Fast and cheap SXS card reader?

[Ola Christoffersson]

Since the EX1 was introduced the only SXS-card-reader offered by Sony is the slow USB2-reader SBAC-US10. What is the point of having really fast SXS-cards when both the cameras and the reader are limited by the USB2-interface when downloading media?
To get faster downloads I use my laptop Express Card slot and Gigabit ethernet to copy to my stationary computers' SATA-drives but this gives me the occational CRC-error and there is still more speed to gain.

There have been people reporting that cheap Express Card-readers for stationary computers work, but they require work arounds since the computer does not notice when you swap cards.

Also - there is the Sonnet QIO - Pro that seems to be an excellent product but at £745 it is a tad to expensive, I think.

Are there any other solutions? Why won't Sony or somebody else make a simple E-sata or USB3 card reader?

[Tom Bostick]

PCIe to Expresscard Reader for SONY SxS Pro Memory Card | eBay

this has been working for me ,sooooooo much faster than usb

[Ola Christoffersson]

Looks great but can you hot swap cards or do you have à work around? What OS are you using?

[Ola Christoffersson]

Looks great but can you hot swap cards or do you have a work around? What OS are you using?

[Vincent Oliver]

Looks interesting, but who really wants to crawl under a desk to insert a SXS card into the back of a computer. A front drive bay slot would be a much better solution.

[Tom Bostick]

Originally Posted by Ola Christoffersson

Looks great but can you hot swap cards or do you have a work around? What OS are you using?

nope have to power down every time and swap them out

Originally Posted by Vincent Oliver

Looks interesting, but who really wants to crawl under a desk to insert a SXS card into the back of a computer. A front drive bay slot would be a much better solution.

it is a pain :(

[Ola Christoffersson]

Yes, those are the downsides that keep me from going that route. However I've heard that you don't have to reboot if you scan for new hardware in the device panel of Windows. Have you tried this?

Also - I've seen similar devices but with bays that you can mount like a DVD-drive.

Isn't it very strange though that the community and Sony seem quite okay with the fact that there is not a fast transfer solution if you don't offload to a laptop???

I'd like to see more ideas and thoughts from people using PCI-e devices on stationery computers in this thread. Anybody?

[Anthony McErlean]

I use this... SxS & MxML PCI-e READER from MXM.

Works great for me.

[Malcolm Hamilton]

Originally Posted by Anthony McErlean

I use this... SxS & MxML PCI-e READER from MXM.

Works great for me.

Just checked the MXM site, and it seems this unit is only compatible with Windows.
I've written the company, asking about Mac-compatibility. I'll post back to this thread when I get a reply.
regards, Malcolm

[Michael B. McGee]

what OS are u on? it sounds like you essentially want this footage to be dumped into your desktop/tower. right? does your laptop have FW800? if so, just use an external/portable HDD with FW800.

... or just be patient.

[Malcolm Hamilton]

my exchange with the Managing Director at MXM, makers of the PCI-e Reader (MXM039):

me: is the MXM039 Mac-OS compatible?
Marek: "Yes, it is"

me: can you 'hot swap' SxS cards, using your MXM039, WITHOUT having to power down to swap out the cards?
Marek: In order not to reboot each time you remove SxS cards you have to do rescanning through the device manager of your computer when you plug and unplug SxS cards…In other words, you do not need to reboot the computer. You just have to do manual rescanning through the device manager.

me: can you add the MXM039 PCI Reader to the front drive bay of a new Mac Pro?
Marek: It uses a 5.25” bay or 3.5” bay…

So... same old "rescan through device manager" story. Which is something I've never had to do on my Mac. Do we Mac-users even have a device manager?
re installing the reader in a front bay... I have one empty front bay (5.25"), so it would seem to me that I could install a PCI-e reader here (much better than the back of the machine).
But I don't want to install an SxS card reader until someone comes up with something that's hot-swappable... Is there some hardware or software issue that is making this near-impossible?

regards, Malcolm

[Malcolm Hamilton]

I posted a question about this hot-swappable issue on another site (where there are a lot of Mac techies).
My question, and the answer I received, are below. What do you think? (all of this is beyond me, I'm afraid):

me: But this (I followed his link to: Desktop ExpressCard Card Slot / PCI Express (PCIe) to ExpressCard Adapter) wouldn't be hot-swappable, would it?
It looks like other PCIe readers I've checked out, and non of them are hot-swappable.
Is this one, by chance?

fellow: You are not hot-swapping the PCIe module, you are just hot-swapping the Expresscard you insert into the module. It should work.
When talking about hotswap you can't go down the chain of connected modules. I mean if you install, say a PCIe USB controller
...then of course it is not the same kind of hotswap to hotswap the whole controller (like removing it from the mac pro), as it is to just hotswap a USB connection to it.
hope you follow

[Ola Christoffersson]

There seems to be a lot of confusion concerning this. This is how I understand it works:

The Express Card interface consists of two interfaces: one USB-port and one PCI-related port.

The USB-port can always be hot swapable.

The PCI-interface that the SxS-cards are using does not hotswap on all computers. This is dependant on the motherboard and BIOS. It seems like all laptops are able to hotswap but most stationary computers are not.

This means that the computer does not see a swapped card until you reboot the computer. Fortunately PC:s have the ability to scan for new hardware without rebooting, using the device manager (as mentioned earlier in this thread). This only adds two mouse clicks to the process of changing cards. On the Mac there does not seem to be any other way than rebooting.

[Malcolm Hamilton]

Thank you Ola for this explanation. It truly helps, especially for someone like me, who struggles with these technical issues.
By the way, totally off-topic: I was in Stockholm a year and a half ago, and visited the offices of the people who made Episode (media encoder software which I use). The people I met there were exceptionally nice. But I've tried to reach them in the last few months, and I get no answer. Did the Stockholm office get closed down?
Regards,
Malcolm

[Steve Kalle]

A little more technical explanation: the Expresscard specification includes USB and PCI Express x1 which is why laptops are 'hot-swappable'. Also, the Expresscard to PCIe adapters like the one from Siig (which I use) come with a cable to plug into a USB port on the computer's motherboard for devices that interface with USB such as the SD adapters.

FYI, another option to downloading multiple SxS cards is ShotPut Pro. However, you would need multiple SxS readers. This program can download multiple SxS cards to multiple destinations all at the same time, and it checks CRC for data security.

One more option is to a Nexto and then download from it via eSata. So, what you could do is beginning downloading to the Nexto after shooting and by the time you get to your computer, you could have all SxS cards downloaded to it.