Kona 2 vs Axio

[Myron Lenenski]

I love it when I hear that someone has had a Matrox system since 1997 and it looks like “FCP is in my future”…..

So success does breed failure(by Matrox)? I guess your Digisuite cards sucked so bad that you’re still in business.

[Paul Harb]

mixed formats in the same timeline…..ohhh I dream of the day……please, pretty please….animation codec in RT with alphas in an uncompressed or DV or HDV timeline…..ohhhh think of it…..nice graphic renders…..

Paul

[Mike Schrengohst]

No they didn’t suck that bad. I was doing my due diligence. I am investigating every avenue. Matrox makes a good product. I have been stuck with an obsolete editing program (Speed Razor). Now it is time to upgrade to HD and I wanted to see the Matrox Axio in action before making a decision. The problem any small editing business has is perception & marketing. In my gut I know the Matrox Axio would put out fantastic video. The reality is I do not live on an island creating video for myself. Apple & FCP are accepted by the advertising and broadcast communities. If money were no object I would get an FCP set-up and the Axio. For now I will probably go with FCP because they seem to have robust support and a large user base. I still edit everyday with my DigiSuite SR system and will continue to. I have not upgraded the Win2000 system for 3 years and I am still making money with it. HD editing will be a different proposition as I will now need to compete with several established Avid and Apple/FCP editing companies. I just get tired of hearing Ad Agencies say they have never heard of Matrox or Speed Razor.

[Eric Jurgenson]

If you work with clients and are looking for real time HD functionality that exceeds Smoke on SGI or a DS Nitris at about 1/6 the price, you may want to consider Axio. For example, I can play back three layers of HD uncompressed 1080 24P video with a 3D DVE on one of the video tracks, CC on all video tracks; and two graphics tracks, each with DVE motion effect. All in real time.

The real time chroma key quality is remarkable, even on HDV material, and very easy to set up. This is great for virtual sets. I can even apply blur to the background (still real time) for DOF effects. This capability alone is worth the price of admission, but there is much more.

I can play back three HDV tracks (1080 30i) (with primary and secondary color correction and one 3D DVE) that are decoded on the fly from their native files, which saves a huge amount of disk space.

The Axio hardware utilizes FPGA chips that allow the hardware to be reconfigured and upgraded in the field, opening the door to more functionality in the future.

And I should add that it runs on a powerful platform (dual/dual core Opterons) that won’t be EOL in two years (I refer here to the Freescale Macs).

As for Premiere Pro, I don’t really feel that it’s holding me back. I used to edit on Discreet Edit, which I still regard fondly, but when you look at the whole Adobe package, and the level of integration therein, it’s very respectable. I have high hopes for the future.