Corrupt Files on P2 card
 

Ok I have no idea what could have caused this, but 10 minutes of very important footage is unavailable to me because I couldn't import the footage (final cut would close unexpectedly). Also, the footage was not playable on the camera, nor could I repair the clips.

So I copied the contents of the p2 onto my hard drive and can't manage to get the xml files to work either. All of them, but the first 2 are said to be corrupt. The other two need to be translated. Anyone know how to tranlate the xmls? Also, anyone have any answers to a possible way of recovering the footage or is it hopeless?

Peter

Strange...

Now has me wondering if FCP may have actually wrote something bad back to the P2 card when it crashed while trying to import. Or perhaps the file is locked somehow due to this. I would see if you can pull the contents from the P2 onto a PC and see if you have any issues there...

FWIW, to keep anything bad or even FCP from writing back to the P2 card, on future shoots, you could flip the write-protect tab on the back of your P2 card over to "protect" until you have the data pulled from the card. May not be the most convenient thing to do, but may save you from another episode like this in the future.

I might have some things to try if you can give a bit more information about what it's doing. Or see what happens on the PC side of things. But I could probably use a few more specifics.

Copy vs. Import
 

Peter,

It's not clear what your import method was exactly, whether you were importing directly into FCP from the HVX or if you copied those clips to a HDD first and then attempted your importing, but the latter is the safest way to prevent issues like this.

Importing directly from the HVX into FCP can be considered a "hot transfer" especially if the write-protect tabs are not in protect mode because FCP could inadvertently "talk back" to the camera during the x-fer and cause this kind of corruption.

The safest way to deal with HVX footage isn't to import directly from the camera - or even from having the cards in a PCMCIA slot into the FCP browser, but to instead copy those clips to a folder (or partition) on a separate HDD that FCP does not live on. Once copied, you can then import them into your FCP browser for editing.

If however, you are copying clips to a HDD before actually importing them and you're coming up with corrupt footage then that is a completely different issue and as Jeff mentioned, more details about the exact specifics of your workflow would be required to help troubleshoot the issue.

Make sure FCP is fully updated.

Make sure the "Write protect switch" is flipped on the back of the card so you see orange.

I got that error message until I updated. 5.0.4 I believe is the latest.

8G corrput clips
 

I am transferring P2 Data through my Mac G4 onto an external HDD. I am able to then Import the P2 Clips from the HDD into FCP 5.0.4. However, only files from the 4G cards are readable -- the 8G cards are all "damaged or corrupt" even though I can play them back on the camera, or opt to import them directly from the 8G card to FCP via the pcm slot. I tried the write-protect switch but doesn't make a difference on the 8G cards. Any one else have this problem?
Thanks.

Lost in translation?
 

Matt,

Sounds like the point of failure might be in the transfer via the PCMCIA slot.

My suggestion is to use the HVX in HOST mode and connect an external FW drive to the camera and tranfer the clips directly to the HDD. Then copy those files to your working Mac drive.

If they transfer from the 8GB card successfully then the PCMCIA x-fer might be the issue.

To date, I have only either captured directly a Powerbook or, done the above by transferring to an external drive directly through HOST mode, and both of these have worked with my 8GB cards flawlessly.

My guess is that something is getting lost in the translation using the Mac as a mid-point controller. Why it happens only with the 8GB and not the 4GB cards is curious, but my guess is if you use the HOST mode x-fer you'll be fine.

However, if you still get unreadable files from the 8GB cards then I'd say both camera and cards need to go into service immediately.

partly solved problem
 

Robert, thanks for your advice. I am getting a new HDD that I can dedicate to downloading P2 files this weekend but in the meantime, after a lot of helpless emails from Panny in NJ (including a PDF file sent to me for updating the firmware in the 8G cards), I figured out that the P2 Store somehow transfers the 8G card information to an external HDD without the "corrupt" clip error when I go to import it into FCP. It's only when I use the Mac Powerbook PCM slot; but only with 8G cards. Weird, but true.

What type Footage are you trying to import? I am guess it is probably HD. What computer are you using? What are the Specs on it? Download the updated drivers from the panasonic website, Also, when importing cards to a computer in HD, the computer requires 1 GB of Ram. It is what stopped us from being able to do HD on our G4 Powerbook, everytime i tried to import clips into the comp using FCP,it would say our cards were corrupt or unreadable, but read just fine in our Maxed G5.

Greg,
I am shooting all 720p 24n. I am using a Mac Dual 2.7 with 8G of ram in it, and the powerbook is a G4 with 1G Ram... maybe that's not enough? But I was having the same problem on Dual 2.7 with the 8G cards. I found that if I use the P2 Store as a Reader I can transfer the 8G card information onto the HDD then import it fine in to FCP. Importing 8G cards from the camera onto the HDD then trying to import those files into FCP is what is giving me the "corrupt, damaged clip" error. I have yet to try the camera in HOST mode directly to an external HDD but plan to give that a shot soon.

By the way - I'm a fan of all your albums.

Interval
 

I shot a mixture of formats on one P2 Card: 720 @ 60, 720 @24pn, and Interval (1F every 5sec in Video Cam @ 720 60). I wasn't able to play back the Interval footage in the camera but it loaded into FCP just fine. Does anyone know if multiple formats on one card presents "in camera" playback issues? As long as it transfers it's ok, it's just nice to see it in the camera to verify.

Having multiple formats on a card presents a minor inconvenience, but not a problem.

The camera can only play back footage that was shot in the mode that it's currently in. So if you have it set to 720/60p, then it can play back any clip on its cards that were shot in 720/60p mode. But if you also have clips in, say, 1080/24, those can't be played back yet.

What you have to do is change the camera's REC FORMAT to be 1080/24, and then that 1080/24 clips can be played. But, since you're now in 1080 mode, the 720 clips won't be able to be played.

So all your clips can be played back, you just have to set the camera in the right mode.