[Harryd]

Answer is YES, at least under Win Vista Home Premium. Here’s what I did:

1. First installed the P2 Driver and P2 Viewer, can be gotten from Panasonic. They are made for Vista, and work fine.

2. Installed Microsoft .Net Framework 1.1 from Microsoft. I’m not sure if this is required, but I read something online that made me think so.

3. Installed P2 Genie as usual.

It works as it always did, albeit with a few Windows Vista popups here and there. I have not tested the footage in an editor, but it appears fine in P2 Viewer.

If you’re trying to do this, best of luck!

My System:

Toshiba P105-6217
Core2Duo
PC Type II and Expresscard slots
Win Vista Home Premium
All updates are current

Now on to DVRack…

HarryD

[Harryd]

Hi, Jan and Barry,

Jan, sorry if I tweaked you with that comment. You may not realize it, but we know each other face-to-face and I have used and like Panasonic cameras for all my long career. I am now invested in P2. So, it concerns me about P2 obsolescence. And thanks for the info on the manufacturing process. It’s enlightening. I was only saying that as a given technology matures, the prices usually drop dramatically. We’ve only seen this with P2 very recently, I suspect in reaction to other things appearing in the market, not the manufacturing become more efficient. Hence, I still believe the onus to be on Panasonic. But allow me to be clear: it’s a good product; however, if made cheaper will get more people into “the tent.”

Barry: thanks for your comments. I’m not really arguing for a switch to ExpressCard (although I don’t understand why Panasonic didn’t use it in the first place – it was around 4 years ago). As I said, I’m concerned about P2 having “legs” into the future, especially given that we see laptop makers moving steadily away from PCMCIA.

I like P2 a lot; not having to deal with a tape drive is like heaven! Of course, I haven’t lost a card or drive in field yet, either (but I have both lost and damaged tapes, so to me it’s the same thing). But I feel that P2 is generally more robust than a 1/4″ or 1/2″ piece of mylar. And I swear, I love not having to worry about having enough tape on the shoot anymore. It’s the little things… 🙂

Thanks,

HarryD

[Harryd]

Hi, Jan,

True enough, I know the P2 cards are raided, and I like the workflow. But this is all about datarate and memory price, and to go back to my original point – the PCMCIA bus at 132 MBps is almost half the speed of Expresscard, yet the Expresscard memory modules are about 1/4th the price.

With PCMCIA being about what – 12 years old? – and flash memory being cheaper than dirt (I just got a new 2GB 150X SD card for $20), I can’t get my mind around why P2 cards still remain high in price.

I just don’t get why, considering the prices of the hardware and the age of it all, that the P2 prices are so high.

My Big Point: Sony’s coming on with memory card recording, which looks to be cheaper and promising. P2 prices are holding back P2 adoption, and that’s a shame. If Sony combines native 1920×1080 chips in a tapeless package at a low price, watch out.

But it’s about time for Panasonic to make a major mistake and lose market share. Isn’t that what all companies do nowadays? Be greedy and lose it all? Is Panasonic next?

HarryD

[Harryd]

Hi, Barry,

I did a search and found nothing. Can you direct me to the “other forum”, or elaborate please?

thx,

HarryD

[Harryd]

Vinten Vision 3, but it’s more than the HVX needs. I also sometimes use heavier cameras, and its good for that, but I wish I had something smaller and lighter for the HVX. Something under $1K should do OK, and if I were buying today I’d be looking in that direction.

HarryD

[Harryd]

Yes, Chris, Kudos to you. This is the seminal commentary on the Firestore, and if I ever had thought of getting one of these devices, I would hope to read this first.

Thanks,

HarryD

[Harryd]

Thanks for the reply.

However, it shouldn’t be a generation lost. All the files in a reference QT access the original media. But if one outputs to self-contained QT, that renders new media and the link to the original is lost.

So then it would be from FCP > render to QT (1 generation) > render and downconvert in Compressor (1+ generation); that’s 2 generations right there.

If one outputs a reference QT, then to Compressor (or something like iDVD), that should actually only be one generation because the MPEG compression should access the original media files through the reference QT.

Right?

Actually, though, my question was more related to the value of nesting an HD sequence in an SD sequence, as opposed to rendering a QT, leaving FCP and then to Compressor.

A lot of ways to skin the cat!

thanks,

HarryD

[Harryd]

Wouldn’t it be easier (or at least as good) to create an SD sequence and drag the completed HD sequence into that, render, then export a QT reference movie for use in DVDSP or iDVD?

I’m curoius about that, too.

thanks,

HarryD

[Harryd]

Hi again,

see if this post helps. when i read it, it had me wondering if your P2 files hadn’t been accessed already on another NLE, perhaps an Avid – especially as regards the .dv files. Did someone export files trying to help you?

Jan mentions that in some situations files may need to be accessed on a PC Avid. read the whole post for more.

https://forums.creativecow.net/cgi-bin/new_read_post.cgi?forumid=193&postid=859504

good luck.

HarryD

[Harryd]

Hi,

It sounds to me like the files from the P2 card weren’t properly saved. In other words, it’s not an FCP issue, but a P2 issue. FWIW, I also came from Avid to FCP, and FCP is much easier than Avid.

Search this forum and look for comments on how to import P2 and P2 files that are recorded. Shane’s tutorial is the definitive word on the subject of P2 ingest, but there are comments from Jan Livingston from Panasonic that might shed light on other aspects of your problem.

Basically, the structure of the data on the P2 card MUST remain intact for ingest. If you have to monkey around with files you have done something wrong. And this is what I would tell the camera tech. Was it she who copied the files? If so, she may have done it wrong. What is her experience with P2?

When I shoot, I save the full amount of data from the P2 card to a laptop in its own folder, taking care to make no changes. I reformat the card and then record the next scene. Then that P2 card’s complete set of data gets saved to another folder, and the process continues.

And the .dv thing is a mystery to me. I wonder if some program on whatever computer you are using got hold of the media and did that? Sometimes computer apps will read files and think they’re helping you by changing the extension. I dunno, though; just a wild guess.

Let us know what happened. I’m curious, myself.

HarryD