EX SxS Cards in Mac Pro ExpressCard/34 slot?

[Mark Palmos]

Hi Craig
I did a test where i used usb on my macbook instead of the memory stick, and it took 30 secs to copy a folder containing a 2min2second clip (536 MB)… same 4x speed as the PC using USB2.
till later
Mark.

[Craig Seeman]

I’m using the XDCAM Transfer Software 2.1.
As I mentioned I got about 1.3x on my G5
On my Intel Mac Mini (not my edit box obviously) I got about 1.8x
Using the Sony Clip Browser 1.1 software on my 1 year old Dell 2.8Ghhz Dual it wasn’t much faster than real time either going from MP4 to MXF.

Maybe I’m timing this differently than you.
G5 dragging BPAV folder with 2:04 minute clip to desktop – 53 seconds – 2.3x
Intel Mini doing same as above – 30 seconds – 4x

Based on my Intel Mini drag and drop I’m getting 4x but I was timing import into FCP (to MOV) on Mac and Clip Browser to MXF on PC.

[Mark Palmos]

hi craig
I was timing by pressing command C on the folder on the camera’s card in the camera, and pressing command V on the desktop – so a basic copy and paste from camera to computer… which is 4x on both mac and pc.
i think there is something wrong with the G5 usb. It is faster than one would expect from USB1 but slower than USB2. Maybe some virus check or something is going on to slow the process?
mark

[Craig Seeman]

Thanks for the info. So I’m getting 4x on Intel and probably the same on my Windows box using basic cut and paste.

I believe historically there was a little publicized design issue on G5s with the USB2 that made it significantly slower than it should be. At the time I think Apple was focusing on Firewire as the way of the future and just gave USB2 the short shrift.

The thing that frightens me about the Copy Paste is that it’s easy for an assistant to overwrite one folder with another . . . and then manually delete it off the card. It just seems like a high risk workflow. I’d rather have the files imported via software and deleted from card via software.

BTW there’s no way to delete the clips off the card via software (Clip Browers or NLE Xfer tool) as far as I can tell.

[Don Greening]

[Craig Seeman] “BTW there’s no way to delete the clips off the card via software (Clip Browers or NLE Xfer tool) as far as I can tell. “

I wish I was at home so I could repeat what I did the first time, but…….using the Sony Xfer software within FCP all I did was use “select all” to highlight all the clips on the card and then press the “Delete” key on the keyboard and the card was wiped of all the media clips. When I put the card back in the camera there were no clips on the card at all. I recorded another clip right away and the card read that there was only one clip recorded. As soon as we’re back home in the new year I’ll give it another go.

– Don

[Craig Seeman]

Don, Delete is always grayed out for me on both my Macs. I’ve tried as you suggested but it just doesn’t work for me.

In fact the Xfer manual says you can’t.

See page 20 of its manual
a) This command cannot be executed in the following cases.
When the source is an SxS memory card or a folder with the same file structure as XDCAM EX.

[Roland Manuel]

The front USB on my original G5 was only a 12mb one or whatever the slow speed usb is. The rear ones are the faster ones. That may explain slower speeds on transfer.

[Allen Cavedo]

I joined this forum yesterday so i don’t know if anyone reads these older posts but i have a question about the transfer process.

Would someone please tell me why Sony puts a .mp4 ‘wrapper’ around each .mov clip? What is that for? Seems that it only complicates things by having to be stripped off by XDCAM Transfer. Imagine if you could simply drag and drop the clips in .mov format. I have read many articles about the EX1 and not found an answer to this mystery.

A friend with an HVX200 kids me about how FCP supports DVCHD natively from the P2 cards with no ‘stripping’.

[Mark Palmos]

[Allen Cavedo] “why Sony puts a .mp4 ‘wrapper’ around each .mov clip”

Hi Allen
I suspect why you have not found any info on this is because the clips were never MOV files in the first place!
It is Apple that has to put them i a MOV wrapper so FCP can see them!
in an ideal world, Apple would be a LOT better at seeing non Apple file formats like WMV MPEG mp4 etc…
cheers
Mark.

[Craig Seeman]

The actual “essence” as Sony calls it is MPEG2 Long GOP wrapped in MP4. On Windows Sony Clip Browser rewraps to MXF. On Mac the Transfer Tool rewraps to MOV. I know there are a far number of Mac users who aren’t using Final Cut Pro who’d like to rewrap to MXF on the Mac side too since that is something most professional NLEs can handle