I just recieve a Matrox RT.X2 installed it, and edited my first wedding with it. I must say going from software only to the X2 is night and day difference. I was blown away by the quality of the slow motion and color correction. I had done half of a wedding with the software , then the other half once I recieved the card. I ended up having to redo the whole thing because there was such a noticable difference in quality. I was under the impression it was just a hardware accelerator, but I was wrong. Just thought I should share.

Hi there Steve,

Have you got any snippets of the footage you can put on the internet? Would like to see this...

When you use the Matrox boards you were probably also using the Matrox Codec, when running software only you use the microsoft codec.

What format were you capturing in?

Cheers,

Steve,

Thanks for your post, I am looking at the Matrox RT.X2 and if it is worth the money. See thread http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=87088

Your comments help me lots, so it was worth the money to you? How is the slow-mo compared to PP alone? Did you look at Cineform Aspect HD at all? It seems to have similar benefits as RT.X2 but it is software only and I think bigger files. On the plus side Aspect HD is about $500 compared to $1700 for the RT.x2.

Thanks for yours, or anybody else’s thoughts on this.

Jeff

Steve,

Thanks for your post, I am looking at the Matrox RT.X2 and if it is worth the money. See thread http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=87088

Your comments help me lots, so it was worth the money to you? How is the slow-mo compared to PP alone? Did you look at Cineform Aspect HD at all? It seems to have similar benefits as RT.X2 but it is software only and I think bigger files. On the plus side Aspect HD is about $500 compared to $1700 for the RT.x2.

Thanks for yours, or anybody else’s thoughts on this.

Jeff

Hi Jeff,

I havent used the Cineform Aspect HD so I cant really comment on it. But I have used the PP software only for a while now. Since I mainly do weddings slow motion is very important to me. Slow-mo in PP software only is sketchy at best below 50% in my experience, its expecially noticable in pans. Ive slowed down different types of clips with the Matrox to 20-25% and the quality is very good, I was really excited about it.

I made my choice for the Matrox because I got the bundle with the Production Studio so I can use the Dynamic link between it and AE7 ect. it works great and saves me alot of time. Plus I have the real-time effects,color correction without having to render, and the DVI Monitor out to my samsung gives me full resolution HD/SD on my second monitor.

P.S. I rendered to DVD a 58 minute wedding ceremony with my software only using the Main concept encoder built in with 7mb CBR and it took 19 hrs on a Athlon 64 FX-57 2.88mhz with 2 gig of ram.

I then rendered to DVD the same 58 minute ceremony with my new Core 2 Duo 2.66mhz and Matrox w/ 2gig ram. It rendered in 32 minutes now thats a time saver for me. Matrox touts on their website better than real time encoding for DV and realtime encoding for HDV.

Hi there Steve,

Have you got any snippets of the footage you can put on the internet? Would like to see this...

When you use the Matrox boards you were probably also using the Matrox Codec, when running software only you use the microsoft codec.

What format were you capturing in?

Cheers,


Hi Ed,

I will try to put together some samples of what I was talking about as soon as I get some free time in a few days.

I was capturing in DV, Im waiting for my HV20 to arrive via B&H so I can get some HDV editing time in. I believe I am about to buy the Canon A1 also and switch from my VX2000, low light was my main concern but from what Ive read here it seems to be comparable in low light so we will see.

Take care,

Steve

P.S. I rendered to DVD a 58 minute wedding ceremony with my software only using the Main concept encoder built in with 7mb CBR and it took 19 hrs on a Athlon 64 FX-57 2.88mhz with 2 gig of ram.

I then rendered to DVD the same 58 minute ceremony with my new Core 2 Duo 2.66mhz and Matrox w/ 2gig ram. It rendered in 32 minutes now thats a time saver for me. Matrox touts on their website better than real time encoding for DV and realtime encoding for HDV.


Wow, that is a big time savings! Thanks for the feedback on the slow-mo, it is good to hear that Matrox has good slow-mo. Decisions, decision!

Is it me or is it odd that Matrox doesn't show any of their own Video Cards as suitable candidates for the RT.X2? I have their APVe and I've pulled it out of my system as it's sluggish in performance when compared to the NVidia Quadro 1400 the system shipped with, but to not review any of your own cards is sending a really odd message.


See here:
http://matrox.com/video/support/rtx2/rec/display/home.cfm

From what I understand Matrox quit trying to compete in the Massive GPU game and devoted all their resources to the niche market of specialty cards.

The RT.X2 really needs the raw GPU power of the new nvidia and ati cards for most of its accelerated and realtime effects.

The question is, are these effects accelerated by Matrox or GPU?? What does RT.X2 really DO if it NEEDS such a powerful system, which is more than capable of editing HDV itself?

19hrs to render mpg2?
i'll look over and respond when i get a chance, but 19hrs?
With mainconcept, i render at 1.5x realtime.. which is actually faster than realtime..

The question is, are these effects accelerated by Matrox or GPU?? What does RT.X2 really DO if it NEEDS such a powerful system, which is more than capable of editing HDV itself?

Good question, you can probably find your answers at the Matrox website as far as the technicial details. I think it harnesses the power of the GPU to assist in all the real time functions. (faster the more powerful your GPU)


19hrs to render mpg2?
i'll look over and respond when i get a chance, but 19hrs?
With mainconcept, i render at 1.5x realtime.. which is actually faster than realtime..

I know what you mean, I was shocked. However it was probably due to some fault of my own. I upgraded my computer at the same time I bought my Matrox card to a Core 2 Duo with seperate HDD's for scratch and capture that were set properly. So I do attribute some of that time to improper scratch disk setup, I no longer have that computer to test my theory with it set properly.

Regards

I also have the RTX2 and have been mixing HD and SD footage. I just completed my first all HD project with captures from two Canon A1 camcorders. The editing including using color corrections (to correct lighting differences due to different angles on spotlight lit subjects) was all in realtime, no rendering. The mixed project was 3 video tracks 2 SD one HD and four audio. Only a couple spots were red, but played.

The output of an earlier project using the HD timeline then exporting SD mpg at 4.5 VBR 2 pass encoding from the time line took real time.

I have not exported to tape yet, but will with this 2hr 10 min project. I am splitting it into 4 pieces though as I found that if I had to make a change, it is nicer to only have to reencode 1 shorter one, not 1 really long one.

I will be archiving this one to tape when I get done, so I will let you know how that goes.

I have run into a roadblock, the Canon XL H1 is listed as not supported for HD back to tape. It appears the same problem is true for my Canon XH A1.

So I did a test of exporting an mpg2 1080i at 15 Mbps 1920x1080 and a 10+ minute video was .5GB. So I could archive the video on Blu-ray. Converting the HD back to a video to edit on Matrox takes 2x the length of the video 1hr = 2hr conversion. Once converted it edits in RT.

Bill

Thanks for the Info Bill, I just recieved my XH A1 Friday so I havent been able to play with it yet and the RT.X2. any pointers and advice is appreciated.

P.S. I also have a HV20 arriving Monday.

Steve

Steve (or anybody else),

Can you check if you can export to tape on the HV20. I am looking into buying an A1 and the HV20 with the RT.X2, but I would really like to export to tape for archiving. It sound like the RT.X2 will not export to the A1 so I am really hoping it will export to the HV20, so I can archive that way.

Patiently waiting on what you find out.

thanks
jeff

I Went to Adobe site and found note saying that for Canon XL H1 it will not export HD to tape. since the A1 is based on a lot of the same chips, I would expect the same problem -- Adobe problem, but Matrox has been good about finding fixes, they might do so for this -- otherwise I will need a camcorder to go back to tape. My workaround right now is to export a mpg2 HD 1920 x 1080 file. Earlier test doing a small clip looked real good. The 1 hr event we shot is taking 8 hrs to convert. However the file will also be ready for HD viewing via VLS software player and others and is a file format for Blu-ray.

The conversion process to go to tape is not fast either -- another person speculated that is because it will have to rebuild all the GOPs. Adobe engine is used and is not accelerated, as other things are with Matrox. I really like both my camcorder and matrox.

Bill in Ohio

The RT.X2 will save you a tremendous amount of time. While you can edit HDV footage with Premiere Pro 2 alone (or with Cineform), the added productivety and features of the RT.X2 make it worth every penny.

Adobe just announces CS3 today! That means anyone who buys an RT.X2 today forward gets a FREE upgrade to Premiere Pro CS3 (when it ships) - which includes Encore DVD CS3 w/ Blu-Ray authroing and OnLOcation (formerly Seious Magic DV Rack). If you order one of our RT.X2 and Adobe Production Studio bundles, you get a FREE upgrade to the new CS3 Production Premium when it ships.

http://www.videoguys.com/adobe.htm
http://www.videoguys.com/rtx2.html

Gary

Steve (or anybody else),

Can you check if you can export to tape on the HV20. I am looking into buying an A1 and the HV20 with the RT.X2, but I would really like to export to tape for archiving. It sound like the RT.X2 will not export to the A1 so I am really hoping it will export to the HV20, so I can archive that way.

Patiently waiting on what you find out.

thanks
jeff


Jeff,

Just got this from Matrox on compatibility with Canon 24F and 30F. To answer your question Matrox does recognize the HV20 and XH A1 but the only mode you can capture in right now is 60i 1080.

http://www.matrox.com/video/press/releases/rtx2_30.cfm

This is the press release dated March 27th on the upcoming 3.0 RT.X2 Software update.

Take care.

Steve

Jeff and Steve:

I use the Matrox RTX2 tools v 2.0 and I just did two projects capturing in 1080 60i. The presets for capturing 24p are a download from Adobe for PP2.

I have not tried them yet.

The issue is not with Matrox on the export. Whether you have Matrox or not, Adobe (PP2) says they do not currently support export to tape to the Canon XL H1 and apparently the A1 or G1 as these use most of the same chips etc.

So if the HV20 will let me get an export out of PP2, then I kill two birds with one stone by getting a HV20 -- third HD camcorder to use as last ditch camera in a wedding (set to cover the main area of concern) and as my HD deck/export to camcorder.

All I need now is someone else to confirm the HV20 accepts export to tape from PP2.

Bill In Ohio

The RT.X2 will save you a tremendous amount of time. While you can edit HDV footage with Premiere Pro 2 alone (or with Cineform), the added productivety and features of the RT.X2 make it worth every penny.

Adobe just announces CS3 today! That means anyone who buys an RT.X2 today forward gets a FREE upgrade to Premiere Pro CS3 (when it ships) - which includes Encore DVD CS3 w/ Blu-Ray authroing and OnLOcation (formerly Seious Magic DV Rack). If you order one of our RT.X2 and Adobe Production Studio bundles, you get a FREE upgrade to the new CS3 Production Premium when it ships.

http://www.videoguys.com/adobe.htm
http://www.videoguys.com/rtx2.html

Gary


Great! (sigh) Thanks for the heads up Gary, I ordered my $2199 RT.X2 from you guys about 3 weeks ago. I guess im out of luck =(

Jeff and Steve:

I use the Matrox RTX2 tools v 2.0 and I just did two projects capturing in 1080 60i. The presets for capturing 24p are a download from Adobe for PP2.

I have not tried them yet.

The issue is not with Matrox on the export. Whether you have Matrox or not, Adobe (PP2) says they do not currently support export to tape to the Canon XL H1 and apparently the A1 or G1 as these use most of the same chips etc.

So if the HV20 will let me get an export out of PP2, then I kill two birds with one stone by getting a HV20 -- third HD camcorder to use as last ditch camera in a wedding (set to cover the main area of concern) and as my HD deck/export to camcorder.

All I need now is someone else to confirm the HV20 accepts export to tape from PP2.

Bill In Ohio

Bill Im going to check it out now, im putting together a small project to see if I can export it to the HV20. I will let you know how it goes.

Steve

EDIT: I can now confirm that Export to tape works with the HV20! I captured a 60i 1080 hdv clip, added it to my timeline and exported to tape. It transcoded to HDV then exported it back to my HDV tape, then just for good measure I re-imported it back from tape with no problems.

Take care,

Steve

Great! (sigh) Thanks for the heads up Gary, I ordered my $2199 RT.X2 from you guys about 3 weeks ago. I guess im out of luck =(

Never say never with Videoguys. Give me a call in the morning and I'll review your options. We're not going to leave ya stranded!

Gary

Thank you very much Gary. I will call you in the morning, and by the way I love the RT.X2, with CS3 they added the XH-A1 24 and 30F mode support as you probably know, so I am very stoked!

Call you tomorrow and thanks again.

Steve

Never say never with Videoguys. Give me a call in the morning and I'll review your options. We're not going to leave ya stranded!

Gary


Just wanted to tell you thank you again Gary, everyone at Videoguys was very helpful. Im glad I purchased my RT.X2 from you, saved me $799 upgrade fee and that means alot to me.

Take care,

Steve

The Matrox RT.X2 Quick Installation Guide states:
''In order to preview full-resolution HDV video, your DVI monitor must support a display resolution of at least 1920 x 1200.''
Does this mean that HDV video can be viewed - but at less than full resolution - or that HDV video can not be viewed at all without a 1920 x 1200 display resolving video monitor ?

The Matrox RT.X2 Quick Installation Guide states:
''In order to preview full-resolution HDV video, your DVI monitor must support a display resolution of at least 1920 x 1200.''
Does this mean that HDV video can be viewed - but at less than full resolution - or that HDV video can not be viewed at all without a 1920 x 1200 display resolving video monitor ?

Good Question, I dont know the exact answer I went to Matrox Website and purchased one of the Recommended Monitors so there would be no question. I ended up getting the 23" Samsung. I love it, it has multiple inputs so My other computer uses it as its main monitor and when I edit, I just switch imputs and its my HD output monitor on my editing suite.

You might ask Gary from Videoguys or post a msg on the Matrox forums to answer your tech question.

Steve

Mike

The answer to your question is whether you hook up a computer monitor to the DVI output, or you hook up a HD TV or monitor with component cables.

If you use a computer monitor thru DVI, then it needs to have a resolution of at least 1920 x 1200 or it will not display

http://www.matrox.com/video/support/rtx2/rec/dvi_monitor.cfm

If on the other hand you use Component cables as I did to a $300 HD TV (1400 x 800 I think) I I got it at Meijers grocery store (weird huh) on sale at Christmas. It display from the Matrox just fine - I would assume even better if it were true 1080 display.

Bill in Ohio

Hi Bill,

Thanks a lot - just what I wanted to know. However the possibility of finding an HD TV anywhere in England at anywhere near that price is zero !

Cheers,

Mike (in Yorkshire)