system error.
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I tried copying everything, any way possible from the camera, including host mode – nothing going. It would just randomly stop writing to the disk. I know this sounds stupid, but it almost seems as though it was buffering to something, and whatever that was was filling up before the transfer was over. In Final Cut, I could get a clip or two over before it stopped, and it never stopped on the same clip twice.
I know my version of Final Cut is okay with the format because of HVX200s I’ve rented and shot on in the past have all worked fine.
Funnier still is how perfectly everything plays back in the camera, which leads me to believe that the P2 card is working as expected.
I really think I just got a faulty camera. That, or Panasonic has started using a different piece of technology internally in the newer cameras. I’ve noticed that the P2 Micon Error is popping up all over the place on newer cameras. However, mine is no longer the P2 Micon Error, it’s a basic file transfer problem.
When the P2 card contents begin transferring to my hard-drive it says 4 hours, and eventually reduces itself to 36 minutes for 6GB of data before locking up.
Thank you for the advice, and I’ll keep everyone posted as this plays out. I’m calling Panasonic tomorrow. I’m hoping for the best, but I’ve been warned many times over about Panasonic support. I hope they’ve improved of the past few years. We’ll see.
So far I’ve been told by Panasonic to check the write protect switch on the card, and to reformat the card. Both of which I did right off the back. This has happened on each of the three cards of data I’ve shot in trying to lacate the problem.
Take Care,
BradBrad Bear
brad.bear@yahoo.com -
Hi,
You should transfer your footage to the HDD before importing. I is something that FCP doesn’t like too much.
As fas as Panasonic using something different in newer cameras, don’t think so. So what is your serial number?
Best,
jan
Jan Crittenden Livingston
Product Manager, DVCPRO, DVCPRO50, AG-DVX100
Panasonic Broadcast & TV Systems -
Bless you in advance for anything you may be able to help with.
serial: C7TC00223 R
Brad Bear
brad.bear@yahoo.com -
Hi,
I will check with the factory about anything significant, but while I do that there are a couple things that strike me about your work flow that seem problematic.
First, you must put the record lock on so that the Apple does not index the card. The P2 camera whrites the card to just enough full so that it still has a bit of wiggle room. It the write protect is not on, the Apple indexes the card, thus overfilling the card and this sort of error takes place.
Now if you have done this you can reverse it, but turning othe hidden files and you will see the stuff the Apple has put on ther, Delete it and then put the write-protect back on.
Second, always, always, until Apple changes things, offload the media from the card to an HDD before. You can look at it, but do not import off of the cad. Import off of the HDD transfer. Apple makes this recommendation.
Give me a day or so as the engineering folks are moving en masse to Las Vegas for NAB, but I will get back to you.
Best,
Jan
Jan Crittenden Livingston
Product Manager, DVCPRO, DVCPRO50, AG-DVX100
Panasonic Broadcast & TV Systems -
Thank you for responding so quickly Jan. That was great advice, and certainly some I was not aware of.
I tried everything you said above. I turned on all hidden folders and files, and only the contents folder and Last Clip file was on the card. I made sure that the write protect was on – Still no go, at least consistently.
The card – with the same information on it as yesterday – initially transfered to the HDD, 3.09GB took 5 minutes the first time, transferred a second time with no changes, same 3.09GB took about 7 minutes.
I unmounted the card from the computer, unprotected it, shot about 3GB more footage, write protected the card, hooked the camera back into the computer, made sure that there were no OS files on the card from indexing, and began the transfer. 6.69GB from the card reported that it would take 37 minutes to transfer, but locked up completely with about 12 minutes to go.
– Brad
Brad Bear brad.bear@yahoo.com
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Just a follow up on my issues with the HVX200. I exchanged the camera and have no problems with the new one. Everything works great now.
Must have just been a bad apple in the bunch. Judging that no one has had this same problem, it seems like it was a very rare problem – which makes me happy.
Thank you all for your help, especially Jan.
Take Care,
Brad -
I just ordered another HVX200 last week and ended up running into the error message “System Error P2 Micon Error” every time I attempt to format the P2 Card. I have to turn the camera off and back on to get it working again. When I first received the camera it worked flawlessly for the first 4 hours of our Green screen production. After that, the camera started giving me that error message when I opened the “Operation” or “Meta Data” Drop-down menus under the VCR menu. Basically I have no way to format the P2 cards now. I can record fine and even play them in VCR mode. Originally I thought It may be a faulty 16gig card shipped with the camera, but I know the card is fine because I have 2 other HVX200 cameras and they both formated it correctly. I made sure all the setting were the same on each camera, then I tried one of my old 8gig cards in the newer camera. It produced the same error when trying to format the 8gig card. If I use the older cameras to format the cards, I’m able to use them again. Has anyone found a solution for this P2 error? I see lot of post thinking it is due to Final Cut, mix-matching frame rates on the same card, or because of the methods used to transfer the footage to the computer (IE: copying strait from p2 into FC). I understand these may be bad practices, but I used my other two cameras for at least a year without a hitch. The previous posts from “Bear Media” make it seem like I may have received a lemon. Any help from the guys at Panasonic would be great!
Jon Elsdon
VFX Supervisor
EEFX.COM – Chroma Key Green Screens & Supplies -
Hi,
Sounds like it is time to contact the service center. If you email PBTSservice@us.panasonic.com they can direct you to the right service center dependent on where you are located.
Best,
jan
Jan Crittenden Livingston
Product Manager, HPX500, HVX200, DVX100
Panasonic Broadcast & TV Systems
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