[John Fishback]

Raylight for Mac will do it. I love this program. After it’s installed it extracts to the shared folder in the users folder a small mov file for each mxf file on your external drive. Then you can use Quicktime viewer to watch them. It will handle DVC Pro 50 up to HD. I can’t tell you how much time this has already saved me. If you use it with FCP (I know you don’t do that in the field) you can open the mxf files direcly in FCP without importing them.

I also have HD Log from Imagine Products similar to P2 Log that Shane mentioned. It works very well and has other capabilities than just viewing, but is much more expensive than Raylight which I think is $89.

John

Dual 2.5 G5 4 gigs RAM OS 10.4.8 QT7.1.3
Dual Cinema 23 Radeon 9800
FCP Studio 5 (FCP5.1.2, DVDSP4.1.1, Comp2.3, STP1.1, Motion 2.1.2)
Huge U-320R 1TB Raid 3 firmware ENG15.BIN
ATTO UL4D driver 3.50
AJA IO driver 2.1 firmware v23-28
Pro Tools HD w SYNC IO, Yamaha DM1000, Millennia Media HV-3C, Neuman U87s, Genelec Monitors, PrimaLT ISDN

[John Fishback]

We were about to shoot a training program with the spokesperson seated in a car. All the scenes but one were stationary. However, as we approached the shoot day, it was clear the weather wasn’t going to cooperate. We ended up shooting against a green screen in a large garage. For the one scene supposed to be in motion, we matted in motion footage (shot separately), and a little judicious rocking of the car while shooting that scene, added just the right sense of reality.

John

Dual 2.5 G5 4 gigs RAM OS 10.4.8 QT7.1.3
Dual Cinema 23 Radeon 9800
FCP Studio 5 (FCP5.1.2, DVDSP4.1.1, Comp2.3, STP1.1, Motion 2.1.2)
Huge U-320R 1TB Raid 3 firmware ENG15.BIN
ATTO UL4D driver 3.50
AJA IO driver 2.1 firmware v23-28
Pro Tools HD w SYNC IO, Yamaha DM1000, Millennia Media HV-3C, Neuman U87s, Genelec Monitors, PrimaLT ISDN

[John Fishback]

Thanks for that info, Marcus. Raylight has been great! It’s saved me a lot of time not having to import all my media. Making timecode dubs is a breeze. I didn’t know about the renaming capability. I’ll check that out.

John

Dual 2.5 G5 4 gigs RAM OS 10.4.8 QT7.1.3
Dual Cinema 23 Radeon 9800
FCP Studio 5 (FCP5.1.2, DVDSP4.1.1, Comp2.3, STP1.1, Motion 2.1.2)
Huge U-320R 1TB Raid 3 firmware ENG15.BIN
ATTO UL4D driver 3.50
AJA IO driver 2.1 firmware v23-28
Pro Tools HD w SYNC IO, Yamaha DM1000, Millennia Media HV-3C, Neuman U87s, Genelec Monitors, PrimaLT ISDN

[John Fishback]

When we shoot we slate each take making sure the slate is the first frame of the clip. That way when you look at the footage with FCP P2 import, when you click on the clip you see the slate and know what you’re looking at. The other thing is to sort the P2 import bin by media start. That way your clips are in timecode order. That also makes it easier to know what you’re looking at. It’d be great if Panasonic (or a third party) would come up with a way to easily name clips as they were shot.

John

Dual 2.5 G5 4 gigs RAM OS 10.4.8 QT7.1.3
Dual Cinema 23 Radeon 9800
FCP Studio 5 (FCP5.1.2, DVDSP4.1.1, Comp2.3, STP1.1, Motion 2.1.2)
Huge U-320R 1TB Raid 3 firmware ENG15.BIN
ATTO UL4D driver 3.50
AJA IO driver 2.1 firmware v23-28
Pro Tools HD w SYNC IO, Yamaha DM1000, Millennia Media HV-3C, Neuman U87s, Genelec Monitors, PrimaLT ISDN

[John Fishback]

I use HD Log which is made by the same folks who make P2 Log Pro. HD Log has a P2 repair function. Check to see if P2 Log Pro has it, too.

John

Dual 2.5 G5 4 gigs RAM OS 10.4.8 QT7.1.3
Dual Cinema 23 Radeon 9800
FCP Studio 5 (FCP5.1.2, DVDSP4.1.1, Comp2.3, STP1.1, Motion 2.1.2)
Huge U-320R 1TB Raid 3 firmware ENG15.BIN
ATTO UL4D driver 3.50
AJA IO driver 2.1 firmware v23-28
Pro Tools HD w SYNC IO, Yamaha DM1000, Millennia Media HV-3C, Neuman U87s, Genelec Monitors, PrimaLT ISDN

[John Fishback]

I’ve used it with FCP and it saved me two days of work not having to import footage into FCP in order to export mp3s for transcriptions and timecode burns.

John

Dual 2.5 G5 4 gigs RAM OS 10.4.8 QT7.1.3
Dual Cinema 23 Radeon 9800
FCP Studio 5 (FCP5.1.2, DVDSP4.1.1, Comp2.3, STP1.1, Motion 2.1.2)
Huge U-320R 1TB Raid 3 firmware ENG15.BIN
ATTO UL4D driver 3.50
AJA IO driver 2.1 firmware v23-28
Pro Tools HD w SYNC IO, Yamaha DM1000, Millennia Media HV-3C, Neuman U87s, Genelec Monitors, PrimaLT ISDN

[John Fishback]

We’re on our second week of shooting with the 500. We’ve seen no green shift. The blacks seem a bit high in preset, but that’s been corrected easily with the paintbox. Overall, the results have been terrific in both SD and HD. It is one sweet camera!

John

Dual 2.5 G5 4 gigs RAM OS 10.4.8 QT7.1.3
Dual Cinema 23 Radeon 9800
FCP Studio 5 (FCP5.1.2, DVDSP4.1.1, Comp2.3, STP1.1, Motion 2.1.2)
Huge U-320R 1TB Raid 3 firmware ENG15.BIN
ATTO UL4D driver 3.50
AJA IO driver 2.1 firmware v23-28
Pro Tools HD w SYNC IO, Yamaha DM1000, Millennia Media HV-3C, Neuman U87s, Genelec Monitors, PrimaLT ISDN

[John Fishback]

We just finished our first shoot using P2 with an HPX500. Our workflow was to transfer P2 cards to a RAID 1 (mirrored) drive as they were filled. The mirrored drive makes an instant backup of the data. We use P2 Genie for the transfer and HD Log to view the MXF data off the hard drive before wiping the P2 card. The cards transfer at about 2x real time using a MBP and Duel Adaptor so we never fell behind. It worked great!

John

Dual 2.5 G5 4 gigs RAM OS 10.4.8 QT7.1.3
Dual Cinema 23 Radeon 9800
FCP Studio 5 (FCP5.1.2, DVDSP4.1.1, Comp2.3, STP1.1, Motion 2.1.2)
Huge U-320R 1TB Raid 3 firmware ENG15.BIN
ATTO UL4D driver 3.50
AJA IO driver 2.1 firmware v23-28
Pro Tools HD w SYNC IO, Yamaha DM1000, Millennia Media HV-3C, Neuman U87s, Genelec Monitors, PrimaLT ISDN

[John Fishback]

I have the Duel Adaptor and so far it’s working well on my MBP running 10.4.8. I have off-loaded 16 GB P2 cards in a little over 8 minutes using P2 Genie and HD Log.

John

Dual 2.5 G5 4 gigs RAM OS 10.4.8 QT7.1.3
Dual Cinema 23 Radeon 9800
FCP Studio 5 (FCP5.1.2, DVDSP4.1.1, Comp2.3, STP1.1, Motion 2.1.2)
Huge U-320R 1TB Raid 3 firmware ENG15.BIN
ATTO UL4D driver 3.50
AJA IO driver 2.1 firmware v23-28
Pro Tools HD w SYNC IO, Yamaha DM1000, Millennia Media HV-3C, Neuman U87s, Genelec Monitors, PrimaLT ISDN

[John Fishback]

Was the code on the slate derived from Pro Tools? If so, your Pro Tools person can export a wav or aiff file you can use. Just be sure of the starting timecode of the audio timeline. Then, after you import the audio into FCP, position it on your timeline so it starts at its start time. The only other thing to consider is whether the audio timeline was drop or non-drop. Make sure your FCP sequence is the same. Then, your slated #s should line up with your timeline’s #s and also the audio #s.

If the slate timecode is not locked to PTs then you probably have to sync this manually. That isn’t a fun job.

John

Dual 2.5 G5 4 gigs RAM OS 10.4.8 QT7.1.3
Dual Cinema 23 Radeon 9800
FCP Studio 5 (FCP5.1.2, DVDSP4.1.1, Comp2.3, STP1.1, Motion 2.1.2)
Huge U-320R 1TB Raid 3 firmware ENG15.BIN
ATTO UL4D driver 3.50
AJA IO driver 2.1 firmware v23-28
Pro Tools HD w SYNC IO, Yamaha DM1000, Millennia Media HV-3C, Neuman U87s, Genelec Monitors, PrimaLT ISDN