Working with P2 Media

The P2 format used on many file based cameras and utilizes solid state removable memory cards.

There are 4 ways of mounting P2 cards onto the computer

1. Use a Panasonic P2 memory card reader connected to your computer

2. Use a Panasonic P2 camcorder connected via FireWire as a card reader

3. Insert a P2 card into the PCMCIA slot

4. Ingest MXF media from any P2-compliant folder on a local or networked hard disk

The file structure of P2 media is made up of 1 ‘Contents’ Folder and a LASTCLIP.TXT file. If you wish to backup your P2 media to another harddrive  you must drag both of these items and copy to a ne location making sure all the elements inside the ‘Contents’ folder are also copied. Do not rename the ‘Contents’.

The easiest way to import P2 media into CatDV is to locate the Contents folder on the P2 card or harddrive and drag its entire contents into the catalog area of CatDV.

CatDV will then analyse the media and group the audio and video into MXF metaclips for playback. In order for CatDV to analyse the MXF metadata create meta clips you will need to have the CatDV MXF option.

To playback P2 files you will need the correct playback codec, 3rd party codecs such as calibrated MXF import are available from  www.calibratedsoftware.com.

CatDV supports P2 spanned clips – these are clips that have spanned across 2 recording cards.

Once the clips are playing back in CatDV you can start log the clips, exporting to Final Cut Pro via xml, Avid with Pegasus AAF Tool, export to Adobe via send to Adobe command or as a XML file.