Speeding up P2 offloads

[Shane Ross]

Sorry, but if you need verification, then it will be slow. And I understand the need for verification. Dangerous without it. I use Shotput P2 (before that, P2 Genie) and also have it verify. 16GB card takes about…yup, 20 min. Only way to speed it up is to not verify…then it is like 15-16 min.

Stand alone offloader? Only ones I know of are the P2 Gear and P2 Mobile, Gear being cheaper. And they both verify when they offload. Want cheaper? Get a PC with a PCMCIA slot and bus powered USB drives. And the software to offload the cards (P2CMS). Nothing I know of that will copy data faster via USB or firewire. Since the PCMCIA slot is already in use on the laptop, you can’t get an eSATA drive. Might see what FW800 can offer in terms of speed.

This is one reason to shoot 720…longer record times so your offload is shorter than your recording. It’s a give and take thing. Need the time to offload, gotta shoot 720p. I can’t think of a faster offload method. Firewire from the camera, or P2 Gear…even USB from both…that is your bottleneck. And all the P2 readers also connect via USB and Firewire.

Shane

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[Noah Kadner]

Get the Firewire 800 P2 drive from Panasonic.

https://www.tapeworkstexas.com/panasonic_aj_pcd10.html

Or get a Powerbook with a built-in PCMCIA card slot. Directly from camera is about the slowest possible speed you can get. As usualy time is money.

Noah

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[Tom Klein]

Hi Adam,
If you have the Money go the “AJ-PCD10”, I will have soon a single slot to PCIe DIY kit “out there” for the Macpro, we are still testing on Macpro’s in various locatons with varying set-ups.
My 3ghz Early 08 Intel Macpro can copy/paste from a full 32 gig card at 16mins (no verify) same from Log n transfer into FCP 6.0.4.
I have been using mine for some time now, you can get some more info and a pic from my site.-
https://www.olinevideo.com.au/page11.htm

Cheers
Tom K
olinevideo.com.au

[Rich Rubasch]

With a MacBook pro what is the speed offloading using a PCMCIA to Express 34 adapter? Could dump the Contents folder directly to the internal hard drive, and when it is done copy it to a Firewire drive from there. But going straight from the card thru the adapter and onto the interal drive….how does that sound for performance?

Curious,

Rich Rubasch
Tilt Media

[Adam Smith]

Thanks for the input guys.

I’ve been looking at the P2 Gear, but couldn’t imagine that it would be any faster to offload than going directly out of the camera. I do like the fact that it’s dedicated equipment built for field use.

I’m not a huge fan of the laptop offload idea, but it may be both the most cost effective and fastest performing solution.

Tom – that’s interesting stuff you’re working on there.
Be sure to post on the Cow when you’ve got it perfected!

-Adam

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[John Fishback]

With a Duel adaptor into MBP using P2 Genie with no verification (our version doesn’t do verification) a 16GB card takes 8 minutes to off-load. Then we play a bit of each clip to be sure it’s ok. We’ve switched to Shotput P2, but haven’t used it in the field yet.

John

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[Tom Klein]

Hi Adam,
“Nothing is Absolutely Perfect”.
I have been successfully using my Amtron P2 Reader for a couple of months now, with apples “developer help” I have eliminated the only system panic encountered by reducing the amount of the Macpro’s Ram to 2 gig now all is solid, seems the “Panasonic intel mac P2 driver” has a limitation of 4 gig to be installed in the Macpro.
But another card tester of mine reported he has no issues with 8 gig installed?. I know it’s weird but hey, it’s a much cheaper solution than the pana AJ-PCD20, be it I’ve only tested on the “Intel Macpro” at this stage.

I’ll Report back when it’s ready for release. Amtron can supply the readers and I will supply the “How to” DIY kit, and the “reader driver” from my site.

Cheers
Tom K
olinevideo.com.au

[Jeremy Garchow]

Actually, it’s the PCD20 you want that has fw800. 32 gigs cards offload in LESS than 20 minutes with verification and Shotput P2. It is totally worth the cash, espcially if you are working with p2 Cams that have more than 2 slots.

Jeremy