[Ben Price]

To access the ‘Diagnostic’ menu:

From camera being powered off…

– Turn camera on.
– Push the following buttons individually in this order:
1) “Reset” (left side – Counter button)
2) “Stop” (playback control under flap)
3) “Disp/Mode CHK”
4) “Menu”

From here, you’ll have access to the ‘Diagnostic’ menu where you can find out the operating hours.

[Ben Price]

Marcus,

I’m living in Colorado now, but was just in Texas from Oct. 1st through the 13th. I have some industrial clients there that I edit for (through my former agency employer). And, I have my own freelance clients that I work with in Colorado.

I can definitely say that my edit systems are keeping busy. In the last month, I’ve posted sixteen (16) industrial metallurgy training programs, a hand-signal training video for gantry operators offloading container ships, a Tag / Lock program for a refinery, a city’s downtown-rebuilding community update video, a Habitat for Humanity program featuring a visit by the state Governor (CO), one TV commercial for a furniture store and another spot for a hospital.

The two desktop systems (in Texas and Colorado) get the most use. My laptop system sees very little action as I only use it when I have to bring a project to a client versus them coming to me.

Most of what I do isn’t served to a large audience – internal corporate communication and local/regional TV. However, I can at least claim some national/global distribution. I’ve had output from my M100 show on the Maury Povich show, QVC, the Pentagon Channel, and the American Forces Network. Through it all, no one has ever complained about the quality of the video they received. No one.

I know I’m happy with the performance of my systems. It’s a shame that M100 / BorisFX isn’t more supportive of the platform. But, I’m glad it hasn’t been completely abandoned.

I’m actually in a mentoring program with a local high school. The student I’m working with opted to purchase a M100 license versus one for Premiere or FCP because she liked how fast I could edit with it.

I appreciate the community we’ve built. It’s nice to know that all of you are out there.

———————
System #1
———————
MacPro4.1 OS10.8
Single 2.66GHz Quad-core Xeon
3GB RAM
Media100 Suite 2.1.2
Kona LHi

———————
System #2
———————
MacPro3.1 OS10.8
Dual 2.8GHz Quad-core Xeon
8GB RAM
Media100 Suite 2.1.2
Kona LHi

———————
System #3
———————
MacBook Pro OS10.9
13″ Retina, Late 2013
Single 2.4GHz Intel-core i5 (4-cores)
8GB RAM
Media100 Suite 2.1.4
No input card

[Ben Price]

I once had a comparable (if not similar) experience. I’m not sure it is applicable now as it occurred some years ago, but perhaps it might…

The company installed / upgraded a PC server system to allow projects to be temporarily stored for 3 to 6 months between client updates – versus truly offloading the project to a traditional back-up system (linear tape, optical media, HDD, etc)

We immediately began having problems with ANY files that were pushed to the server and brought back to the M100. They appeared fine. They would play while on the server and through the finder when restored to the editing system. However, M100 would not re-link them and would sometimes throw up error messages. We COULD re-import them and manually re-edit/re-build the timeline.

After much troubleshooting, we finally determined that the PC server was not maintaining the created/modified dates for the files we pushed to it. I don’t remember if it was just one of the date values or both.

Anyway, M100 used this information, along with the file name, for the media management / linking process. And once either value changed, the media would no longer associate with a project.

The IT guys could never really explain why the new server changed the file meta-data for anything that was written to it. They insisted the server was fine and is was the Mac that caused the problems.

In the end, the production department refused to continue using the server. It was eventually ‘upgraded’ again later to a state of operation that played well with M100 files. No explanation for why the server rewrote the created/modified dates was ever provided.

———————
System #1
———————
MacPro4.1 OS10.8
Single 2.66GHz Quad-core Xeon
3GB RAM
Media100 Suite 2.1.2
Kona LHi

———————
System #2
———————
MacPro3.1 OS10.8
Dual 2.8GHz Quad-core Xeon
8GB RAM
Media100 Suite 2.1.2
Kona LHi

———————
System #3
———————
MacBook Pro OS10.9
13″ Retina, Late 2013
Single 2.4GHz Intel-core i5 (4-cores)
8GB RAM
Media100 Suite 2.1.4
No input card

[Ben Price]

For the majority of my projects now, I pull footage from either P2 (Panasonic HD) or SDHC (Canon DSLR). The import is fast and easy and the footage edits great.

I’ve also had good experiences using footage from BlackMagic’s Hyperdeck SSD recorders.

———————
System #1
———————
MacPro4.1 OS10.8
Single 2.66GHz Quad-core Xeon
3GB RAM
Media100 Suite 2.1.2
Kona LHi

———————
System #2
———————
MacPro3.1 OS10.8
Dual 2.8GHz Quad-core Xeon
8GB RAM
Media100 Suite 2.1.2
Kona LHi

———————
System #3
———————
MacBook Pro OS10.9
13″ Retina, Late 2013
Single 2.4GHz Intel-core i5 (4-cores)
8GB RAM
Media100 Suite 2.1.4
No input card

[Ben Price]

Paul,

I travel between offices in Texas and Colorado and typically use the Lacie drives for my transfer workflow all the time.

Your experience in having to relink the media when you go between computers sounds similar to my experience.

I have to relink the media from the HDD’s when going between systems. The media search doesn’t seem to find the external HDD and media folders on it’s own (or I get bored waiting for it to do the search and just cancel it and/or tell it to ‘Skip’ all of the drives).

Manually relinking the files is the way to go. (CMD-‘M’) Navigate to your Lacie drive and select the project media folder AND then go back and also add the ‘Rendered Media’ folder.

This is fast and immediate (for me at least) and always brings me back to where I left off.

FWIW – It seems odd to me that you would have these issues. It sounds like you’re doing everything right. I guess it could be related to the OS and/or version you’re using. I just wanted to chime in as someone that uses a similar workflow.

– Ben

———————
System #1
———————
MacPro4.1 OS10.8
Single 2.66GHz Quad-core Xeon
3GB RAM
Media100 Suite 2.1.2
Kona LHi

———————
System #2
———————
MacPro3.1 OS10.8
Dual 2.8GHz Quad-core Xeon
8GB RAM
Media100 Suite 2.1.2
Kona LHi

———————
System #3
———————
MacBook Pro OS10.9
13″ Retina, Late 2013
Single 2.4GHz Intel-core i5 (4-cores)
8GB RAM
Media100 Suite 2.1.4
No input card

[Ben Price]

Hi everyone!!!

Just wanted to follow-up and say that the folks at M100 (BorisFX) did provide me with an activation code for my laptop and I’m now testing out the NLE on it.

I had to do a bit of archive searching to get the DVCProHD codec installed on the laptop so my media would play. Thanks again to Floh (and CC for keeping old posts) as his tips for us users made it possible.

Pacifist / Apple Codec Installation Thread
https://forums.creativecow.net/thread/4/865993#865993

The laptop is a MacBook Pro (OS 10.9) with a 2.4 GHz Intel Core i5 (4 cores) and 8GB of RAM. So far, everything is going well. [crossed fingers]

———————
System #1
———————
MacPro4.1 OS10.8
Single 2.66GHz Quad-core Xeon
3GB RAM
Media100 Suite 2.1.2
Kona LHi

———————
System #2
———————
MacPro3.1 OS10.8
Dual 2.8GHz Quad-core Xeon
8GB RAM
Media100 Suite 2.1.2
Kona LHi

———————
System #3
———————
MacBook Pro OS10.9
13″ Retina, Late 2013
Single 2.4GHz Intel-core i5 (4-cores)
8GB RAM
Media100 Suite 2.1.4
No input card

[Ben Price]

Hey everyone!

Just wanted to add my presence to the party.

Merry Christmas! (or whatever it is you do in December)

– Ben

———————
System #1
———————
MacPro4.1 OS10.8
Single 2.66Ghz Quad-core Xeon
3GB RAM
Media100 Suite 2.1.2
Kona LHi

———————
System #2
———————
MacPro3.1 OS10.8
Dual 2.8Ghz Quad-core Xeon
8GB RAM
Media100 Suite 2.1.2
No input card

[Ben Price]

Floh,

Updating from v2.0.0 to v2.4.0 was successful in allowing me to access the full clip media.

It is worth noting that this compatibility statement is included in the software documentation:

Mountain Lion (OSX 10.8) has not been fully tested. Three known issues are (1) QuickTime Player X will only show the first 30 seconds of a MXF file even if you are licensed due to the license file being ‘sandboxed’ by OSX 10.8. This issue is being investigated – it is recommended that you install QuickTime Player 7.6.6 for QuickTime playback of MXF files, (2) Panasonic P2, Ikegami GFCAM, and Sony SAM MXF files will not play with ‘auto- joined’ audio do to ‘sandboxing’ in QT Player X, this has been reported to Apple, and (3) the Calibrated MXF QuickLook plugin does not function properly in OSX 10.8 however it appears to not be needed in OSX 10.8 as it will call the Calibrated{Q} MXF Import component to ‘preview’ MXF files in Finder. So starting with v2.3.0 the QuickLook plugin is not installed by the installer, if you had installed a previous version of Calibrated{Q} MXF Import in OSX 10.8 it is recommended to manually uninstall the Calibrated MXF QuickLook plugin by going to the /Library/QuickLook folder and deleting the CalibratedMXFQL.qlgenerator plugin and then restarting your computer.

It is likely that my issues were a result of an OS incompatibility between software versions. And, it appears that there is a potential to experience future problems unless/until an official OS10.8.x version is released. For the time being, I am able to complete the client’s request and successfully work with the footage. 🙂

Thank you to you and Jim for jumping in with help!

– Ben

[Ben Price]

Hey guys… thanks for the responses!

Floh – I have the licensed version of the calibrated{Q} MXF Import software. Most of my clips were longer than 30 seconds. (The short ones were of Texas Gov. Perry walking down/across hallways where cameras were allowed. It’s his PR people that are requesting a copy of the footage and why this is an issue.) All of the clips show a truncation of the beginning/ending. Grrrrr!!!

Jim – Each of the P2 cards I used were cloned to a hard drive after the shoot (including all file structure and subfolders). We sampled the media files before reformatting the P2 cards (on the PC used for the offload) and all of the footage was accounted for. I downloaded that player to my MAC and THANK YOU!!!! When I load and play the clips in the ‘MXFforMac Player,’ all of the video is there.

SO… it MUST be an issue with the ‘calibrated{Q} MXF Import’ software.

There’s a point version upgrade of the calibrated software available. I’ll download and install that and see if it solves the problem. Update to follow…

– Ben

[Ben Price]

Thanks, Flo.

I can confirm that the chapter marks are being included in the exported QuickTime files. The question now is whether or not I can export chapter marks in a WMV file directly from M100. I have the Flip4Mac “Studio” WMV encoder, but it appears to not transfer the markers included in the timeline. I’ve also provided AVI, MPG, and MP4 without success.

In further conversations with the tech guys, they are less concerned with the actual encoding format and file type than they are with the need for the file that I provide to play without additional work on their part. The only real requirement is that the videos be playable in WindowsMedia Player AND have chapter marks that the player will recognize. Secondarily, the video files I provide need to be compressed enough to allow them all to be stored on the mobile device’s 320GB drive.

Is it possible to export a PC-friendly video file with embedded chapter points directly from M100? Or, will I have to use an intermediary encoder (like BitVice) to accomplish this?

– Ben

———————
MacPro4.1 OS10.6.7
Single 2.66Ghz Quad-core Xeon
3GB RAM
Media100 Suite 2.0.2
Kona LHi

MacPro3.1 OS10.6.7
Dual 2.8Ghz Quad-core Xeon
8GB RAM
Media100 Suite 2.0.2
No input card
———————