[Rachel Lears]

Hi. I tried deleting all my render files and this is what happened: I was only able to avoid FCP crashing upon startup by choosing “Continue” when the dialog box informed me the files were missing. When I chose “forget files” the program froze. So when the program opened, I rendered the timeline, so far so good. Then I went to export to compressor, because I need to make a DVD, and while I was choosing settings an FCP dialog box appeared that 39 render files had gone offline– I hadn’t touched anything at that point! When I chose continue the program froze again.

When I open Disk Warrior it doesn’t let me run it on the startup drive. I am opening it from a disk image because I don’t have the serial number. Since I’m currently working in Uruguay, I can’t just go out and buy a legit copy. Im going to try running disk utility on the startup drive to see if anything needs fixing there. Any further advice would be much appreciated- thanks!

[Rachel Lears]

Thanks! My scratch drive has 120 GB free of 1TB. I can’t use render manager since I can’t get FCP to open without crashing. Do you think I could just delete old render files on my scratch drive and rerender the sequences I need?

[Rachel Lears]

Hi Tim,
It’s good to hear that someone has had a good experience with FS in those sorts of conditions. As it turns out, many months later I’m still on the fence about whether to sell my Firestore (have had it listed since september and no one has wanted to buy it) and get P2s, or maybe just get a new firewire cable and some good gaffer’s tape and try to be extra-extra careful with the connections. (I borrowed some p2s for some shoots a few months ago and loved them- but selling my FS at B&H will only get me $700 and it is really painful to let a $1900 piece of equipment with only 25 hours of use on it go for that, especially when P2s are so expensive also.)

So, what, if anything, did you do to ensure the FW connection while shooting on the go?

Also, I’m wondering if shooting directly to quicktime (I was using 24PN) and transferring in Finder might be a problem- I think Christopher mentioned that the OS can cause file corruption. Have people had better experiences shooting to P2 format on the Firestore and converting through log and transfer? Or is there any way to deal with the quicktime that is less likely to cause problems? My main issue, again, was not so much a few frames of dropout as files that were partially corrupted– they didn’t play all the way through or copy successfully.

Thanks to all who have weighed in on this!
Best,
R

[Rachel Lears]

It worked out very well, thank you. I had zero problems with the P2 recording or transfer process, and have been fully won over by the p2 workflow for the type of shooting I do. Having already begun editing, I can say that so far I haven’t had any of the dropout or corruption issues with P2 that I had with the Firestore. It seems to me that both are obviously exciting technologies, and that as discussed on this forum numerous times, Firestore is probably better suited to studio shoots while P2 may be better suited to on the go shooting. I hope you continue to have as positive an experience with your Firestore as I am having with my P2s, and I wish you many happy returns with all your audiovisual endeavors.

[Rachel Lears]

yup, i knew it was something simple: got to hold down the rubber button on the back of the camera to get it to go into 1394 device mode. too bad this isn’t in the manual.

[Rachel Lears]

There’s also this:
https://www.duel-systemsadapters.com/?productid=DP-0001

Haven’t tried it but I’m looking for something similar.

[Rachel Lears]

I’m not worried- I will switch p2s during specific breaks in the schedule when no “magic moments” will be occurring because the wedding party has scheduled breaks for themselves and they do not wish these to be documented. For other shoots when such breaks might not be pre-scheduled, I see nothing too complicated in hiring an assistant or asking one of my interns to come along. Happy trails,
R

[Rachel Lears]

Hi Christopher,
Thanks so much for taking the time to respond to my post in such detail. Obviously these conversations are tricky since each party puts up a lot of information before the other responds, but in the interest of dialogue for posterity on the forum, I’ll respond again.

Of course its normal that you would start by asking me some very basic questions, but as it happens I was already aware of all the basic troubleshooting you mentioned because these things are either common sense or in the manual- keeping settings consistent, making sure the camera is recording, always transferring and formatting after a day of shooting, keeping track of voltage conversions, having extra batteries on hand, etc. I was not aware that there was third party vendor with an extra long battery for the FS- thanks for that. It seems probable that my issue was mainly due to firewire connections, even though I never noticed an indication from the camera that the connection in the camera had been broken while shooting. As for the transferring and Quicktime issues, naturally it is possible that there was something else going on with my drive or laptop or cables. Unfortunately, although Uruguay is relatively cosmopolitan (used to be known as “the switzerland of south america”), it was not easy for me to acquire backup Mac equipment there while traveling.

This was my first long-term shoot with the HVX, but not my first long term shoot or first overseas– I’ve been working professionally as a videographer (mostly on a DVX100 till now) since finishing a graduate degree in doc production in 2005, and I shot the bulk of my documentary while living in Uruguay in 2006.

I’ve decided to purchase a 32G P2 and save up for a 64 or 128 in the future (after I sell my FS100). For a wedding I’m shooting in a few weeks I’ll rent a second P2 and set up my equipment to transfer one while I’m shooting on the other. Thanks again for your input.

Best,
Rachel Lears

http://www.honeycombfilms.com
http://www.birdsofpassagefilm.com

[Rachel Lears]

Thanks, Greg! Deleting “CalibratedDVHDCodec.component” from the ‘/Library/QuickTime’ directory did the trick. I had already deleted the Calibrated directory from the Applications, but when I went looking in the Library for Quicktime I went only to the library of my user, forgetting there’s another in the Macintosh HD section. Thanks again!
R

[Rachel Lears]

Hi,
I posted the other day regarding all the problems I’ve been having with my Firestore: https://forums.creativecow.net/readpost/193/872112

Since I make documentaries, I need to be able to do “run and gun” type shooting; but since I also shoot events I’m worried about switching to P2. I read the entire FS manual and did tests before beginning to shoot; but still had all these problems.

Christopher, since you seem to have the best luck/process with the FS, if you had a chance to weigh in on the specific problems I had I’d really appreciate it. Anyone else with FS experience is also welcome to reply. I’ve heard the P2 arguments and am leaning toward going that route, but I’d love to know what I was doing wrong if anything. Thanks so much!

Rachel