Topic: Tascam DR-70D 4-channel audio recorder (Part 6)

[F.O.Bean]

Thanks for the link Volt! I use some cheapo Left Angle Micro USB>right angle USB B cables, for like $1.20/each from China, and they have worked great so far! I just LOVE the left angle micro tip on them

[mfrench]

I just had to replace a USB cable that I used to power mine.  It was very sensitive to any movement of the deck or battery. The new one that I replaced it with can handle substantial motion of either the batt or deck without any issue, in fact, I really roughly handled the batt/deck pairing and could not get it to shut off. With the other cable, it was really quite easy to cause failure.
The bad cable,... I don't have anymore, nor did it have a name branding; a generic USB cable.  I'm awaiting delivery of a new replacement right angle cable. Until then I grabbed one out of my spare cable bag, and am using that until the new R.A. cable arrives.

[F.O.Bean]

I just had to replace a USB cable that I used to power mine.  It was very sensitive to any movement of the deck or battery. The new one that I replaced it with can handle substantial motion of either the batt or deck without any issue, in fact, I really roughly handled the batt/deck pairing and could not get it to shut off. With the other cable, it was really quite easy to cause failure.
The bad cable,... I don't have anymore, nor did it have a name branding; a generic USB cable.  I'm awaiting delivery of a new replacement right angle cable. Until then I grabbed one out of my spare cable bag, and am using that until the new R.A. cable arrives.

Haha, you're funny Mok3 Must be us old school tapers, because I shake the shit out of my bag/gear to see if anything funky happens, like my deck or preamp shutting down I JUST did the exact same thing with my new 70d that I got today I put that left angle micro tip cable in my new to me 2nd 70d, with a USB battery, and then shook it around quite violently, and NOTHING happened, meaning it held power GREAT Tonedeaf had the same exact cables that I got, because I gave him one of my left angle micro>rt angle USB B cables last year, and his cable was faulty and FUCK'D him over once I felt REALLY bad about that But us old school tapers should know better! Test EVERYTHING out at home BEFORE you go into the field

[F.O.Bean]

OK, just got my 2nd 70d and 64gb PNY Elite 95MB/s Class 10 UHS-I/3[#P-SDX64U395-GE] sd card yesterday and it passed the FakeFlashTest and H2testw tests that Voltronic posted recently! Thanks again Volt

Anyway, here it goes. Put my new 64gb PNY card into my new[2nd] 70d today, and BAM, immediately a Write Timeout error I was only running 2 channels@24/96 with Phantom power[mk4>PFA>70d] on channels 1/2! It seemed to work fine @24/44.1 though!?!?! WEIRD!!! So, I switch my PNY 64gb sd cards and put the NEW 64gb card into my old[1.5 yrs old] 70d, and the older 64gb PNY card into my NEW 70d and BAM[knock on wood lol], its working GREAT right now on BOTH decks[for almost 2 hours, with 2 channels@24/96 on BOTH decks] All I did was switch sd cards in my 70d's!!! And last night, I successfully filled my 32gb PNY High 50MB/s Class 10 on my NEW 70d, so WTF Works great with my OLD PNY cards I got from Amazon last year! However, I had to get my newest 64gb PNY Elite[#P-SDX64U395-GE] at eBay, because Amazon doesn't take PayPal Like I said though, the card passed the Fake Flash Tests and H2testw tests with flying colors, so I'm confused! But whatever, if they run without ANY problems like they are now, then I don't care, but otherwise, I'll just get a new 64gb Sandisk Extreme Pro[#SDSDXPA-064G] at B+H or Adorama! Just weird that the old sd cards work fine in the new one, but the old 70d works fine with all 3 cards, both old sd cards and the new one! The ONLY difference physically between the [2] of my 64gb PNY Elite cards, is the color of the lock mechanism, which could have changed from PNY, so I don't think the card I just got is a fake or anything, even though I went against my #1 rule and bought sd cards from eBay

64gb Sandisk Extreme [#SDSDXPA-064G] which is on Tascam's approved card list! Anyone else using these?
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/824149-REG/SanDisk_SDSDXPA_064G_A75_Extreme_Pro_64GB_SDHC_SDXC.html

http://www.adorama.com/idsdsdxpa64g.html

If the old 70d fills up my NEW 64gb PNY Elite card flawlessly with 2 channels@24/96, then I'll try 4 channels@24/96 with the NEW 64gb card in my OLD 70d I'll definitely report back my results! And please LMK if anyone else is using those 64gb Sandisk Extreme Pro[#SDSDXPA-064G] sd cards successfully!!! I don't REALLY need a 64gb SD card immediately if the new PNY doesn't work out[I'm PRAYING that it does though!!!], because I have [1] 64gb PNY High Performance 50MB/s Class 10 UHS-1 sd card and [1] 64gb PNY Elite 50MB/s Class 10 UHS-I/3 sd card! At a festie, that's 45 hours with the two cards recording 4 channels@24/44.1! I haven't needed more storage space than that in a LONG time at a festie! But like I said, I'm PRAYING that my new 64gb PNY keeps working out flawlessly in my old 70d! I'll keep everyone posted!!

EDIT: I updated the firmware on my newest 70d straight from v1.01>v1.13! I wasn't supposed to do it sequentially, in order from v1.01>v1.02>v1.10>v1.11>v1.12>v1.13, was I?

[F.O.Bean]

Well, that does it, the new 64gb PNY Elite card that I got from eBay keeps giving me a "Write Timeout" on BOTH of my 70d's I don't know if its because its from eBay or what? If the deck is just super picky about cards? I'll keep running my 32gb PNY High that I ran last night successfully in my new 70d, and see if its the cards or the deck! I don't want to try another PNY card, or ANYTHING that ISN'T on Tascam's approved card list from now on with my new 70d Looks like I'm getting one of those Sandisk 64gb Extreme Pro [#SDSDXPA-064G] cards whenever I get the $$ Anyone else using those 64gb Sandisk Extreme cards I posted links of above, flawlessly with 4 channels@24/96

TIA,
Bean

[jbell]

I use a PNY 64gb Elite without any problems!!  You might have bought a fake of ebay.  I ran 4 channels last Friday haven't finished the show, but should be up by the end of the weekend.  I ran Schoeps MK41's> KCY> 60V PFA > 70d and SBD > 70d. 

Well, that does it, the new 64gb PNY Elite card that I got from eBay keeps giving me a "Write Timeout" on BOTH of my 70d's I don't know if its because its from eBay or what? If the deck is just super picky about cards? I'll keep running my 32gb PNY High that I ran last night successfully in my new 70d, and see if its the cards or the deck! I don't want to try another PNY card, or ANYTHING that ISN'T on Tascam's approved card list from now on with my new 70d Looks like I'm getting one of those Sandisk 64gb Extreme Pro [#SDSDXPA-064G] cards whenever I get the $$ Anyone else using those 64gb Sandisk Extreme cards I posted links of above, flawlessly with 4 channels@24/96

TIA,
Bean

[voltronic]

The tests you used are really just good for checking capacity only.  EDIT: I misspoke a bit: The H2WTest utility will report speed rating, but is not going to benchmark with multiple tests like Crystal will - see below.  Many fake cards on eBay and Amazon marketplace are not the advertised capacity, and that's all those tests are designed to reveal.  If you're getting write timeouts, then the card you got still may be an iffy card that is the correct capacity but not the advertised speed.  Such a card would still pass both of those tests.  I would never buy a card from eBay; too many bad ones out there.  Only buy direct from major sellers.

To really compare the cards better, format both cards with the SD Association Formatter (with the Full Overwrite option), then run Crystal Disk Mark on both of the cards and compare the results.  That will start both cards on a clean slate so to speak with the SD formatter, and Crystal will benchmark the read/write rates.  If they are in fact the same card, the results should be pretty close, and the new card should even be slightly better.  If the new card is significantly worse, then you got ripped off.

Note that the test I'm describing is NOT a good test to see if a card is going to work well in this or any other recorder.  Audio recording is writing multiple files to the card as simultaneous continuous streams, something very different than what the advertised speed rating is based on and also different what these benchmarking utilities are testing, so you can't assume a higher rated card is going to be good and a lower rated one is going to be bad.  That's what recommended media lists are for.  If you look at the SD Cards Performance and Testing thread, you'll see where I did a test as described above on two of my cards.  The old Transcend card gets absolutely annihilated by the new Sandisk on paper, yet that same Transcend is 100% reliable with 4 channels at 24/96 in the 70D.

[F.O.Bean]

Yeah, like I said, the lock mechanism on ALL of my verified PNY cards are yellow, as the picture on the eBay sellers page. Well, the sd card I got has a white/clear lock mechanism! At first, I thought nothing of it, however, now I think I got ripped off The eBay seller had a TON of Positive feedback for the same PNY cards, so that's why I went through with the deal! I sent them a message and told them the deal, and how the lock mechanism is a diff color! Hopefully I get a refund and can buy a VERIFIED PNY card on Amazon!

Still not sure if I should try another PNY card[$25], or just get the Sandisk SDSDXPA-064G 64gb Extreme Pro[$45] on Tascam's approved list There's a $20 difference! After spending thousands on gear, I'll probably splurge and get the Sandisk Extreme Pro Like I said above, I already have [1] 64gb and [1] 32gb PNY cards that are working great in my new 70d so far[knock on wood], so that's still 45 hours with 4 channels@24/44.1 at a festie! That's a typical festie for me these days, whether its 3-4 days long! So Im not in a huge rush, although as always, the quicker the better

Good news is, it doesn't seem to be the Tascam 70D

[F.O.Bean]

Oh and Volt, I have Crystal Disk and every other program you posted recently, but when I tried to use Crystal Disk 5, I didn't know WTF to do? What settings? It confuses the crap outta me lol I see I hit the "start" on the top left column, but Im unsure what settings to do? Also, how long does it takew to complete each card wityh Crystal Disk 5?

Sorry for all of the Q's! I REALLY appreciate all of your help, and everyone else letting me know their PNY Elite cards work just fine!

What confuses me about the eBay sale, is that the seller had a TON of positive feedback for the exact same card I did go against my #1 rule and bought storage media off of eBay, so its my own damn fault! I would've just bought from the exact same seller on Amazon that I used last year, but FN Amazon doesn't accpet PayPal, so I figured "What the hell?" I think I got burned! I'm at least getting a refund or I'll cause some trouble with eBay/PayPal!

Still unsure if I should buy the same 64gb PNY card from Amazon like I did last year, or another trusted site? Or if I should just cough up the extra $20 and get the "Approved" 64gb Sandisk Extreme Pro[#SDSDXPA-064G]

[voltronic]

OK, I misspoke a bit - H2Test will check speed, but not in a very thorough way.  Crystal is a drive benchmarking tool that does several different read/write tests and gives you more information.  Here's how I use it:

Test count of 5, size 1GB, and then choose the target drive.  Hit the ALL button on the top-left.  It should take no more than 5-10 minutes.  If you raise those settings to higher numbers, all it's going to do is test the same thing more times and over a larger area of the card, respectively but I don't think either is necessary for what we're doing here.

When it finishes the tests in both columns, go to File > Save and this will generate a text file with detailed results.  Then do the same thing with your other card, and compare the results side by side to see what you get.

Running the SD Association Formatter with Full Overwrite first on both cards really is essential though, because it's the only way you know that the entire card is being formatted correctly.  The 70D's internal formatting may have been suspect in earlier firmware may have been suspect, according to what the latest update notes say.  And the one time I did have a Write Timeout, it borked the entire filesystem on the card and I believe even damaged the partitions, such that it would not even be recognized in the 70D at all until I did the SD Formatter in my PC.

[F.O.Bean]

Volt, thanks for all of the info! Unfortunately, I cant get Crystal Disk to go past the "Seq Q32T1" Write speeds It does all 4 of the Read columns on the left, but after it finishes the "Seq Q32T1" on the "Write" side, it just freezes my PC like nothing else I'm thinking that maybe my SD card reader is so outdated that it isn't able to write fast enough to register in the tests Is that a possibility?

And Ive had CD 5 on "random" AND "0x0 Fill" and no matter WHAT I DO, it freezes  my PC Even put the test count to 1 and the test size down to 100MB

TIA,
Bean

[voltronic]

Volt, thanks for all of the info! Unfortunately, I cant get Crystal Disk to go past the "Seq Q32T1" Write speeds It does all 4 of the Read columns on the left, but after it finishes the "Seq Q32T1" on the "Write" side, it just freezes my PC like nothing else I'm thinking that maybe my SD card reader is so outdated that it isn't able to write fast enough to register in the tests Is that a possibility?

And Ive had CD 5 on "random" AND "0x0 Fill" and no matter WHAT I DO, it freezes  my PC Even put the test count to 1 and the test size down to 100MB

TIA,
Bean

Same behavior on your known good card, or is this only on your new / suspect card?  Either way, if you did a format first like I described, then I'm not sure why it's hanging on the write tests.  I suppose it's possible that you SD reader is to blame.  I have 3 of them, and if I don't use the newer one I get much slower speeds reading and writing using the same card (just anecdotally what I notice through regular use; not tested with Crystal or any other software).

[2manyrocks]

Sounds very much like Bean needs to return that card to the seller for a refund if that is an option. 

[noahbickart]

Bean:

I don't know why you're insisting on tempting fate. Use one of the approved cards from Tascam's list!!!

[pohaku]

Just the rush of living dangerously by using an unapproved card!