Copying SXS Cards from drive to drive
 

I always use Clip Browser to offload my SXS cards,
should I also use Clip Browser to copy the files from one Hard Drive
to another Hard Drive, or can I just use Finder (Mac OSX)?

KInd Regards,

Jan

As long as you move the entire BPAV folder, you can copy them anyway you want.

What you don't want to do is try to move individual clips inside the BPAV folder.

i use shotput pro to move the data to two different drives. the program does not yet work with primera duplicators as advertised. primer is still researching this for me...

dano

The advantage of using clip browser or shotput is the copy is verified so the risk of a duff copy is less likely.

A nice feature of clip browser is that you copy subsequent cards into the same BPAV folder, thus putting a full days shoot say in one folder.
This is also great fro spanned cards.

As it is supposed to be verifying your copies in theory it is better for copying any BPAV folders. I have had some unusual experiences where the finder would copy things that Clip Browser wouldn't though.

I always copy SxS recorded files via Clip Browser with CRC enabled from HDD to HDD. Force of (a good) habit. It works in the background while I use the computer for other jobs. When the transfer is complete, I spot check the transfer. No productivity time lost during transfers.

I think somebody else here discovered that Clip Browser was the best way to transfer footage from the SxS cards because using a Finder copy would create a small file on the card itself which can sometimes trigger a Media Error when the card is re-inserted into the camera. Once I get my BPAV's off the cards and into my HD's, I'm very confident in using Finder copy to move things around.

I always use Clip Browser when I first import clips from an SxS card, but there's no need to use Clip Browser to copy/move BPAV folders from drive to drive once they are on your computer.

That was the OP's question. Drive to drive, not card to drive.

I've been moving/copying BPAV folders from drive to drive just by dragging and dropping for over two years. Never had a problem.

It's just a bunch of data files like any other data files, and there's no reason to shy away from doing it. If the copying doesn't go right, the Mac will give you an error right away -- but even that has never happened to me.

Like I said earlier, moving an entire BPAV folder is okay, but don't try to move/copy files within the folder. For that, you do need to use Clip Browswer.

checked in with primera on the shotput pro. be advised it does NOT work as advertised. it does not print your SxS or MxR card to disk. when i ask the manufacturer i get the story that primera is fixing it. when i contact primera they say they have no idea. buyer beware.....

So, once the SxS cards are copied with CB to a folder/s on the Hard Drive, a "copy and paste" of the entire BPAV folder to an external drive is all thats needed, no need for Clipbrowser this time.

Thanks.

Absolutely. It's no different than moving around any other data files on your computer. If the copy fails for some reason, your computer will tell you. I routinely move 200GB-300GB of files at at time via drag & drop and have ever had a problem.

Thanks Doug, thats good to know.

Could I ask you out of curiosity, how long would it take the Sony SBAC-US10 SXS Card Reader to offload a 32gb SxS card to the PC.

Thanks again.

Well, I don't own any 32GB cards but I suppose you can do the math.

Someplace in my "What's so Great about XDCAM EX? video I created last year I said that an 8GB card with 29:18 of footage on it took 9.5 minutes to import into by MacPro desktop computer via the US10 drive. I suppose that is still true.

depending on your processor and HDD speed i'll guess a full 32gb card will take a little over 20 minutes based on the testing i've done. here's a link to some SxS transfer time tests i performed:

http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/1117192-post1.html

Thanks Doug and Michael.

BTW I've a Q9550 processor, W.Digital Caviar Black 1TB 7200RPM and 8GB Kingston DDR2.