MxR Expresscard Reader moves from final QC to Shipping

[Paul Kellett]

Originally Posted by Ross Herewini

As a result of your feedback, we have given the factory a new set of parameters to produce the card so that this will not happen in the future. We also know what to look for now in our own sampling.

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Does this mean that all new MXR's bought/shipped from now on will be of the new dimensions ?

I'm just about to buy some so would i be better of waiting for a while until the new ones start getting through.

Thanks.
Paul

[Scott Cantrell]

Originally Posted by Brian Rhodes

I picked up my HF11 and four Sandisk Ultra II 32GB SDHC cards from Scott at TapeWorks Texas the cards were $145.00

Tapeworks is expecting another shipment on the Sandisk Ultra II 32GB SDHC cards soon!
As Brian mentioned, Tapeworks Price on these cards is $145.00

Please contact Tapeworks in the US Toll Free 866-827-3489 as these sale fast!

Best Regards,
Scott Cantrell
Tapeworks Texas Inc - HDVinfo Sponser
tapeworksscott@sbcglobal.net

[James Dierx]

Originally Posted by Ross Herewini

Hi James,


Thanks for your patience. I finally got to test an EX3 with a range of our cards this week.

I took a selection of cards with me, from ones I had measured as being at spec., to ones I knew from measuring were on the very outside of specification.

What I found was, and I have to keep referring to statistics to help me understand and explain this,... during manufacture there is a normal distribution of widths of cards. For any given size there will be cards that are under, some that are over specification, distributed around the mean size, which is our specification. The distribution is always in a bell curve, which means most will be fine, but a small number will fall outside of what is acceptable.

Slot B on an EX1 is marginally smaller than Slot A, and the same from my testing applies to the EX3, with one small gotcha, if you try and insert a slightly wider card into the narrower slot B, because of the audio controls, can make it very difficult to remove.

As a result of your feedback, we have given the factory a new set of parameters to produce the card so that this will not happen in the future. We also know what to look for now in our own sampling.

What about you, I hear you ask, no problem, we will unconditionally replace any cards that are hard to insert/eject, and I will make sure that the card you receive in it's place is tested by hand to ensure that it fits and works. This offer is open to any EX3 user.

Just send us proof that you have sent the card back that doesn't fit and we will send out a replacement right away, so you can get back to shooting as quickly as possible.

Thanks for giving us the heads-up on the problem, we wouldn't have known about it otherwise, and I'll bet there are others suffering in silence, that's why we're always pleased to get feedback, good or bad, it's all helpful.

Ross thanks for getting back to me! The change sounds great. I think a buddy and I might go in and buy some to save on shipping! Because the cards are !$!@$n amazing.

cheers

[Jeroen Wolf]

Received my 2 M&R's today- overcranked, undercranked, shot an hour worth of 1080p, had my wife sit on them, threw 'm against the wall, drove my car over them, submerged them in hot&cold fluids and gave 'm to the dog to chew on... They're totally ruined.

Thanks a lot, Ross!

ps I lied about the dog and the cards work like a charm! (Sandisk Ultra II's and Transcend's 16 GB)

[Ross Herewini]

Originally Posted by Paul Kellett

Does this mean that all new MXR's bought/shipped from now on will be of the new dimensions ?

I'm just about to buy some so would i be better of waiting for a while until the new ones start getting through.

Thanks.
Paul

Hi Paul,

Once we became aware of a problem, we have checked every card going out, and pulled any that are out of specification.

As a result of this problem we unpacked and checked by hand all of stock on hand, and while we were at it, tested each card in an EX1. We've only pulled 5 in the last batch of 500 for thickness problems, and all passed the test shoot in our EX1's. But still too many for us. I'd hate to be on a shoot and trying to change cards and the dang card is stuck in slot B and I forgot my tweasers!

The dimensions of the card are the same, what has changed is that we have asked them to check each card before they pack it to ensure it is in specification. In other words we want a smaller standard deviation of sizes, and we want to ensure that any oversize card is pulled before getting to us.

In answer to your question, all cards we have sent out for the last three days have been at the new specifications, and any that anyone has problems with before that, let us know and we will replace them no problem.

[Phil Hanna]

I just received my MxR Express card and bought 2 SanDisk Ultra II cards for it. The cards work beautifully in my EX-1. I can record and play back within the camera just fine. Unfortunately, when I put the MxR card reader with SanDisk into my MacBook Pro, it won't show up on my desktop. To be sure it was not the computer, I installed one of my known Sony SxS cards into the slot and it worked perfectly. I then took the MxR card system and tried it in my Sony External reader hooked to my G-5 computer and had the same issue, it would not see the device. Again, I tested that system with the known Sony SxS card and it worked fine. So, I am stuck and confused. Why will the Sony EX-1 see everything fine, read and write, yet the two computers won't? Has anyone else had this issue? I have sent an eMail to Ross and I am sure he will respond soon. I just found this a little baffling.

Phil Hanna

[Phil Hanna]

Okay, maybe I am just old. I got an email back for Ross' company and I was under the impression, this reader/writer could be installed from the camera right into the MacBook Pros slot on the side of the computer. Just like I do with the Sony SxS cards. I found out now that you have to use an external card reader connected to the USB port. I did that with a SanDisk external card reader I use on my Olympus still camera and it worked. I sure wish it worked the way I was trying it from a convenience standpoint, but for the savings benefits over the expensive SxS cards, I can be put out a little bit!

Phil Hanna

[Jeroen Wolf]

Originally Posted by Phil Hanna

Okay, maybe I am just old. I got an email back for Ross' company and I was under the impression, this reader/writer could be installed from the camera right into the MacBook Pros slot on the side of the computer. Just like I do with the Sony SxS cards. I found out now that you have to use an external card reader connected to the USB port. I did that with a SanDisk external card reader I use on my Olympus still camera and it worked. I sure wish it worked the way I was trying it from a convenience standpoint, but for the savings benefits over the expensive SxS cards, I can be put out a little bit!

Phil Hanna

Don't quite understand what you're saying. I plug the M&R right into the express card slot on the Macbook Pro, fire up Clip Browser, see, play back and copy all files and all's well...

[Ross Herewini]

Originally Posted by Phil Hanna

Okay, maybe I am just old. I got an email back for Ross' company and I was under the impression, this reader/writer could be installed from the camera right into the MacBook Pros slot on the side of the computer. Just like I do with the Sony SxS cards. I found out now that you have to use an external card reader connected to the USB port. I did that with a SanDisk external card reader I use on my Olympus still camera and it worked. I sure wish it worked the way I was trying it from a convenience standpoint, but for the savings benefits over the expensive SxS cards, I can be put out a little bit!

Phil Hanna

Hi Phil,

I just wanted to clear up what we tested on the Mac.

We tested a MacBook Pro 2.2Ghz Intel Core 2 running 10.5.6, and FCP Studio 6.0.5.

We tested using the USB port using XDCAM transfer v2.7.0, and Clipbrowser v2.0.

We also tested the Expresscard slot using XDCAM transfer v2.7.0, and Clipbrowser v2.0.

Both methods allowed us to open the card, and transfer data, without error. Obviously the Expresscard interface ran much faster and is definitely superior.

We also tested a G5 2Ghz using the USB interface, and it ran fine. The Clipbrowser software is Intel based, so obviously won't run on G5.

Our mac guy is out shooting a wedding today, but we will get back to you tommorrow, sorry about that. Although I do remember him saying he likes to keep up to date with the latest releases, so that is where I'd start looking.

But let me say once more emphatically, it does work on MacBook Pro using the Expresscard interface.

So if the card is not recognised then it is most probably a driver issue. Which driver? Well I'm not the mac guy, ...standby.

Update:

Spoke to our Mac guy tonight, he suggested two things..

1). Run Applications>Utilities>Disk Utilities> and from here select the OS drive and run Repair Disk Permissions.

2). He tells me that he has run over 10 different MxR cards at different times on his Macbook Pro during our testing processes, and for real work, and he suggests, are you able to go to a Mac store or find any Mac that hasn't had the SxS driver installed, (to remove the possibility of conflict), and see if it mounts as a USB drive. If the Mac is a "clean" install, and it still doesn't mount, then it is most probably the card that is at fault.

Do you have more than one you can test on?

If not, and it won't load on a "clean" installed Mac, then we need to replace it, with one we will test on a Mac.

[Phil Hanna]

I appreciate the quick response as I knew you would provide. So, I do have the ability to take the MxR device directly out of my EX-1 and put it into the slot on the side of my Macbook Pro (2.33 GHZ) with Intel, and it should recognize the card? I will try the driver issue, however I regularly check on and install any new updates on this computer. A friend of mine also has the MxR system and I can ask him to test his card in this Mac. If it works, then we know it is not the driver and I will advise you so we can exchange the system. One more comment. Remember I said the card does not even show up on the desktop on insert. I could see the conflict issue if I were running a program like FCP or XDCAM Transfer, but I don't even get to that step. It just doesn't see the MxR system on insert.
It is amazing to shoot on a $40 ScanDisk card and get the same quality as my Sony $1,000 card! Thank your and your team for a wonderful product and great customer service.

Phil Hanna

[John Palaganas]

Im wondering if Ross can make a cheaper P2 card?

[Phil Hanna]

Originally Posted by Jeroen Wolf

Don't quite understand what you're saying. I plug the M&R right into the express card slot on the Macbook Pro, fire up Clip Browser, see, play back and copy all files and all's well...

That is the way I think it is supposed to work. I don't even see the card on the desktop. I just ran Disk Utility as Ross suggested, and I still have the same problem. My friend, Mike, has the MxR system as well and I will see if his card works in my machine and my card work/fails in his. It is possibly the MxR device.

Phil

[Mark Krichever]

Latest news on alliance between JVC and Sony on standardizing SxS. Very good news for all of us:

http://podcast.televisionbroadcast.c...inutedrill.mp3

[David Cheok]

Originally Posted by Phil Hanna

That is the way I think it is supposed to work. I don't even see the card on the desktop. I just ran Disk Utility as Ross suggested, and I still have the same problem. My friend, Mike, has the MxR system as well and I will see if his card works in my machine and my card work/fails in his. It is possibly the MxR device.

Phil

Why not just buy a USB multicard (SD/CF/etc) and copy out from there? Isnt it less of a headache than copying taking out the SxS thus leaving your machine without SxS support when u are transferring overcrank media.. ? I doubt you'd any speed advantage copying out the files because your bottleneck is still the SD card itself.

[Ross Herewini]

Originally Posted by John Palaganas

Im wondering if Ross can make a cheaper P2 card?

Hi John,

What's P2?

Only joking....

That's a great idea, we'll have a look to see if there is something we can do, but we have a few announcements coming up in the EX1 area first....