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Panasonic PCD 20 general question
Just a couple of general use questions to other users of this device.
I have had this reader for a couple of years now and have generally been dissapointed with it’s performance over firewire. Recently we have noticed clip corruption even though Shot put has verfied the transfer as good.
I performed a back to back test using the USB connection and found it faster to transfer than the 1394b connection, and presented no corruption when transferred.
I checked these results against a loan unit from Panasonic and found very similar results, aside from the file corruption when transferring via 1394b.
Has anyone else experienced similar issues, or carried out a FW 800 vs USB offload test? -
11 Replies
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Please give more info like what system you’re on, what drives, firmware of unit, etc.
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Hi Jeremy,
The tests have been done with 3 different MBP laptops, two running 10.5.8, and the other 10.6.3. The software in each is compliant with the OSX versions.
The firmware in both PCD 20’s is up to date.
The cards were a mixture of E and A series cards, in some tests all A series, and in other tests all E series.
Different cables were used to remove any question about connection issues.
The target drive in each test was the MBP’s own internal drive, in some earlier tests I used a 1394 target drive for the older MBP’s with 400/800 connections, resulting in an expected slow down in transfer speeds.
The consistent thing with all the tests was the surprise that the PCD 20’s USB connection was faster than the 1394b connection.
Drag and drop tests were marginally faster then those done with Shotput set to verify file size only.
Shotput set to verify file contents was much slower, generally around 30% slower. -
Yeah, that sounds about right. I was checking to see if you were also using a fw drive, which I wouldn’t recommend.
Yes, verifying slows things down a bit but that is to be expected, and worth the wait.
Are you against using USB?
Jeremy
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Not against using USB, just find it curious that it is faster than 1394b, and by a fair bit.
The only downside to using USB with the PCD 20 is that the P2 formatter software won’t work, it does not recognise the USB bus. 1394b works fine with this. -
As a test you should also try using P2CMS where you export a p2 card with verify on and see how it goes.
I have never run the side by side tests. We use the fw port on the PCD20. It’s never been lighting fast.
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P2CMS is generally a bit slower through the same paths.
Are you able to test and confirm if your PCD 20 is the same? Is the USB faster into your Mac than 1394b? -
It’s out shooting, but I can check when it gets back later this week.
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A Panasonic field rep once told me that a FireWire 800 bus can actually become overloaded, and result in corruptions when transfering P2 cards. USB doesn’t suffer from the same issue, due to the way it handles things when it reaches maximum throughut. When you experienced the corruptions, were you transferring from the PCD20 via FW800 to an external FW800 drive? That would do it.
I tested the PCD20 before I got the PCD35. I was very disappointed to find that FW800 was no faster than USB2, even though Panasonic clearly advertised that it was. A regretable ploy on Panasonic’s part. You spend $2000-some dollars on a device, and it doesn’t come close to the advertised speed.
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Hi Helmut,
That may be the case of Panasonic’s FW Bus in the PCD series card readers, but I have never experienced file corruption on the FW 800 bus in our MAC’s with HDD’s, CF card readers, or RED Mag’s, to level that occurs with the PCD 20 and multiple card reads.
Are you using your PCD 35 in the field with a laptop, and if so, may I ask what interface you are using with the PCIe bus to the laptop?
Matthew. -
Hi Jeremy,
I was wondering if you have had any time to compare transfer speeds 1394b vs USB?
Matthew.
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