Best I/O Card Oppinions

[Paul Del vecchio]

Depends on what you currently have. I’d say get the video card because most likely your processor is pretty good. A decent video card probably won’t do you much, especially if it’s not supported by the Mercury Playback Engine. Only 5 or so video cards are. I’d probably invest in the video card. But again, it depends on your processor specs.

Paul Del Vecchio – Director
https://www.triple-e-productions.net
https://www.pauldv.net

[Ty Yachaina]

Wow, that video makes me wish my bank account was a little larger (im sure we all do)

Defiently a prime investment, next question is…is the matrox RT.X2 just as good as buying a new video card and better processer?

It allows for awesome Real time effect, and seems a bit cheaper..

[Brian Louis]

[George Sey] “A basic firewire card works very good and previews REAL TIME with Edius”
I’m curious, what flavor of HD/HDV are you previewing over firewire? and what unit are you using to convert Firewire to HD viewing?

[Tim Kolb]

The Matrox products will usually accelerate certain effects and transitions…often they furnish them. The Mercury playback endgine accelerates all playback/preview and decodes on all formats.

The display card gives you the horsepower at preview time…when you’re editing and want to make a decision and see it, and keep working. Products from companies like Matrox, AJA, and BlackMagic handle input and output of video and audio as their primary role…something a display card doesn’t do.

I think most of us need both…

TimK,
Director, Consultant
Kolb Productions,

[George Sey]

I use the firewire on the same system with intensity so the intensity handles the HD. But HD is only 15% of my workload. All the previews in Edius HD or SD are via firewire. The production end up in all versions needed Blu-ray, DVD etc after I make various movie versions. I do more for TV and I send out in DV or Betacam SP. 90% of my outputs are via PPro. I like Edius because of the keying and also the titler and no crashes. It also plays most filters in realtime thro firewire. I might get the HD Storm if the need arises, But at the moment I make HD movies in Edius and finalise the output in whatever format is needed. Edius editing is a little bit slow (Maybe for me as I’ve use premiere 15yrs)
If the Mercury video card will stop the HD crashes

[Paul Del vecchio]

Hi Tim,

Yeah I agree with you 100%. We run an Axio LE here on our PC system and even though it’s pretty awesome how it accelerates stuff, it’s only for Matrox specific timelines. Mercury will accelerate everything, any timeline. It almost seems that instead of investing in an Axio LE, one should get a FX 4800 or 5800 AND an MXO2/LE/Mini (depending on their needs) and use both of those in tandem instead of just the Axio.

Paul Del Vecchio – Director
https://www.triple-e-productions.net
https://www.pauldv.net

[Brian Louis]

Edius Firewire into a dv to analog pass-through device is viable, if you have a converter, tying up a device like a camcorder or deck can be counter productive, also there is a chance of mishandling and blowing a port of the device, I would rather spend the money on a dedicated device like a HDspark or converter, major problem with GV stuff is that it is proprietary, which for win general software
was settled by CDC’s ruling.
[George Sey] “Edius editing is a little bit slow (Maybe for me as I’ve use premiere 15yrs)”
I find Edius fairly fast, its approach to workflow is a bit differnet but once caught on it goes fast

[George Sey]

Oh yes, the firewire killed all the firewire inputs of my decks and a DSR 170, and I do not have any deck control now. So I am now using an ADVC 100 that I got years ago. I am afraid that the Edius Spark or Storm will conflict with my Intensity Pro.
Let’s see what CS5 will do. I hope the plugin companies are ready too. We had to wait for months when CS4 came

[Brian Louis]

[George Sey] “I am afraid that the Edius Spark or Storm will conflict with my Intensity Pro.”
I have no problem running both the HDspark and Intensity Pro on one of my desktops, Its got a Gigabyte GA-E45C-DS3R Mobo, Nvidia 9600GT video, with Production Studio CS4 and Edius 5.5, haven’t had any conflicts yet, I had loaded Adobe first with Intensity and then Edius and HDspark, I added a Express card 54 card and occassionaly plug in a MX02 mini into the mess also with no problems, I just make sure the proper presets are selected and don’t run any adobe when GV stuff is running.