P2 offload issues using new MacbookPro and Duel

[Chris Cardno]

Nope. It was a brand new laptop and I was loading up the basics first when the boot issues started. After the reinstall I figured I should load things in one at a time and see if I could replicate the problem. While the start-up issues didn’t happen, the kernel panic did.

I’ve used Macbooks before for offload without FCP as it’s not something all our clients ask us to do, they’re happy just having the raw data transferred to a hard drive or two and then they can do what they want with it. Plus, to be honest, I prefer that as it’s one less step in the field that can draw questions after the fact.

Chris Cardno
Visual Edge Productions
Bethesda, MD

[Jeremy Garchow]

Yeah, no worries. I was just repsonding the the codec conflict that was mentioned in an earlier post. Why not try installing P2CMS (as it installs a DVCPro HD codec) and see if that might work better.

[Gerret Warner]

Chris and others,

Sorry for the delay in getting back to this thread. I too have been in touch with Dan at Imagine, and he sent me a Beta version of ShotPut Pro to see if it would correct the problem that Chris and I are having (MacBook Pro with 4 GB RAM/Dual Adapter/kernel panic). But while Chris is using 16GB cards, I’m using 8GB. I’ve sent a copy of the crash report to Dan and am waiting for their analysis.

I tried bringing in HD footage from my P2 card with the new software and had the same problem. Then I tried using P2CMS, and that also created a kernel panic.

Sure hope someone can help. Short of buying yet another expensive piece of gear I’m stuck.

[Jesse Arnold]

This is a problem w/10.4.11 also.

Definitely same issues exist w/10.4.11 & latest P2 drivers, Duel drivers, and P2CMS. June 07 2.2 MBP 15.

SAFE BOOT mode works, but appears to be really slow.
Finder copy runs, but is not recommended…
Pulling 4GB & replacing it w 2GB (in a MBP that came w/2GB) works.

Jesse

[Eric Martin]

I’ve been on Panasonic’s case for a single card reader for since I got my hvx, over two years ago.

My Duel Adapter stopped working long ago (about a year I think) with my MBP (2.33GHz 2gb RAM, FCP 5.1.4, P2CMS etc) & 8gb cards.

I never used FCP or P2CMS for import – just wanted to dump the raw footage from the cards to clients’ drives.

Chris, the situation Dan has mentioned regarding conflicts between Duels’ drivers, Mac OS 10.5 & Panny’s drivers has been going on for some time. When I first had trouble Duel customer service had me uninstall latest Panny drivers and put in older ones – that f%3ed up everything (even Safari!) and I’ve had two useless Duel Adapters since (I got an older PB on ebay and use it with Shotput very happily).

Bottom line:

Panasonic has a line of cameras somewhat dependent on a workflow with Apples latest laptops but cares not that their customers languish.

Duel has a line of Adapters with serious driver issues and doesn’t feel like working anymore with Apples’ OS.

Apple has bigger fish to fry than worrying about some small company’s (Duel) driver issues not upgrading well with their plans to upgrade their OS (whoa – they upgrade software?! who knew?).

Not happy with any of these companies performance on this issue!

[Gerret Warner]

I agree, Eric. How is it that this fundamental problem hasn’t been fixed?

Here’s Duel Adaptor’s response to my problem:

The DuelAdapter works fine with the p2 card at it’s base level of operation. If you are wanting to use third-party software with the DuelAdapter, we suggest you contact the software vendor for a fix.

Thank you for contacting the DuelAdapter email support.
Ryan

I’ve asked what base level means to them, but haven’t yet gotten an answer. If it means that the adapter works only at the Finder level–where both Apple and Panasonic say we shouldn’t copy P2 files–then the adapter doesn’t work with P2 cards and the company should make that clear.

As far as I can see my only recourse now is to move back to my G4 for P2 offloads in the field.

Extremely frustrating. Maybe time to go over to Sony.

[Barry Green]

Having looked into this issue a bit, it does seem like the problem is limited to 4GB systems. As Jesse found, pulling out 2GB (and thus turning it into a 2GB MBP) works.

Whether the problem is with Duel, or Apple, or Panasonic, or Imagine, that part hasn’t been figured out yet. But the problem definitely appears to be related to having 4GB of RAM. I know Panasonic and Duel are aware of that and are trying to figure out what the problem is.

In the meantime, to get up and running, you pretty much have two choices: either pull out 2GB (not exactly a preferred solution) or use the Terminal application to convince the operating system to limit itself to using only 2GB. And that seems the best practice, because you can swap over to “2GB” mode for your Duel usage, then swap back to “4GB” mode for everything else.

These are the instructions that I’ve had sent to me from a Mac user who says this will work, so I’m forwarding them on in hopes that it will help you guys out.

To Turn Your 4GB MBP Into A “virtual” 2GB MBP:
1. Launch the Directory Utility from the Application->Utility Folder. Click the “key” icon to unlock it. Then click “Edit->Enable Root User.”

2. Launch the Terminal program, from Application->Utility Folder. Then type in the following command: “sudo nvram boot-args=”maxmem=2048”

3. Launch the Directory Utility again, and click the key icon to unlock it, then choose “Edit->Disable Root User”.

To Revert Back to Using All 4GB:
Follow all the steps above, but in step 2 you’d forget that “maxmem” line and instead type in this command in the Terminal program: “sudo nvram boot-args=””

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