Raylight can be used to make a complete P2 Card image which can be written to the camera through the USB 2.0 port or to a P2 Card reader. The first step is to export a raylight AVI of your completed movie or scene. Use the following export settings in Sony Vegas, making sure they match your project settings:

For file type select Microsoft AVI and Custom Template For frame size, select HDV 1280 x 720. For frame rate select 23.976 (or 25P) For field order, select None (progressive scan). For Pixel aspect ratio, set to 1.0 For Video format, select DVFilm Raylight For Interleave, select every .250 seconds. Select "Create an OpenDML... file". In the Audio tab, select 48000 Hz sample rate, 16-bit, stereo. Set Raylight Blue before starting the export. Note: 1920 x 1080 24P and 25P movies are also acceptable.

For Adobe Premier, use the following export settings, making sure they match your Project Settings:

For Compressor select DVFilm Raylight For color depth, Millions of Colors For frame size, select 1280 x 720 For frame rate select 23.976. For Pixel aspect ratio, set to Square Pixels (1.0) In the Keyframe and Rendering tab, select field order of None (Progressive scan) In the Audio tab, select 48000 Hz sample rate, 16-bit, stereo. The frame size can also be 1920 x 1080, and the frame rate can also be 30 or 25.

In the Audio tab, select 48000 Hz sample rate, 16-bit, stereo. Set Raylight Blue before starting the export. Note: 1280 x 720 25P, 1920 x 1080 24P and 25P movies are also acceptable.

Once the Raylight AVI is made, check it with the Windows Media Player and make sure it plays correctly. Then connect your camera or P2 card and start P2 Maker.

P2 Maker will appear as shown at right. Drop the Raylight AVI into the P2 Maker window. The P2 Maker Console will appear showing some technical information about the Raylight AVI movie file (see below).

Click Options on the console to display the P2 Maker options (see below).

Write to P2 Card - use this option to write directly to the P2 card if it is connected through the camera to your USB port or through a P2 Card reader. Enter the Drive Letter as it appears in the Windows "My Computer" folder view. Write to Raylight Folder - use this option to write to a virtual P2 card contained in the Raylight output folder's "P2Cards" subfolder. Click Config Raylight to make sure the Raylight output folder is set correctly. The card image can be copied to a P2 card later using Windows.

Virtual P2 Card Size - select the size of the virtual P2 card so that P2 Maker can automatically start a new card image when the old card image is full. Now creating - this diplays the current drive letter for the P2 card, or the name of the virtual P2 card being created. Used so far - this displays the amount of storage used so far in the P2 card or the virtual P2 card, in percent of the total capacity of the card. Click Reset to clear the memory if you delete all the card images to start over. Click OK to save your changes. If you are copying directly to the Camera, please read the section below on sending P2 files to the camera. Then you click Start on the console to start writing MXF files to the P2 card. Note that 1080/24P movies are converted to 1080-60i format by P2 Maker. The files created are: in the VIDEO folder - the video MXF file in the AUDIO folder - 4 audio MXF files, Channels 1 and 2 for stereo left and right. Channels 3 and 4 will be silent. in the CLIP folder - one XML file contaning information about the clip in the ICON folder - one BMP image file contiaining a thumbnail of the first frame of video the LASTCLIP.TXT file will also be created with the name of the last MXF file and its index+1. How to Send P2 Files to the HVX200 and Play Them Back Refer to page 82 of the HVX200 Operator's Manual. You must have Windows 2000 or WIndows XP and a working USB 2.0 port. Make sure it is not USB 1.0 or 1.1, which will not work with the HVX200. Install the USB drivers that came with the camera. You can also get them from the Panasonic website. With the USB cable inserted to both camera and computer, and the P2 card inserted, turn on the camera and move the MEDIA switch to P2. In the Menu, turn on the USB port option, (MENU, OTHER OPERATIONS, PC MODE = USB DEVICE). Press the MODE button to light up the MCR (Memory Cassette Recorder) lamp and hold it down for 2 or more seconds. The PC Mode lamp should then light up. DEVICE CONNECT will show on the viewfinder and stay there until the camera is turned off. In the Windows Desktop, open My Computer and the P2 virtual disk drive which will appear. It can be helpful to use the Control Panel / System Administrator functions to assign a special disk drive letter to the P2 card, such as "P" for example, which will remain consistent every time you use the card. After the files are copied either by dragging the CONTENTS folder of a virtual P2 card or by direct copy from P2 Maker, "Stop" the P2 card drive from the Windows System Tray and turn off the camera. Turn it back on and switch to MCR mode to access the thumbnail display. Each file will show up as an icon in the thumbnail display. Playing Back the Files Even though you will not be recording now, the camera must be set up in a recording mode that matches your clips that you want to play back, in order to play them back correctly. To properly play back 24P clips, make sure the camera is in the 720P/24PN recording mode (MENU, RECORDING SETUP, REC FORMAT, select 720P/24PN. Select 30PN if you shot and edited at 30P. To properly play back 1080/24P clips, select 1080i/60i. Dubbing to MiniDV Refer to the HVX200 Operator's Manual on setting up the camera to dub video from the HVX200 camera to the built-in MiniDV video deck. There are settings for 24PN and pulldown conversion which need to be set up for proper operation (see page 86).

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