AJ pcd 20

[Mark Smith]

Just picked up the new panasonic 5 slot p2 card reader. So far so good, shows up like it should on my macbook and P2 genie thinks its just another buch of P2 volumes.
The reason I went this route was to eliminate the need for loading to a P2 store and then copying those files from the P2 store to another drive at the end of the day to hand off to a client.

It just another pathway that can be taken in certain situations which while pricey, is worth having.

The unit plays well with everything I have so far and covers the situation where if I get backed up offloading cards, I can dump a few in the slots and have P2 Genie get to work.

 

[Barry_Green]

So you got the FW800 version... do you have any FW800 devices to connect it to? I'd like to hear how it does when connected through FW800 and offloading to a G-RAID or something even faster. Theoretically FW800 should provide enough bandwidth to extract the maximum performance from the cards...

 

[Mark Smith]

THe PCD 20 has both fw 800 and USB ports. I'm going to test it out with my desk top system and give report what I find.
I did have an anomoly crop up on a recent project. With the PCD 20 connected via FW to my laptop, using P2 genie to copy cards to a pocket drive connected by USB to said laptop, I got some copy errors that showed up as pixelated break up in the image at regular intervals. A finder based copy by the same route was fine as was a copy done through P2 genie using USB connections all around.

I'll post back about copy speeds after I get set up with my desktop system.

 

[Richard Sutcliffe]

Is it possible to connect the drive to a FW800 drive and offload the card direct to the HD without a laptop? Sorry if thats green, Im interpreting Barry's question.

Id love to hear what advantages you believe it has over a single PCMCIA slot. We have been very careful with copying our data, verifying file sizes and playing back in P2log before reformatting cards.

would you guys be comfortable copying data and not checking visually that the files play properly?

 

[monkeyking]

I've been trying to use the previous 5 card reader (AJ pcd 10) that is USB 2.O only with my Powerbook . It is not mac friendly - it comes with a windows-only cd rom and the manual makes no mention of compatability w/Mac platform.
I was able to use P2 Genie to dump a card but subsequent attempts failed miserably with the warning that I was attempting to dnld an empty card - scary because card was full .
Most confounding is the screen prompt that I have improperly attempted to eject a device instead of dragging it away properly. Can't get rid of that prompt.
I'm going to bring a P2 store w/me on a shoot to the UK next week and leave this
turkey at home. I was hoping I had received the current FW AJ pcd 20 model instead of this one. I'm not investing in any Panasonic gear that isn't mac friendly.
When is an improved P2 Store w/FW 800 coming out?

 

[Mark Smith]

Ok here is the skinny on the speed test: 2.6 gb on a p 2 card transfered using the finder via USB2 to to an internal drive in 2:50
I will add that I transferred the last clip .txt file first which is insignificant with regards to time, then the contents folder.
Via FW800 same card data, same method, same computer 2:10
I can't do a P2 genie comparison on the test computer and my licensed copy of P2 genie is set up for my laptop which in not FW800..

 

[Mark Smith]

The PCD 10 came with a CD that had both windows and PC install files, so right off the bat things are better there. So far I have run file transfers on my Mac book and my dual 1 g G4 FCP station after installing the drivers and with the exception of the problem noted above, both have worked well.

I'd say PCD20 works pretty well on a mac at this point.

I did discover an issue after the first use of the PCD20 . The set up PCD20 connected via fire wire to Mac book, with a target HD connected via USB 2, P2 genie doing the copying.

All files copied this way had some artifacts in the copied file, blocky pixels to be precise at regular intervals. It was not an issue when going USB 2 with the same devices and P2 genie,. I alerted Anders to the problem and he's aware there might be an issue.
As I said USB copies were divine.