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P2 Store Confidence Builder?
I need a confidence builder in the P2 Store (or some more slap in the face reality!!)
I have the P2 Store, but have really been set back by the number of reports coming back of unreadable files when eventually transferring to computer.
Is every body having a problem, or just a small percentage. My regular workflow has been P2 Cards to Titanium laptop (connected to 2 Firewire drives – one backing up the other) and have fortunately had no problems. However, I actually went out of my way NOT to use the P2 Store on location for a recent job, just because of recent reports and the fear of losing irreplaceable shots!What does everyone think – is it a hardware problem or possibly operator error that’s reponsible for what I’m reading.
Should I be thinking:
A) It’s very reliable (don’t be afraid to use it)! OR
B) It’s going to bite me with that all important shot and I’m just asking for trouble.
And if the latter, how could Panasonic put out a product that is so important, but is proving to be a weak link!Thanks for your input.
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11 Replies
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It sucks. Doesn’t work with intel-macs. I used an powerbook instead to copy the files. I had to copy the video clips one-by-one because file copies crashed 4gb into the 8gb cards. Its a real slow interface. basically here’s the low-down of my day today. an 8gb card gets 20 min of DVCPRO-HD 720 24p. The process of backing up the card on the store, copying it from the p2store to a the laptop, copying from the laptop to my intel-macpro, importing it to my final cut. All but the last step takes fifteen minutes a piece. In total 20min of 720p took about 70min!!! The real bummer was that I had 8 cards but we had to reuse 3 for the day! so we had to erase those cards! If you don’t have a laptop you’d better hope that p2store is actually downloading the cards. Theres no way of double checking without a laptop. I’m telling the DP to use tapes on Monday. You should too! 😉
.:. jamie
PS not to knock on panasonic, this p2 thing will be great once the kinks get worked out…and the camea takes great pictures!
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We haven’t had one lick of a problem. 2 HVX cameras…10 P2 cards…P2 Store…smooth sailing. Not one bad clip, not one hitch.
We don’t have an Intel mac, however. Those are new and are subject to some issues early on that Panasonic will no doubt iron out. Being on the BLEEDING edge is tough. But, we were the first to get these cameras and put them to good use and haven’t had ONE hiccup. First to get the P2 Store on the west coast too and that worked flawlessly as well.
BUT…this was with FCP 5.0.4. Finally upgraded to FCP 5.1.2 and haven’t had to go into production with that camera or P2 store yet…and I am still using my Dual 2ghz machine…no Mac pro.
Shane
Littlefrog Post
http://www.lfhd.net -
Just an update, randomly the p2store just mounted all the partitions on my intel-computer. I’m still getting copy-errors and freezes, which makes me have to shut down improperly. But I get far fewer errors when I just use the p2store just as a reader.
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I’ve just bought a P2 Store and am about to test it before shooting next week. I want to dump all footage from the P2 Store to my G4 17″ laptop, but I now see that the P2 Store uses USB 2 and it looks as if my laptop has USB only. Am I in trouble?
GPW
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Transfer will just be slower
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well, the interface is slow. I know usb 2 sounds faster than firewire, but the 480Mbs is actually a burst speed, and the copy speed is all over the place! I reccommend using the laptops internal harddrive if you can, it’ll be much faster, and the copies wont fail as much! I had to do restarts all the time because the copy locked up.
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Do you mean use the laptop backup alone, without the P2 Store at all? I bought the P2 Store so that I didn’t have to set up my laptop every time I wanted to dump the P2 cards. Especially when shooting exteriors, that’s a real momentum breaker.
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Gerret…
I can answer this from experience. Don’t bother with USB 1…It will work, but it is SOOOOOO SLOOOWWWW!! By my calculation it took about 40 times longer – consistent with the 12Mbps vs 480 Mbps speeds. It just isn’t practical unless you have a long downtime or want to transfer overnight. I couldn’t believe how long it was taking me to transfer just a few cards worth of storage from the P2 Store to my Titanium laptop, and I had to wait to get back to the studio to transfer via our desktop G5 with USB 2. You could try a USB 2 PCMIA card, but the one I bought last minute in a crunch may not have been Mac compatible and didn’t let the P2 Store show up on the desktop (and that is with the P2 Software installed correctly)! Make sure to get a Mac compatible version if you try this.
Hope that helps.Continuing with the thread, any more experiences/recommendations to USE, or NOT TO USE the P2 Store would be really appreciated.
THANKS!
David -
David,
Many thanks for that. My test today confirms what you said. Thanks too for the warning about buying a card. Without it it’s almost impossiblel to shoot for several hours of exteriors without buying or renting more P2 cards, and who wants to buy cards now, when 16 gig cards will probably be out within the year.
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Firestore? does that work? why dont I have that? In an ideal world, if everything goes just perfectly, I’m still looking at 40min to digitize 20min.
What I meant about needing a laptop, was that if you are going to reuse the cards in the same day, it would be wise to double-check by mounting the partiions from the p2store onto the laptop before erasing the card. Also, if you really wanted to be cautious, I would make a backup of the p2store so you have two places where that card was copied. That process took me 60min of dig work per 20min tape. But, once its gone, its GONE.. Also, dropping a p2store or harddrive is much more serious than dropping a tape!
I wonder if my client wants our master tapes? What technically is the master here?
.:.
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