Avid Xpress Pro, Media Composer, FCP, and P2

By Mickey on December 29, 2007 9:18 PM | Permalink | Leave a Comment(0) | TrackBacks (0)

Now that Panasonic P2 is a very successful format there are a few things you need to be aware of when editing and importing these files. There are time that a multiple MXF file will refer to the same clip. This is because P2 cards are formatted as FAT 32 (so that they are compatible with both PC and Mac.) FAT 32 drives have a 4 gig file size limit; thus when the MXF file for a clip reaches 4 gbs, it creates a second MXF file. This is similar to the 2gb limit that OMF files have.

When the clip is imported, it will display the name of one of the clips; the name is usually the same as the first MXF file, but if you attempted to import both MXF files, it may display the name of the second clip. If you use a program like P2CMS to transfer you P2 cards to a drive, it will create a separate folder for each individual MXF file. It is only necessary to import one of the MXF files for a clip that contains multiple MXF files - all of the media and metadata will be preserved. These are very important steps to keep your P2 MXF files online!