downloading footage takes HOURS on my imac desktop

[RebbiC]

I have a 2007 Imac desktop 20" version 10.6.8 (2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo. - Apple Computer MA877LL/A), I am unable to download my footage from my 7D Canon without it taking 10-12 hours at least. I have 2 GB of memory, and have just purchased 2 more GBs, but will that solve the problem? I want to know if anyone else has ever had this problem? I Bought my computer from gainsaver refurbished, and it works great for everything except downloading footage and editing.
any help/troubleshooting would be appreciated!

 

[MacLC]

RebbiC, I have the same mac with 4gigs of RAM and until recently, also used 10.6.8.
A while back I only had 2gb of RAM and while upgrading to 4 improved a lot of speed issues, data transfer is not one of them. Just to make sure, try transferring images and videos in short amounts and see if the transfer speed is any higher. It shouldn't make a difference though.

The 2 transfer methods I know of both require USB. Either you transfer via USB to the camera directly or transfer via USB to SD card reader.
I personally find USB card readers to be better. HOWEVER!!! Make sure if you do, it is NOT a USB 1.0 card reader!!! That would hurt transfer speeds a lot!

Also, using one of the 3 USB ports in back of the mac is generally better than the ports on the keyboard. Sometimes I've found that transferring photos to iPhoto takes longer if I use they keyboard USB ports and even if not, some devices don't seem to get enough power through the keyboard.

 

[RebbiC]

thanks!

RebbiC, I have the same mac with 4gigs of RAM and until recently, also used 10.6.8.
A while back I only had 2gb of RAM and while upgrading to 4 improved a lot of speed issues, data transfer is not one of them. Just to make sure, try transferring images and videos in short amounts and see if the transfer speed is any higher. It shouldn't make a difference though.

The 2 transfer methods I know of both require USB. Either you transfer via USB to the camera directly or transfer via USB to SD card reader.
I personally find USB card readers to be better. HOWEVER!!! Make sure if you do, it is NOT a USB 1.0 card reader!!! That would hurt transfer speeds a lot!

Also, using one of the 3 USB ports in back of the mac is generally better than the ports on the keyboard. Sometimes I've found that transferring photos to iPhoto takes longer if I use they keyboard USB ports and even if not, some devices don't seem to get enough power through the keyboard.

Thank you! yes, i use a Kingston technology card reader, but i don't know if it's 1.0, but i'm pretty sure it's 2.0, because when i use it on my G4 laptop from 2005, it downloads the same footage in about 15 min! (even though that computer has about 500mb memory!) So weird. but that's good to hear it's this computer, and maybe it's not that my computer is defunct. I will try plugging directly into the computer, i have a USB break out so it has 4 plugs in one and that's what i usually use. Yeah, i don't think transferring a little at a time really changes things. Thanks for the tips.

 

[Consultant]

Try a new card reader. If the card reader is from 2005 then it might be outdated.

 

[decksnap]

If you are downloading directly into iMovie it may be transcoding your footage 'optimizing' into AIC during the process causing it to take much longer.

 

[ChrisA]

I have a 2007 Imac desktop 20" version 10.6.8 (2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo. - Apple Computer MA877LL/A), I am unable to download my footage from my 7D Canon without it taking 10-12 hours at least. I have 2 GB of memory, and have just purchased 2 more GBs, but will that solve the problem? I want to know if anyone else has ever had this problem? I Bought my computer from gainsaver refurbished, and it works great for everything except downloading footage and editing.
any help/troubleshooting would be appreciated!

I don't think the transfer speed is the problem. What is taking the hours is the transcoding. if you are using iMovie it will convert everything to a less compressed codec and this does take lots of time.

I've switch to FCP X and with FCP I can specify if the video is to be transcoded or not and I can turn off and on other processing that gets done in import. Also with FCP, even if I have enabled transcoding to ProRes I can still edit my video in native form while it gets processed in the background. FCP is nice in that f I am actively using the interface to make edits the background processing slows or halts, then restarts if I stop messing with the user interface.

I don't know if your editing software (iMovie?) has the ability to control if the video gets transcoded.

BTW, why only 2GB more? is that al that will fit? You should max the commuter out with RAM, buy the most that will fit.

With FCP X there is no delay except for the time it takes to actually move the data off the memory card. That depends on the speed of the card.

 

[decksnap]

I don't think the transfer speed is the problem. What is taking the hours is the transcoding. if you are using iMovie it will convert everything to a less compressed codec and this does take lots of time.

I don't know if your editing software (iMovie?) has the ability to control if the video gets transcoded.

If it is iMovie, yes, on import you can choose to 'optimize' or not, but I think it depends on whether you are importing direct to iMovie vs importing to iMovie from the finder as to whether you are presented with that option.

 

[nateo200]

Check to see if iMovie/your NLE is optimizing your footage....you didn't specify whether you were copying the files to your computer or importing them into iMovie...regardless copying them to a folder on your computer is going to be the best choice. For a fast card reader look into a FW800 card reader or even FW400...I still find FW800 to be very fast even though I'm using USB 3.0 and Thunderbolt devices. More RAM won't help transfer speed but it will make editing easier along with multitasking so thats a plus...