I am looking at the EX3 (obviously later this summer). I was trying to figure out a good workflow. Obvioulsly a Macbook Pro and a external HD is the best way to to. But if I need to shave some money off the budget could I use a macbook and a USB to Express card adapter as a solution? I think I would like to take the extra money and put it towards some more SxS cards

i suppose you could, but would you edit on this macbook? it does not carry firewire 800, and monitor has a bit less resolution.

for processor speed, i would think the cheapest units are decent at 2.1ghz; the black unit has the same 2.4 ghz chip as the MBP.

beyond that, you may be able to find similar specs in a Vaio or cheaper PC and Vegas Video ($149 at B&H right now) This might get you started and making money to go up to a MPB?

I would not edit anything on the road more then likely. I just want something to get the stuff off the cards and be able to do the usually internet, email and talking to family via iChat when on the road. I already have a FCS2 Suite on a Mac Pro. So I was thinking that I could transfer all my settings and what not to the laptop and have it be my home away from home. I was also thinking about getting some of those WD HD I think they call them Pocket Drives. Strictly as a way to back up the footage. Another option (it is a future option) is to put the files to xdcam disc's On the fresh DV site one of the Sony reps said that the XDCAM disc is going to open up the data section of the XDCAM disc to be able to write the whole capacity of the disc. so if that is true. All I would need is a Drive unit via USB and some disc's to back up the footage. Much more viable way to work in my opion

I have the Sony USB card reader (the only one that works with the SxS cards), and I have used it with older laptops in the field. It works very well and is reasonably fast considering it is USB, but the only issue I have is that it needs power. This makes it much less portable than a MBP. On the plus side the adapter seems to have no trouble running the camera, and is much smaller than the standard charger.

-Sean

any alternatives to this reader? say esata to expresscard reader?

I am able to capture EX1 footage from the SCS cards on my HP laptop that has a built in express card slot. The laptop has two, separate 250GB hard drives, 2.2GHz Core Duo 2 CPU and 2GB RAM. Using Edius Broadcast 4.61 I'm also able to edit, although I normally just store the files for later transfer to my main editing computer. Edius is by far the most efficient editing program as far as real time and rendering performance is concerned that I've yet used.

Good luck,

Geoff

unfortunately there are no real options other than the sony USB card reader, not even 3rd party USB readers. the reason for this is that the SxS cards use the PCIe interface of the expresscard slot, which also has a USB interface. the PCIe side is faster, but the data needs to be reformatted to be sent over usb/firewire/esata etc. which is why the card reader costs so much and has to be powered externally. There is another thread about a PCIe unit for a tower, but I believe you have to restart every time you change a card.

You have to stick the SxS card into such reader, but only for your "first" boot.

If you still have the habit of turning your PC off after work, and booting it up on the next day - yes this is a problem, as you'd need to remember about the above every day.

But most of us put our PC's into standby rather than switch them off; after being woken up they will recognize a new SxS card, if originally booted with one in the reader (you need to ask Device Manager to search for it, though - also when you insert consecutive cards).

wow thaz quit a pain. How do most of u download the stuff? vis USB?

wow thaz quit a pain. How do most of u download the stuff? vis USB?

It's not really, after you find your most efficient way of handling it. And remember that it's even several times faster than USB!

Also, a couple of us (myself included) who used to use the on-camera USB miniport for off-loading, ended up already with it broken for abuse (yes - after just a couple of weeks using it).

To me, a fast (i.e. PCIe based) reader is a must for your workstation (fortunately the laptops we're using for in field off-loafing are already offering the fast ExpressCard readers).

It's not really, after you find your most efficient way of handling it. And remember that it's even several times faster than USB!



Piotr, you're in a position to measure the speed of a workstation ExpressCard reader. I used a MacBookPro to compare the Sony USB reader with the built-in ExpressCard slot. The ExpressCard slot topped out at about 45 MBytes/second while the USB reader was about 30 MBytes/second read and 20 MBytes/second write. I suspect that the ExpressCard may have been limited by the MacBookPro's internal disk transfer rate. I used a 1 Gbyte file (from the VIDEO_TS folder of a ripped DVD). Would you please measure the performance of your card? Thanks.

I will post my results at the nearest opportunity, Gints.

Piotr, you're in a position to measure the speed of a workstation ExpressCard reader. I used a MacBookPro to compare the Sony USB reader with the built-in ExpressCard slot. The ExpressCard slot topped out at about 45 MBytes/second while the USB reader was about 30 MBytes/second read and 20 MBytes/second write. I suspect that the ExpressCard may have been limited by the MacBookPro's internal disk transfer rate. I used a 1 Gbyte file (from the VIDEO_TS folder of a ripped DVD). Would you please measure the performance of your card? Thanks.

OK Gints, so I measured mine today; it copied some total 5 GB content (in 3 clips) in just around a minute which - if my math is right - translates to some 83 MB/s sustained read speed.

Piotr,you probably know this but when you're transfering or copying,on the pop-up transfer window if you hit the "details" button it displays the transfer speed.

Paul.

Piotr,you probably know this but when you're transfering or copying,on the pop-up transfer window if you hit the "details" button it displays the transfer speed.

Paul.

No Paul - I don't have any "Details" button; are you talking Windows?

Sorry Piotr,i just checked,the button is "more information", do you have that.
Yes i'm talking pc,vista to be exact.

Paul.

Paul, under Vista there is "more information" available - but only using the OS copy function.

The Copy or Export tools of the Clip Browser do not have any more information under Vista, do they?

Ah yes Piotr,you're correct.
I sometimes copy from the card using windows instead of clip browser,i've never had any problems doing it this way.

Paul.

I am looking at the EX3 (obviously later this summer). ...
... I think I would like to take the extra money and put it towards some more SxS cards

By that time PHU-60K will be out, so you won't need a laptop (unless you need more than 4 Hrs) or more SxS cards,
I really need one
:-)

I would not edit anything on the road more then likely. I just want something to get the stuff off the cards and be able to do the usually internet, email and talking to family via iChat when on the road. I already have a FCS2 Suite on a Mac Pro. So I was thinking that I could transfer all my settings and what not to the laptop and have it be my home away from home. I was also thinking about getting some of those WD HD I think they call them Pocket Drives.

Matthew, I plan on doing exactly what you are describing here. I already bought a couple of the WD 320 Passport drives (love that they are powered through the USB) and I plan on purchasing a MacBook in a few weeks. Would love to go MBP but it is just a bit out of range after the new camera purchase and all of the goodies. I may want to look at some footage on the MB but no editing, that's what my MacPro is for.

I am wondering though if I should swap out the 250GB 5400rpm drive though for a 7200rpm when I get the MB. Not sure if this will make a big performance difference if I want to view footage. The WD drives are just 5400rpm and I really want to keep those as storage for the field and not tax them too much.

By that time PHU-60K will be out, so you won't need a laptop (unless you need more than 4 Hrs) or more SxS cards,
I really need one
:-)

For the price of PHU-60K i can buy a damn good laptop with card slot.
Can the PHU-60K rewrap files and transfer the files to a usb drive or burn files to dvd or even edit ? No of course it can't,to do any of that you still need to lug a lappy around,so i'd rather spend my money on a laptop.

Paul.

By that time PHU-60K will be out, so you won't need a laptop (unless you need more than 4 Hrs) or more SxS cards,
I really need one
:-)

Is it possible to hack and replace the PHU-60K internal HDD with a 320GB? If anyone succeed in doing that, he will have 20hrs of continuous shooting. No need to bring laptop. The next question is , what if the PHU-60K internal HDD crash?

The next question is , what if the PHU-60K internal HDD crash?

The key here is redundancy. Thats why I plan on having two Passport drives that are mirrored with the same footage from the field. The Sony HDD is too expensive to have two of IMO. I just picked up 2 320 GB Passport drives for $120 each. They are only slightly bigger than an iPod and probably weigh less.

David,
in-regards to the Hard drive I would say it depends on how you viewed the footage. If you viewed the clips in the clip browser you would be looking at the Proxy files. So a 5400 rpm file would more then likely not be that big of a deal. But if you get the clips ready to edit and put the MOV wrapper around the MXF file and want to watch that then you might start to see some playback issues.

How do you like the WD passport drives? Do they seem solid to you?

The fact that they are powered by the USB port is nice.

Yeah, I really just want to be able to screen footage for a client or to check shots back at a hotel. No editing. Still might go with the 7200 anyway. As for the Passport drives I think they are great, practically disposable :-). I would also consider them an option to deliver footage to a client. Haven't used them on the road yet or run a workflow test, I need a new laptop first because my Powerbook doesn't recognize the drives via USB 2.0. I did transfer footage from my MacPro and it was super quick. Not sure exactly how fast because I left the room for a minute and it had finished when I returned. The one thing I wish they had was a second USB port so they could be daisy chained and I could have the SxS reader and two drives connected all at once.