Panasonic Whitepaper June2007

8/8/2019 Panasonic Whitepaper June2007

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when it counts

Tech

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Upda

te:

Underst

anding

P2W

orkf

ow

USING P2 HD WITH

FINAL CUT PRO


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Computer / OS specsA Macintosh computer with a 500 megahertz (MHz) or aster PowerPC G4 or G5 processor (550 MHz or PowerBook G4) or any dual

PowerPC G4 or G5 processors

AGP (Accelerated Graphics Port) Quartz Extreme graphics card

51 megabytes (MB) o random-access memory (RAM); 1 gigabyte (GB) recommended

For HD: A Macintosh computer with a 1 gigahertz (GHz) or aster PowerPC G4 or G5 processor and 1 GB o RAM; GB recommended

Minimum NLE sotware version or P2 support

Final Cut Pro Version 5.04

Current NLE sotware version or P2 support

Final Cut Pro Version 5.1.4

Overview

The basic P workow described here is available or use with the AG-HVX00, AJ-HPX000 and other Panasonic P HD camcorders.

Please contact Panasonic or urther details, or, visit http://www.panasonic.com/business/provideo/home.asp

Organization is the key to managing your media in any situation, but it becomes critical when P cards will be re-used during the

shoot.

P cards and their contents should be treated in the same manner as an IT department would handle critical server data.

Having a backup or two (preerable), will saeguard your data in case o hard drive or operator ailure (accidental erasure).

Recommended equipment or a P shoot should include the P Store, the PCD-10 or PCD-0 P card readers and, i time and space

allow, a laptop running Final Cut Pro with external storage or ingest and secondary backup.

In order to provide compatibility with Mac and Windows based systems, we suggest purchasing BUS powered disk drives that are

already ormatted FAT 3. The Mac will read and write Fat3 with a ew considerations.

As a general rule, always copy the entire Contents Folder (video, proxy, etc), as well as the Lastclip.txt. Please note, that bus

powered drives are generally intended as an intermediate storage device and will not necessarily provide enough throughput or

editing.

Shoot, Backup, Ingest and Archive are stages to think o on a P based shoot. Use a log sheet to help track your cards through this

process, checking o each stage will be critical.

Shoot

Prior to recording any data on the P cards, it is recommended that each card is ormatted in the camera - ensuring a ull capacity

card. I I plan to use multiple P Stores, a 3-digit code is assigned to each. Each time a card is placed in the camera, the card number

is notated on the P log sheet.


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Backup

The frst step ater removing the card rom the camera is to WRITE PROTECT THE P CARD.

Each time a P card is removed rom a camera, it is notated on the P log sheet. The card is then placed in the P Store or immediate

backup. The P Store number is noted as well.

The P Store creates a clone o the card and all MXF metadata is preserved. This is why the P Store should be the frst stop.

I no other feld ingestion is taking place, the P card can be saely erased once the cloning process has been completed.

An alternative method to archiving on a P Store can be done via Final Cut Pro.

From the P import screen, control click on a P volume and choose archive. This will allow you to name the card appropriately and

save it in a destination o your choosing.

Ingest

It is very important to make sure the P card is write protected beore placing card into any reading device.

I time and space allow, a computer running Final Cut Pro is placed on the set. Ater each card is backed up on the P Store, the card(s)

is placed in a PCD-10 or PCD-0 to allow ingest into Final Cut Pro. This serves as a secondary copy o the ootage and provides a quick

start or the edit. The Mac should be setup with an external hard drive as the designated scratch disc.

One note about multiple frewire devices - on all Apple hardware, the built in frewire ports share the same bus.This means

that although you may have multiple FW400 and FW800 ports, internally they are all treated as one bus. For some applications, splitting

your devices amongst USB and Firewire is recommended. For example, i a Firewire drive were to be used or the main capture scratch

disk, a USB .0 connection or a P card reader would work best. I an HVX-00 is going to be used as a card reader, a USB .0hard drive should be used or capture. The throughput or capture on USB and Firewire are both acceptable or capturing all DVCPro

codecs.

I multiple frewire devices need to be used, such as a AJ-HD1400 DVCProHD deck and a AJ-HD1400 FW hard drive, I recommend

a frewire adapter card. These can be PCI, Cardbus, or ExpressBus in orm and provide a reliable way to use multiple devices on the

same computer.

Every time the card is ingested, a log note is added and the card can now be erased in the P Store prior to going back into a

camera.


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The current version o Final Cut Pro does not directly support the MXF data ormat. Using FCP to ingest P clips will create a copy

o your ootage that has been translated into a Quicktime movie. There is no loss o quality. Final Cut Pro is just saving the MXF as a

Quicktime fle without the P metadata.

It is a recommended practice to mount your P devices on your Mac prior to running the Import P command rom inside FCP.

Using the File>Import menu, choose Panasonic P.

Final Cut Pro will locate the mounted P volumes and present the clips contained on those cards.

The contents o the cards can be displayed as a list o clips, or segmented by card. Use the Show Items button to control the

display.


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Each clip may be previewed beore importing by simply clicking once on the clip on the let side o the screen. Use the standard FCP

clip controls, such as JKL to play the clip, i or in and o or out etc.

Note on using Firestore FS-100

When using the Focus Enhancement FS-100 direct-to-edit hard drive, a couple o steps are needed to prepare the drive or ingestinto FCP. The ollowing steps apply when shooting in the MXF ormat. These steps are not required when shooting in the Quicktime

ormat.

First, rom the FS-100 Utilities menu,

choose Organize P.

Then use the HDD Menu to choose DD

Drive.Connect your Firewire cable rom the

Computer I/O port to your Mac.

Choose Enable.

The drive will mount on your desktop.

From FCP, choose File > Import > Panasonic P.

Choose Add Custom Path.


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Select the Firestore and appropriate older.

The ootage will now appear in the window.

In FCP 5.1. and later, you now have the option to create sub-clips prior to ingest. You may also add your own logging ino such as

reel, clip name, log notes etc.

Sub clipping is a useul eature that FCP provides. It is a strategic part o the P workow. By sub clipping your raw ootage, one can

reduce the amount o unwanted data that will be captured. This will save time in the editing, and storage space on the editing system.

This will also reduce the amount o space and time required or fnal archive.


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For example, what i you inadvertently missed the record button to end a take and the camera recorded an additional 3 minutes o

extraneous ootage? With the sub clip eature, you can take just the section required and eliminate the rest.

You can also decide to exclude audio and or video tracks rom the ingest at this time by using the Import Settings tab. This is also a

reerence to my previous statement about only ingesting the needed content. I the shot is MOS (Mute On Sound), there is no reason

to capture the audio. Youll save disk space and editing time by eliminating it on import.


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To ingest a clip, simply drag the clip(s) to the Queue portion o

the window, or select Add to Queue rom the right side o the

screen.

At this time, you may decide to rename the clip with something more descriptive. This

will save valuable time in the edit.

I have ound by reviewing each clip rom the P card, I can eliminate the unwanted takes quickly, and save tremendous time in the

edit. P needs a dierent thought process than digitize it all and sort it out later. I you heed this advice, your editing will go more

smoothly.

The ingest process in FCP is a background process. This means that you

can place the Import P window in the background and continue to edit

as the clips are ingested. The clips will show up in the designated logging

bin as soon as they are available. I recommend sending the import

window to the dock to avoid conusion.

I FCP does not show your card(s), you may need to point FCP to the

location manually. Do this by selecting Add Folder and navigating to the

appropriate location.


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Occasionally, your P volumes may not mount on the desktop ater

insertion. I this occurs, a quick trip to the Disk Utility application

(located in /Applications/Utilities) is needed to manually mount the

volume.

To do so, look or the volume that is

orange in color and click on it, and

choose mount rom the tool bar.

Another useul tool or working with P on theMac is the P Log Pro rom Imagine Sotware(http://www.imagineproducts.com)


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P Log Pro will allow the user to view all metadata stored on the P cards and transer some o that data into FCP. It also allows or the

uploading o user data such as user clip name, shooter and project name.

Archive

Once the shoot is complete, the data ideally resides in two places; the P Store and a portable hard drive, or the P cards and a P

Store.

Since the P Store will be used on the next shoot, another method o storing the data or long-term protection needs to be

considered.

There are several options suitable or this purpose on the Mac, but this article will ocus on two in particular: Blu-Ray Disc and MXF

Aware DLT.

Overview

Transer times will average about 1 cards per hour or about

4 minutes per 8GB P card. It is important to consider how

you wish to handle the archive. I you archive only your FCP

project and associated capture scratch locations, you will

lose the original MXF metadata, since FCP does not work

with it natively. This may not be an issue or some, but i

the work may be moved to another editing platorm or to

an asset management program, preserving the native MXF

fles will be important.

The fles archived on the P Store are in the native MXF ormat. You can mount the P Store to your desktop and copy the volumes to

the media o your choice such as Blu-Ray or hard disc or DLT.

I you wish to archive P cards in their native ormat and you are not using a P Store, please review the options below.


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Blu-Ray Disc

Blu-Ray Disc is a next generation disc ormat based on a

standard 5.5 diameter disc. It uses a blue-violet laser to

record about 50GB o data onto a dual layer disc. The discs

are available in write-once or re-writable or less than $35.

The media is considered archive quality, with a surace thatis more resistant to scratches than a standard dvd-r. Blu-

Ray discs require a Blu-Ray burner to read and record this

data. For the Mac, look or a burner that is bundled with

Roxios Toast 8 sotware to allow your Mac to read and

write these discs. It can take up to 0 minutes to burn a

ull 4GB disc.

Blu-Ray Disc Backup

To backup using the Blu-Ray optical disc ormat, I recommend Toast 8 rom Roxio (http://www.roxio.com/toast).

First choose the Data category on the let to select what type o data will go on the disc. Next, decide whether the disc needs to be PC

compatible. I so, choose ISO 0. I you only need Mac compatibility, choose Mac Only.

This will allow you to create a backup that can span multiple discs without you guessing how many discs are needed, Toast will fgure

it out automatically.

Simply drag your archived P Card olders into the

main window.


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Illustration shows how to tell Toast what type o media you areusing.

Note:

Toast 8 will tell you how many discs you will need. Just hit the burn

button and insert discs as prompted.

MXF Aware DLTDigital Linear Tape (DLT) has been used to backup computer data since the early 80s. Quantum oers a special DLT drive, the

SDLT 00A, that oers MXF data support and an easy to use Ethernet connectivity. Simply drag your fles rom your local drive just like

an FTP upload. DLT tapes can currently hold up to 300GB o data on magnetic tape that costs around $100.

(http://www.quantum.com/Products/TapeDrives/DLT/SDLT00A/Index.aspx).

Quantum SDLT 600A Backup

The Quantum SDLT-00a tape drive hooks up to your Mac via an Ethernet connection. The deault IP address or the Quantum is

10.10.10.10

Your Mac will need to be on the same subnet in order to communicate with the 00A. Use your Network Preerence pane located in

the System Preerences to set this up.

First, choose Location>New


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Then give the location a name, like DLT.

Ater naming the location, choose Ethernet 1 (or whatever port you have hooked your DLT up to) rom the Network Status drop down.

Now we must place our Mac on the same subnet by choosing Manual rom the Confgure IPv4 drop down menu. Use 10.10.10.1 as

your address and leave the rest o the settings as is. Click Apply Now.

Now to transer our fles.


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Using Saari, type in the address 10.10.10.10 and hit return.

You will now be connected to the DLT drive.

Locate your fles on the let

window by fnding the Volumes

older and double-clicking.

Locate the sub volume with your

archived P Folders in it and drag

them to the right window.


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You will see a status in the lower portion o the window. It will take about 4 minutes per 8GB P card you wish to transer. You can drag

multiple fles rom the let side to the right, but do not drag any fles until ater your frst set fnishes. Remember that i you changed

your Network Location or this archiving application, to change it back or normal network connectivity.

About the Author:

Art Aldrich is a 5+ year veteran o television production and is an Apple Certifed Instructor in Final Cut Pro. He runs a video production

acility using the P workow or broadcast and corporate clients.

Documents

Panasonic Whitepaper June2007