I am trying to stretch my budget and use a USB to PCMCIA adaptor to download P2 card footage through a $1000.00 mac laptop computer. The least inexpensive apple laptop does not have a express card slot or PCMCIA slot ( I have the Dual adaptor). Is their a way to download the footage through a firewire or USB adaptor? Where can I buy it? Thanks

Other members have been trying to find out what actually works for a long time, but no one seemed to have found it yet.

The only adaptors for USB that I know of are the P2 Store, the new P2 gear, and the 5 slots reader from Panasonic. All these options cost over 1000, which is way more than going for a better Mac Laptop, like a Macbook pro and a duel adapter.

My suggestion for a cheap and reliable option would be to buy a 2nd hand or refurbished Powerbook G4 with 1.5ghz or superior processor (last ones are 1.67ghz) and a PCMIA slot. This would be enough for basic DVCPRO HD editing, footage viewing and P2card dumping. This is what I'm doing, by the way.

very good point Sergio. I think about that time to time.

CF to PCMCIA adapters just don't have the throughput bandwidth... even transferring 2gb from a 150x CF card to a PC using one of these takes over 20minutes.

Then there is the issue of drivers/firmware and hardware/software handshakes between the cards and the HVX itself...

I am using an IBM (Lenovo) Thinkpad T60 - dual core - 2GB RAM - with PCMCIA slot - no problems previewing the P2 Clips ... and also, can copy the P2 Clips from P2 card to external USB hard-disks.

It won't work.

The adapter must be a 32-bit PCI interface, and USB doesn't do that.

It won't work.

The adapter must be a 32-bit PCI interface, and USB doesn't do that.

Can you say why it has to be 32bit PCI interface?

Do you mean it's preferable because of the transfer rate? or is there any other reasons why it has to be PCI?

(Just wondering if I'm missing anything)

It's the spec.