Firestore and P2 logger not working
by Chad Wachs
on
Feb 16, 2008 at 12:44:38 am
We have a Panasonic HVX-500 P2 camera. We shoot in 720 60p mode directly onto the Firestore 100 160GB. What I am trying to accomplish is allow our producer to preview the footage before it hits edit (while he is flying back home). He has a Mac and we've installed the Panasonic P2 CMS software on it.
The problem is, when we hook up the Firestore, the software sees all the clips on it but they all have red "X" marks on the thumbnail and they won't play. You get a poorly written error message about the clip missing something.
If we fire up Final Cut Pro 6.02, everything works perfectly. The problem is, we are an Avid house. I need a way for the producer to preview and log all the P2 footage on the Firestore and then preferably, mark the clips with in and out points so when the so when the Avid editor brings in all the footage, points are already marked for good takes.
Re: Firestore and P2 logger not working by Jon Cairns on Feb 18, 2008 at 5:04:04 pm
Hello Chad,
I am experiencing what seems to be the very same issue. Can I ask if you have version 4 software running on the FS-100? My troubles with this started when I upgraded from version 3 to 4. P2CMS works just fine with the FS-100 with v3. As soon as v4 is installed I get the red x's and the "incompleteness" error when I try to play back footage. The only successful playback is if I set the FS-100 to VFR mode. Then the clips play back and are red x free. Of course no audio is recorded so I can't shoot at 24p as a workaround.
It seems as if the FS-100 adds a line in the XML about the VFR Ratio being "Invalid!." I've actually gone into the XML, removed the line, saved the XML and that clip will be seen and play in P2CMS.
I just emailed support at Focus last week regarding this and I haven't gotten any response. In a conversation I had with tech support about this issue back in September I was told they don't test with P2CMS so they won't help you out with issues related to their compatibility with it.
I don't have an answer other than to say try installing v3 on the fs-100. One downside is that you lose audio playback through firewire on set if you don't have v4. It's pretty frustrating to have to choose.
Re: Firestore and P2 logger not working by Chad Wachs on Feb 18, 2008 at 5:21:47 pm
Excellent post! I am running v4 of software. It is brand new out of the box. Seems strange they would not test this with the primary piece of software you would use to log footage... What specifically do I loose with audio with v3? We only play back through a computer so as long as I get audio through P2CMS with v3, that would be all I need.
Re: Firestore and P2 logger not working by Jon Cairns on Feb 18, 2008 at 5:54:38 pm
[Chad Wachs]"Seems strange they would not test this with the primary piece of software you would use to log footage... " I find it strange as well. At the time I was told they try to match Panasonic's P2 cards as much as possible. They never responded as to why they were tagging the VFR Ratio as Invalid!
The loss of audio playback I was referring to is that with v3 if you playback through the camera(in my case an HVX200) you will get picture but audio is muted. Not all that helpful if you need to review something in an interview or to check a line of dialog. If you don't need to playback sound and picture in this manner you should be fine.
Can you email Focus' support and let them know that you are having issues with v4 and P2CMS? Maybe more voices will help with a resolution…
Re: Firestore and P2 logger not working by Jon Cairns on Feb 19, 2008 at 2:44:30 pm
Michael,
I've run P2CMS on both Tiger and Leopard with success. Although my use of P2CMS is fairly limited in that I mainly use it to offload my P2 cards or Firestore. P2CMS adds a verify function that does a bit for bit compare, an added layer of reassurance that a transfer with the Mac's Finder doesn't offer. The second benefit with P2CMS is that clips with an issue are flagged upfront so I know there is a potential issue right away. Although in this case that's the issue since the FS-100 is adding what seems to be a warning in a line of the XML. At least I would interpret a word such as "Invalid" as a warning. Especially if it is followed by an exclamation point. I'm still waiting to hear from Focus as to why this might be there.
I've had occasions where FCP will show a clip as being ok, I can play it back in the log and transfer window, but when I go to ingest the clip I get a big red warning that the clip can't be converted.
I use Raylight as part of my workflow as well, so I generally don't even use the log and transfer function I just spoke of. But again, the issue is that I am not alerted to the fact that there is a potential issue until later on in the pipeline.
So, to my mind, the nice thing about P2CMS is that I am alerted to issues prior to transfer. Then I can choose how to deal with it. Maybe that means I can re-shoot right then. Not always likely but there's a chance.
Can I ask if you are using v4 on the FS-100? Do you not have an issue if you look at clips in P2CMS? Do clips shot with v4 not have the line:
Invalid!
I had searched here and on other forums but didn't see anyone post a similar situation until I saw this thread. Until then I thought that it might just be me...
Re: Firestore and P2 logger not working by Chad Wachs on Feb 19, 2008 at 3:24:39 pm
This appears to be a version 4 issues though I do not have a v3 Firestore to test that theory. I do get the "Invalid!" line for every clip I try to look at with the Firestore with either the Mac or PC versions of P2 CMS. If I plug a regular hard drive into my PC that has P2 clips on it transferred by the camera, those play perfectly with P2 CMS but nothing on the Firestore does so this is pointing to a Firestore issue.
I've contacted tech support for the Firestore but have yet to get a response. I'll post it here when I do.
Re: Firestore and P2 logger not working by Chad Wachs on Feb 19, 2008 at 3:28:51 pm
P2CMS works great with 10.5.2 when using a plain hard drive that contains P2 clips, just not the Firestore. I've also tried the Firestore with the Windows version of P2CMS running on XP. I get the same exact problem I see on the Mac version: Won't play any clips on the Firestore but plays non Firestore P2 clips just fine. Firestore will import to FinalCut Pro and Avid (both platforms) so I know the material on the Firestore is good.
Re: Firestore and P2 logger not working by Jim Pedersen on Nov 16, 2008 at 6:03:43 pm
Hi There.
I hvad found that, if you copy the files from a FS-100 or P2 card, and the reciveing filesystem is able to distinct between CAPS/non-CASPS letter, it at least will fail from the FS-100, because the extension name in the clip .xml is in BIG letters. you can just "mv ...../VIDEO/XXXYYY.mxf ...../VIDEO.MXF" DO the same to AUDIO and ICON please have a backup before you do this !!!!!
The other thing that seem's to give a problem but this is only in the P2CMS when the clip comes from the FS-100
I found that the XML file has some difference when comprared to a native P2 card XML. When i deleted the line showed below, it worked fine in the P2CMS
Invalid!
Please beware to make a backup of the file before changes are made.
I made a support request on this problem at Focusinfo.com
