Very slow transfer speeds w-Blackmagic URSA Cine 12k LF

Greetings,

We have had our new Blackmagic URSA Cine 12k LF camera for about a week now and we are struggling to get the video files transfered off of the camera and onto our Macbook Pro M2 laptop in the field. BMD recommended that we purchase an OWC Thunderbolt 10g Ethernet Adapter and said they had been successfully using it in the lab. When I called in to the BMD camera support line (USA) no one seems to know how to help me get the video files transfered off of our camera and onto out laptop.

We can connect via the BMD Camera 9.01 sw but the transfer speeds through the USB port used to connect the camera app are so slow we could make a multi-hour drive back to the edit suite faster than we could transfer the 20 min 12k 8:1 video clips.

This is not workable! We are out here trying to make a living with these tools and they have always rocked in the past. HELP WILL BE GREATLY APPRECIATED!

Rip Noel
Noel Studios, Inc.

OKAY, thanks to another support call I have quickly gotten to the bottom of the issue. If you plug the Ursa Cine 12K LF into the camera control software via the USB port those ports are running extremely slowly right now. If you connect the camera via the 10G ethernet, then what was taking four hours to transfer, transfers in about 10 minutes, which is completely acceptable.

Please also note, for example, when connecting directly to your laptop via a direct 10g ethernet connection (unless your entire network is 10g) you need to make sure you set this direct connection up on a completely separate IP address range than your LAN address.

Thanks again BMD!

Glad you got that scary issue sorted out!

Just chiming in that BMD needs to release a Thunderbolt 3 single-drive dock for on set data management, pronto. I understand what they're going for with the 8TB media, 4U rack mount hardware, and the wireless/ethernet support in camera, but that kind of setup is only realistic for certain kinds of production styles and environments. It's honestly shocking to me that both a smaller, single-module reader and the CFExpress Type B module weren't ready on Day One, because this kind of approach seems both more complicated and more risky than the approach that every other vendor on the market is taking right now.

Thanks Rick!

And ALex, I agree completely! We are actually used to Thunderbolt 4 speeds here in our studio and although we are now having to live with BMD's 10g speeds. Once you are used to 40g speeds it feels like you are crawling, especially now that we are shooting 12k, not to mention when the 17k gets here. This is especially true when you are in the field like we are almost all the time!

I do somewhat understand BMD's commitment to building the entire infrastructure but with these massive files getting transfers handled 4x faster seems to make the most sense. I do hope that they have planned for this in some future firmware updates!

Rip Noel

Am I missing a step? When I plug the camera in through ethernet it is not recognized in the Black Magic Camera app like USB-C is.

The Blackmagic Camera app is for phones, Adam.

I think he means the "Blackmagic Camera Setup" app.

Yes my mistake. The camera setup app.

Just chiming in that BMD needs to release a Thunderbolt 3 single-drive dock for on set data management, pronto. I understand what they're going for with the 8TB media, 4U rack mount hardware, and the wireless/ethernet support in camera, but that kind of setup is only realistic for certain kinds of production styles and environments. It's honestly shocking to me that both a smaller, single-module reader and the CFExpress Type B module weren't ready on Day One, because this kind of approach seems both more complicated and more risky than the approach that every other vendor on the market is taking right now.

I totally agree. Does anyone at Blackmagic have an ETA for the CF express module or a single slot reader for the 8TB media? I can’t fathom taking this camera on a job, much less buying it, until one or both of these are released.

Does anyone know if you can record to an external ssd like a samsung t7? I cant seem to get it to work.

10Ge is faster.

If it’s slow then you’re not on 10G.

I’ve been using it on set for a couple of jobs now and it’s fast. Faster than the Arriraw shots downloading. Fast enough that you could edit from the 3 bank dock.

Yes they should do a single dock. Yes they have talked about CFe versions. It should be coming.
JB

Does anyone know if you can record to an external ssd like a samsung t7? I cant seem to get it to work.

I believe the 12K Ursa Cine doesn't support writing to USB media; just the internal module and—eventually—the CFExpress module.

Faster than the Arriraw shots downloading.

Even with the HDE bottleneck there's no way anyone is getting faster transfer speeds from 10Gb Ethernet than a TB3 CODEX mag reader, c'mon now.

I've clocked one of the USB-C ports on my Cine LF at 36.7 MB/s.

(It's the port on the right side rear, as per p. 184 of the manual. The other two USB-C don't connect at all to the computer, and I've ensured that I'm using TB3 rated cables that accommodate USB-C.)

USB-C should handle at least 10x that bandwidth in real-world situations as a backup to 10g.

:/

I'm fine with using the 10g ethernet, but it's extra gear and heat that I don't appreciate taking on every job for transferring dailies. I would like to be able to use the USB-C port at expected transfer speeds.

OKAY, thanks to another support call I have quickly gotten to the bottom of the issue. If you plug the Ursa Cine 12K LF into the camera control software via the USB port those ports are running extremely slowly right now. If you connect the camera via the 10G ethernet, then what was taking four hours to transfer, transfers in about 10 minutes, which is completely acceptable.

Please also note, for example, when connecting directly to your laptop via a direct 10g ethernet connection (unless your entire network is 10g) you need to make sure you set this direct connection up on a completely separate IP address range than your LAN address.

Thanks again BMD!

What kind of transfer speeds are you getting?