reasonable p2 card reader

[jeeyof]

hey guys,

im thinkin of gettin some p2s but i see that the dump drives r pretty pricey for me. would it be safe to just use the camera itself for dumping footages ro is there any other reliable and proven alternative for p2 readers other than the dump drive? thanks

[mjjason]

The camera works perfectly fine as an offload unit though it can't be used for anything else while you are doing that. Any old laptop with a PCMCIA card slot would be best.

[jeeyof]

thanks mjjason, i have a macbook pro, do you recommend any card reader for it? thanks

[David Saraceno]

Yes, the duel adapter.

http://www.duel-systems.com/products/adapters.aspx

[ase619]

is there a card adapter that works good for desktop systems?

[dogman-x]

Here's a desktop P2 card reader for $100:
http://www.amtron.com/reader/p2card_reader.htm

It goes in the 3.5" floppy bay, or for $6 more you can mount it in a 5.25 CD-ROM bay. Also requires an available PCI slot.

I haven't used this, but have been looking to buy it. If anyone else has used it, please post results here.

I have a older laptop with a PC-slot for reading P2 cards, but the hard drive on the laptop is only 30 gigs, so I'm also looking to buy an external hard drive. The main problem with all this is if I'm shooting out in the woods or somewhere else without AC electric outlets nearby, I'll need an external hard drive that's bus powered. Anyone have suggestions on this?

[jetaddiction@mac.com]

i have a p2 store that works great, upgraded to take the bigger cards will sell for $1000.

[mjjason]

Here's a desktop P2 card reader for $100:
http://www.amtron.com/reader/p2card_reader.htm

It goes in the 3.5" floppy bay, or for $6 more you can mount it in a 5.25 CD-ROM bay. Also requires an available PCI slot.

I haven't used this, but have been looking to buy it. If anyone else has used it, please post results here.

I have a older laptop with a PC-slot for reading P2 cards, but the hard drive on the laptop is only 30 gigs, so I'm also looking to buy an external hard drive. The main problem with all this is if I'm shooting out in the woods or somewhere else without AC electric outlets nearby, I'll need an external hard drive that's bus powered. Anyone have suggestions on this?

Nearly any 2.5inch external hardrive is bus-powered. Look at site like fatwallet.com as they post good deals everyweek.

[Noah]

I can't believe that after all the time the camera has been out, there's still no reasonable firewire p2 card reader available.

[jeeyof]

does anybody uses the dual system adapter? i just wanna hear some feedback before i go and buy it. thanks guys

[TwistedLincoln]

I can't believe that after all the time the camera has been out, there's still no reasonable firewire p2 card reader available.

There's a technical issue involved. Cardbus slots are basically extensions of the PCI bus, rather than their own technology itself. So creating a USB or Firewire drive is more than just creating something akin to a compact flash card reader -- you'd be basically creating a USB PCI bus. Not simple.

There are plenty of PCI cards that allow you to plug Cardbus devices directly into your desktop PC -- but since PCI slots are typically in the rear of a PC, they're not very convenient for P2 offloading.

[ProfessorU]

The DuelAdapter has gotten almost all positive reviews from users in this forum. In fact, Panasonic's own web site mentions it as the defacto way to load P2 cards into devices with expresscard only slots.

dogman-x, why not just upgrade the internal drive? For $100, you can get a pretty sizeable drive from someplace like newegg. Installation isn't tough.

[incase]

there's very good and cheap option - download footages directly from camera, using USB or firewire port, it works for me :)

[Noah]

Thanks for the clear up TwistedLincoln. Unfortunately I have filled all the PCI slots on my computer. incase, the camera itself may work for you, but it's not practical for me. I like to load the footage on the computer as I shoot and can't afford to take the entire camera rig over to the computer for 20+ minutes at a time. This makes the entire set stall for that time.

[DChang]

The AJ-PCD10 seems to be exactly what you are looking for, too bad I dont think it is reasonable. The P2Store would probably be a better investment as you can use it to store the cards on a drive while you are shooting or if the computer is near by you can use it to directly transfer from the card to the system. Neither one of these is affordable, but if you have a new MBP I would go with the DuelAdapter.

[Noah]

Yeah, the AJ-PCD10 with only one slot and under $500 would be fantastic. Unfortunately enough time has passed from when the camera came out, that if such a product was going to exist, I think it already would. I don't like the P2store because it's only usb. I might as well get the most base MBP with a DuelAdapter and with my student discount it'll be less that $300 more and I'll have a brand new computer as well.

[Barry_Green]

I might as well get the most base MBP with a DuelAdapter and with my student discount it'll be less that $300 more and I'll have a brand new computer as well.
Or get a bare-bones Windows laptop for $300 to $400. That'd be even less expensive than your requested one-slot firewire adapter!

[Noah]

Being a mac guy I didn't really think about that... hmm... would it be easy enough to network the pc laptop to my mac pro desktop so that there aren't too many steps in between the card and FCP?

[Barry_Green]

Networking should be extremely easy, or you could just use external hard disks.

I think this is the single most overlooked, underrated option for someone wanting an inexpensive "card reader".

[dogman-x]

I might as well get the most base MBP with a DuelAdapter and with my student discount it'll be less that $300 more and I'll have a brand new computer as well.
My conclusion as well. A laptop is much more versatile than a P2Store. A laptop also works well if you are shooting outdoors away from electricity.

But then how long does it take to get the large DVCPRO files from the laptop to the desktop? Ethernet isn't that fast, at least not with my laptop. Then theres the issue of having your laptop clutter things up while the files are transferring.

So I'm thinking of an external hard drive for the laptop, and then transfer files from that to the desktop via firewire. But it has to work if you are shooting outdoors away from electricity, so I'm looking at a bus powered external hard drive that get's it's power from the USB or Firewire port.

I'm also thinking this is an easy way to share data if multiple people are editing the same footage. You can loan somebody your external drive to copy files, but you don't want to loan out your laptop.

For $155, I can put together a 250GB external drive that gets power from either USB or firewire:
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?item=N82E16817347013
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?item=N82E16822149070

Am I missing something? Any problems with this approach?

[exposure]

The Apple G4 laptop works well for us on location. Usually we have it connected to power through a UPS, or if location power is not available we have a small Honda generator. We always download the P2 cards to 2 external HD's simultaneously using P2 Genie. On returning to the edit room one of the HD's can be connected directly to the Mac Pro tower and the data injested to FCP. Meanwhile the second HD is kept as a failsafe backup until the project is completed. This workflow is easy and has not caused any problems. On location there we always have a digital tech who's sole job is to keep track of exposed P2 cards and download the data returning the empty and reformatted cards to the camera assistant.

[Doc Bernard]

So if I get this straight, a P2 card plugs right into PCMCIA? Any software needed for file storage/transfer? Or can I leave the files as is (.mxf) and in turn transfer them to the mac via network?

BTW, almost fell for the grey market HVX200 deal, until he asked what lens I wanted to add. I am so ashamed of myself for even considering it.:undecided

Well, it's back to Top Ramen for the next few weeks.

[Barry_Green]

So if I get this straight, a P2 card plugs right into PCMCIA?
Yes.


Any software needed for file storage/transfer?
You have to download and install the P2 drivers, and that's it. Optionally you can use a program like P2 Viewer, P2 CMS, or P2 Genie to assist with the offloading process.

[quoite] Or can I leave the files as is (.mxf) and in turn transfer them to the mac via network?[/quote]
Yes you can do that.

[Jarek Zabczynski]

Being a mac guy I didn't really think about that... hmm... would it be easy enough to network the pc laptop to my mac pro desktop so that there aren't too many steps in between the card and FCP?

It's what I did...got a $300 Acer on sale at Circuit City a while back.

Try to nab this one...http://cgi.ebay.com/Acer-Aspire-3680-laptop-computer-Great-Deal_W0QQitemZ110240179948QQihZ001QQcategoryZ177QQ ssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Seems like a steal to me...

[dogman-x]

Many notebooks (Windows and Mac) have switched from PCMCIA slots to ExpressCard slots. If you get a newer notebook with an ExpressCard slot, you'll need an adapter which costs around $100.

Also consider using external hard drives with the notebook. Many external hard drives are bus powered, meaning that they get their power off the USB bus. In other words, there's no power cord for the external drive. There's also no drivers for the external drive. You just plug it into your laptop or desktop and copy files in the normal way.

If you transfer P2 files through the laptop to an external hard drive, you have the following advantages:
1) you don't need to set up a network with your laptop and your desktop
2) faster transfers (USB2 is at least 4x faster than 100BaseT Ethernet)
3) External drives generally hold more data than laptop internal hard drives
4) Bus powered external hard drives are generally small - pocket sized
5) You can get a 250GB drive for just under $150. If you get a few of these, you might be able to just leave the MXF files on the external drive as a backup, at least until the project is finished.
6) If multiple people are working on a project, these drives are an excellent way to swap P2 files
7) I've heard there is a way to transfer 1 P2 card to 2 external drives simultaneously for extra security/backup.

So maybe look on ebay for an older Windows laptop with a PCMCIA slot instead of an ExpressCard slot and then pickup 1 or more external hard drives, like this:
http://www.buy.com/prod/western-digital-passport-portable-250gb-usb-2-0-external-hard-drive/q/loc/101/204777423.html

[Barry_Green]

You don't have to look for an "older" Windows laptop though, you can buy a brand-new one from several manufacturers. Lenovo, Sony, Dell, many manufacturers are making laptops with the P2 slots. Lenovo has some amazingly inexpensive laptops that have both the PCMCIA and ExpressCard slots.

[sarah staar]

I am new to P2 just bought 3 HVX200 cams and the HVX Bootcamp DVD's.
I also built a new Edius NX system and had one free pci slot so i went to my local computer stor and got a PCMCIA card to go in the free PCI slot, only cost £15

The PCMCIA card works fine but when i try to install the p2 drivers for it the p2 driver insulation freezes.:embarasse I have made shore that the p2 drivers are the latest ones.

Do all PCMCIA to PCI cards work with p2 ?? or is there a recommended list?

[dogman-x]

I am new to P2 just bought 3 HVX200 cams and the HVX Bootcamp DVD's.
I also built a new Edius NX system and had one free pci slot so i went to my local computer stor and got a PCMCIA card to go in the free PCI slot, only cost £15

The PCMCIA card works fine but when i try to install the p2 drivers for it the p2 driver insulation freezes.:embarasse I have made shore that the p2 drivers are the latest ones.

Do all PCMCIA to PCI cards work with p2 ?? or is there a recommended list?
I don't know of any hardware compatibility issues with P2, but I do vaguely remember some problems with P2 driver installation. I remember having to try installing a few different ways to get it to work - something about the list of options during install made a difference.

Also, for convenience, you may want to get a front mounted PCMCIA slot, like this:
http://www.amtron.com/reader/p2card_reader.htm
You still need a PCI slot, but there are ribbon cables to get it to the front. You can also purchase these on ebay if that's easier for you.

Hope this helps,
Dave.

[sarah staar]

i have thought about the front mounted one but i want to make sure that it will work first.

i think i will try the old reader in another computer.

[THoff]

The PCMCIA card works fine but when i try to install the p2 drivers for it the p2 driver insulation freezes.:embarasse I have made shore that the p2 drivers are the latest ones.Do you have a multimedia card reader in your system for CompactFlash, SecureDigital or MemoryStick? If so, try physically unplugging it if it is an external one, or disable it using Device Manager.

If that turns out to be the problem, you can create a second hardware profile, one that includes the drivers for the device and one that does not, and then choose a profile at boot time.