All
Its now been a little over 5 weeks since I started testing the 4/4 firmware and I am glad to report, no issues since this new FW was loaded to both 2831 cams. As a reminder I tested initially with the Samsung Pro Endurance cards (first 3 weeks) and then most recently revisited the Toshiba Exceria M303’s & Evo Plus.
Long update incoming, brace yourselves !
It’s not all been plain sailing so as I’ve done a ton of testing on cards over the past few months I thought I would share some findings here. I know this is not an SD card thread so bare with me as I felt this was related to my initial topic.
1) First lets talk about the cam (2831), overall very stable on 4/4. I am seeing occasional reboots (potentially FW related) when they complete a time sync but this is not 100% consistent and occurs once every few weeks therefore won’t jump to any major conclusion there yet, more testing to do. Just something for all to be aware of if you are using custom settings as these will of course get reset on reboot.
NOW ONTO THE SD CARDS
2) Not all Micro SDXC cards are created equal. We all know there are UHS & V class standards but still there are some large differences/nuances in real-world use of these Micro SD’s especially when using in continuous recording environments. In my testing, the card that I will never use again in my cams is the
Samsung Evo Select. Having tested 8 of these in 128GB formats I can conclude that they fail in a number of ways and often. Specifically everything from corrupted cards to frame drops as the card cannot keep up (even when testing below 9k bitrates). Even though rated as UHS-3 (no Video class standard though) they just don’t fare well in high traffic/continuous recording situations in my testing.
3) Onto the
Samsung Pro Endurance which is a great card for the money (tested 4 of these in 128GB) and very reliable. Time will tell if the 43,800 hours (5 years continuous use warranty) holds up but so far so good. With that said the Endurance pro doesn’t come without compromises. For Example:
a) This is a UHS-1 card therefore rated with minimum speed of 10MB/s but remember that is bus speed. Samsung themselves state 100 MB/s read and 30 MB/s write. I’ve not seen it achieve this.
b) It cannot stand up to high, sustained bitrates very well. Specifically the card is rated (by Samsung) as up to 30mb/s (30KB/s) however in reality pushing these even to 15mb/s (15KB/s) from cams (not saying these high bitrates are needed but some may be using so wanted to cover) causes access & frame rate issues including dropped frames. Not as many issues as the Evo Select but you do see this and wanted to report it.
c) Its also worth pointing out that the Samsung Pro Endurance does NOT have a V (Video speed class standard/minimum advertised) therefore cannot categorically state that it meets the minimum sustained write requirements for a particular V class, such as V10 for minimum of 10Mb/s.
4) The Toshiba Exceria M303’s are great cards too and benefit from being both UHS-3 and V30 (minimum of 30mb/s sustained write for video). This shows when you push 10240, 15000, 20000 bitrates as these cards continue to keep up. While not an issue for most here, those that have custom settings set higher, want to use these cards in other video applications (GoPro Hero Black etc) OR as the industry starts to introduce more 4K security cams, this may be an issue.
5) Toshiba is launching a new Endurance variant (M303
E) any day now that should be a direct comparison to the Samsung. These are harder to come by in the US (as opposed to Europe) but I am going to try and get my hands on a few for testing. So the M303 may not be classed as Endurance rated BUT it does feature the same advertised protections (X-ray, static, waterproof etc) that the Samsung Pro Endurance does. I could not find any advertised longevity rating for the M303s BUT the new M303
E states 6000 hours which if true is woefully short of the Samsun Pro Endurance. With that said, the Toshiba’s also feature a 5 year warranty.
Overall both cards are very good and I now have a mix of the Endurance Pro and Exceria M303’s in all my cams.
SO what about the EVO Plus cards you might ask. Well for completeness I did test those as well. They are UHS3 based and SD class rating of 10 but NOT Video class rated. Due to this you do end up with a bit of a mixed spec card. Specifically the bus speed rated at UHS-3 is 30MB/s but the SD class rating being 10 therefore 10MB/s. In my testing this card fared well but for overall longevity (pushing them hard) I did see more issues (albeit still sporadic) with the Plus than I did the Pro Endurance. The Toshiba’s also fared as well as the Pro Endurance PLUS gave overall better sustained performance being both UHS-3 and V30 rated and did not see any issues on bitrate testing in the mid to high 20’s.
So for what it’s worth, here is my personal rating
- Samsung Pro Endurance (longevity and useful for most applications albeit may be limited in 4K sustained use)
- Toshiba Exceria M303 (speed no matter what you throw at it)
- Samsung Evo Plus (not bad card but in comparison to the other 2, saw more issues with this)
The new M303
E I mentioned looks to be a potentially great card (on paper and will wait to get one in my hands) BUT if it always features a much lower continuous recording lifetime rating then it will always play 2nd fiddle to the Samsung with its monstrous rating of 43,800 hours.
.......and again the card that in my opinion no one should use in the cams here…..Samsung Evo Select as it just doesn’t hold up well at all in my testing.
HTH
