Topic: Tascam HD-P2 firewire connectivity / speed issue

[Brian Skalinder]

This one's ready to be sorted, but wanted to let everyone know about it in case they experience similar symptoms.  The symptoms I experienced with my Oade ACM HD-P2:

• Slow firewire connectivity to PC (3-7 minutes just to connect)
• Slow navigation once connected (5sec - 3min just to navigate to a directory)
• Slow transferring once initiated (didn't measure, but painfully slow)

I benchmarked all of the above against my properly firewire-connecting stock HD-P2, which connected and navigated nearly instantenously and had much faster transfer speeds.  (FWIW, I also picked up a Lexar card reader and it's blazing fast relative to even the properly functioning stock P2.)

Anyway, after several weeks of email and phone calls back and forth with Tascam support (what a tediously slow process...hmph...thought they'd provide swifter customer service), they finally emailed me saying it's a known problem with some HD-P2s (no specific serial # range given, so it maybe a random problem instead of a specific production run).  They gave me the address to which I should send the unit for service.  Of course, it's an Oade ACM mod, so it's not quite that simple.  I've contacted Doug and he's going to work with the Tascam folks to figure out what needs fixing (which will probably take another couple weeks...apparently he's encountered similar response times from Tascam support) and likely fix it himself, or arrange for another resolution.

I'm confident it will all work out in the end, and in the meantime don't mind that it transfers slowly since I love my little Lexar card reader.  :)

[jcrab66]

yeah, i did a xfer comp between the firewire on the unit and my sandisk card reader about a year ago and found the card reader to be much faster so thats what i stick with

[OOK]

I never had this issue either....hummm

[macdaddy]

never did firewire for the pc ('cos i dont have a firewire card); but the firewire transfer to my ibook was faster than the card reader (usb2.0) and my pc...

sounds like a bad batch of machines from tascam...

+t for your troubles.

(i have been uber-busy, but will try to call doug tomorrow regarding changing the acm to the T flavor)

[Teen Wolf Blitzer]

As far as the slow transfer I noticed this a couple weeks ago at taperjeffs.  He was getting my 8 R4 channels from EO and I was grabbing his board from the HDP2.  All 8 channels were done before the board.  We couldn't believe it.  No other issues that I noticed though.  His is stock.

Edited to add:  So do you all think something is wrong with Jeff's deck?  Maybe I'll pass this thread along to him...

[spyder9]

I never had this issue either....hummm

Me too, when I owned mine.  deadheaded has mine now.  That's the one thing I miss about the Tascam, was the fast transfers via firewire.  Hope Tascam and Oade gets it right.  Nothing, not even a reader, is faster than the Tascam when the firewire is working properly.  +T for the troubles.    

[AlexG]

This one's ready to be sorted, but wanted to let everyone know about it in case they experience similar symptoms.  The symptoms I experienced with my Oade ACM HD-P2:

• Slow firewire connectivity to PC (3-7 minutes just to connect)
• Slow navigation once connected (5sec - 3min just to navigate to a directory)
• Slow transferring once initiated (didn't measure, but painfully slow)

I benchmarked all of the above against my properly firewire-connecting stock HD-P2, which connected and navigated nearly instantenously and had much faster transfer speeds.  (FWIW, I also picked up a Lexar card reader and it's blazing fast relative to even the properly functioning stock P2.)

Anyway, after several weeks of email and phone calls back and forth with Tascam support (what a tediously slow process...hmph...thought they'd provide swifter customer service), they finally emailed me saying it's a known problem with some HD-P2s (no specific serial # range given, so it maybe a random problem instead of a specific production run).  They gave me the address to which I should send the unit for service.  Of course, it's an Oade ACM mod, so it's not quite that simple.  I've contacted Doug and he's going to work with the Tascam folks to figure out what needs fixing (which will probably take another couple weeks...apparently he's encountered similar response times from Tascam support) and likely fix it himself, or arrange for another resolution.

I'm confident it will all work out in the end, and in the meantime don't mind that it transfers slowly since I love my little Lexar card reader.  :)

FWIW I've seen the same thing on my Stock HD-P2, the firewire transfers are just painfully slow.  I ended up buying a usb cf reader that worked about 5 times faster.  If Tascam is aware of this I hope there is a fix because it would be much nicer to not have to remove the CF card all the time.

[JasonSobel]

I've had this issue on my PC.  painfully slow firewire speeds.
BUT:
1) I've always used a usb 2 CF card reader, so it's never been a big deal for me
2) I have never tried to used the firewire card for anything, so I can't be sure that it isn't a problem on the PC side of things
and
3) I've hooked up the HD-P2 to my wife Mac laptop via firewire, and it was a breeze.

so, honestly, I can't say for sure that it's the HD-P2.  I tried two different firewire cards in my PC, but maybe it's a PC configuration issue for me.  or maybe some HD-P2's don't like windows.  I never really pursued it much, because I don't mind using the card reader.

[Brian Skalinder]

FWIW I've seen the same thing on my Stock HD-P2, the firewire transfers are just painfully slow.  I ended up buying a usb cf reader that worked about 5 times faster.  If Tascam is aware of this I hope there is a fix because it would be much nicer to not have to remove the CF card all the time.

From their response to me, it sounds like there's a fix and it requires sending the unit back to Tascam tech support.  If you want to get it fixed, I'd give 'em a call.

[AlexG]

FWIW I've seen the same thing on my Stock HD-P2, the firewire transfers are just painfully slow.  I ended up buying a usb cf reader that worked about 5 times faster.  If Tascam is aware of this I hope there is a fix because it would be much nicer to not have to remove the CF card all the time.

From their response to me, it sounds like there's a fix and it requires sending the unit back to Tascam tech support.  If you want to get it fixed, I'd give 'em a call.

Sweet thanks for the info I'll give that a shot.