sony EX1 and new brick mac book pro 15in problems
 

to all ... i just went thru 2 15in new MBP. what happens is having to install the sony SxS device driver makes your start up time in access of 4 mins [1min on spinning gear then 3-4 min on the blue screen] once i uninstalled the driver boot up was allmost instant. finally figured this out after going thru 2 MBP and 3 days of aggravation. seems that the new Nvidia chipset the mbp use is causing the hangup in boot time. this is just an heads up for anyone who plans on getting a new mbp and using sony EX1 will have. at least untill sony updates the drivers. im pretty sure pulling footage from camera or sxs card reader would work fine. but for me i dont want to pull my camera down for downloads [need to keep shooting] or may not have the facilities to use the card reader since it needs wall power .. again just a heads up

What are your exact specs?

I get no such problems, and my MacBook Pro is only 3 months old. All is working fine.

I did'nt know they upgraded since then - and you are talking about the new "brick" MacBook that was released last week?

yes the new brick mbp that was released last tuesday ....

From what I understand Sony is aware of the problem and is working on it. There's an issue with the SxS driver and the just released MacBookPro (released a few days ago). Not only is there long boot times but apparently you lose some of the multi finger trackpad functionality.

Don't understand also why Apple dropped the firewire 400 port from both the MBP and MB. The new MacBook is completely useless for DV and XDCAM HD users.

Alister, you do realise there is such a thing as a Firewire 800 to 400 cable. Firewire 800 Cables / FireWire 1394b Cables

Dan

Please keep any updates to this posted. I was just getting ready to get a new MacBook! Not sure what I will do now... wait I guess.

There is NO FIREWIRE PORT on the new MacBooks.

MacBookPros do have firewire 800 port.

The 400 to 800 cable should work but it's another thing people have to get (and forget) when trundling off to a shoot.

yea im gonna wait for all the smoke to clear before jumping in again. I have a 17in already that is working just fine drivers and all. but for locations i did want a smaller unit.

And if I'm not mistaken, there isn't even an ExpressCard slot so you couldn't even get an adapter card to add Firewire if you wanted to. Glad I have my MBP.

no it does have an express card slot ... and it will see the SxS card when driver is installed but if you can take the 5min boot up ...

Oops, apologies to all.....going by what someone else "thought" it had missing...never a good idea. ;)

Ron, have you thought about using SD cards and the Kingston expresscard adapters with a USB2 UDMA SD card reader as a temporary fix for your macbook pro woes? Not ideal I know but should have no boot issues.

The new Macbook Pro should be ideal once the driver issues are sorted out. Point taken about the Macbook but then I always considered the Macbook screen too small to use for video editing anyways. Would have made a better offload machine for SXS if they had put an expresscard slot in it though :)

Dan

yea i was just gonna use it for offload purpose only - using the express card slot [which they do have ] i have an sony sxs card reader that i guess i could of used the usb port but where i was shooting i would not have power and would been too much of hassle to run back to hotel and download then run back out ...

Exactly - this move is what baffles me the most.
Why not just leave out 800 and keep 400.

I have not seen any devices, not that they dont exist, with firewire 800 - but know a slew of products that have 400. So what gives?

Indeed, who needs to carry around adapters and stuff...that gets me about the new mini dv port - now I need an adapter for my monitor.

Thought the point was portability and less items...oh well. :)

Peace

dAlen