[Sam Lee]

This is a rarity that you’re experiencing import error with P2.

The only time I encountered failed import is when I accidentally remove the media during the field recording, the cam actually froze up by beeping like crazy due to media malfunction. It won’t let me continue and had to cold shutdown the camera. Later that clip only is forever damaged and corrupted. The typical low battery and dead battery should not corrupt the P2 media. It somehow has a mechanism in which the last second of the battery shutdown it’ll write the close gap mark to the P2 media. I have yet to try abrupt shutdown during recording by removing the battery while the cam is recording. Another possibility that it was reformatted by a 3rd party software (Shot Put Pro ver 2 to 5 (present) instead of Panasonic’s own formatter. 3rd party formatters are never 100% compatible. I always get a DIR NG whenever I use 3rd party formatters. But overall it’s a puzzling thing to experience failed import unless that media has a bad sector.

[Sam Lee]

When you said you import, is it directly from the Micro P2 or already copied into the local hdd? The corruption appears to be not being able to sustain the data during import. Premiere CC may write it down file to the Micro P2 card.

I also have the HPX-250 as well as the higher 2/3″ P2 cams and there is zero issue with P2 as long as you don’t import it directly from the camera in USB mode and import it late to FCP X or Prem CC.

[Sam Lee]

You may be confused on the SD card slot with the Micro P2 media. SD card slot is designed for saving scene files, importing P2 metadata than recording on it and updating firmware to the camera. You can use SDHC media on the HPX-170 via the Micro P2 adaptor but at a lower bit rate than the genuine Micro P2. I don’t think you can record video directly to SD card slot in the HPX-170 but only on the P2 slots via the Micro P2 adaptor (AJ-P2AD1G).

[Sam Lee]

Not sure why many are not using SMPTE TC during the shoot. It’s a very archaic but deadly accurate way to sync without worrying about wasting time to offset frames and most importantly during stop and start of any cam. Plural Eyes sometime have problems with audio delay when the front stage camera is synced up to the back stage camera about 500-1000 ft away. It’s a breeze but I do see FCP 10 take a very long time, especially multicam with 6-8 2 hrs camera. With that in mind, meticulous logging and many multicam clips are needed. Don’t try to put non-multicam clips as it will take considerably longer time to do its background tasks and also enlarge the library file.

[Sam Lee]

With the HPX-250, you can certainly offload the two P2 slots but in a sequential linear manner. This means once the first card is completed, it will go to the 2nd card. Can’t do it simultaneously. It is simply specifying “ALL SLOTS” when you’re in the copy function instead of SLOT 1 or SLOT 2. It only accepts Type S formatted hdd. No FAT32 (that is only on the MSU-10). It will not warn you if there’s a duplicate upload (the MSU-10 will do that but costs almost the same as the PCD-30). But it will allow verification. If you have the luxury of constant AC power, then any 2 Tb or less hdd USB 2 will work. No need for the expensive MBX-10 enclosure. I use the HPX-250 once in a blue moon when I couldn’t bring a laptop or MSU-10 in the field. It works great during bedtime and also serve as a spare 2-slot P2 USB2 card reader.

Using the HPX-250 and offloading it directly to a laptop as a P2 drive is another subject matter that I have not fully tested in the real world.

[Sam Lee]

For a 64 Gb P2 card, it takes about 45 min via USB2 on a PCD-2 single slot USB2 card reader. It can certainly offload to 2 locations but will double the time. This is with no verfication.

I’m concerned about using USB2-3 to Ethernet adapter. Those generally may choke or freeze up on you if it is used heavily.

Panasonic stated not to copy to multiple locations is quite plausible because I attempted to do the same thing on the AG-MSU10 mobile offload device. It froze and choked on me as soon as multiple hdd destinations are specified. If single, no problem. But the PCD-2 single slot reader has no problem for 2 simultaneous hdds. Have not done this with the camcorder but I suspect it will choke on you when doing 2 simultaneous hdds. That’s why they make dedicated P2 drives and readers to get the file off much more efficiently than using the camcorder.

A while back I had no choice but to use the camcorders to offload P2 media because of airline travel luggage restrictions. On the HPX-250s I was able to offload 6 P2 cards on the 3 hpx-250 to 3 separate AG-MBX10 2.5″ hdds at bedtime. The MBX10 enclosure for the MSU-10 is nice because it has separate power bus to ensure reliable power over the single USB bus. Nice thing about the HPX-250 is that I can specify to copy all 2 P2 slots. It is like having a 2-slot P2 reader. This is something to consider if doing it directly from the P2 camcorder -> laptop -> NAS is not working out in the field.

[Sam Lee]

You’d need at least a USB-3 PCD-30 to be able to simultaneously download P2 cards to multiple destination. Trying to do simultaneous copy on the PCD-2 (USB2) will be a disappointment. Most of the times it’ll choke on you. I think Panasonic is moving toward the SDHC Micro P2 media that I’m not at all thrilled with. Too small to get lost and can’t mix and match Micro & P2 cards. It’s a mess and Panasonic is not at all offering dual P2 slots anymore on their newer cam models <$10K. No thanks. I rather use the P2 media that it’s not easy to get lost in the field.

A 3rd party offloading app is highly recommended over the OS’s free copy. I do not like to plug the vendor here but it works OK. They’re a small company and don’t have the resources to fulfill simple request such as the ability to properly reformat P2 correctly. Sadly it has not been addressed after 5 versions! NAS is too cumbersome and bulky. You have to bring cables, switches and even battery backup UPS. I don’t see how portable it’s vs a singe laptop 2.5″ SATA hdds. A bit risky if any of those hdds in the NAS are damaged or experienced high shock.

[Sam Lee]

Yes. FCP 10.2’s handling of native AVCHD, AVC-I 100 (P2) is pretty bad. You can import them all fine but when it comes to relinking, good luck. It’s poorly handled and implemented. I hope 10.3 solve this but don’t count on it. Try it for yourself. Import a native AVCHD cam master. Rename the hdd volume or move it elsewhere and see if you can relink by pointing to that AVCHD folder. There are workarounds but it’s excruciating slow.

I learned that the hard way recently and had to rewrap all native AVCHD and AVC-I 100 to ProRes via FCP 7 log & xfer after the fact. From there, it FCP 10.2 had no problem in handling Pro Res media. Relinking is a snap like it should be.

There are issues with proxy and optimized media when you use 3rd party plug ins. It’s best to Log & Transfer or convert it to Pro Res on AVCHD as a tangible .MOV file and not some odd AVCHD cam orig master that OS X hides all of its subfolder. FCP 10.2 seems to prefer straightforward .MOV media than camera native. I don’t trust camera archive method either. .MOV files have been the most trouble free workflow for me for past couple years w/ FCP X. Whatever it’s, FCP X will take your native AVCHD and convert it to Pro Res into its library.bundle whether you like it or not. I rather do it on my end first and I can use that .MOV file for other apps like After FX.

[Sam Lee]

Whatever the case, the dilemma are: Resell value for the legacy Mac Pros are very low. So low that is heartbreaking to just donate it. Recycling to the trash it it an emotional thing because it once costed about $6-9K. Now, within $500-800. Hard to let it go to the trash. It’s great for doing headless slave rendering with Compressor 4.2. It still can edit 1080p w/ out much issues, media management, hdd-hdd transfers..

I personally still use an old 17″ MBPro back in 2006! It still works but definitely has overheating problem. If will freeze if it gets too hot. So extra fans blowing it on the back is a must.

[Sam Lee]

Mac Pro 2008-2012 still has a lot of uses in 2015. It serves as a great distribute rendering farm with Compressor 4.2, RAID drive array and still can do some decent editing in FCP 10.2 providing beefy video card, HDD and RAM are upgraded. These legacy MPros help to speed up the h.264 rendering by 30-40 min over a single Mac! So it’s not at all useless if you know how to leverage and use it to the max.

I don’t know about others but to me the iMac is a desktop version of my latest 2014 MBPro 15″ Retina. The big issue is overheating when doing intensive effects. I do have laptop cooler for the MBPro. That seems to remedy the heat, but not sure how one can cool the iMac… Perhaps a noisy small fan blowing it in the back?