How to use p2 cards with a macbook pro

After a number of frustrated attempts, corrupt p2 cards, failed tech support calls to DuelAdapter, multiple google searches, and trial and errors with p2 cards, I've finally figured out the best way to get your MacBook Pro set up to handle p2 cards and the media while still being able to use the camera.

As many of you know, P2 cards are expensive. If you can offload your media from one P2 card while still using the other P2 card in your camera, you don't need to own as many p2 cards. Having an extra person to help you offload your media is helpful but not essential.

Getting your MacBook Pro set up with all the software and hardware.

1. You need to purchase a DuelAdapter. This is the only reader that works on a mac. You can purchase it for approximately $110.00. This fits into your PCI slot on a Mac Book Pro. It works on Mac OS X 10.4.8 - Mac OS X 10.5.8. At the time of the posting, the DuelAdapter doesn't work on Snow Leopard. You may check the driver download section from duel systems here to see if they have driver for Snow Leopard (10.6.x)

You will need to install a driver on Mac 0S X 10.4.8 but not on 10.5.x. The card works automatically on Leopard.

2. You need to install the panasonic p2 driver software on your mac. This is a free download. Dueladapter doesn't mention this in their manual. You can download the software for this directly from Panasonic.

3. Install the P2CMS software directly from Panasonic. This is also a free download. This is recommended by Barry Green.

Using your P2 cards without corrupting them and losing your data

You now have all the tools needed to use the p2 cards, now you need to learn HOW to use them without corrupting your cards. If you don't follow these steps, it is really easy to accidentally lose all your footage on a P2 card. This won't make you or your clients happy.

Step 1. Restart your Mac. Due to a peripherals management limitation in Mac OS X, your Apple computer must be restarted before reinserting the DuelAdapter into the ExpressCard card slot on your macbook pro.

Step 2. Insert the dueladapter into your pci slot.

Step 3. Slide the switch on the back of the P2 card to protect. (This will show an orange color). If you don't do this, you have a really good chance of corrupting your P2 card. When a P2 card is corrupted, you lose all the media and have to reformat it again to use it. There have been cases of P2 files getting corrupted in the transfer to Macs, and it appears to be due to how MacOS journals/indexes any newly-mounted volume. Then insert the p2 card into the dueladapter.

Step 4. Launch P2CMS software, set up your database, select your clips and "ingest" your clips. This copies your media onto an external source. In a perfect world you will have two external hard drives because hard drives fail. You can also accomplish this with a raid 1 using a cal digit or gtech drive. This will copy your data onto two drives at the same time, saving you both time and making sure that you have a backup if one drive goes bad.





Step 5. Eject the P2 Card from your mac, slide it out of the dueladapter and slide the protected switch back so you can now use the card again in your camera.

Welcome to safe tapeless media management.