File Names on P2

[Guest Ken Maskrey]

Anyone know how the filenames get generated? They seem semi-random, 001yD, 024e, etc, etc. I'm sure there's a simple explanation, but skimming the manual, I didn't find it?

 

Also, anyone know how to shut off the 4 audio tracks that seem to get attached to the files? When you bring them into FCP, and try to bring in your stereo sound from another source, weird things occur...for example, after about a minute or so, you can't bring 2nd source audio into the timeline. It's there, in the viewer, but you can't paste it to the timeline.

[Matt Irwin]

I've been told that those "names" are not entirely random and somewhat unique to each camera. Apparently one could shoot with 20 HVX's for 2 years and never get a duplicate file name. (This is according to an FCP editor that spoke with the Pana techs)

 

About the audio: DVCProHD supports 8 channels, but the HVX can only record 4 channels. I believe that in Apple's FCP/HVX White Paper, it is recommended that you disable the extra 4 channels in FCP while importing footage and then add them back as you need them (this will save disk space as well as help prevent problems like those that you are having).

[Phil Rhodes]

Hi,

 

Out of the diseased mind of some engineer in Japan who doesn't know the meaning of the word "editor."

 

The first two digits are sequential indicating the number of the take - but they reset every time you swap cards, so if you shoot on three cards and have say 20 takes on each, you'll get three files beginning 01 which will be takes one, twenty-one, and forty-one, only they'll list as one, two and three. The order in which they list will be controlled by the random hash generated by the camera, which is probably based on several things including the date and its serial number which makes collisions unlikely. So once you dump all your takes into one bin, you might get them listed like this:

 

1

21

41

42

2

22

3

43

23

 

...and there's absolutely nothing whatsoever you can do about it. Of course in reality you don't shoot exactly the same number of takes per card so what you get is something that effectively looks like a completely random order. It's absolutely horrible and nightmarish and awful and I simply cannot comprehend how such a myopically stupid, shortsighted and obviously worst-case system was ever developed.

 

What would have been much more sensible would be to make it put either the timcode or timecode-based frame count into the filename - if you're using normal timecode discipline, this will absolutely preclude duplication and mean that everything lists in order, you don't need special tools to read the timecode and syncing dual-system sound is easy.

 

But being computer engineers the people at Panasonic had a much more complicated, much less effective method which leaves you wishing you'd shot tape.

 

Grr.

 

Phil