External PCMCIA reader for G5 tower?
 

Hey folks,

Long time, no post.

Anyhoo ...does anyone have a lead on a trustworthy external PCMCIA reader that I can plug into my G5 tower to dump off P2 cards? I've done everything through my Powerbook and it's time to do something else, if I can. I did a quick search of the forums and I didn't come up with anything.

Any suggestions? (Besides a P2 Drive/Store)

Thanks!

Only the one by Panasonic....and it ain't cheap:

http://broadcastengineering.com/news...930/index.html

5 card reader.

But you don't need to buy anything extra if all you want to do is record directly into a G5 via firewire do you? You just need need a long firewire, no?

That is correct... as long as you have the camera to connect to the other end :-) the advantage of the P2 Drive is that you can be doing ingest while the camera is off doing other things.

Hans, cheapest solution would be to get a used 1.5ghz powerbook only for file dumping (maybe for logging even, with P2 log), or any PC laptop with 32bit pcmcia. That should go for about 400 bucks?

You could investigate these - they look like they might do the job, although I must say I'm not sure about G5 compatibility, and I haven't experienced them myself. You could ask them.

nope, doesn't work
 

I spoke to them (Qualtech) and their reader only works with wireless cards, no others. And, they only have drivers for Windows.

They have received a few inquiries from MacBookPro owners regarding their wireless cards, but I was the first person to ask about the Panasonic P2 cards.

You've probably already found a solution, but...

There are a few other threads on this. The general consensus seems to be that your cheapest solution might be an old G4 laptop, used solely for its PCMCIA slot. While there are supposedly Express/34 - PCMCIA adapters on the way, the need to hook a PCMCIA card to a tower is pretty exotic, and unlikely to have a market share large enough to generate a product.

A beatup old iBook, connected to your tower via FW would be the way to go.

I can't find anything about it on their website, so I emailed Amtron to see if this unit:

http://www.amtron.com/reader/iia.htm

could possibly work with P2 cards and if they had plans to develop a MAC driver since the new MacPro's have a second external 5.25" bay... I assumed that the new optical drives are still IDE based since SATA opticals are only now hitting the market...

Why not just use a firewire connect transfer?

That was you don't need to take the card out.

Otherwise, let us know if you learn anything.

This subject came up at the DVXUser site. There seems to be someone developing a solution. Here's the thread:
http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread...ferrerid=14896

Quatec and the like are not MAC compatible. USB card readers will not work. However, this might...

http://www.roalan.com/PC%20Card%20Readers.htm

If someone tries it, please let us know how it works out. I don't have any extra cash laying around right now for experiments:)

It is so much easier to throw a couple of P2 cards in my bag to take home than to drag the whole camera bag in ... not to mention bringing in and extra $6000 of equipment to a house with three kids and three cats. (Anyone want some cats?!)

Part of my inital attraction to P2 as the compact ease of use. I liked P2 because I DIDN'T have to buy an external deck. It just seems like there should be a less expensive way of getting footage off of them than purchasing a P2 reader or a dedicated laptop. Having to use the the camera seems clumsy to me ... an inexpensive reader for a Tower would be really nice.

I was wandering if this type of adapter would work with SxS cards in a PowerBook G4 1G:

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI....%3D4%26ps%3D42

I want it only to copy the data from the cards on location.

We spoke to the developers at Wiebetec and they told us they were considering adding a P2 reader to one of their external hard drive units. This might be something in the future...if enough people express an interest.

I tried using the 1394 Device mode of our 500 and found that a transfer from the camera and one full 32GB card to the MacPro was averaging 2 hours in the finder. I have not tried using host mode and formatting a drive yet.

The same card plugged in our duel adpator would transfer in about 18 minutes.

Anyone know why there is that serious slowdown?

Thanks