Dan Montgomery
Forum Replies Created
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I find this tread interesting because some of the conclusions are the same as mine.
But as “non-exhibitors” ya’ll may not realize that NAB has progressively increased the price of the floor space to the point that the “cost per lead” of exhibiting is nearly prohibitive.
The other problem is the days of the show. Essentially making it a 3-day show (no one sticks around for Thursday) means attendees are rushed and rarely spend the time at more than a handful of booths to actually understand the products and technology. (Compare it to IBC which is much more relaxed and in-depth for visitors.)
I always enjoyed NAB from a “social” standpoint–being one of the few venues to put faces with names, and greet long standing customer/friends. There is much to be said about that.
I remember in the early 90’s the SMPTE show was still well attended. And there were the regional Video Expo shows too. But NAB essentially killed them both off by attracting a lot of non-broadcasters who were forced to use higher-end products just to have reasonable quality for reproduction. When DV came along, most non-broadcasters moved to that format as it was cheaper and ‘good enough’.
I also remember at one NAB counting over 100 editors on the floor! And I thought to myself, surely this will weed itself out to half dozen before it’s all over….
Anyway, NAB is not a dying show, but it could use some downsizing.
There is nothing like putting your hands on a piece of equipment or asking product engineers directly your questions. Those things are difficult to do over the web. And the broadcasters who are considering large investments in one technology or another must do their homework…
Video logging is just the beginning…
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I don’t think that’s the point. Apple even tells you NOT to import directly from the card.
Could be that a progressive offload of the card might be something people will be looking for down the road.
In other words, if you’ve shot 10 GB and invested the time to offload that but don’t erase the card and go back into the camera and shoot another 20 GB I can see where Kim would want to only copy off the next 20 GB. It would likely go into the same card image (volume) but not wasting time to copy files that are already on your hard disk makes sense.
Video logging is just the beginning…
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Does this really happen that often? I’ve always had the impression folks always cleaned the card before putting any more on it.
Partly I suppose that’s because until recently cards have been relatively small in size. Now that we’re getting 32 and 64GB maybe this will be happening more often?
What do you think Noah? Shane?
Video logging is just the beginning…
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Duel Systems is pointing the finger at Apple. Apple says “the OS team is well aware of the problem”.
Duel support says to uninstall the P2 Card bus driver that comes with Leopard and install the one from Panny’s site. I’ve repeated this to several people but haven’t heard confirmation if it indeed solves the conflict.
Stangely we’ve never been able to replicate the problem on an in-house computer–but maybe it already had the Panasonic driver on it. Not sure.
The problem is not specific to any particular software–there doesn’t seem to be anything we can do to work around it. We’re just using simple UNIX copy commands–you can get the same crashes using cp command within Terminal program for example.
We did discover that launching in Safe mode averts the problem. And of course using devices other than Duel Adapter work fine as well (such as 5-card reader, P2 Gear, HVX-200 camera with USB or FireWire connection, G4 with PCBus slot, etc.).
I know this is frustrating, but it’s something Duel and Apple need to resolve or drop the Duel Adapter product.
As for Drag and Drop, this is a dangerous game. I can’t tell you how many people call here (2-3 a week) with damaged MXF files. In nearly every case the transfers were done with Finder alone. Pretty sure a byte verification as part of the process could have avoided myraid headaches.
Video logging is just the beginning…
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Just to be clear, HD Log has the choice to export either ‘self contained’ movies or the ‘reference files’ when creating FCP XML outputs.
You don’t have to save the ‘Alias Log’ files first (but you can if you want). This option was added to let folks save logs with pointers only to build small indices to their media (whether it’s online or offline).
Opening a P2 volume and exporting to FCP just the reference files is pretty darn fast, especially after you’ve setup the metadata field mapping which you only have to do once.
On another note, ShotPut was developed separately from HDLog and started as a simple offloader for Sony EX-1 cards only. It was later expanded to include other cards and file types and much effort was put into it to make the copy procedure faster than anything else on the market.
ShotPut especially shines when you’re making multiple copies of the same card, or copying more than one card at a time. Yes, I just said you can hook up a 5-card P2 reader and copy all 5 cards to 3 locations (15 total destinations) all at the same time. Or, you can hook up *many* P2 cards, HDDs, FireStore and a P2Store and copy them all at once. On the Mac, the only limit is 16 maximum ‘mounted’ drives.
The new ShotPut Pro offers any file types in one application (P2, AVCHD, RED, SxS). It can also copy *any* media or HDD. And it has the ability to launch your DVD/Blu-ray burn application when finished.
Video logging is just the beginning…
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Sounds like you need to upgrade your ShotPut to the current version. It’s much faster than Finder because it uses multi-threading.
(Early versions of ShotPut EXpress used Apple’s Cocoa copy commands which turned out to be very slow compared to standard UNIX commands that it now uses.)
Also, be sure you’re using the ‘minimal’ error checking option in ShotPut. This is very accurate and very fast. A full byte-byte comparison can take a long time and should only be used in drastic situations.
Video logging is just the beginning…
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John,
Quantum is a large company and makes many products. The “A” series is one small segment for them. When dealing with their tech support, if you don’t get the help you need ask for a supervisor.
Specific to your question, how to connect and configure a Quantum tape deck via Macintosh, we’ve detailed the steps in our HDLog users guide. Look in the ‘Easy Setup’ section. https://www.imagineproducts.com/manuals_and_literature.htm
You might also take a look at Mark Smith’s white paper, available from that same page, which steps through P2 workflow and using a Quantum drive (in his case, SDLT 600A).
Video logging is just the beginning…
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Scott,
We integrated with the Quantum “A” series drives since inception with both Mac and Win videologger applications.
HDLog <https://www.imagineproducts.com/hdlog.htm> is the Mac app, TEP HD is the Win app, either is $699 for Gold version that uploads files to any of the LTO3A or SDLT600A or SuperLoader drives via FTP.
The advantage of applications like these is the ability to track the “assets”. The loggers prompt you to input the Quantum tape ID which is saved in a local log file. You may then search the logs as an “offline” index to all your footage, complete with metadata, thumbs, tape IDs, and any other information you logged.
With HDLog you can also make proxy video clips and keep them with the logs. Upload the whole thing to an on-line database like Mac Digital Clip Library (~$3000) for web or LAN sharing, etc.
In other words, the process is scalable from a single computer to many.
Video logging is just the beginning…
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Actually you’re talking about two different things. In HDLog, offloading is meant as a backup utility to copy the entire card’s contents for archive purposes, or to disk in preparation for editing, etc.
When you open a P2 card (volume) in HDLog, the camera “marked” clips are designated. This open view is similar to the Log and Transfer in FCP–you’re looking at the raw video through a QT conversion on the fly. The full QT files have not yet been made.
So, opening a P2 card, you can choose Export to FCP XML and select all “Marked” in that dialog. This will push just those clips from the card onto disk in QT format. Alternatively, you can select to send FCP just the QT Reference files (aliases) which are just links to the MXF. Doing this will require you to later do a full import inside FCP (since you haven’t yet made the full QT files).
In the FCP XML export inside HDLog, you may also choose how to name the resulting QT files. For example, you can name your clips in the P2 User Clip Name field any way you wish, then in the export selet that field as the Movie name field (upper right in the export dialog). After the files are transferred to disk, HDLog renames them to the text contained in the User Name field for each clip.
Hope this helps.
Video logging is just the beginning…
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Yes, and FCP’s users manual is much much longer
. Just skip to the “Easy Setups” section for working with P2. It’s only a couple pages long and tells you step by step how to bring it in and put it into FCP. You can convert within HDLog, rename the MOVs, or just pass reference QT pointers to FCP. Many choices. Find the workflow that you’re comfortable with. Video logging is just the beginning…