Thanks Gary, I thought this would be a nice little extra if it was possible and would eliminate the need for separate audio I/O for this task. Realtime cross conversion and capture at this price is pretty attractive to say the least, add h.264 acceleration and it really looks like a must for me.

Does anyone know where I can download a short clip recorded on a PC in the I-frame only MPEG2 mode of the MX02 mini? I'd like to test it out its files with some various NLEs before I commit to buying it.

Thanks,
John

John,

The RTX2 already uses this for analog HD capture for Premiere. No complaints about the quality. I don;t think Matrox MPEG2 HD works in any other NLE besides Premiere.

Gary

Gary,

I understand the the MX02 mini is only fully integrated into Premiere on the PC side. I have and use Premiere CS4, Avid Media Composer v3.5 and Vegas v9 and I much prefer Vegas. I'd like to see if Vegas can handle the MX02's I-frame-only MPEG2 files.

John

IF the codec is on the PC maybe Vegas and Edius will use and work with Matrox MPEG. I too am interested but would want it to work with Edius or Vegas or preferably both.

Ron Evans

If it wasn't for my concern that I would be buying into a proprietary codec/wrapper, my order would already be in.
This thread illustrates some of the problems:

Matrox MXO User Forum :: View topic - MXO2 Mini and Matrox HDV

Given how video is often archived, a codec/wrapper/format without an assured long, long lifetime is simply a no-go for me.

Why is this solution better than AJA's IO Express? I know the MXO2 mini is cheaper, but, the IO Express has HD-SDI I/O.

Edit: AJA seems to exclusively be a MAC shop, the IO Express records to Apples Prores codec. But, There is a decoder available for Prores on the PC, and, hopefully the Cineform DI can also be ported to the IO Express.

I can certainly understand your concern. We have good news on the Cineform front. Things are moving forward nicely and we hope to have an official announcement from Matrox & Cineform shortly.

Things not going as smooth with Sony. There is work to be done to make Vegas & Mini compatible. Not sure Sony has the resources available at the current time.

Gary

Thanks for the reference, I didn't know about the IO Express, only the IO HD.
I'll bet I'm not the only one.

When I went to AJA's website and looked around, they mention PC support - and that's it. No details. They do mention the codecs that are supported only on the Mac. I didn't find anything about the ones supported on the PC or even minimum PC system requirements. The documentation is still overwhelmingly Apple/Mac centric. And the same Final Cut/Premiere Pro bias.

** Is this user selectable, or does the Mini automatically decide?


** Reasoning to my previous question above....to utilize the HP Dreamcolor LP2480zx monitor, the monitor needs to be fed a RGB progressive signal (in order to take full advantage of all the benefits the monitor provides) which would be great if the Mini truly did this!!


** Is this the only option to capture to? Can one capture the camera's native codec? What about the Mac side? Can one capture using ProRes / ProRes HQ?


** This is cool...but I'm a bit confused; does one need the CompressHD card to do this....or is MAX built into the Mini?

I have not tested Mini with dreamcast monitor, but I do know of folks successfully using the MXO2 HDMI output with it.

MXO2 Mini is available witht he MAX option integrated into it for $849. So you don;t need the seperate compressHD card.

MAtrox MPEG-2 capture is for Premeire. Capture into Cineform is on the way. The MXO2 Mini captures directly into ProRes in real time on a quad core Mac

Gary

Don´t want to rain on the parade, but Intensity captures uncompressed.
I take that every day over any codec.

Also Intensity can be connected to a laptop via card slot.

In case you have to be independend of AC power....

But usualy, with all the lights and whatnot at a set, one more cable for a small PC doesn´t matter.

My ct 2

Frank

Of course the MXO2 Mini captures uncompressed. I was answering specific questions about the compression options.

As for portability and versatility, MXO2 mini wins hands down. It's an I/O box, that attaches via Express Card for Laptops or PCIe card for desktop. It comes with your choice, but for $100 more you can get both! Now just move the box between your laptop and desktop!

Gary

Gary - Thanks for the replies...much appreciate it!! Right to the point, exactly what I needed to know.

Do you have these in stock...(with the MAX option)?

MXO2 mini and Mini Max are selling strong and we've got more units rolling to us from Matrox.

Not sure if we still have stock today, but more coming Mon or Tues

Gary