Both the Mac Pro & the RAID server were both brand new, had been tested and were working perfectly when we started, but shooting conditions just got to them. By the end of the shoot, neither would come up and were sent off for repair. We were shooting in a dusty warehouse with a bunch of lights so it probably overheated, but this is very much real-world. This kind of stuff might work in a studio, but I wouldn't take a chance on it in the field. The clients were looking REALLY upset when they found out the high-quality uncompressed footage was gone.

How does this process work - capturing to an HDV camera from the analog component output?
Could you do this as back-up while capturing to P2?

Not sure what you mean... you can't capture *to* an HDV camera. You can only capture *from* it. You can use an HDV camera as a deck and record with it, but only through FireWire or the standard definition analog input. HD component video is output only. I think you probably meant to ask how can you capture *from* an HDV camera from the analog component output, and you can do that with a component video capture card on your computer, just remember that the camera's analog component output is video only.

Again, you don't capture to P2, in fact you really don't capture from it either, not in the strict sense of the term because P2 uses an edit-ready file format called MXF and what you do to get it into your editing system is called ingest, not capture. If you want to back up your P2 data, you simply copy the files once they're ingested.

To make this clear:
We capture from 5 hvx's through the component output to uncompressed hd.
The workflow is taxing, but it still works -;)

Thing is (for me) it seems like it is well worth the extrea bandwith and hassels, but that might be exclusively me.

Gunleik

Sorry, i guess my question was a little stupid, and the term capturing to P2 may have been technically incorrect - I jsut meant recording to P2. I just didn't understand what a previous post was saying about using Sony HDV cameras and was trying to clarify. I got the impression they were using it with an HVX and the analogue oputputs but that was mistaken.

I still don't get what Gunleik is doing. How are you recording and why? What are the pros & cons?