download times
 

What download times are you getting?
Using SxS cards or your SDHC cards in an adapter when using an Express Card slot in a laptop with clipbrowser?
Are download times affected much by processor speed of the computer?

hey ed,
i have a MBP that was purchased in 2007. not sure of the specs. my girlfriend has it with her on vacation right now. i use a western digital my studio 500gb 7200rpm hard drive via FW800 and i get about a GB/min. it seems slow to me cause i've heard of guys getting 2GB/min or even more. i also own a Dell desktop with quad-core 2.4ghz processor with the Sony USB reader and i think i get about 12mins/8gb card = 24mins/16gb card.

SxS cards only for me. to answer your question i believe processors have a lot to do with it as well as hard drive speeds, ie: 5400rpm, 7200rpm, and of course the interface connectivity contributes, ie: usb, fw400, fw800, and eSata(not with SxS cards simultaneously of course).

I haven't had to offload to my MBP since I started using 32GB SDHC cards.

On my Mac Pro using Sandisk 12 in 1 card reader.
Two times faster than real time with CRC on in ClipBrowser
Four times faster than real time with CRC off in ClipBrowser (although I always leave it on, I did this for time test).

SxS is an accident waiting to happen if you have to offload during a shoot, IMHO. SxS offload to my MBP with built in Express port is about twice as fast as the above.

On my MBP expresscard.
7min for an 8GB download, which is about 4 times real tine with CRC on .

Do you mean just the possibility of human error in offloading and deleting files while in the middle of a shoot?

Yes, I should clarify. SxS are great. The bulk of the issues I see are human error often occurring when offloading during a shoot.

My goal is to avoid/minimize transfers during a shoot.

Craig, I did some transfer tests several months ago and posted the results here:

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/972067-post5.html

It will give a little info about the tranfer times/rate using "drag and drop" as well as Clip Browser's CRC protected transfers.

dave

ok, i just performed some tests and the results are unbelievable/confusing. i used a 16GB SxS card filled exactly to 8.0GB of footage with about 30-1 minute clips. Two different computers were used. MacBook Pro circa 2007 and a Dell desktop with the Sony USB reader. with the MBP I used a Western Digital 500GB 7200rpm FW800 external HDD as well as the internal HDD. here are the results.

MacBook Pro
2.33GHz Intel Core Duo
2GB 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM
150GB 5400rpm HDD

using Clip Browser version 1 with ExpressCard slot:
8GB-MBP= 6:30 minutes
MBP HDD-WD HDD= <10 minutes
8GB-WD HDD= <8 minutes

Drag & Drop method with ExpressCard slot:
8GB-MBP= 5 minutes
MBP-WD HDD= 4:50 minutes
8GB-WD HDD= 4:10 minutes



Dell desktop
2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Quad
3GB 800MHz DDR2 SDRAM
500GB 7200rpm HDD

using Clip Browser version 2.5 with Sony USB reader:
8GB-Dell= 5:30 minutes
8GB-Dell= 10 minutes with Data Protection & CRC turned on

using Clip Browser version 1 with Sony USB reader:
8GB-Dell= 5:15 minutes

Drag & Drop with Sony USB reader:
8GB-Dell= 4:45 minutes

so, what i found confusing was that my Dell with a USB reader was faster then a MBP with an ExpressCard slot. my results tell me that its not so much the interface/connection you use to dump/transfer footage its the processors and/or hard drive speeds that determine quick transfer times.

am i wrong or right?

-Mike