Help!! I just got an HVX-200 and shot some footage at 480i/24p on P2 card. I have FCP 5.1.2 and I installed what I think is the P2 driver from CD-file "P2PCCARD Install". Is this the right driver? Also, went to Panasonic website and seems to be the same.

I’ve heard you shouldn't import P2 data/footage through FCP.
1. So, I followed manual and connected fW 1394 from camera to mac desktop.
2. Selected "1394 device" on hvx menu then changed mode to PC.
3. When "No Name" camera showed up on destop I copied folder/files from camera to an external HHD and internal HDD.
4. To check footage, I went to FCP selected import folder and selected folder/files. But it didn't work.
5. Tried importing XMLs only and error says conversion file missing. Even tried to select file LASTCLIP.TXT as conversion file.

I was thinking of purchasing P2-genie because I've read it speeds up workflow but don't think it's going to solve the above problem.

I don’t want to delete card until I can confirm data is saved. Any thoughts as to what I'm doing wrong?

Instead of "Import Folder" you need to select "Panasonic P2" from the Import menu. What I do is create a new bin and then right click in it, select Import/Panasonic P2 and then select my clips. FCP will then take the MXF files and "re-wrap" them as .MOVs so that FCP can use them.

James

Is your viewer/canvas window set to higher than 100%?

Did you shoot in low light?

Never judge the quality of your image on a computer monitor.

Shane's Stock Answer #2: Blurry playback

ONLY JUDGE THE QUALITY OF YOUR MATERIAL ON AN EXTERNAL NTSC MONITOR, OR AT LEAST A TV.

1. Disable overlays on the canvas
2. Make sure you've rendered everything (no green bars at the top of the timeline

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=24787

Video playback requires large amounts of data and many computations. In order to maintain frame rate and be viewable at a normal size, only about one-fourth of the DV data is used in displaying the movie to the screen. However, the DV footage is still at full quality, and is best viewed thru a TV or NTSC monitor routed thru your camera or deck.