Courtesy of a loyalty upgrade that Matrox were good enough to offer for a second time, I upgraded to the MXO2 with Max and saved $500USD.

BTW, always get your MXO2 with the Max option (http://www.matrox.com/video/en/products/pc/max/). For the money you spend you're crazy not to.

The nicest part of the unboxing was discovering that the full MXO2 product came with both PC and laptop adapters. (I had been regretting not adding a laptop adapter at the last minute before putting the order through, knowing that it would cost me almost $200 (including freight) here in Australia to get one.) Pic 4 is where I spotted two small boxes, opening them up for pic 5. It was a very happy moment.

Lastly in pic 8, a very shiny "main item" .....

Andrew

For those with eagle eyes, the American power lead won't fit our power sockets over here. Just don't know why you guys refuse to conform. ;-) Yes, we toss them away and grab an Aussie IEC type (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEC_60320#C13.2FC14_coupler) power lead from somewhere else (but not the coffee kettle ... for that would have consequences).

So yes, the silver anti-static bag glides off in a supernatural act of gracefulness. The tone of the room transforms in a moment of splendour as the MXO2 is revealed. One encoder/converter/breakout box to rule them all, yada yada etc. My precious (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gk4Ntcq5uNg).

On a side note, grab the carry bag when you are ordering. For $26 it's a no-brainer. At the time of purchase I was thinking it was merely a natty carry bag for an MXO2, but it looks like it's also meant to have the space to carry a laptop and associated cables with it. When fully stocked, you can pick up your camera bag and the MXO2 bag, and you're ready to go in to the field and shoot, rough edit, and FTP the .h264 compressed footage back to base via the internet. Far cheaper than a satellite truck.

Andrew

Glad to hear your excitement about the MXO2.

Matrox has announced that the Thunderbolt adapters will start shipping later this month!

Gary