I received my KiPro mini this week, and mounted it on rods behind my Sony F3. I recorded some video on an Extreme Pro CF card played the video back via SDI out to a SDI HD monitor with no problems. I use an Elitebook 8540w laptop in the field to offload video via ShotPut software. For CF cards like Canon 5D offloads I use a SIIG ExpressCard/54 card reader that plugs into my SxS port on my laptop. I also have MacDrive installed on this laptop for clients that bring me drives that are formatted for a Mac. When I plugged in the cards from the KiPro mini the Windows 7 laptop would not read them, MacDrive saw the card reader in the MacDrive Volume window but not in windows 7. I also run Avid MC5 on my main computer with Mac drive and use a Lexar card reader fire wire into computer and had the same results.

I called AJA, (good customer support) and after several calls and emails I was told by the tech at AJA that apparently most card readers except one use driver software on a PC that will treat the CF cards as FAT32 formatted files, the KiPro mini formatted files are HFS+ files and the only card reader that reads HFS+ files seems to be the Symba card reader. Has anyone else run into this problem? I’ve ordered the Symba and it should be here by Saturday of this week.

Steve C. - Yes, this sounds like an issue with the type of CF card reader used; it seems like some CF card readers have drivers associated with them - when running under Windows - that make an assumption that CF cards are FAT32. *This is why you see the card in the reader at an OS level but cannot mount it. *In particular, the Syba Best Connectivity 2.5" SATA/USB 2.0 to Compact Flash Adapter has been tested and works under Windows 7 with the HFS+ formatted Ki Pro Mini CF cards. *You can find it on Amazon for less than $20 USD. *Other CF to SATA card readers (which also feature USB connectivity to the host) may also work on the PC, but they are not yet tested by us. The short answer is that on the PC, use an inexpensive card reader that is a CF to SATA type connection to host the card (but then can be connected to the computer by USB) to avoid any issue. We will be adding this to our products FAQ notes on the website, but didn't manage it before NAB. Glad to hear AJA Technical Support assisted you with this.

Hope this is helpful,
Jon

Jon Thorn
Product Manager
AJA Video Systems, Inc.
California

Thanks Jon,

Syba works!

i had to deal with the same problem. using macdrive (and testing several other products on my windows 7 computer) i was unable to read anything from the memory cards.
unfortunately not one (and i tried 7 of them !!!) dealer including amazon sends the syba card reader to me (switzerland), which propably has to do with some regulation, and therefore affects other european contries! in europe that company seems to be not present at all! so finaly aja support sent me one of theirs for free, which is really nice.

still i feel very uncomfortable with this situation depending on a single device which is really hard to get.
just in case it does stop working just in the middle of a project....

eventough prores is used mostly on mac computers it is also available and working on windows machines. it works fine on the adobe suite! so i think there should be a way.....

thanks

michael

ps. my dealer never heared of that issue
pps. the manual 1/27/11 mentions an page 62 a "media state" option. i haven't tried this so far an don't understand it's exactly maeaning but i wonder it it could be used to "download" videofiles from the ki pro....

I think the Syba card is made in China, I sent them an email once concerning the operation of their card (Slow and works with USB only). Anyway if you find a better way to off-load the CF AJA media cards please let me know, I've been seriously looking at Mac Books lately.

so you tried to run it work via sata?
you can actually download videofiles trough the network but it is very slow. on my gigabit lan it goes up to 7-8 megabyte/s which is a lot slower than usb.
in my opinion it is up to aja to do something instead of buying a mac