Rumors of $1000 US for 8Gig P2 cards

[Harry]

1. You CANNOT offload to a USB drive. There is no USB port on the camera. They changed it to firewire.

2. You CAN offload to a firewire drive — the camera just sees the firewire drive as lots of little P2 storage cards.

3. You CANNOT shoot and record to a firewire (or USB) drive directly — you will have to wait for the Firestore thing in March.

4. You CAN shoot and record directly to a computer using the firewire output from the camera if you use an NLE like FCP — you just feed the camera’s firewire output into your computer and hit “record” on your NLE.

This is information that I have, over the past couple of months, extracted directly from Jan at Panasonic.

And I am number 16 on the waiting list at Birns and Sawyer in Holywood, having plunked down a deposit.

So there!!

Enough speculation, folks — for I am …

Hiawatha DeLorean, Duke of Mulholland.

Fear me! I bite.

[Barry Green]

[Harry] “There is no USB port on the camera. They changed it to firewire.”

Harry, your post is spot-on except for this one bit. There is still a USB port on the camera. What changed is that originally they were going to implement P2-card-offloading to USB2 drives, but now instead they have implemented it through firewire. But the USB port remains, and still functions when connecting the camera to a computer.

—————–
Get the most from your DVX camera. The DVX Book and DVX DVD are now available at https://www.dvxuser.com/articles/dvxbook/ and at Amazon (https://tinyurl.com/54u4a)

[Harry]

Barry,

Thanks for the info and correction. I wonder why they kept the USB port since the firewire is faster. Any ideas?

Thanks again.

Best

Harry

[Barry Green]

Not really, other than to just provide another alternative for connecting to the computer. Some laptops have USB only and don’t have firewire, for example. Other than that, I don’t know what the USB port is particularly used for…

—————–
Get the most from your DVX camera. The DVX Book and DVX DVD are now available at https://www.dvxuser.com/articles/dvxbook/ and at Amazon (https://tinyurl.com/54u4a)

[Steve Freebairn]

If it is USB2.0 then it is faster than firewire in theory since USB 2.0 is 480mbps and firewire is only 400, but most tests reveal that firewire can still beat out usb 2.0

[Matthew Romanis]

I have recently gone through the steep learning curve of having to buy a PC laptop to work in conjunction with an FFV Mini DVR (another story!!).
A- It was not straight forward to obtain a PC laptop with a firewire port on it,
B- Firewire in the PC world is simply not as elegant as it is in the MAC environment.
My guess would be that keeping the USB 2 option allows the camera more freedom in the PC Laptop environment, as USB 2 seems to be the transfer protocol most used there.
I’m in the position of having used a solid state device for broadcast applications (ie, minicam in tape hazardous environments) the earlier talk in some threads of using CF cards or the like is the stuff of fairytales.
The CF cards for these applications are not reliable, develop dud sectors very quickly and constantly have format issues due to the high sustained data rates. The failure rate is too high to be acceptable for use with the HVX 200, and that is using San Disk Ultra II 4 gig cards x 2.
The very high spec of P2 merits the initial cost. End of argument.

[Blub06]

Damit, he ended the argument! Did anyone else notice that?

Chris

[Amadon Amadon]

Kudos for your candor. But in my view, there is ONE advantage to the proliferation of junk — especially junky VIDEOS and MOVIES everywhere you turn. Like you, some people get sick and tired of it. In the long run, that raises the value of the (now relatively rare) good stuff. For example, the other day, I tunred on the television, and got a MAJOR shock: I heard a GOOD guitar player! Incredible! I couldn’t have been more pleased. I began to realize, a genuine craftsman like that will rise up from the mud once in a while. It DOES happen, despite the rabble.

As far as junky and cheap hardware products are concerned: I guess the money men are duty bound play to the market taste, where people want everything for nothing. Disgusting, perhaps, but pure business. I buy the best I can afford. Maybe others do the same. As long as people understand what they’re getting –and what they’re NOT getting–I guess its ok. Maybe your real complaint is that people just buy marketing hype, and are deluded as a result. Fool’s gold, that. amadon

[Kyle S]

“It was not straight forward to obtain a PC laptop with a firewire port on it”
sure it is, i can’t remember the last time I saw a new one that didn’t,
as long as your not trying to shop in the bargin basement

“Firewire in the PC world is simply not as elegant as it is in the MAC environment”
once again, sure it is, when you stop shopping at the $1000 best buy level,
Buy the tool for the job, It alwasy amazes me the people who spend 3 grand on a
Power Book and then try and compare the performance of a budget office PC, and say
see I told you they couldn’t do it.

“The CF cards for these applications are not reliable, develop dud sectors very quickly and constantly have format issues due to the high sustained data rates. The failure rate is too high to be acceptable”
Not where I’ve been, never seen those kinds of problems with the cards.
but then again,you offered nothing but your word.

Kyle

[Matthew Romanis]

“”It was not straight forward to obtain a PC laptop with a firewire port on it”
sure it is, i can’t remember the last time I saw a new one that didn’t,
as long as your not trying to shop in the bargain basement”

I spent $200 less than I did with my powerbook. In Australia this was not an easy exercise. It may be more common in the US and other placers but locally there was not a great deal of choice in the matter. Buying outside the country with large ticket items is a concern with warranty service. The local reps of known companies don’t honour warranties when you cannot show a local receipt.

“”Firewire in the PC world is simply not as elegant as it is in the MAC environment”
once again, sure it is, when you stop shopping at the $1000 best buy level,
Buy the tool for the job, It alwasy amazes me the people who spend 3 grand on a
Power Book and then try and compare the performance of a budget office PC, and say see I told you they couldn’t do it.”

Plug and play simply does not work as elegantly. Even colleagues who are PC nuts tell me this is the one thing that they envy with MAC’s, though lately with OSX Tiger that’s another story. CF card readers that aren’t yet supported and the like.

“”The CF cards for these applications are not reliable, develop dud sectors very quickly and constantly have format issues due to the high sustained data rates. The failure rate is too high to be acceptable”
Not where I’ve been, never seen those kinds of problems with the cards.
but then again,you offered nothing but your word.”

What broadcast video applications have you seen CF cards working in? I’m only aware of FFV’s products, are there more?
I’m questioning the robustness of using CF cards for video work from my own experience. I still use the CF recorder in areas where tape won’t work ,such as high G acceleration and deceleration and small size environments, but the overall success rate is not what I would call reliable, and that’s what my point was.
The reliability of the P2 card system has to 100%, no less. To guarantee that you have vision on the disks when you get back from a gruelling wilderness shoot is of utmost importance. The concept of paying high prices for P2 early in the life of this camera may be abhorrent to some, if so, wait.