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Matrox Announces Matrox RT.X2 Professional Realtime Native HDV and DV Editing Platform
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Dave,
[Dave Friend] “The show-stopper for me is the lack of 24p or HDV 720p support.”
Me too! But then you knew that. (g)
Ron Shook
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Steve,
many of us do not have any need for HD, so having a card which has component, composite, yc, firewire IO as well as a scaleable compression codec which is better at best Q setting than DV quality, is GREAT news.
$2000 is well worth it IMO. I will almost certainly buy it as my first hardware card for Premier Pro v2.
till later
Mark.
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I too have been patiently waiting for new options. Canopus has stranded my storm!
As interesting as this looks, it seems a little on the rich side, compared to options from, say, Blackmagic.
As for HD. Anybody who says” I have no need for HD “….get with the program! You may not need it now, but If your
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[Brett_Howe] “As interesting as this looks, it seems a little on the rich side, compared to options from, say, Blackmagic.”
Hummm…I don’t know what Blackmagic hardware you are refering too!
Cause all of their HD cards have no analog inputs capabilities. You have to get the multibridge to get the analog I/O and HD support. That starts at $2500.
Or get a couple of converters to stick outside one of their SDI only cards but that is just messy. Not to mention the fact that in the end it would not be that much cheaper if at all!
Maybe I missed something. But the RT.X2 also gives you several codecs and realtime effects on top of that. It’s sounds like an AXIO for the masses. The price is in the ballpark of a Canopus, a bit cheaper actually and with analog component IN & OUT. So I can use it with beta decks today.
The really neat thing I find is that the RT.X2 let’s you connect a DVI monitor directly for HD monitoring. So no need to buy a HDLINK external converter or an expansive HD monitor. So it sounds like they really did the homework on HDV editing.
That is why it’s so weird it does not support 720P. I plan on asking what’s up with that!?
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brett, you problably know what your needs are, but dont assume to know what other’s needs are.
if, in two years, my current clients start wanting HD (unlikely) the money made from this card would have be an a tiny and worthwhile investment. In the meantime, computers will be faster, cheaper, and companies like decklink will offer a product that I would consider, ie one with a scaleable codec to capture and output.
Mark.
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Wow…I’m feeling hostility. Just my opinion guys, of which I stated. Nothing wrong with a bit of healthy debate.
As for analogue on the blackmagic, DeckLink HD Pro PCIe
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There’s nothing wrong with healthy debate Brett, but hostility can sometimes happen when you tell people to get with “THE” programme… it disrespects those who have different needs from yours.
I have been slowly moving from Discreet Edit to Premier Pro, but have only used PP when it’s a DV project since I have had no hardware to input anything else. Most of our projects are Component analogue, but I do not need (or want) uncompressed video. Having a good quality compressed codec to capture component for use with PP is exactly what I was looking for. I would prefer it if it had 50kbs MPEG for SD and was 720p capable, just in case some client needed that, but at this point, none have asked for HD and 25mbs is ok.
I see this card as a baby axio, and if and when work warrants an HD purchase, the full axio would work well as the finishing station while the rtx2 would be good as the “offline editing” station.
Mark.
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My question is what happens if you put a non-native formatted clip on the timeline (such as Quicktime with the animation codec). Will it use the PC CPU to decode as fast as it can, and show something out the Matrox card … or will it show nothing (even during scubbing) until rendered?
Thanks,
Robert -
No, it will show the video, and play it back in real time if your CPU is powerful enough. If not, it will play with dropped frames until you render.
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Brett,
[Brett Howe] “Wow…I’m feeling hostility. Just my opinion guys, of which I stated. Nothing wrong with a bit of healthy debate.”
OK, Let’s debate:
[Brett Howe] “At the end of the day, I’m a tight arse 🙂 I want to spend less and get more. This option doesn’t rock my boat. Then again, after the lack of storm support, I may just be jaded!”
I don’t understand? You wax lyrical about SDI I/O which is going the way of the dinosaurs along with the $20-100k decks that utilize it, as we move to an IT, file based workflow paradym. Yet you gripe about being left out in the cold by a $2k item that you’ve gotten years of service from. Canopus has to find their way into the new paradym and they won’t do it by devoting limited resources to someone else’s software, when their own software fills most bills. I assume your Storm paid for its piddling cost long ago. If it didn’t, then you have little use for increased capabilities until you can make use of what you already have.
While I’d like to see Matrox cut their RTx2/Axio prices by at least 25% to build market share, even at the current pricing these products give the best best price/performace on a PC in the industry, IMO. You aren’t just purchasing a hardware board from Matrox like you would if you were buying a Decklink, so you can’t use just the purchase price to analyze the value. The Matrox boards give you some hardware accelleration, connectivity, and particularly software enhancements to PPro and FX that aren’t even in the ballpark when it comes to Decklink.
Purchase the Decklink, then, oh oh, gotta purchase PPro. Then, oh oh, gotta purchase Ultra Magic to do excellent chroma keys(the Matrox intelligent keying is the best combo of quality and speed in the industry and PPro natively doesn’t do a good job). Then, oh oh, gotta buy a $10k array to do uncompressed HD (Matrox gives you visually lossless HD compression with $2-3k arrays.) Then, oh oh, my secondary color correction is hard to work with and takes forever (again Matrox CC is significantly superior to what’s in PPro.) Then, oh oh, I can’t control how audio is captured into the system (Matrox adds this functionality to PPro.) Then, oh oh, my Decklink doesn’t do a thing for me in editing HDV (Matrox does.) Then, oh oh, I can’t deal with DVCPro50/HD or any MXF file natively (Axio has handled DVCPro from the get-go and is about to deliver MXF native capability for Sony and Panasonic codecs, none of which Decklink w/PPro can do.)
With a little research I could probably go on and on. The point I’m making is that initial cost is only a small part of the value to the craft editor. Decklink is starting to look a lot more expensive or Matrox a lot less expensive, if you’re doing craft editing. As relatively dumb I/O cards for the AE artist, 3D animator, or broadcast ingest station, Decklink is the boss, but for craft editing the Decklink cards don’t come close to the Matrox products. This is why the Matrox products are worth what they are asking. You just have to decide which of the products meets your needs. If you’re editing just for fun, you don’t need any of them.
[Brett Howe] “I do appreciate that there is plenty of Analogue gear still in use, but we are talking about moving forward.”
No, most of us are talking about making a living. Move forward at your own peril of moving before it’s time.
Ron Shook
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