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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

CF cards or netbook

Peter Osinski

Peter Osinski

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Hey guys,

I have been trying to plan out my scarlet purchase and I was trying to decide whether I should get the 16GB CF card Bundle, or to pick up one CF card and a Laptop (max $400) for offloading the card.

With the laptop I could shoot an unlimited amount without having to go home to my workstation for offloads, but would have to deal with the 7 minute USB offload time from the 16GB card interrupting the shoot.

With the bundle I will never be held back by dumping a card because I will have backups, but I will be limited to shooting 64GB at a time before going home to offload....but the pricing is great

I am sure the ssd option will be out of my price range because the module is 1500 before the cost of the drive, not to mention I would think you'd need a red station for offloads (speculation of course). The red drive will not work because I need something that could potentially handle a good deal of shock. The RED RAM is out of the question as well.

So....

64GB via 4 CF cards for $1400

or

500GB via 1 CF card + cheap laptop + WD 500GB passport drive for $1000 ish

let me know what you think
 
You must have more than one card, regardless of the size or you will explode in frustration. I would test your download speed assumptions. I have a WD 500gb passport drive and I would not trust the USB 2.0 bus to consistently deliver transfer rates like you're expecting. The bundle is priced that way because they are stable and amazingly fast.
 
I was going to play devil's advocate for the laptop for a bit and see if I had any helpful suggestions supporting that side of the argument but halfway through i just decided screw it, I'll get the bundle.

I mean, If I am shooting more than 4 cards a day and its that important I can always find someone with a laptop at the very least

thanks for the input
 
When I first got my Red One, I had two 8GB cards and 4 320GB drives on backorder. The drives were due to arrive in a couple of days, so we went ahead with our shoot. Having only two cards was frustrating, as we could easily fill one card while the other one was offloading via USB to a Macbook Pro.

Unless you've got a high-speed transfer method available to you (such as a laptop with an Expresscard slot and an Express CF adaptor), you want at least 3 cards, I'd say. Even FW800 isn't fast enough to limit yourself to 2.

That's my 0.02.
 
There ist an HP mini netbook with express card slot and two USB.
I think that would be perfect for CF expresscard reader and offload to two external USB drives. I'm thinking about to get it for in the field backup. But even with a soloution like this or a faster one you will want a minimum of 3 cards. One in use, one offloading one in your pocket.
 
Anybody using boxes made by these guys to offload cf cards?

http://www.hypershop.com/HyperDrive-COLORSPACE-UDMA-s/64.htm

supposed to be fast and you can put your own drive in!

read some reviews. sounds cool. I like the Verification on it anf the fact that you can take the drive out if you want. You cant view your movies but it sounds cool if it works.
 
Apparently, if you have a FW800 card reader and an external hard drive with FW800, either connected to different ports on your laptop, or daisy-chained together, transfers will be much slower than if you had them on separate FW800 buses, i.e. one connected to the laptop's built-in FW800 port, and the other connected to a FW800 Expresscard adaptor.

The other option would be an Expresscard CF reader, and a FW800 hard drive. USB, however, would be the slowest overall.
 
Peter Osinski said:
the 7 minute USB offload time from the 16GB card interrupting the shoot.
Click to expand...

If you can unload a 16gb CF card in 7 minutes over USB then you've got some voodoo magic on your side. Bank on it taking at least twice that.
 
I have used hyper drives in doc situations. The sound guy put 2 on his belt. When one stopped, he's pull the card out and pop it in the second hyperdrive for the redundant back up. hyper drives dumped to hard drives at the hotel at night. Worked great.

Nick
 
I'd wait until Scarlet comes out and see what's on the market. CF cards are dropping in price and increasing in size, plus I'm sure there will be more affordable back-up solutions hitting the streets that won't require a laptop. Certainly, a current netbook won't be up to the job.
 
Nexto VS HyperDrive?

Nexto VS HyperDrive?

Has anyone used both the Nexto and the HyperDrive and can offer some input?

I have the Nexto and have been happy with it, but having even quicker transfer times would be great. The major draw back I see with the Hyper Drive is that it does not have eSATA out ...
 
Ryan S said:
Better speed than the Nexto, but if there's a netbook with an Expresscard slot for 400-500, that seems like it would still be a better option.
Click to expand...


don't u find it bulky on set ?
 
Ryan S said:
Better speed than the Nexto, but if there's a netbook with an Expresscard slot for 400-500, that seems like it would still be a better option.
Click to expand...
There are several bu the best I found is the HP MINI 2140.
But you would need to use external USB harddrives.
You can get it for less than 300€.
And you would have a nice Web and writing laptop.
 
I would honestly take USB 2.0 off the table. That is the slowest bus available. I clocked the Red 16gb Compact Flash virtually full at 6 minutes for full download. I had a FW800 lexar card reader going in and eSata express card to a single eSata raid drive going out. I had to use USB 2.0 once and it was so slow, I sent the production out to get FW800 drives. I told them that the production was on track to go into overtime if they insisted I use the USB drives. They happily obliged.
 
The info on the hyperdrive website says it verifies every file, and transfers at 2GB/s. Is this true? Is it a relatively reliable temporary backup device for in the field/ fastmoving productions?
 
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