Workflow FCP5 and P2 cards

[Rainer Wirth]

Hi folks,

has anybody any work experience?

[Gerry Brooks]

In Australia, we have just started to test P2 cards and FCP5. Bit early yet for results.
Gerry Brooks

[Dan Mastroluca]

We are demo-ing a P2 Camera from Panasonic. I hooked it up via USB and Firewire and it is not showing up on the desktop as a drive, so I have not been able to drag&drop media. The camera does show up on the USB info in profiler, must be a driver issue. I was told by the Panasonic engineer that Apple is working on it. I did see some kind of import feature on FCP5 and P2 at NAB. Not sure if that was Beta or final release FCP5.

[Jan Crittenden livingston]

So which do you have Dan? FCP5, or a Beta Release of FCP5?

Thanks,

Jan

Jan Crittenden Livingston
Product Manager, DVCPRO, DVCPRO50, AG-DVX100
Panasonic Broadcast & TV Systems

[Rainer Wirth]

Hi Jan, Hi Dan,

on Monday I get the 800 P2 Panasonic. I will tell you about the tests. I spoke to several people both at apple and panasonic. So far with a Windows computer the PCMI slot works. So you can put the card into the slot and it shows as a hard disc. It doesn’t in the Mac PCMI slot. With a mac you need the panasonic card reader (money 2000 bucks). From there you should have the cards (it holds 5) as a hard disc showing on the computer. When the cards show as a hard disc you can import them in FCP5.
The problem doesn’t lie in the FCP5 it’s a problem of Tiger. So I look for a different workflow. If the camera itsself show as a harddisc on a Windows computer I’ll get a notebook windows, copy the harddisc on a firewire harddisc, which will then show on the mac. From there I should be able to import in FCP.
Thats the theory. I will test it 29th June on the roadshow of panasonic. It could be, that panasonic want to sell their card reader.

Rainer

[Misha Aranyshev]

Driver issue is one thing. File format is another. I believe the footage on P2 is in MXF container. FCP5 does not support MXF directly and at NAB they had a beta of third party product installed much like Apple AAF demo at NAB’04 was Automatic Duck. The MXF converter for FCP sells for $500. There are two from different companies so I don’t know which one Apple was running at NAB.

[Rainer Wirth]

This sounds interesting, because I need the workflow. My brandnew 800 is on the desk. The newest information I’ve got is, that P2 is recognized with the latest software. I’ll test it on Thursday, because there is a fair at cologne.
I’ll let you know. Another possibility is, to buy panasonics P2 card reader. I’ll have a go on this as well. Another option is, to use a Windows laptop, transfer data onto a firewire harddisc and transfer the data onto the mac. I think, when the harddrives are recognized as harddrives in the mac, FCP5 should be able to import the files. But it’s all guessing…

Rainer

[Rainer Wirth]

This sounds interesting, because I need the workflow. My brandnew 800 is on the desk. The newest information I’ve got is, that P2 is recognized with the latest software. I’ll test it on Thursday, because there is a fair at cologne.
I’ll let you know. Another possibility is, to buy panasonics P2 card reader. I’ll have a go on this as well. Another option is, to use a Windows laptop, transfer data onto a firewire harddisc and transfer the data onto the mac. I think, when the harddrives are recognized as harddrives in the mac, FCP5 should be able to import the files. But it’s all guessing…

Rainer

[Jesse Rosen]

I’ve been testing this camera and the P2 workflow for a documentary project that will be posted on Final Cut 5. What I’ve found is this:

Until we have new drivers, the cards can only be mounted on the Mac (either through the P2 drive — what we’re using for this project — or through the camera) if the write-protect tab is flipped. Then the cards mount and Final Cut can import the files (it converts the MXF files to quicktime).

For field use, I have set up rsync to automate the process of downloading the cards onto a hard drive (hopefully for real production I’ll have a RAID-1 setup). This way all of the footage ends up in one place and can all be imported into final cut in one go, and there is no risk of accidentally over-writing footage in the field (It merges the directory structure from all the cards).

Because we have no write-access from the Mac, the cards must be formatted in the camera before being reused. All 5 cards can be formatted in about 20 seconds.

The one issue I’ve had importing footage into Final Cut is that all the clips have been coming in with DF timecode. I’m following this one up with Apple.

Hope this helps.

–Jesse

—
Jesse Rosen
Director of Technical Development
Abel Cine Tech, Inc.

[Rainer Wirth]

Jesse, this is great,

you’re the only one with some work experience.
I’ll tell you my workflow, and you can tell me, whether it will work or not.
First you shoot material. Then I’ll protect the cards. I’ll plug in the camera via USB and put the camera on USB. Then the cards show up as Hard discs. I’ll copy the lot to a laptop. The cards will be then reformatted and you can shoot again. AT home: The material then will be copied on a Raid. From the raid at home FCP5 can import the data.
Right or wrong?

Rainer