Video Import/breakout box for Tiger, FCP 5 on a G4?

[Kevin Monahan]

The RT Mac is ancient history. Look into getting a BlackMagic or Kona card.

Kevin Monahan
Author – Motion Graphics and Effects in Final Cut Pro
fcpworld.com

[Shane Ross]

Try the Aurora Pipe Pro. I just won one and apparently it has a bunch of realtime stuff.

https://www.auroravideosys.com/products/avFam_pipestudio.php

[Bret Williams]

Most the fx on the matrox are supported in real time, out the firewire, with simply the computer processor now. This has been for about 2.5 years. That’s why matrox stopped development.

For a second monitor, most the stock cards in a G4 and all the cards for a G5 support 2 monitors.

All the cards you’re probably looking at that you don’t think have the feature set are enormously better than the matrox. They operate in component and sdi, instead of svideo. They support uncompressed video instead of DV. They are scaleable to the processor as to how powerful they are, instead of locked into a particular feature set.

If you’re only looking to do analog to DV with real time effects, your money would best be spent on upgrading your computer. A new or used G5 will render enormously faster, and will support all the real time effects the matrox does (much more actually) and the effects will be sent out firewire to your deck and therefore to your monitor.

Your G4 is still worth 4 or 5 hundred bucks. Ebay it, and put that money toward a new or used G5. I assume you must have a camera or deck and drives since you’re already operating, so the new cpu is all you need. It will cost you about the same as a new card. But with the new aja or decklink cards you’re going to need new drives since they operate uncompressed. You may want to go there later, but you’ll need a G5 to really get the most out of them as well.

Step one. Get a dual G5.

[Walter Biscardi]

[Shane Ross] “Try the Aurora Pipe Pro. I just won one and apparently it has a bunch of realtime stuff.”

No, not really. The RT is from Final Cut Pro and fast harddrives, not the Pipe. I have a Pipe Pro here and it does support desktop preview out to the NTSC monitor, but to my knowledge it does not add any additional realtime support for FCP.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Creative Genius, Biscardi Creative Media
https://www.biscardicreative.com

Now in Production, “The Rough Cut,” https://www.theroughcutmovie.com

Now editing “Good Eats” in HD for the Food Network

“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters

G5 Dual 2.0, AJA Kona 2, Medea FCR2X

[Walter Biscardi]

[prr4828] “What’s your solution for analog in/out with 2nd monitor support? There lots of capture cards on the market, but I can’t find one that really matches the RTMac’s feature set.

What do you use for analog import/export? Does it support a second monitor and NTSC video out?”

You don’t need second monitor support as your G4 already supports this with it’s own graphics card. Simply connect a second monitor directly to the graphics card.

With an older model G4 I would recommend you go with something like the AJA Io LA. This is an Analog Only external box which gives you DV to Uncompressed SD down a firewire cable. The beauty of this is that when you do move to a G5 in the future, you can install something like the Kona 2 to give you Digital SD and HD I/O and continue to use the LA for analog I/O.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Creative Genius, Biscardi Creative Media
https://www.biscardicreative.com

Now in Production, “The Rough Cut,” https://www.theroughcutmovie.com

Now editing “Good Eats” in HD for the Food Network

“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters

G5 Dual 2.0, AJA Kona 2, Medea FCR2X

[Shane Ross]

Color me corrected.

I guess I was too giddy and got carried away. Of coures RT effects are tied to the processor speed. Always.

It is late…was late…early…whathaveyou.