Yes, the Avid supports the ability to remove the flagged redundant frames from Varicam TAPE, but how do you do the same from P2 Media?

The Varicam option is only available from the Tape Capture.  Breaking News to Avid... There are at least four cameras that record Varicam frame rates to P2 cards... NOT TAPE!

 Really?  

We are very aware of the fact and know that it is something we have to do. But in the case of a P2, and you are referring to Varicam in the sense of slow mo, or fast  motion, then you should also know that when recording at offspeed rates that the cameras only record the flagged frames to the card saving space and being ready to go at the intended play rate. You can't just shoot the camera in the non cine mode and get the flags.

If you are referring to the 1080p format which is 23.976 with pulldown frames, then yes. That is a limitation of the editing systems right now, but you can deal with the footage naively if you use the MXFX tool form DV Film that not only deals with the redundant fields/frames, but can also resize, flip the image if an adaptor is used, do some noise reduction etc. If all you are looking for is 1080p/23.976 from the 1080i/59.94 files, then the process is very fast.

http://dvfilm.com/MXFX/index.htm

It's a great tool.

Michael

 The P2 cameras do record variable framerates natively in 720p but, as far as I know, they also retained the non-native varicam style pull down variable framerate recording. Although, I'd personally say all variable framerate recording should be done in Native formats, apparently some people still do record variable frame rates to the pull-down based recording. That is unless the original poster is refering to 1080p or non-variable framerate 720.

Yes, as Andrew points out, the P2 cameras still record non-Native frame rates... what I call Varicam rates.

For the project I am currently working on, the crew wanted to shoot using the Panasonic 3000.  However, they claim that the camera would not record 720p 23.976 DVCPRO HD Native, so they rented the 2000 instead.  Then they discovered that the 2000 would only record 23.976 Natively with an optional board, which they did not have, in either of the two cameras.  I have not verfied all this, but it does sound like the kind of BS Panasonic pulls to confuse the hell out of everyone.  Why can't they just make a camera that records everything?

The end result is that they ended up shooting 23.976 @ 59.94 with the redundant frames to P2 cards.

Since there is now over 1 TB of MXF media at this frame rate, it seems that Final Cut Pro is my only sane option at this point.  My Avid dongle will be collecting dust for another two months. 

 Did you look at the MXFX link that creates native 23.976 very quickly?

Yes, thank you for that link.  DVFilm always seems to have that life-saving program that you need.  And I would agree that it is very quick (although the demo is limited to 200 frames, so... the first 200 frames was really quick).  However, I've got tons of material to deal with and I have another solution that doesn't involve spending $200 for a third party program.

However, I would recommend the DVFilm solution to anyone else in this predicament.

sparkmedia:

For the project I am currently working on, the crew wanted to shoot using the Panasonic 3000.  However, they claim that the camera would not record 720p 23.976 DVCPRO HD Native, so they rented the 2000 instead. 

Well this would be because the 3000 doesn't record in 720 at all..... The 3000 only does 1080p to DVCPro HD or AVCIntra.

The 2000 does record to 720p in native formats in DVCPro HD, the add-on board would be to record native framerates in 720 and 1080 with the AVCIntra codec (which is a better codec than DVCPro HD).  

Are you sure they didn't use the 500?, because I don't even see an option to record with Variable Frame rates on the 2000.

Or are we not talking about Variable Frame Rates here? and just 24p over 60p?

All tape-based cameras (except for HDCAM and HDCAM SR) record 24p over 60i/p (and even 30p over 60i/p).... and the DVCPro HD codec was a tape based codec that got transferred over to P2... so it had to retain that form of recording for 1080... whereas 720 was already coded in the codec to handle 720p at native rates.

 We are talking about 24p over 60p, which uses repeated frames.

My understanding is that the option board is for the AVCIntra as well.  But the crew claimed that the could not record 720 24pNative without some option board.  It was out of my hands.

Regardless, Avid needs to have the same ability to remove repeated frames from both TAPE and P2 media.  This really is a no-brainer.

Like Michael pointed out, DVFilm MXFX does a great job of changing frame rates and recreating P2 virtual cards. <http://www.dvfilm.com/MXFX/index.htm> This will solve your problem.

MXFX is multi-processor/core aware and is very fast at removing frames. The tutorial I created that DVFilm links to is the most difficult conversion to perform. On an xw8600 it hits all 8 cores.

I believe for $195 it can be installed (activated) on 6 computers, plus free updates and tech support. That comes to $32.50 for 6 copies. This is a bargain and IMHO a must have for anyone that has to deal with P2 on any type of regular basis.