P2 transfer speeds

B

BillPryor

Member
Say you were using an iBook for the purpose of transferring P2 files via firewire as a temporary measure in the field. How fast, roughly, does it take to transfer the contents of an 8 gig card if the footage was shot at 24pn. Just a rough idea. Is it real time, faster than real time, slower?
 
2.5 times faster than real time. It's usually around a gigabyte a minute, although faster destination drives (like an FW800 drive) could get a faster transfer time. So an 8gb card will transfer in 6 to 8 minutes, and will hold 20 minutes of footage.
 
As a general statement, no. Because what is "real time"? What mode did you shoot in?

They download on average in about 1 minute per gigabyte. So if you shot 1080 mode, then yes it's sort of "real time".

But if you shot DV they download four times faster than realtime.

If you shot DV50 they download twice as fast as real time.

If you shot 720/24pN they download 2.5x as fast as real time.

If you shot 720/60p then they download at about real time.

So, like Einstein said, it's all relative... :thumbsup:
 
I'd add to this that theoretical speeds are one thing, tested speeds are another. Then there are tested speeds which change of their own accord, but thats another thread somewhere else. My point? Is that after breakfast you might get a gig/minute but before lunch that could be gig/3mins. Without testing on your own setup any info you get here is theoretical. Theroretically I agree, a gig/min.
 
Theoretical speed would be four gigs in 50 seconds, if all the planets aligned properly, you had no conflicts, and you were transferring to something that was fast enough to receive data at that rate.

As a practical matter using a PC laptop I always, consistently get about 1 minute per gigabyte. I have never had a case where it mysteriously slowed down, although if that were to occur I'd suspect the drive that the files were being copied to; drives do get slower as they approach full capacity.
 
So if I shoot 8gig cards at 24p to a G4 laptop with the p2 slot it should be no longer than 1 min per gig? Also barry this brings me another question about work flow as the footage will go to TV. My question is at what stage will I need to add the pull down and this will be on the same time line as mulit cam varicam 24p again to TV. Do I make sense?

Thanks
 
The pulldown will be added automatically when you render your final output. And yes, 1 minute per gig should be standard, if it's taking much longer than that it means there's something wrong somewhere along the line.
 
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