We’ve been using the Focus Enhancements FireStore FS-100, which has an internal 100 GB hard disk, with the Panasonic AG-HVX200 to capture DVCPRO HD and DVCPRO 50 video clips (as well as standard DV/DVCPRO 25) in the Panasonic P2 media format.

Before importing P2 media from the FS-100 to your Final Cut Pro workstation, you must first run the Organize P2 utility within the FS-100. Once shooting with the FS-100 is complete, navigate to the Utilities screen on the FS-100 using the Left or Right Arrow key. Scroll down to Organize P2. Press the Select key on the FS-100 to initiate the Organize P2 operation. A progress bar will appear for several seconds as the Organize P2 operation proceeds. Once the Organize P2 operation is completed, the FS-100 display will return to the main home screen.

Now you are ready to set the FS-100 to Disk Drive Mode to connect the FS-100 to your FCP workstation. Connect the FS-100 Computer I/O port to the FireWire 400 I/O port on your Mac with a 6pin-to-6pin FireWire cable. On the FS-100, navigate to the HDD Mode screen, select DD Drive, then select Enable. Once the FS-100 is connected to the Mac in DD Drive via FireWire, it will mount and appear as a hard drive on the desktop. The P2 clips that were captured on the FS-100 are now available to import into FCP.

Now it’s time to properly configure FCP so it can recognize and handle the DVCPRO HD P2 720/24P clips from the FS-100. Open FCP. If a previous project is open, save and close the project. In the FCP menu, go to Final Cut Pro and select Easy Setup. To make things simple, you just need to choose the setup that coincides with the actual P2 format that you captured with the FireStore FS-100. In this case, select DVCPRO HD – 720p24. Select the appropriate Easy Setup.

Once you’ve selected the appropriate Easy Setup, review the Audio/Video Settings for that setup to make sure everything is set up correctly. In the FCP menu, choose Audio/Video Settings.

Now that the Audio/Video Settings are correctly set to match the FS-100 P2 source clips, you’re ready to import the FS-100 P2 media clips into the FCP Project Browser. When importing FS-100 P2 media into FCP, treat the FS-100 P2 clips in the same way you would handle AG-HVX200 clips captured to a P2 card. Go to the File menu, then go to Import and select Panasonic P2.

Once you select Import Panasonic P2, the Import Panasonic P2 tool window will appear. The Import Panasonic P2 tool will by default select the connected FireStore FS-100 as the source for your P2 media clips. Version 5.1 of FCP offers an additional Remove Duplicate/Adv. Pull-down Frames option that lets you remove duplicate frames when transferring P2 footage to an FCP scratch disk. By checking this option during P2 import, FCP will create a QuickTime file at the native frame rate that coincides with the actual frame rate to which the Panasonic AG-HVX200 was set during recording.

Simply put, if you set the HVX200 to record 720/24p (Advanced Pulldown) or 720/30p, checking the Remove Duplicate/Adv. Pull-down Frames option will remove the added frames during import and produce a genuine 24p (23.98) or 30p clip, depending on which format mode you captured in. (As of this writing, the P2 formats DVCPRO HD 1080/24P and 1080/30P are not yet natively supported in FCP 5.1.1.) Highlight the clips you want to import and select the Import button. To import all of the available FS-100 P2 clips, select the Import All button.

A progress bar will appear as the selected P2 clips are being imported into the FCP Project Browser.

FCP will handle the FireStore FS-100 in the same way it will handle a standard Panasonic P2 media card. No need to copy the contents of the FireStore FS-100 to your FCP workstation before importing your P2 clips-FCP will handle that task as the P2 media clips are transcoded to QuickTime .mov files and ingested to the FCP scratch disk during import into the Project Browser window.

When the import is complete, all of the imported P2 media clips will appear in the FCP Browser Window as ingested .mov files ready to edit. That’s it. Your clips are now ready to start editing!

Daniel and Donald Berube
Owners
noisybrain.Productions

Daniel and Donald Berube are founders of noisybrain.Productions, a collaborative, full-service production facility based in surburban Boston. Both have more than two decades worth of production and editing credits on public and network television. Daniel is an Apple Certified Trainer and founder of the Boston Final Cut Pro User Group. Donald is a DP who works with a range of SD and HD acquisition formats.

Daniel and Donald Say Keep in Mind…
We’ve been using the Focus Enhancements FireStore FS-100, which has an internal 100 GB hard disk, with the Panasonic AG-HVX200 to capture DVCPRO HD and DVCPRO 50 video clips (as well as standard DV/DVCPRO 25) in the Panasonic P2 media format.
We’ll show you how to work with DVCPRO HD 720/24P P2 clips already captured with an FS-100 in an FCP editing environment. The key is to treat FireStore FS-100 P2 captures in the same way you would handle HVX200 clips captured to a P2 card.
Before importing FireStore FS-100 P2 clips into FCP (we’re using version 5.1.1 here), the Project Settings for FCP must be set up properly to recognize and handle the actual P2 format captured by the FS-100.

noisybrain.Productions
www.noisybrain.com
282 Moody Street, Suite 211
Waltham, MA 02453
ph. 617.331.8991
info@noisybrain.com