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- DP-32SD
As far as I can tell, it is not possible to get a 64gb SDXC card to work in a DP Portastudios. With SDHC cards starting to be phased out, it is desirable to see if we can somehow use SDXC cards in a DP Portastudio when SDHC cards can no longer be readily purchased.
Here, I failed to get a 64gb card to work in a DP-32SD Portastudio.
What the Wikipedia has to say
Older versions of the Wikipedia have this to say about SDXC compatibility with a SDHC host:
[Attribution: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SD_card using https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.ph...=405599197#SDHC_and_SDXC_compatibility_issues emphasis mine]
In the 3.0 specification, the electronic interface of SDHC and SDXC cards is the same. This means that SDHC hosts which have drivers which recognize the newly used capability bits, and have operating system software which understands the exFAT filesystem, are compatible with SDXC cards. The decision to label cards with a capacity greater than 32GB as SDXC and to use a different filesystem is due solely to the limitations in creating larger filesystems in certain versions of Microsoft Windows. Other operating systems, such as Linux, make no distinction between SDHC and SDXC cards, as long as the card contains a compatible filesystem.
SDHC hosts will only support the SDXC cards which use UHS104 speeds (UHS-II) SDHC hosts will not recognize the SDXC cards which use the faster (SD 4.0) (Reference: http://web.archive.org/web/20100225201246/http://www.dailytech.com/Toshiba Sampling First SDXC Flash Memory Cards/article16972.htm ), final specification of SDXC. Reference: http://www.sdcard.org/developers/tech/sdxc/using_sdxc which is now offline so use https://web.archive.org/web/20110817104152/https://www.sdcard.org/developers/tech/sdxc/using_sdxc/
What is needed for SDXC compatibility
Officially, one needs exFAT support to support SDXC cards. However, the problem with exFAT is that it requires expensive licensing from Microsoft to support, since the filesystem is patented until the mid 2020s. This is probably the main reason why the DP Portastudios haven’t added SDXC support with a firmware update; the SD consortium can charge more licensing fees for a device to be SDXC (instead of just SDHC) compatible.
The Fat32 filesystem which is not patent encumbered works just fine with a device up to two terabytes in size. (Yes, I have used a 128gb USB drive with my car stereo without problem by putting a Fat32 filesystem on it, even though the manual says the largest size supported is 32 gigabytes).
The main difference between SDHC and SDXC is support for the exFat filesystem. A 64gb SDXC card should be compatible should be compatible if we put a correctly formatted Fat32 filesystem on it.
There may be other issues; the DP Portastudios, for example, may not be able to recognize a bigger filesystem because their firmware may not recognize the capability bits beyond 32 gigabytes.
Why this matters
This matters because there may come a time when 32gb SDHC cards are no longer readily available. In anticipation of this happening, I am researching right now if there are ways to get a 64gb SDXC card to work inside a DP32-SD, even if we only use 32gb of the space.
Since SDXC cards are electrically the same as SDHC cards, my working theory is that a 64gb or larger SDXC card will work with a DP Portastudio as long as we put a 32gb filesystem on it.
The experiment
I made a disk image file of a freshly formatted 32gb SDHC card. I then copied this disk image to a 64gb SDXC card.
The results
Unfortunately, my DP32SD portastudio refused to read the card. Even though the 64gb card was formatted with a 32gb filesystem, the DP-32SD refused to recognize the card and reported “NO CARD”. My Windows 10 laptop recognized the card; indeed it reported 32gb of space and would only format it as a 32gb filesystem. I had to reformat the card in my digital camera to get it to be a card with 64gb of space again.
A thought
I believe that Tascam can make a firmware update to recognize SDXC cards; because of the thorny issues that the SD consortium requires licensing unnecessary exFAT patents to have official SDXC support, it may not be economically feasible for Tascam to do this. I contend that Tascam could have changed the firmware to treat cards with over 32gb of capacity as if they were 32gb cards, but they chose to not do this (probably because of the SD consortium licensing issues).
Stock up on 32gb cards
Since there does not appear to be a way to get 64gb or larger cards to work in a DP Portastudios, I suggest that users stock up on 32gb SDHC cards, while they are still readily available. I have already posted in another thread why I feel the best option, for people in the states, is to get 32GB SDHC cards from B&H.
Here, I failed to get a 64gb card to work in a DP-32SD Portastudio.
What the Wikipedia has to say
Older versions of the Wikipedia have this to say about SDXC compatibility with a SDHC host:
[Attribution: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SD_card using https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.ph...=405599197#SDHC_and_SDXC_compatibility_issues emphasis mine]
In the 3.0 specification, the electronic interface of SDHC and SDXC cards is the same. This means that SDHC hosts which have drivers which recognize the newly used capability bits, and have operating system software which understands the exFAT filesystem, are compatible with SDXC cards. The decision to label cards with a capacity greater than 32GB as SDXC and to use a different filesystem is due solely to the limitations in creating larger filesystems in certain versions of Microsoft Windows. Other operating systems, such as Linux, make no distinction between SDHC and SDXC cards, as long as the card contains a compatible filesystem.
SDHC hosts will only support the SDXC cards which use UHS104 speeds (UHS-II) SDHC hosts will not recognize the SDXC cards which use the faster (SD 4.0) (Reference: http://web.archive.org/web/20100225201246/http://www.dailytech.com/Toshiba Sampling First SDXC Flash Memory Cards/article16972.htm ), final specification of SDXC. Reference: http://www.sdcard.org/developers/tech/sdxc/using_sdxc which is now offline so use https://web.archive.org/web/20110817104152/https://www.sdcard.org/developers/tech/sdxc/using_sdxc/
What is needed for SDXC compatibility
Officially, one needs exFAT support to support SDXC cards. However, the problem with exFAT is that it requires expensive licensing from Microsoft to support, since the filesystem is patented until the mid 2020s. This is probably the main reason why the DP Portastudios haven’t added SDXC support with a firmware update; the SD consortium can charge more licensing fees for a device to be SDXC (instead of just SDHC) compatible.
The Fat32 filesystem which is not patent encumbered works just fine with a device up to two terabytes in size. (Yes, I have used a 128gb USB drive with my car stereo without problem by putting a Fat32 filesystem on it, even though the manual says the largest size supported is 32 gigabytes).
The main difference between SDHC and SDXC is support for the exFat filesystem. A 64gb SDXC card should be compatible should be compatible if we put a correctly formatted Fat32 filesystem on it.
There may be other issues; the DP Portastudios, for example, may not be able to recognize a bigger filesystem because their firmware may not recognize the capability bits beyond 32 gigabytes.
Why this matters
This matters because there may come a time when 32gb SDHC cards are no longer readily available. In anticipation of this happening, I am researching right now if there are ways to get a 64gb SDXC card to work inside a DP32-SD, even if we only use 32gb of the space.
Since SDXC cards are electrically the same as SDHC cards, my working theory is that a 64gb or larger SDXC card will work with a DP Portastudio as long as we put a 32gb filesystem on it.
The experiment
I made a disk image file of a freshly formatted 32gb SDHC card. I then copied this disk image to a 64gb SDXC card.
The results
Unfortunately, my DP32SD portastudio refused to read the card. Even though the 64gb card was formatted with a 32gb filesystem, the DP-32SD refused to recognize the card and reported “NO CARD”. My Windows 10 laptop recognized the card; indeed it reported 32gb of space and would only format it as a 32gb filesystem. I had to reformat the card in my digital camera to get it to be a card with 64gb of space again.
A thought
I believe that Tascam can make a firmware update to recognize SDXC cards; because of the thorny issues that the SD consortium requires licensing unnecessary exFAT patents to have official SDXC support, it may not be economically feasible for Tascam to do this. I contend that Tascam could have changed the firmware to treat cards with over 32gb of capacity as if they were 32gb cards, but they chose to not do this (probably because of the SD consortium licensing issues).
Stock up on 32gb cards
Since there does not appear to be a way to get 64gb or larger cards to work in a DP Portastudios, I suggest that users stock up on 32gb SDHC cards, while they are still readily available. I have already posted in another thread why I feel the best option, for people in the states, is to get 32GB SDHC cards from B&H.
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