Stand alone P2 card reader

B

BradFu

Well-known member
Hiya,

I have an HD shoot tomorrow (wedding), and I only have 2 HVX's. I got hosed on a rental of a third HVX this afternoon, which would act as an offload station only because I don't want to tie up a camera when I'm emptying out the cards. I'm in the Bay Area, and no one seems to have a P2 card reader. Adolf Gasser has an HVX package up in the city, but I don't know if I can make it up there.

I searched the threads, and found the Amtron card reader. Has anyone used this?

I'm dumping off to an external Maxtor drive, via FCP on a Powerbook. I tested the process last night with a full 16gig card, 720p 24pn, and the offload took about 25 minutes. I'd hate to have a camera down for that length of time, and as the day goes on, we'll only get more and more data to offload.

Is there any experience out there with something I could use for a card reader, and that I could buy at Fry's, Best Buy, etc.??

-b
 
First of all, the Amtron reader won't work.

Second, if you have a Powerbook, why aren't you using the PCMCIA slot? You should be able to offload a full 16GB card in less than 16 minutes, probably more like 10 or 12.

Third, the very best card reader you can get is a Windows laptop. It'll cost maybe $400 or $500 and will offload cards directly to your external drive, which you could then plug into FCP. Just drag and drop and you're done.
 
My mistake--Macbook Pro. No pcmia slot.

As for getting a Windows laptop...........I'm using the Macbook, but it's not mine--company issued for my day job. It's loaded up with FCP, but I don't have the software.

Would loading on the latest P2 drivers to the new laptop work for offloading, instead of an editing platform like FCP, Avid, Edius, etc.?
 
I think I got the part about the laptop--just install the drivers off Panny's site, then throw the files onto the external drive.

I'm into my third week of using FCP, so I don't know it very well, but the offloading is fairly simple.

My only worry about the above scenario is: if I offload using a Windows based platform, will I have any trouble using the files in FCP?

I know MXF files are MXF files wherever you go, but something about it is nagging me.
 
Nope, they are just files. Doesn't matter who or what touches them, PC or Mac, they play nice.
 
Thanks guys!

It looks like I'll have to run out tomorrow morning and pick up a new laptop.

My first P2 hot-swapping gig in a run-and-gun scenario.

Oy........
 
Jeff:

That looks like what I need except that I'm on a MacPro (using FCP Studio 6) and need PCI Express.

thanks,
J.
 
ahh I've still a got a legacy PCI or 2 on my PC. Havent seen a direct PCI Express to PCMCIA adapter yet... sorry that wont work for you.
 
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