To all the engineers out there!
 

Will you please create a device to connect a P2 port to any other computer via US2 or firewire? I don't want to buy that expensive hard disk from Panasonic, and my laptop has no PCMCIA slot!
-EDWIN

If I'm not mistaken, I think you can connect the HVX directly to a laptop via firewire and record HD.

Yeah, no engineering needed. Just plug thr camera in to the laptop via Firewire, and you can record full HD for as long as you'r laptop's hard disk(s) will allow.

Yes, and there are also cheap PCMCIA-to-USB2 adapters that would work as well. Have no fear, there will be many ways to get at the footage!

Any brand you would recommend? I thought there weren't any. I was unsuccesful trying to find one the other day. The ones I found are PCMCIA cards that allow laptops to have USB ports, not the other way around. For trying to get a PCMCIA reader to a desktop computer with built in USB 2.0 ports.\

Still Unsuccesful!
 

Please, what will be affordable options (beside the camera itself) to plug my P2 cards to my ibook, emacs, imacs, etc?

All PCMCIA drives for desktop I found are all for PCs.

I was of the impression that firewire can't support HD data rates. HDV yes, but not full HD such as the DVCPROHD format.

Hoping for some clarification here.

-gb-

Yes it will. DVCPROHD 100 Mb/s, FIREWIRE 400 MB/s.

That was actually one of the big pushes for Panny's cheaper DVCPRO HD deck... that it would ingest through firewire... "JUST LIKE DV!" I actually don't know if that's an actual quote... that's just what I remember people saying about it when it came out. Oh how wrong they are... Nothing will ever be "Just Like DV"... it only gets more confusing and convoluted.

I don't know if this is "affordable" but a powerbook will work for a mac.

You can absolutely record straight to a laptop via Firewire. Everything from DV to DVCPro50 to DVCProHD 720p or 1080/60i/24p/30p. Firewire has 4 times the bandwidth needed for full HD.

To Edwin- Why bother with a PCMCIA slot on your laptop or desktop? You don't even need to remove the P2 cards from the camera! Just run a cable from the camera to the computer and download the footage from the p2 cards directly. If you're using a Mac, use the Firewire cable. If you're using a PC, use the USB2 cable. The P2 card(s) will show up on the computer as an external hard disk. Just transfer the clips from the HVX to the built-in hard disk, and you're good to go.

Yes it seems like there is ample bandwidth available but I thought it had more to do with 'sustained data transfer rate', as opposed to maximum rate. Hey, it's good news to me if this is true but then why do we need all these dedicated capture cards with SDI if firewire can do the job.

-gb-

Yeah, I know. But my intention is to download the P2 content on one card, while I'm using the camera to record on the other P2 card. Just like anybody else would do in a card swapping situation. But my Macs all lack PCMCIA.

Can the files on a P2 be accessed while the camera is recording on the other card?

Good point. I'm not sure if you can record to one while dumping footage from the other. Anyone?

I think you would hit the hard disk's sustained transfer rate limit before saturating the Firewire connection.