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Pro (first build) and matrox rtx.10 reliability
I’ve been struggling on and off with the first build (june of ’03) of Premiere Pro on my 2.4 ghz P4 with a matrox rtx.10 card (shipped with 6.5 – crashy)since I had the system built to matrox specs, and installed pro.
Every minor project became a major technical troubleshooting issue to get even the most basic functionality, and overcome mnf’r misdirections regarding the orginal installation – always with assurances from matrox that the problems would be surmounted but never did I have sufficient time to work out the bugs so disproportionate was troubleshooting (time and delays) required for any progress. (5:1 troubleshooting to working hours for days and weeks, over the years.) So it remained barely functioning until now when, trusting matrox’s assertions that it can work as promised givensufficient effort to debug it, I have (perhaps unadvisedly) embarked on a major project (for a client) involving many hundreds of logged clips.
It hasn’t gone well. The worst problems are capture-related, but there I fear there may be others I can’t even get to yet.
This system was set up to be the computer I use for everything, including animation and the net and Autocad and Graphic Design, but the (premium $) specs served the matrox system. I eventually heard that serving these other purposes wasn’t optimum, but I did not expect that it would obstruct basic usability of this NLE system. In an effort to get it to finally work I’ve recently decanted everything non-NLE-essential off of it onto a laptop and am reinstalling windows , and intend to test this system out with only the Matrox ware and Premiere and maybe my 2d animation / FX programme (Mirage) installed.
Any suggestions about functional and versatility limitations and possiblities with this set up? With many dollars tied up in it I can’t justify junking it – I want to get it running and use it as intended but I”m concerned that basic initial problems compounded with possible accumulated OS-update conflicts could spell a death knell for something that’s never even been alive. And I have to produce. Matrox is stil offering some form of support for me and may recognize that I’ve had more than my share of problems, but it’s all been crazy-making and I have grave concerns about this system’s ability to produce.
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7 Replies
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This issue might be resolved more quickly in the Matrox forum.
https://forums.creativecow.net/forum/matroxvideosystemsMatrox tech post there occasionally. Although don’t discount
the bugs found in PPro CS2 and 3, and the fact that you’re
running the card on a single core machine.That said, folks like the The Bandito Bros swear by their
Matrox/AJA/PPro HD suites.D.
x-gf.com
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Hi David,
I’ve been a Matrox RT.X100 user since it came out (I realize you have the X10, basically the same card) and have had only minor occasional hiccups. I have many, many friends and associates also using the hardware that swear by it and love it, so as a whole, the product is not defective. If I understand your post correctly, you are still using PPro 1.0, right? With each new driver release and update, Matrox products have gotten more stability (along with Premiere Pro getting better/bug fixed). Technology marches on, and I would guess that PPro 2.0 and newer Matrox drivers may have improved your situation with Matrox immensely (last supported release).
Most issues of the type you are having are resolved through tech support or the Matrox forums that I particpate heavily in. I can’t believe you have suffered for 5 years with these issues without getting some resolution. Being hardware based, NLE cards can be more fussy than software only, there are many area that can conflict and often times, something little can make life miserable, I know that.
If you make your living with video, of course you need something reliable. Might be time to move on and modernize, as the RT.X10 has been out of production for more than a few years.
I now use the RT.X2 and it is very solid and reliable with CS3.
Jeff Pulera
Digital Vision Productions -
Thanks for the comments – I’m in worse trouble, now. This morning Matrox remotely installed PPro and Matrox tools on a clean windows sp3 install and it still won’t capture without major crashing. They seem unsure if rolling back to sp2 would resolve it. It’s a difficult situation, with many clips already captured in matrox mode.
Maybe it’ll work without matrox installed at all, and I can import the matrox clips (via import>project) into an adobe project to start working that way. I’ve got to get something going. Thanks again for the comments. It’s a bad situation.
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Hi David,
I feel your pain, I jumped on the NLE bandwagon in the mid-90s, one of those brave (foolish?) “early adopter” guys so I understand the frustration.
If you choose to work in Adobe alone, which may be a good idea at this juncture, you should be able to use the Matrox DV clips as the Matrox codec is resident in the system.
Good luck
Jeff
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Problems continue, even on a reinstall of windows and an upgrade to the reputedly most stable (on this system) version of PPro (1.5.1). Everything else appears to work, but batch capture and automated capture is hit and miss, mostly miss. In addition, my backup aplication (Acronis TRuimage) won’t recognize my drives properly as part of its initialization. This has come and gone as a problem in the past – we thought we’d beaten it with a BIOS upgade and SP3. Not so. Not being able to backup jeopardizes progress even in Adobe mode, and suggests other problems – drive recognition problems which could reflect transfer rates and that could be behind the capture issues too.
The machine’s in the shop now, but I’m not convinced they’re absolutely knowledgable. I’ve been asking around and have assembled the following possibilities for problems with batch capture (and/or drive recognition at backup), and I welcome any thoughts.
1) Firewire-to-camera unreliability?: A salesman at a pro shop here told me that his AVID tech said batch-capture over firewire (ie between camera and computer – not talking about firewire hard drives) wouldn’t work consistently because firewire “isn’t frame accurate.” He believes a deck is necessary for batch capture from DV tape.
2) Faulty RAM: He said he’s heard of faulty RAM causing batch capture issues.
3) Transfer Rate problems: I wonder if a problem getting data onto the drives is screwing up batch capture progress as well as causing backup utilities to have trouble recognizing the drives. This could point to a problem with the motherboard, the drive cables, the drivers, the boot assignments, or some combination.
4) RTX conflicting with system drive recognition: The Acronis drive recognition troubles were gone on a pure installation, but recurred after the RTX card was installed. There have been many times when I sense the machine is recognizing the rtx card as if it were a drive on the system. Maybe this confuses Acronis, and maybe it confuses the system when seeking the destination for batch captures.
5) Slot 5 problem? The card was orginally spece’d for slot 1 only on my motherboard, but it overheated against the display card there – so after few years slot 5 became the recommended slot
Maybe slot 5 is a mistake after all and encurrs problem 4.6) Firewire conection to camera? Even on my XL2, that little connection is wiggly and weak. I have it held in place with a cable holder, but maybe it’s a problem or has become one. It looks like a point of vulnerability.
7) Camera time code problem? Could the camera be generating inconsistent time code, even with pre-striping
8) Power issues? (I’m stretching but I’m desperate with less than a few days now to do what requires three weeks to do properly.) I live in a reconditioned antique building and there’s a bit too much on the circuit my computer gear shares. Though the computer’s power supply is more than sufficient to power the drives in the box, Maybe there just isn’t alwyas enough power getting to the power supply.
Thanks for any more suggestions. It’s a labyrinth of possibilities, but I haven’t any choice. I’m well into the Red Zone.
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Thankyou all for your comments.
The big lingering problem (Batch Capture Failure) has been solved.
It turns out that Project>settings>Capture>DeviceControlSettings isn’t the complete list of settings one would have every reason to think it is. There’s also Edit>Preferences>Device Control>Devices>Matrox1394DeviceControl>Options> where Drop-Frame or Non-Drop frame is set separately for the Matrox Device Control as opposed to setting that for the entire project. Changed that setting and that appears to have fixed Batch Capture.
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thanks asmigo
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