From P2 to Mac / PC

It's December 30th and your HVX200 just arrived. You pick up the phone and call in sick to work, then go out and shoot some GREAT DVCPRO HD/50/25 footage the first day, and go home to anxiously capture it to your computer.

OK, how do you capture? On a DVX or XL2, you just turn the switch to the VTR mode, rewind and capture away. (or put it into a deck and capture)

How does it work with the HVX200? Do you also need to buy a Panasonic AJ-PCS060G Portable DVCPRO HD/50/25 P2 Store Drive for $1,800 to get it from the P2 card to your computer, or is there a “free” way to get the footage from your P2 to your Apple and/or PC?

I'm just trying to figure out if I need to budget the extra $1,800 the same day of purchasing the camera.

[Tony Levelle]

I'd like to know too...

[Jeff Kilgroe]

If you record standard DV to a tape, then you capture to your PC the way you're used to.

If you record any other format, it must be recorded to P2 cards or streamed directly into a DVCPRO capable NLE system that the camera is connected to or you can record to a device like the Firestore drive or Cineporter drive.

If you have recorded to P2, you connect the camera to your computer and the computer will see the camera as an external drive. You simply drag and drop the video you shot from the camera device folder to anywhere else on your computer. Your clips are there just as if you have already "captured" them. You can also pop out the P2 card from the camera and drop it into any 32bit PCMCIA Type II slot and your clips are right there.

If you recorded to Firestore or Cineporter, you simply plug the drive into your computer and it's the same as already having your video clips on an external firewire drive.

As long as you're not shooting DV, there is no need to "capture" from the camera. You just connect the camera or appropriate storage device and copy your clips over and you're done.

The $1800 P2 store is for cycling P2 cards while shooting in the field. It is not a necessary item at all and it may work for some people and be totally worthless to others. It's a device that allows you to offload the contents of a P2 card to a HDD in the field. IMO it's a complete rip-off. For half the price, you can have a nice notebook computer with a larger HDD that can serve the same purpose and more. OTOH, the P2 store is battery powered and can clip to your belt. For "run and gun" news gathering, I would say the P2 store would be a nice solution. But the Cineporter and Firestore would also be great too methinks.

Originally Posted by Jeff Kilgroe

If you have recorded to P2, you connect the camera to your computer and the computer will see the camera as an external drive. You simply drag and drop the video you shot from the camera device folder to anywhere else on your computer. Your clips are there just as if you have already "captured" them.

That's good news.

Originally Posted by Jeff Kilgroe

You can also pop out the P2 card from the camera and drop it into any 32bit PCMCIA Type II slot and your clips are right there.

Not sure if my G5 2.7 has a 32bit PCMCIA Type II slot, but I don't think it does. So I think the first option mentioned would have to be my choice.

Originally Posted by Jeff Kilgroe

The $1800 P2 store is for cycling P2 cards while shooting in the field. It is not a necessary item at all and it may work for some people and be totally worthless to others. It's a device that allows you to offload the contents of a P2 card to a HDD in the field. IMO it's a complete rip-off. For half the price, you can have a nice notebook computer with a larger HDD that can serve the same purpose and more. OTOH, the P2 store is battery powered and can clip to your belt. For "run and gun" news gathering, I would say the P2 store would be a nice solution. But the Cineporter and Firestore would also be great too methinks.

Yes, for my case I would not need the P2 store.

Originally Posted by Tony Levelle

I'll ask at tomorrow's DV expo workshops - I'd like to know too...

Thanks Tony, you may not need to now that Jeff's provided a very detailed answer.

[Jeff Kilgroe]

Originally Posted by Derek West

That's good news.
Not sure if my G5 2.7 has a 32bit PCMCIA Type II slot, but I don't think it does. So I think the first option mentioned would have to be my choice.

The G5 and other Apple desktops don't include a PCMCIA slot -- these are the PC Card slots you see on the sides of notebook computers. Apple iBook and Powerbook systems have them obviously. There are PCMCIA slot add-ons for PC systems and I believe for Mac as well. Actually there's no reason why they wouldn't work for the Mac it would be the same hardware, it just needs the proper software driver. Panasonic is offering (it may not be available just yet) a PCMCIA interface for desktop systems that occupies a 5.25" drive bay (as most such adapters do) and theirs is called the "P2 Drive" and has 4 PCMCIA slots. I don't know what the pricing or availability is yet. I know that for the PC, a generic PCI to PCMCIA adapter that occupies either a 3.5" or 5.25" drive bay with 2 slots can be had for < $50.

[Tony Levelle]

Originally Posted by Derek West

Thanks Tony, you may not need to now that Jeff's provided a very detailed answer.

Agreed.

I'll only post further if i hear anything new in the workshops.

Time to go get my morning Starbucks.

[Tony Torn]

Would my G4 powerbook be too pokey for this? Do I absolutely require an speed upgrade to higher than 5400rpm if I am working with the P2? (I know I would need to go higher if recording directly via firewire/FCP.

Although my focus is on narrative, not doc work, I do want the flexibility to shoot long takes, so I am hoping to run p2 cards out to the laptop PCACIA on the fly while shooting, as the need arises.

[Stephen L. Noe]

On the PC side, some NLE's already support P2 MXF ingest (Liquid & XpressPro, etc.) but not all MXF's are equal as you know. I can speak for Liquid in that P2 MXF DVCPro50 is supported without a work around or anything. Liquid will edit MXF P2 (DIF in this case) content and also dump back to P2. In the Liquid world it's called Xrecieve (from P2) and Xsend (to P2). In essesnce, what it does is import the MXF file, read the metadata and put a clip in your rack. Now, the nice thing about Liquid is that you can Xrecieve a linked file, which means you can edit the MXF right on the P2 card. This ONLY applies to DVCPro50 and DVCPro25.

There is no solution for DVCProHD MXF Xsend/Xrecieve in the Liquid lineup. Liquid Chrome Elite has the HD-SDI break out box and allow you to capture in that method (from DVCProHD deck), but it is not the raw MXF that the camera's hardwired codec captured.

I'm not aware of any MXF native editing for DVCProHD MXF (directly on the card). Maybe I'm wrong. I'd like to know.

[Edwin Hernandez]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kilgroe

Apple iBook and Powerbook systems have them obviously.

iBooks don't have PCMCIA slots.

[Kevin Shaw]

Originally Posted by Stephen L. Noe

I'm not aware of any MXF native editing for DVCProHD MXF (directly on the card). Maybe I'm wrong. I'd like to know.

I couldn't say for sure, but I think Canopus Edius might be able to do that with the necessary codec plug-ins. They're claiming very thorough support for the P2 format.

[Pedro Faerstein]

Hi,

This is my first message on this forum.

One Brazilian wating for this camera and wondering about its capabilities. For what I've been reading, if you record to p-2 cards, you can download the images pretty quickly to any firewire storage device. A simple external hd would work? I dont see why not.

For me it would be a cheap solution. You just would have to wait every now and then. But in movie production we are always waiting anyway.

[Jeff Kilgroe]

Originally Posted by Edwin Hernandez

iBooks don't have PCMCIA slots.

Really? I guess they really are just about worthless then. :)

[John Benton]

hello

- You can record to a P2 and then dump P2 into a PCMI slot on a laptop (even while an other P2 continues to record). Rise and repeat, so you basically have continuous shooting
- You can connect via firewire to and SMART HardDrive like a Firestore or a Laptop (the HD on the laptop should be fast though , like 7200) and capture directly from your NLE (for longer work this seems like a great option)
- you can stop shooting for a few minutes and dump via firewire to any external HD (but you must supply power - the camera wont power it)...

there are a number of other ways too 'P2card reader' etc


/J

[Barry Green]

Originally Posted by Kevin Shaw

I couldn't say for sure, but I think Canopus Edius might be able to do that with the necessary codec plug-ins. They're claiming very thorough support for the P2 format.

Edius and Avid can both do it. At DV Expo, Canopus said that they would be launching a new bundle (I think they called it "Edius Broadcast") which would include all the necessary components and plug-ins and be bundled at a quite attractive package price point.

And, as Kevin said, Edius is indeed claiming very thorough support -- I think they probably have the most robust MXF support. They maintain the metadata throughout the entire edit process. Apple (currently) requires the MXF to be converted to a QuickTime .mov, which I guess breaks the link between the source clip and its metadata (? I'm not an FCP user... yet... maybe... so I'm not sure about this, but I think that's how it works). Avid can edit straight off the card, but there's something that Canopus can do, MXF-wise, that Avid doesn't. Not sure exactly what, but they were definitely proud of it.