MxR Expresscard Reader moves from final QC to Shipping

Steven Thomas · January 3rd, 2009, 11:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mark Krichever

Hi Craig,
Just curious did you install firmware upgrade yourself or Sony did it? I know someone who did it himself and his camera lost some functionality. I suspect that there was a bug.

This is the same software Sony installs. MANY have installed it themselves and have no issues.

Steven Thomas · January 3rd, 2009, 11:48 PM

Craig, this may need to be a new topic.

It's obviously important.

BTW, have you been viewing footage on the EX1, or was this your first with the new software 1.11?

It seems to work fine on my camera with 1.11. As I mentioned above, I've also been playing back media from the EX1 and viewing on both the EX1 and SDI out.

Craig Seeman · January 4th, 2009, 12:10 AM

New thread started. It does not seem specific to MxR as SxS exhibit this too.

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/sony-xdca...tml#post988464

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steven Thomas

Craig, this may need to be a new topic.

It's obviously important.

BTW, have you been viewing footage on the EX1, or was this your first with the new software 1.11?

It seems to work fine on my camera with 1.11. As I mentioned above, I've also been playing back media from the EX1 and viewing on both the EX1 and SDI out.

Bill Heslip · January 4th, 2009, 12:23 AM

Received mine yesterday (QC'd personally by Ross). Limited testing reveals all 4 units functioning just fine with Transcend SDHC6/16GB cards. The fit is a bit more snug than SxS cards (EX1) but doesn't appear to be a problem. And the door closes!

I never imagined we would have such inexpensive media within a year. $28 for almost an hour's worth of HD at best quality? I've paid a lot more than that for 60min BetaSP tapes. My P2 friends are amazed. Moore's Law with a vengeance!

Nice work, Ross.

Sean Seah · January 4th, 2009, 09:05 PM

I got my hands on 2 pieces with yr QC sticker. They r a little tight in the SxS slot and the SD spring mechanism is a little tight too. However they do work very well and the door closes!

NICE.. I wun be missing the kensington...

Craig Seeman · January 6th, 2009, 01:58 PM

Now that Sony reinstalled the firmware on my EX1 I can report the two MxR cards are happily working. They are snug and the Sandisk 32GB Ultra II cards are a tight fit but I like that. I can insert MxR into camera and they feel like they make solid contact. Inserting and removing the Sandisk cards have just enough pop so they release I can then easily pull them out.

I've done short recordings as well as record 118 minute straight through on a single card without any problems. I haven't tried to span yet but I'd assume that would work.

It's nice to pop in two cards and know I have nearly 4 hours of record time. It cost 1/10 what SxS 32GB would.

And for clients who want their material at the end of a shoot, as Bill notes, Transcend 16GB are under $30 US. I tested one of those also as supplied by a friend of mine. Maybe it's obvious but a really important note is that I can now walk in to a local office supply store (like Staples for example) and buy another Transcend card if I run short during a shoot.

Steven Thomas · January 6th, 2009, 02:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Craig Seeman

They are snug and the Sandisk 32GB Ultra II cards are a tight fit but I like that. I can insert MxR into camera and they feel like they make solid contact. Inserting and removing the Sandisk cards have just enough pop so they release I can then easily pull them out.

Agreed, the MxR cards have better contact with the SDHC cards. Nice work Ross!

John Hewat · January 6th, 2009, 10:09 PM

Received mine super fast - thanks Ross!

I only own Toshiba 4GB SDHC cards, which all behave this way:

I can record on them just fine. After pressing STOP, it tells me that:

Media Error
Media (A) Needs to be restored

So I click from CAMERA over to MEDIA and it prompts me thus:

Media Needs to be Restored
Restore Media (A) Now?
Execute
Cancel

And I click Execute, and it counts up the percentage to 100% and then allows me to click PLAY on the clips.

When I do so however, it plays the clip just fine until about 2 seconds before the end of the clip. When I plugged the camera into the PC and viewed the footage there, I confirmed that the last (approximately) 2 seconds of footage was not recorded.

Is this a product of the Toshiba card? Or the adapter?

Also, my Sony SxS card reader does not appear to recognise the adapter. The little light does not go on when I place the adapter in there, which it does using the SxS card. When clicking on the SxS drive in Windows Explorer, it says "Please insert a disk into Drive G.

Removing the SDHC card from the adapter, I was able to transfer the footage directly from it via an SD card reader. But should the SxS card reader be able to handle the adapter?

So my questions are basically, is the Toshiba card or the adapter itself the trouble with:

a) final 2 seconds of footage not being recorded
b) not recognising the card in the Sony SxS card reader

I am going to order some Sandisk cards today but am worried that they may not behave any differently to the Toshiba ones.

NOTE: I have the new firmware, and I have two MxR adapters and multiple 4GB Toshiba SDHC cards, and they all behaved the same way in both adapters.

Daniel Szajdek · January 6th, 2009, 10:49 PM

Maybe your Toshibas are not compatible with EX1 through MxR??

Bob Grant · January 6th, 2009, 10:52 PM

Hi John,
can't help you re the Toshiba cards much, sounds like a buffer or some such is not being flushed to the SDHC cards.

The MxR etc cards will not work in the Sony SxS reader as it only uses the PCI interface to the Express Cards, not the USB interface.

Bob Grant · January 6th, 2009, 10:55 PM

Anyone with a XDCAM EX EX30 VCR tried any of these card e.g. MXR in that?

I have one but it'll be a couple of days before I can get to it, curious to see if anyone else has tried this.

Craig Seeman · January 7th, 2009, 12:15 AM

John, Not all SDHC cards can handle the same write data rates. At this point Sandisk Ultra II, Sandisk Extreme III, Transcend Class 6 are the only cards that work reliably. They are the only ones with fast enough sustained write times.

As noted above MxR is USB not PCI so they will not work in Sony Express PCI card reader.

Ross Herewini · January 7th, 2009, 01:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by John Hewat

Received mine super fast - thanks Ross!

I only own Toshiba 4GB SDHC cards, which all behave this way:

I can record on them just fine. After pressing STOP, it tells me that:

Media Error
Media (A) Needs to be restored

So I click from CAMERA over to MEDIA and it prompts me thus:

Media Needs to be Restored
Restore Media (A) Now?
Execute
Cancel

And I click Execute, and it counts up the percentage to 100% and then allows me to click PLAY on the clips.

When I do so however, it plays the clip just fine until about 2 seconds before the end of the clip. When I plugged the camera into the PC and viewed the footage there, I confirmed that the last (approximately) 2 seconds of footage was not recorded.

Is this a product of the Toshiba card? Or the adapter?

Also, my Sony SxS card reader does not appear to recognise the adapter. The little light does not go on when I place the adapter in there, which it does using the SxS card. When clicking on the SxS drive in Windows Explorer, it says "Please insert a disk into Drive G.

Removing the SDHC card from the adapter, I was able to transfer the footage directly from it via an SD card reader. But should the SxS card reader be able to handle the adapter?

So my questions are basically, is the Toshiba card or the adapter itself the trouble with:

a) final 2 seconds of footage not being recorded
b) not recognising the card in the Sony SxS card reader

I am going to order some Sandisk cards today but am worried that they may not behave any differently to the Toshiba ones.

NOTE: I have the new firmware, and I have two MxR adapters and multiple 4GB Toshiba SDHC cards, and they all behaved the same way in both adapters.

Hi John,

I bought an 8GB Toshiba to test the speed of the card. The results were that the card is not fast enough to sustain the EX1 writing to it.

The media error arises because it took too long to write the TOC after you buttoned off. The data is usually written in this case, but requires a Media recovery to be read. In your case it didn't complete writing the data.

My tests of the 8GB Toshiba, led me to rank it alongside the Lexar SSD, and really only suitable for HDV/SP, and even then I wouldn't trust it.

Recommend as others have said, the Sandisk Ultra II range, Sandisk Extreme range, (more expensive but no performance increase), or Transcend, quite a bargain, but not as well made as the Sandisk.

I tried Kingston, one worked well the other did not. I also tried aData, that was slightly slower than the Kingston. Both cards would be happier in HDV/SP, but not HQ. I personally wouldn't record anything commercially on them though. They are just too slow.

The Sony SxS ExpressCard Reader/Writer - SBAC-US10 from what we have read will only read and write to SxS cards, not to cards which have a USB interface such as the MxR.

We haven't used the SBAC-US10, but we found a product that can do the same job at substantial savings, cheap enough to allow you to download more than one card at a time. If you can wait until next week, we will be releasing the product on our website.

Ross Herewini · January 7th, 2009, 01:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bob Grant

Anyone with a XDCAM EX EX30 VCR tried any of these card e.g. MXR in that?

I have one but it'll be a couple of days before I can get to it, curious to see if anyone else has tried this.

Hi Bob,

I went down to Videocraft in Artarmon yesterday, and Rob Fluoro was very helpful in letting me try out the MxR in their EX30, and EX3. It was recognised immediately and we were able to see it on their Mac setup, no problem.

It was recognised in just the same way as the Sony SxS 8Gb I took with me to test.

That looks like a sweet deck, I'd love to have a longer play with one, but I didn't want to wear out the welcome.

Paul Kellett · January 7th, 2009, 01:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ross Herewini

We haven't used the SBAC-US10, but we found a product that can do the same job at substantial savings, cheap enough to allow you to download more than one card at a time. If you can wait until next week, we will be releasing the product on our website.

Hi Ross.
I have a question for you about the device you're planning, for offloading multiple cards at once, if that's ok.

I can plug multiple sdhc cards into my pc at once, using multiple usb slots and the cheap little sdhc>usb readers, the ones which came with my transcend cards, however, i can only open one instance of clip browser at a time, so can only offload one card at a time.
I suppose i could offload multiple cards at once using just windows but i'd prefer to use clip browser.

So my question to you is how will we go about offloading multiple cards at the same time ?

Thanks.
Paul.

January 6th, 2009, 10:09 PM	#83
John Hewat Major Player Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: Melbourne, AUSTRALIA Posts: 735	Questions: Received mine super fast - thanks Ross! I only own Toshiba 4GB SDHC cards, which all behave this way: I can record on them just fine. After pressing STOP, it tells me that: Media Error Media (A) Needs to be restored So I click from CAMERA over to MEDIA and it prompts me thus: Media Needs to be Restored Restore Media (A) Now? Execute Cancel And I click Execute, and it counts up the percentage to 100% and then allows me to click PLAY on the clips. When I do so however, it plays the clip just fine until about 2 seconds before the end of the clip. When I plugged the camera into the PC and viewed the footage there, I confirmed that the last (approximately) 2 seconds of footage was not recorded. Is this a product of the Toshiba card? Or the adapter? Also, my Sony SxS card reader does not appear to recognise the adapter. The little light does not go on when I place the adapter in there, which it does using the SxS card. When clicking on the SxS drive in Windows Explorer, it says "Please insert a disk into Drive G. Removing the SDHC card from the adapter, I was able to transfer the footage directly from it via an SD card reader. But should the SxS card reader be able to handle the adapter? So my questions are basically, is the Toshiba card or the adapter itself the trouble with: a) final 2 seconds of footage not being recorded b) not recognising the card in the Sony SxS card reader I am going to order some Sandisk cards today but am worried that they may not behave any differently to the Toshiba ones. NOTE: I have the new firmware, and I have two MxR adapters and multiple 4GB Toshiba SDHC cards, and they all behaved the same way in both adapters. __________________ John Hewat Mammoth Media Productions

January 6th, 2009, 10:55 PM	#86
Bob Grant Trustee Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Sydney Australia Posts: 1,570	What about the EX30? Anyone with a XDCAM EX EX30 VCR tried any of these card e.g. MXR in that? I have one but it'll be a couple of days before I can get to it, curious to see if anyone else has tried this.

January 3rd, 2009, 11:48 PM	#77
Steven Thomas Trustee Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Gilbert, AZ Posts: 1,896	Craig, this may need to be a new topic. It's obviously important. BTW, have you been viewing footage on the EX1, or was this your first with the new software 1.11? It seems to work fine on my camera with 1.11. As I mentioned above, I've also been playing back media from the EX1 and viewing on both the EX1 and SDI out.

January 4th, 2009, 12:23 AM	#79
Bill Heslip Regular Crew Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Southeast USA Posts: 129	Received mine yesterday (QC'd personally by Ross). Limited testing reveals all 4 units functioning just fine with Transcend SDHC6/16GB cards. The fit is a bit more snug than SxS cards (EX1) but doesn't appear to be a problem. And the door closes! I never imagined we would have such inexpensive media within a year. $28 for almost an hour's worth of HD at best quality? I've paid a lot more than that for 60min BetaSP tapes. My P2 friends are amazed. Moore's Law with a vengeance! Nice work, Ross.

January 4th, 2009, 09:05 PM	#80
Sean Seah Trustee Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Singapore Posts: 1,498	I got my hands on 2 pieces with yr QC sticker. They r a little tight in the SxS slot and the SD spring mechanism is a little tight too. However they do work very well and the door closes! NICE.. I wun be missing the kensington...

January 6th, 2009, 01:58 PM	#81
Craig Seeman Inner Circle Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Brooklyn, NY, USA Posts: 3,841	Now that Sony reinstalled the firmware on my EX1 I can report the two MxR cards are happily working. They are snug and the Sandisk 32GB Ultra II cards are a tight fit but I like that. I can insert MxR into camera and they feel like they make solid contact. Inserting and removing the Sandisk cards have just enough pop so they release I can then easily pull them out. I've done short recordings as well as record 118 minute straight through on a single card without any problems. I haven't tried to span yet but I'd assume that would work. It's nice to pop in two cards and know I have nearly 4 hours of record time. It cost 1/10 what SxS 32GB would. And for clients who want their material at the end of a shoot, as Bill notes, Transcend 16GB are under $30 US. I tested one of those also as supplied by a friend of mine. Maybe it's obvious but a really important note is that I can now walk in to a local office supply store (like Staples for example) and buy another Transcend card if I run short during a shoot.

January 6th, 2009, 10:49 PM	#84
Daniel Szajdek New Boot Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Krakow, Poland [Now: Mumbai, India] Posts: 6	Maybe your Toshibas are not compatible with EX1 through MxR??

January 6th, 2009, 10:52 PM	#85
Bob Grant Trustee Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Sydney Australia Posts: 1,570	Hi John, can't help you re the Toshiba cards much, sounds like a buffer or some such is not being flushed to the SDHC cards. The MxR etc cards will not work in the Sony SxS reader as it only uses the PCI interface to the Express Cards, not the USB interface.

January 7th, 2009, 12:15 AM	#87
Craig Seeman Inner Circle Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Brooklyn, NY, USA Posts: 3,841	John, Not all SDHC cards can handle the same write data rates. At this point Sandisk Ultra II, Sandisk Extreme III, Transcend Class 6 are the only cards that work reliably. They are the only ones with fast enough sustained write times. As noted above MxR is USB not PCI so they will not work in Sony Express PCI card reader.