Rsync copy speeds

[JC]

Have recently purchased a 1TB external hard drive for backing up my media, it appears that rsync is transferring relatively slowly, should it be comparatively slower than a copy and paste?

I've noticed it being slow and conducted a test with a 1gb video file.
Transferring from: Internal SATA II drive
Transferring to: External eSata drive

Copy and Paste: Transfer speed 53Mbs (is this decent?)
Rsync -av : "29818985.84 bytes/sec" that's just 2Mbs?

I'm relatively new to linux and not sure if I'm using the right tool for the job, is it to be expected that Rsync is dramatically slower?

Thanks

 

[JC]

Thanks I just used cp -av and will run rsyncs from now on to ensure that additional media files get backed up to the external drive.