We are currently looking into shooting on P2 HD for the upcoming season of a reality show on PBS. Last season the show was on tape and we were heavily heavily reliant on transcripts to find material.  How does the timecode/transcription process work with P2 media?  Does the shooter need to assign tape numbers as he/she switches out p2 cards or is that something that happens in post?  And then how are transcription houses given the material to provide transcripts to us.  Does anyone have a good resource for this workflow?  Apologies for any "rookie" questions but this is a new process for me.

Shooter can assign names to P2 Cards, or can be done in post.  I assign reel numbers to my P2 dumps on the computer something like '080520text01'.  The names then sort chronologically. Regarding the transcription, that's tougher.  If the luxury exists, here's an option. My P2 camera outputs the clips, timecode and everything, right out of the video and audio ports on the camera.  I've done this before, burning my P2 contents to a cheap-o DVD-R recorder right there on the set.  Unrealistic in most instances, as it is a real-time process.

Good question regarding output. Probably a P2 to nle timeline and dump from there would be the only solution.  Before it was broken, one could mount the camera to the Avid and roll it off w/o import. Those were the days...

You can use P2 Log to view the original media on any computer.  I think it's under $200.  Alternately, you can dub from the P2 media to tape using a P2 Gear, a HVX200 or by using the Avid as a tape deck to make dubs.  As usual, tapeless workflows work best if they stay tapeless.