Here’s are some P2 card transfer times I’ve observed based on my own real world testing. Tests 4 and 5 were done in the field while working on a documentary shoot last week, your actual times may vary.
Test 1: Transfer 4 GB P2 Card from camera to Mac: 4 min., 49 sec.
Test 2: Transfer 4 GB P2 Card to P2 Store: 6 min., 24 sec.
Test 3: Transfer Single 4 GB Partition from P2 Store to Mac: 5 min., 7 sec.
Test 4: Transfer 4 GB P2 Card from PCMCIA slot to Powerbook: 4 min.
Test 5: Transfer 8 GB P2 Card from PCMCIA slot to Powerbook: 7 min., 58 sec.
On the shoot last week I found one morning that the 8 GB cards were taking almost 12 minutes to transfer to the internal hard disk, which seemed odd. After rebooting the PowerBook the transfer times were back to the times we would expect.
Details: Test 1: 4 GB P2 (full card, various length clips, 3.51 GB total), Power Macintosh G5, FireWire 400 cable connected to front FireWire connector, media copied to internal SATA drive; Test 2: 4 GB P2 (full card, various length clips, 3.51 GB total), Load into P2 Store (verification on); Test 3; Trasfer single partition (3.51 GB contents of a full 4 GB P2 card) from P2 Store to Power Macintosh G5 via USB 2.0 cable; Test 4 and 5: Trasfer full card (3.54 GB for 4 GB card, 7.23 GB for 8 GB card, various length clips) from PCMCIA slot on 15″ 1.67GHz Powerbook G4 to internal hard drive; NOTE: Panasonic claims faster times for card to P2 Store transfers but I did the tests with verification on, as I found that sometimes verification failed when using the P2 Store in field conditions, for example, bumping the unit in the middle of a download. Better safe that sorry.
Hi,
Do you know why when I upload my P2 card to my PC my clips have been split into a video folder and a sound folder. I want clips to have both video and sound together to drop into edius 4. It’s a pain to try to connect the two together again.
Thanks
The reason the media has thumbnails, audio notes, audio, video, and metadata all in separate folders is that’s the format of the MXF file format, a SMPTE standard. It’s up to each editing system to either work with the MXF media in it’s native form, or to convert it to it’s own internal format. For example, through the import process, Final Cut Pro takes the MXF media and creates QuickTime files. Avid puts the media into it’s own form to. I’ve not used Edius, but like other editors, there’s an IMPORT PROCESS to take MXF media into the NLE.
David,
Thanks for such a fast response. Will go back to my Edius manual. Edius 4 has a ‘P2 select’ command that downloads P2 files specifically and directs that into a playback window for editing. Then once that’s completed throws it in the bin for later sequencing. It’s just that for some reason the sound isn’t going along for the ride. When I figure it out will let you know.
Dan