Just installed Snow Leopard into the backup MacBook Pro.

Fired up XDCAM Transfer - all fine.

Inserted an MxR SDHC combo - all fine.

Inserted a 16GB SxS Card - BANG! Kernel panic.

Shut down, restart. Tried 8GB SxS card - BANG!

Rinse, repeat.

Try leaving the SxS card in the PCIe slot whilst restarting.

Apple logo, spinning belly button, then BANG! Kernel panic.

Shut down, pull out SxS card, replace with MxR adaptor.

Mac starts fine, finder loads, MxR adaptor mounts on desktop.

So... Is SxS really broken in Snow Leopard?

At least Time Machine works.

Did you install/re-install the SxS driver.

Did you install/re-install the SxS driver.

That was the first thing on the list. This was the latest (IIRC 09-07-2009) 2.10.xxx build.

Yeah, Sony's device drivers (kext) apparently aren't written all that well. We'll need to wait for Sony to issue an updated driver before anyone can use the Expresscard slot on their MacBooks with real SxS cards.

One thing though, did you force Snow Leopard to boot with a 64-bit kernel? If you did that, Sony's kexts are sure to not work. (it's nice that the 64-bit kernel is there, but totally unnecessary to be fully 64-bit)

C'mon Sony!! We're waaaaaaiting!

Thanks for posting. I have the SL disk here ready to go, but I´m also ready to go to Paris tomorrow for a shoot. Guess I have to wait then, damn. I was looking foreward to have something to play with on the plane

In my conversation with Sony support they advised me that unfortunately
Snow Leopard is not currently supported by the current versions of XDCAM
related software's from Sony.

Since this is a very recent release from Apple that involves significant
change to the Mac OS it may take several months, perhaps winter or
spring for full Snow Leopard support from Sony. The exact schedule is
still TBD.

It is therefore recommended to continue using the most recent release of
Leopard to maintain smooth operation of the XDCAM software within the
Mac environment.

For your reference the latest Sony software release versions are as
below:

As of August 26th 2009


PDW-U1 v 2.420

PDW-U1 Utility for PC or Mac v 2.21

FAM Driver 2.20 comes with the PDZ-1 software or XDT for Mac

PDZ-1 v 2.60

XDCAM Viewer 2.30 PC only separate from PDZ-1

XDCAM TRANSFER for FCP v 2.10.0

EX Browser 2.5.1


Thanks for your continued support of XDCAM!

No no no. So I have to just put away my snow leopard disk indefinitly?
This being Sony I have a feeling it will be a loooong time before we can upgrade

Well, that's it then.

My production environments stay on 10.5 for the foreseeable future.

Here's a tip for Sony if they're lurking: join Apple's Developer Program. It's a fraction of the cost of one of your EX1 cameras and get this, you can have your software ready *before* 10.6 ships.

Just sayin'.

[to be fair, Sony isn't the only ones guilty of this. Anyone who uses ProTools knows that story very well.]

For what it's worth...

MxR in XDCAM Transfer 2.10.xxx seems to be working okay on Snow Leopard. The following video is a little cruddy illustration for a blog post, but it proves XDCAM Transfer is up and working (how well it works I will find out later) using the various SDHC adaptors:

YouTube - Snow Leopard + SxS = Epic Fail (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbXQZluAtmE)

I am kind of shocked by this report. I was going to upgrade my system and had heard nothing. Its a big pain to try to go backwards once you've installed a new system.

It's astounding to me that Sony was asleep on this , or that both companies don't work together to make sure stuff like this doesn't happen.

At the very least Sony should have warned us on this forum and gotten the word out. Did they plan to wait until people were out on the job and couldn't download their cards?

Am I overreacting here? I mean aren't they in the business of convincing us that file based systems are reliable?

Lenny Levy

Thought I'd throw this out there in case someone might benefit:

If there's one thing I've learned over the years is that the systems that I rely upon for generating billable work must be rock-solid reliable. Having worked in various large-scale shops in the past, I got used to having systems get optimized for a particular application and "locked down" that way. These systems were dedicated for their particular purpose and no other applications or uses were allowed. No internet surfing, no automatic OS updates or app updates, no non-approved applications could be installed (If you tried, they would disappear automagically within hours) - you weren't allowed to change the config in any way.

At first I was annoyed, but gradually came to see the value of this and now that I'm running my own shop, I do the same thing. At times it's difficult to justify having dedicated hardware, so I do a combination of dedicated, locked-down systems and dual-boot systems. For example, a MacPro quad 3GHz is pretty much dedicated to FCS2 with all the big monitors and I/O attached. It might be tempting to run the latest first-person-shooter game on it, but I resist. It's my workhorse and I don't like surprises at deadline time.

My MacBookPro, on the other hand, serves both as my "daily driver" (email, surfing, billing, fun, games, etc.) and my field ingest and editing station. When it's doing the field work, I boot of an external OWC Mercury Elite Pro 1TB drive with 10.5, FCS2, the XDCAM software, etc. - and that environment is pretty much locked down too.

I'll probably throw Snow Leopard on my MBP internal drive (the daily driver boot environment) and leave my production environments alone until Sony and all the other vendors I rely on get their act together and I can spend a few days of downtime testing.

There it is, for what it's worth.

Oh, and don't forget to do a disk image backup of your boot drives before you upgrade. It's the fastest way to get back to normal if you need to.

So... Is SxS really broken in Snow Leopard?
.

Matt,

I have not upgraded to Snow Leopard (and have no intention of doing so anytime soon) so I can't say for sure if this will work, but have you tried importing NOT using the built-in SxS reader?

In theory, you should be able to import with the EX1, EX3, SBAC-US10 reader, or PMW-EX30 deck because they do not require a driver. Granted, that is not as convenient as using the built-in slot, but it might work until Sony can get their act together. Apple and Sony ought to be working closer together on these things.

I'd be interested to hear if it works.

great find.. i was about an hour away from installing snow leopard on all of my systems.. Did anyone try it with the sony reader? or via usb from the camera?

I was planning to partition my Macbook Pro drive into one just for those 10.5 apps or drivers that will not work on 10.6. and boot into 10.5 when needed (such as, apparently, the Sony Software). I'm pretty excited about taking advantage of the optimizations and features in Snow Leopard.

On the Macbook Pro, when you want to switch, restart, then hold down the option key, and you can select which drive you want to boot from. You can add a new partition dynamically in 10.5 and 10.6 using disk utility. Or you can do the same from an external drive.

But it is really bad that big companies like Sony can't get something like this working. Snow Leopard alphas and betas has been available for developers has been out for a really long time (like over a year).

Personally I feel that upgrading new a new version of the operating system the day after it's released is just asking for trouble, unless you aren't putting it on a critical machine. I am happy to wait a few months myself...

great find.. i was about an hour away from installing snow leopard on all of my systems.. Did anyone try it with the sony reader? or via usb from the camera?

Yes, it will work using the Sony SxS card reader but I too got a Kernal Panic when inserting the card into my MBP.

Yep, confirmed on another forum by a quote from a Sony rep. The SxS drivers are not Snow Leopard ready. The actual release date is inferred to be at least a few months out. The official response was "TBD".

We really shouldn't be surprised. Sony is usually late to the party with software drivers. At least when they do come out they should be good.

Matt, thanks for dipping your toes in so quickly!

Did you go further to discover if, under Snow Leopard, FCP works APU with EX files that have been offloaded from cards? I assume the SxS driver is only needed for the offload process (for us, on our MacBook Pro), and guess that once the files are offloaded (for us, via the MBP onto our MacPro drives), FCP / Log&Transfer and EX files are fine, so ok to install Snow on the MacPro.

So is it OK to install Snow Leopard on a Macpro and bring the footage into FCP with log and transfer through a USB from the EX3?

So is it OK to install Snow Leopard on a Macpro and bring the footage into FCP with log and transfer through a USB from the EX3?

So, with the usual caveats in place, yes. There appears to be only one component of our workflow that is broken*: the drivers supplied by Sony to read genuine SxS cards in the ExpressCard slot on Apple laptops. Sony must issue an updated SxS driver before that functionality will work again under 10.6. There have been reports of success reading the SxS cards in the Sony USB reader, from the camera itself using the USB cable that came with the camera, and with all the various twitchy SDHC solutions out there.

AFAIK, there have been no reports of XDCAM Transfer or Clip Browser misbehaving under 10.6.

Bottom line: once you get the footage off the SxS cards, it's the same as it ever was - you just can't use the ExpressCard slot to read genuine SxS cards in Apple laptops until Sony fixes their driver. (how long it will take Sony is anyone's guess, but plan on it taking months and months)

(*) I haven't heard anything about the FAM driver or the XDCAM disc driver under 10.6 - can anyone confirm or deny that those work under 10.6?

For those who are upgrading their laptops with Snow Leopard and had previously installed the SxS driver, it might be a good idea to remove the driver from your system until Sony provides us with an update. This will prevent any kernel panics if someone places an SxS card in the laptop. Kernel panics are bad and should be avoided. ;-)

On the SxS driver .dmg file is an un-installer.

Just got Larry Jordan's Final Cut newsletter and he suggested no one upgrade to Snow Leopard yet because lots of software is not yet compatible and it will be months before it is. Larry said this is typical with major system upgrades as developers need to wait until the system is out of BETA to finish upgrading their software.

That settles it.. SL is shelved until further notice... I'm only out 50 bucks..

I started a separate thread on using XDCAM Transfer with Snow Leopard so it all doesn't become a behemoth thread jumble.
http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/sony-xdcam-ex-cinealta/344810-snow-leopard-xdcam-transfer.html

So is it OK to install Snow Leopard on a Macpro and bring the footage into FCP with log and transfer through a USB from the EX3?

Hey guys

If i hadn't try to import SXS on my snow leopard mac today i would have been screwed on a job tomorrow..

Found a workaround. Just connect your camera through USB. Don't need to install sxs drivers. Works fine

Aaargh! I just installed Snow Leopard! Wish I'd have checked this thread out before I did

It's not always possible to stop a shoot to offload from the camera. Not a good workaround. Latest "rumor" is that Sony will come out with a fixed driver this month.


Hey guys

If i hadn't try to import SXS on my snow leopard mac today i would have been screwed on a job tomorrow..

Found a workaround. Just connect your camera through USB. Don't need to install sxs drivers. Works fine

It's not always possible to stop a shoot to offload from the camera. Not a good workaround. Latest "rumor" is that Sony will come out with a fixed driver this month.

Sony is so slow with everything.. I'll believe it when I see it.