Affordable P2 Slot Reader for Macs

Thanks for the info Barry. I just purchased the Lenovo R61 for $600 on Ebay and I have a question for you.

In your post you stated: "My Lenovo is currently sporting a 160GB internal drive, and an additional 320GB internal drive in the UltraBay dock. "

Can you explain the UltraBay dock more to me and perhaps provide a link to the 320 GB internal drive you use in the UltraBay dock? I'm a Mac user so I don't know a lot about PC hardware. I've Googled for more info but it seems to always pull up info about the battery.
 
Does this solution allow for writing back onto P2 card from PC?

Does this solution allow for writing back onto P2 card from PC?

Does the solution mentioned by Barry allow for upload back onto P2 card?

Raylight/Mac allows me to take a video and make a "Contents" and "Last Clip" P2 structure out of the edited video. But as a Mac user, I cannot find a way to get it onto a card. I attach my HVX200 as a reader, but it is just that, a READer and not a WRITEr. One cannot use firewire to write back onto the card.

The reason I need to do this is that it is a two minute video for a museum installation that will run repeatedly for months and will be played off of a P2 card in autoplay mode for months. I also want to show a rough cut to the director on a large HD TV, the same one it will play on in the musuem. I want to use the HVX200 to deliver the rough cut and show it.
 
P2CMS should let you export back to the card. If not, just network back to the Windows laptop and then copy it to the card. Windows can copy files back to P2 cards, no problem.
 
I have bought a used G4 PB for this task and used it a couple of times for ingesting, when it suddenly stopped working.
The P2 card still mounts on the Powerbook, is accesable via P2CMS, but doesn´t show up anymore in the network.
When I transfered the last card, I ejected on the PB without disconnecting first (because the card wouldn´t disconnect no matter what).
Did I mess up MAC OS?
Anyone encountered this before?
Thanks guys!
 
Duel Adapter

Duel Adapter

Barry, I went on the site today to look into this issue, and sure enough you had an article waiting for me to read. I think it's intriguing - this PC laptop approach, but am looking at the duel adapter, which would still be cheaper solution. I have never used one, or seen one used. So my question relates to your comment:

"the Duel Adapter is large and clunky and temperamental"

Ok large and clunky - not a big issue to me.... but tempermental?! that's an issue... could you expound further? Is this thing more hassle than it's worth?

Thanks for all the information.

TR
www.traceproductions.com
 
There are lots and lots of posts from people using the Duel, and things have probably improved since I wrote that article.

Basically we've had reports of people having to reboot their system if they unplug the adapter, etc. But the best thing to do would be to post in the workflow section and see if you can get opinions from Duel Adapter users as to how they feel about the product today.
 
ullanta said:
did you shut down the computer, and repair permissions?
Click to expand...
Sorry, havn´t checked back here (doesn´t show up in my "active threats" in UserCP).
To be honest, I don´t understand your post: you want me to shut down the computer? And what about the "repair permission"?
If I have to reboot the G4 after each ingest, the time saving aspect of this workflow becomes neglectible (compared to ingesting via FW from the HVX...)

The problem still exists, the G4 main HD still shows up on the MacPro, but the P2 Card in the PCMCIA slot doesn´t (but does on the G4 desktop).
Right now I have to manually copy the content/lastclip folder to the MacPro´s AVraid and then import to FCP...


I guess I should have gone with a PC, but they were soooo ugly hahaha:beer:
 
Barry_Green said:
There are lots and lots of posts from people using the Duel, and things have probably improved since I wrote that article.

Basically we've had reports of people having to reboot their system if they unplug the adapter, etc. But the best thing to do would be to post in the workflow section and see if you can get opinions from Duel Adapter users as to how they feel about the product today.
Click to expand...

If "temperamental" means "unreliable" I would concur. I've been through
two of them so far. They simply can't be reliably hot-swapped without frying
the unit.

jeff
 
HP 2140 Netbook works...

HP 2140 Netbook works...

Just wanted to let everyone know that the HP 2140 netbook with Windows XP Home Edition will work with the Duel Adapter, AND will share the Duel as a drive with my 17" MBP running latest version of Snow Leopard.

Using an ethernet cable the initial set-up between the two machines is a major PITA to get set up for the first time (due to some firewall issues on Windows XP and McAfee virus software... search google for Snow Leopard SMB/McAfee sharing issues for solution).

Once it's set up you get full sharing of the Duel as a drive, and still have the expresscard slot on the MBP open for E-Sata transfers, and it works like a charm. Fast and stable in my inital tests, will have a 5 day shoot later this week and can provide follow-up if anyone is interested.

Got the HP 2140 netbook with expresscard 34/54 slot from Richards Computer Miami (they still have 8 left in stock as of last Friday). :2vrolijk_08:

Mike O'Rourke
www.mikeorourke.com
 
i didn't read your whole post, about half (quite lengthy OP!) but wouldn't there be issues with file systems between the windows an mac? it'd still doable, but I think you would have to be running macdrive on the windows computer, and work all in HFS+ file system.. as fat32 has the 4 gig limit? more curious if this is true than anything, and u may have addressed this in ur post, but I'm not in school, i'm not reading an essay! haha just messing! interesting way of going about it though!
 
so what happens at the 4gb mark, does it just start a new clip and link it to the previous one? it sounds like the files are the compressed files still? Now that I understand that it makes more sense.. I haven't worked with P2 yet, so this was all speculation for me, certain things within HD workflow ring bells for old headaches I've had! (transfering raw HDV footage from my windows PC to my new mac)
 
It causes no problems. Whether you read the P2 card directly, or cabled through ethernet and through a Windows system, the file appears the same to the Apple.

And yes, P2 automatically creates new files when an existing footage file exceeds 4GB, and it's designed to have integrated pointers in each chunk of the overall spanned clip to point forwards and backwards so that they can be seamlessly pieced together.
 
Update

Update

Hi Barry,
Your advice on the P2 transfer was invaluable, but before I run out and pick up a windows laptop (gosh that's hard to even type being a Mac-phile), is there any update to the blog. Any new technology for painlessly transferring P2 cards in the field.
Thanks:cheesy:
 
Barry_Green said:
I bet it would be hard to buy a modern laptop that had anything less than a gigabit ethernet connection nowadays. If it's got an ethernet connection at all, it's probably a Gig-E connection.

But, the only way to know for sure is to check the statistics, or to actually connect it to a known gigabit connection (all macs offered for sale new today have gigabit ethernet connections). We tried a 3-year-old laptop and it connected, but at 100.0mbps. Then we tried my relatively-new Lenovo and it connected at 1.0gbps. Check the "network connection properties" and it'll tell you what speed you connected at.

You could also go into the control panel's device manager, look at your ethernet adapter, and see if it'll tell you. Or, if it doesn't say directly, you could at least get the model number and then google it for the specifics.

As a side note, the 100mbps connection (so-called "Fast Ethernet") did connect and did sort of work. We were able to offload a 4GB P2 card to the Mac through the ethernet connection, but it took about 6 minutes (vs. 2 minutes with the Gigabit Ethernet). However, the 100mbps connection didn't let us use FCP's Import P2 function and it wouldn't let us edit from the P2 card. So you'll get a slow card importer with 100mbps ethernet, but you get all the joy and happiness if you go with the Gigabit ethernet.
Click to expand...
Barry I am confussed, a gigabit connection is wireless and a fast ethernet is though the cable? or can they both be wireless, like the one you used for your test was that though a wireless connection?


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