Problem with P2 Iin FCP 6.0.4 Preview Window Using HVX 200

[Jonathan Skurnik]

I am having the same problem and would really appreciate some input. I suspect it’s a bug that hasn’t been resolved yet, but it’s really impacting my workflow.

Also, I’ve always done finder copies, which even the Panasonic website says is fine, despite what the Panasonic tech told you. P2 is still so new, there are so many different workflows possible. I’ve decided to standardize on the workflow recommended by Shane Ross.

-Jonathan

[Jim Coulter]

Hi Jonathan,

Sorry to hear you’re having the same problem… it doesn’t seem to be a very prevalent problem as yours is the first response I have had to my post. It is a very frustrating problem because I cannot offline anything in FCP nor can I spot check footage in the field. I have to open the files in P2CMS and view them there. Plus I’m always afraid there might be something wrong with my files when I hand them off to my clients.

Here is some of the most recent things that have happened regarding the issue:

1.) The same grayed out preview window appeared on my friend’s Mac Pro system in FCP when I hooked my G-Raid to it trying to view some footage I shot for them. This means that the problem is then passed on to them and they in turn will not be able to offline their shots. It makes me wonder if somehow my camera or P2 cards are somehow “tainting” the media and therefore once it’s captured and transferred it will cause this gray screen on any computer using FCP… however I did a test recently by shooting some 720P 24P footage and copying it to a data DVD and I sent it to Jim Thomas (Panasonic’s tech rep) He tried opening it on his system and said he had no problems and no gray screen. It seems every path I go down has a different outcome!

2.) I have been trying to troubleshoot the problem with Jim Thomas, Panasonic’s tech rep. He has been trying to help but even he really doesn’t know what’s causing the problem.

3.) I bought a new transfer software called SHOTPUT and the first few transfers I tried everything worked great…I could see my media and they played fine in the preview window in FCP. I thought I had solved the problem only to be let down on my next shoot when the gray screen returned again and again even using the SHOTPUT software.

Here’s what I do know…

1.) Using the camera as an offload mechanism everything looks great and I have experienced no problems however that is irrelevant because if I used my camera to offload files during a shoot I would not be able to shoot again until the media was offloaded.

2.) The problem seem to happen mostly when shooting 720P 24P which unfortunately happens to be the format I shoot 99 percent of my media in. Other frame rates do not seem to cause the problem.

3.) The problem is intermittent.

4.) I cannot pinpoint if the problem is an issue related to some combination of hardware and software on MY system only and perhaps that is why so few other people have reported the problem. Perhaps by some strange coincidence your system has the same or similar variables as mine and therefore you too are experiencing the problem?

5.) None of my questions have been answered by Panasonic, Apple or Duel Adapter any of which could be responsible.

The reality is no one is stepping up to look into and solve this problem and my only options thus far have been to find work arounds and just deal with it… which really sucks- to tell you the truth.

Anything you know or hear about I would really appreciate if you could let me know also.

Jim Coulter

[Jonathan Skurnik]

Hi Jim,

Thanks for the thorough response. I doubt very much that we have the same configurations. I’m on a G4 laptop using Iomega external HDs. It’s intermittant for me as well, and several other CC users have reported the problem, including expert Shane Ross, who also hasn’t been able to figure out why it’s happening.

I too am working around it.

THanks,

-Jonathan

[Chris Vater]

I am having the same problem, have been since August (right around the time of either a Mac OS X or FCP upgrade). Once in a while, I can view the clips properly but for the most part, I get the grey screen you have mentioned.

When I input the cards directly into my G4 Powerbook or when I copy the P2 files onto a hard drive and access them from any of my other computers (all Powerbook and Quad PowerPC) I get the same grey screen.

I have tried a fresh install of FCP 6, with no success. I think that many people must be having this problem but without finding any solution, they don’t bother writing on these forums. I don’t know if this is a problem only on older macs, I do not have a Macbook Pro or Intel Mac to test this out on.

This seems like such an obvious problem, I think Apple may have done this intentionally to get people to either upgrade their Macs or upgrade to Leopard.

I would be really curious to hear if anyone has had this issue on an Intel Mac or on a Mac with leopard installed.

Best Regards,
Chris Vater, Creative Director
High I.Q. Media
Hartford, CT

[Jim Coulter]

HI Chris,

I am the person that started this particular thread and I am indeed using an Intel Macbook Pro running the latest Leopard OS 10.5.5 to offload my files via Duel Adapter and external hard drive.

I am experiencing the same issue on my Mac Pro Intel as well so I don’t think that’s what’s causing the problem.

Although I’m sorry to hear that you’re having the same problem… maybe if enough of us speak out -Panasonic, Apple or Duel Adapter will do something about it.

It has to be something software related because as you said I never had this problem before. I was using the FINDER and just dragging P2 files over to my hard drive from the Duel Adapter and everything was working great… and one day BAM! I started having this problem. Like you I constantly update my software as new updates become available… so something happened.

Jim Coulter

[Jim Coulter]

With regard to the grey preview screen problem in FCP. I have good news… at least with my problem. It went away…as if by magic. So that tells me that Apple (FCP) must have addressed the problem and the last time I did a software update the problem with the grey screen in the preview window within FCP just went away.

As a desperate last measure I had sent my HVX200 with all 3 P2 cards and my Duel-Adapter to Panasonic in New Jersey (at considerable expense with regard to shipping costs) only to have them check the equipment using the same workflow and the problem never reared it’s ugly head. I was perplexed because it happened 90 percent of the time with me. After the equipment got home the problem (to date) has not re-appeared. My only guess is that I did do a software update on my Macbook Pro while the camera was in New Jersey and that somehow fixed the problem because I have not changed my workflow or any of the equipment from before.

Hopefully those of you who wrote me saying you too were having the grey screen problem have also discovered that your P2 problems have magically gone away.

The interesting thing is…NO ONE (not Apple, Panasonic or Duel-Adapter) ever admitted anything was wrong on their end.

[Jim Coulter]

With regard to the grey preview screen problem in FCP. I have good news… at least with my problem. It went away…as if by magic. So that tells me that Apple (FCP) must have addressed the problem and the last time I did a software update the problem with the grey screen in the preview window within FCP just went away.

As a desperate last measure I had sent my HVX200 with all 3 P2 cards and my Duel-Adapter to Panasonic in New Jersey (at considerable expense with regard to shipping costs) only to have them check the equipment using the same workflow and the problem never reared it’s ugly head. I was perplexed because it happened 90 percent of the time with me. After the equipment got home the problem (to date) has not re-appeared. My only guess is that I did do a software update on my Macbook Pro while the camera was in New Jersey and that somehow fixed the problem because I have not changed my workflow or any of the equipment from before.

Hopefully those of you who wrote me saying you too were having the grey screen problem have also discovered that your P2 problems have magically gone away.

The interesting thing is…NO ONE (not Apple, Panasonic or Duel-Adapter) ever admitted anything was wrong on their end.

[Drew Walkup]

All,

Here is a fix I got to work:

Rename the folder containing your P2 Contents folder and LASTCLIP.TXT to have no spaces or special characters. For example, when I changed:

R# A001 071909 1000AM

to:

R_A001_071909_1000AM

The preview worked perfectly. I hope this helps.

Drew

[Jim Coulter]

Hi Drew,

Thanks for the response regarding “Problems viewing in preview window in FCP using P2”

Strangely enough the issues I had went away on their own. I’m not sure if it was an update issue on FCP or if Panasonic fixed the bug but it just went away and thankfully has not come back.

I’m glad that you at least found a fix if you and others are still having that problem because it will help tremendously being able to preview your media when importing P2. It saves a lot of drive space!

Jim

[Don Scott]

I have a similar problem. When I put a p2 in the duel adapter in my Macbook pro and hit log & tranfer in fcp, the preview works fine.

I edit from my LaCie 1000 gig ext HD and I’ve been double-clicking P2/no name on my desktop and dragging the two files inside into a folder on the ext HD. Log and transfer preview works perfect.

Recently I didn’t have an ext HD available and I drug the no name/p2 files directly to a folder on the macbook pro desktop and tried to log and transfer in fcp and I gotthe same error message you are getting. The only way to view the clips is to ingest them in into fcp. This might be fine for a really short project but it’s a real pain on a larger one. This happens every time I’ve tried it.