P2 Card Adapter for MacBook Pro

[Jeremy Garchow]

Two vs one slot. SxS and CF available.

Cheaper than Panasonic’s solution (although they work very well).

Ability to hook multiple drives up to the same device for immediate redundancy.

Knowing Sonnet, it will work and work well.

[Dan Brockett]

“Ability to hook multiple drives up to the same device for immediate redundancy.”

Okay, I did not know this. That one feature alone makes it valuable to me as I am going through the RAID 1 thing right now and would rather not have to deal with RAID 1s because you cannot separate the two volumes, which is exactly what I need to do (one for my archive and one for the editor).

Thanks,

Dan

Providing value added material to all of your favorite DVDs

[Tom Klein]

Hi Dan,

I’ve had contact with many P2 users who are begging for a 100% solution for the Mac Line up, the Duel adapter satisfies those that don’t want to spend any more than $100 and if it works for them, that’s a bonus.
There are also Many (I’m One) who don’t mind paying a price for a product that performs on a Platform they use, Like the Macpro.
Personally I cannot justify the cost of the Pana card reader in my bussiness, and i’ve spoken to many institutions who have multiple Macpro’s, teaching the next generation of Media people, and can’t afford/justify the cost to have a Pana reader for every Mac workstation in teir facilities.

The Macpro with it’s PCIe slots has been a challenge to get a card reader that will work with it, the OS Leopard is also primarily for expresscard / USB2 / FW, and PCMCIA (PC card / P2 ) is not popular anymore in the apple world.
Windows is a simple fix just get an old PCI Amtron reader and your away for under $100, or even a rear entry reader for much less.

For Sonnet to release a product that has many advantages other than that of just a simple card reader is fantastic, in the Macpro you will have spare fast transfer eSATA slots that you could hook up many external drives, thats a huge bonus.

I Can’t wait to get my hands on a Qio. I have two Sonnet eSTA cards one in my Macpro and one in my older G4 Dual 1.25, both work extreemly well, in theory I could just connect the Qio card reader to one of the eSATA ports and maybe load a Kext driver and begin using it.
Until it arrives I’ll keep using my Single Amtron reader.

Cheers
Tom K

olinevideo.com.au

[Dan Brockett]

I think it looks very promising, I just wish it wasn’t a thousand dollars. But that is much cheaper than the Panny five slot reader and it does a lot more so I guess that is progress? 😉

Dan

Providing value added material to all of your favorite DVDs

[Jeremy Garchow]

[Dan Brockett] ” But that is much cheaper than the Panny five slot reader and it does a lot more so I guess that is progress? 😉 “

You know it. When you understand what this device is, $995 starts to look pretty dang good.

Jeremy

[Tom Klein]

In my position, I’ll get a Qio with the Expresscard adapter so that I can hook it to a Macbook Pro and edit and layback a compile clip to a P2 card for news playouts, big advantage in my bussiess.
Then to able to Hook the Qio up to the studio Macpro with one eSATA cable, will be Nirvana.

The Price tag is less then 30% of the Pana readers and has signifigant adavantages indeed for Mac users.

Cheers
Tom K
olinevideo.com.au

olinevideo.com.au

[David Fu]

Will we see a speed increase backing up footage via eSata? As of right now, 16G of footage takes about 16 minutes via firewire 800. If we don’t see a speed increase on the backing up, it really doesn’t resolve the most tedious part of working with P2. As a habit, I don’t hook up redundant backups to the laptop at the same time because if something catastrophic happens, it would probably affect everything plugged in.

[Jeremy Garchow]

[David Fu] “Will we see a speed increase backing up footage via eSata?”

Theoretically, yes, especially when coupled with the new P2E cards (faster and cheaper).

[David Fu] “If we don’t see a speed increase on the backing up, it really doesn’t resolve the most tedious part of working with P2”

And what’s that? The transfer? What kind of device do you have now?

[David Fu] “As a habit, I don’t hook up redundant backups to the laptop at the same time because if something catastrophic happens, it would probably affect everything plugged in.”

WHen you say catastrophic, do you mean a meteor coming to take out your computer? Catastrophic to me would the one drive that you are copying to decides to give up the ghost. Immediate redundancy is always a good idea, Sonnet Qio or not.

Jeremy

[Tom Klein]

Hi David,

“Backing up” to me is no where near like the old days of dubbing a back up video tape for storage, P2 in my opinion has some way to go, but it has made advances, sure not as fast as we’d like, but it is developing.

My Amtron reader in my Macpro takes about 18mins to off load a full 32 gig card to my work drives, that’s just over 3 times realtime, much better than having to ingest 72 mins realtime.
If the Sonnet can better that with eSATA up to or near the level of my Novia HDD (Ten Times realtime) I would be a happy man..

Cheers
Tom K

olinevideo.com.au