Does the Nexto Extreme solve the P2 card problem?

T

thunderMex

Member
Barry, I read one of your recommendations regarding the Nexto Extreme to input P2 cards for those of us left behind when Snow Leopard upgrades left our Duel Adapter Express Card interfaces inoperable.

So I read this http://www.cameratown.com/reviews/nexto_extreme/
So I see a workflow of P2 card in, copy to internal hard drive, attach SATA cable to Macbook Pro laptop, transfer complete P2 card file structure to Mac. Without having to use USB 2.0.

"The Nexto eXtreme 160GB sells for $209.99 from MPC (through Amazon), the 320GB version for just $269.99"

The Sonnet Qio I read about at http://www.sonnettech.com/product/qio.html but it seems it is going to run close to a thousand dollars.

Have you been able to confirm that the Nexto ingests P2 cards? Simply reading the files and copying on to its hard drive?

I would appreciate an authoritative update on that possibility to use Nexto, which is even cheaper an alternative than buying a Windows laptop.

UHOH! UPDATE:

I just saw another review on the Nexto Extreme--

http://www.gizmag.com/nexto-extreme-nd2700-review/12886/

One paragraph in that review SHOOTS DOWN the P2 transfer alternative with something like the Duel Adapter speed--

"Since we got our Nexto eXtreme, Nexto have released the Nexto Video Storage ND2725, which offers all the functionality of the eXtreme, and adds the ability to backup data from Sony SxS and Panasonic P2 cameras (although it can't read the cards directly, you need to plug the camera in via USB), and the Nexto Ultra, which adds a FireWire port to offer faster-than-USB-2.0 speeds to Mac users without the use of an ExpressCard eSATA adapter ..."

My problem is that you simply can NOT shoot on location during a day with nothing but a Macbook Pro using Snow Leopard OS X and a Duel Adapter to offload files while the production is ongoing.

I have two 32 Gig P2 cards. I always fill them up. The camera is in use. It cannot be the device to facilitate footage download especially not at the Firewire speed during a production day for a full card.
 
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I haven't used that Nexto, the one that ingests P2 cards is the NVS 2500. And it's a lot more expensive, I think it goes for around $2,000. But it doesn't need to use the camera as a USB device, it reads the cards directly through its own adapter.

My problem is that you simply can NOT shoot on location during a day with nothing but a Macbook Pro using Snow Leopard OS X and a Duel Adapter to offload files while the production is ongoing.
Click to expand...
Correct. The MBP is the wrong tool for the job.

Solution: get the right tool for the job. A Windows laptop or nettop with the Addonics or Rosewill adapter, for a grand total of around $350. Offload cards to it, then plug it into your editing station via gigabit ethernet and transfer the files over.

If you want to use the MBP, the best way is to spring for a PCD20, which connects via FW800 and would make a very fast offload station, or a Sonnet QIO if it ever ships, or a used P2 Store (which seem to go for about $500 on ebay, and can be used as a direct slot reader via USB).

As for the title of the message, I don't agree with it on the face of it. There isn't a "P2" problem. There's a problem with a certain manufacturer who decided to eliminate slots, and change their OS to obsolete a working product and provide no assistance to make the product work, and has (as near as I can tell) actually eliminated the CardBus support from Snow Leopard, so it could never work. As such, my advice is to quit trying to stick a round peg into a square hole, and get the proper square peg instead, and all your problems will magically disappear. :)
 
I had posted elsewhere in the past hour that the Panasonic 1394b drivers did not recognize any P2 card above 8 gigs... returning to the Panasonic drivers site I see I misinterpreted what I saw...the driver I wanted to download and install on my HP laptop DOES see my 32 gig P2 cards. What they were saying was that it was versions of Windows before XP that would not see above 8 GB.

My Windows XP Pro laptop sees the card fine. I now have a P2 card downloading from the Cardslot without any adapter in between. It looks much slower even from the cardslot than my Macbook Pro and Duel Adapter used to do....recent history.

However, Barry, I am taking what I believe was your suggestion to put the P2 card on SAFETY!
 
A direct slot transfer should be no slower than the MBP/DUel situation. I get about 2GB/minute transfer rate on my laptop, a 32GB card takes about 15 minutes to offload. If yours is substantially slower, there's something wrong (could be a slow internal hard drive; typically the hard drive is the bottleneck).
 
I was wrong again. The direct slot transfer WAS fast. What I thought was one Video MXF file poking along was actually the next one and the next one....it was much better than doing this USB from the camera. NOW I will go look at your Ethernet transfer method....already have the cable running between HP and an Imac.
G5 8-core arrives in a few days.
 
My problem is that you simply can NOT shoot on location during a day with nothing but a Macbook Pro using Snow Leopard OS X and a Duel Adapter to offload files while the production is ongoing.
Click to expand...

the sucky part about this VERY TRUE statement is that its one variable "snow leopard" thats causing the problem. i shoot on location all day long using a MBPro running LEOPARD with a duel adapter with no problems at all.

i might understand it if snow leopard added some ground breaking functionality that made everything else better. but it really doesnt do anything that makes me any more productive.

all i want to add to this discussion. is that if you buy a MBPro loaded with snow leopard. just go buy an old copy of leopard and you'll be back in business.

i know, not the most economical answer. but if a new MBPro is the machine you want (or already have) its the cheapest way to get around the SL problem
 
What a weird workflow...for now...

What a weird workflow...for now...

All because I installed Snow Leopard and thereby deactivated THE WORKFLOW par excellence--Duel Adapter to Express Card slot in Macbook Pro for downloading P2--I followed the suggestions noted here and over at Creative Cow.

The office I am working at just happened to have a bunch of HP Laptops laying around with XP Professional installed. And they had card reader slots that accepted my 32 gig P2 cards. Following the information posted around I went to Panasonic and grabbed the P2 reader hardware for Windows XP. Following another suggestion I put the P2 card pins in the Safety mode to prevent erasure or overwriting in case software did something strange.

At first I didn't know what to do when the P2 Card Manager showed up with no function but to demonstrate the Card was read and to refresh it and to Change the Card name.

In the PC I noticed in Windows Explorer that I now had an E: drive and that clicking on it gave me the familiar Panasonic files. That gave me more confidence and I proceeded to select my clip file and the other folders and did a Copy and Paste rather than drag action to a folder I set up.

I had the devil of a time getting my Imac desktop with Leopard (before Snow) to connect through the various described methods. It was not working.

TO BARRY GREEN: please add this reference URL to your handy instructions on how to use the Ethernet connection between the Mac machine and the PC machine--

http://www.mahalo.com/how-to-convert-from-pc-to-mac

This guy saved my bacon by detailing what I had to do IN THE PC or my Mac Finder Go to Server connection method was never going to succeed.

I followed the instructions at mahalo.com to make sure that I had made a SHARE of that folder on the PC where my P2 files had been saved.

Once I did THAT my iMac was able to quickly establish connection with the PC and prompted me for my iMac username and password the way I have to authorise any new program or update to install on my Mac machine.

Then I saw the Shared file folder name I had made on my PC popup. Clicking on that gave me the P2 files.

Another "select all" COPY 2 files and then a Paste to the Folder on my iMac external hard drive and I was off and running.

The time it took to read 15.5 gigs of P2 files from the card directly into the PC seemed to happen as quickly as it did using the Duel Adapter to my Macbook Pro in the "old" days. The copy files transfer via the Ethernet cable between the PC and my Imac desktop was about 13 minutes for 15.5 gigs of data. A little over one Gig per minute transfer time.

MUCH better than USB 2.0!

Thanks DVXUSER!

Still messy but a workaround that was FREE.
 
You can make it infinitely easier too -- just copy from the Windows machine onto an external FAT32 hard disk. Then unplug the drive from the Windows laptop, and plug it directly into your iMac. Done.

(and yes, I'll put that link in the article, thanks!)
 
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