Top 10 Reasons to Buy Matrox MXO2 Mini – Not Intensity Pro
 

Top 10 Reasons to Buy Matrox MXO2 Mini – Not Intensity Pro

The folks at Matrox put this excellent comparison list together. It's on their website as a pdf
http://www.matrox.com/video/media/pd..._intensity.pdf
I figured it would make good reading here.

1. Matrox MXO2 Mini is a portable box that works with PC and Mac laptops and desktops – Intensity Pro is a card that works only in desktops.

2. Matrox MXO2 Mini is a sleek, professional breakout box – Intensity Pro comes with a messy fan-out cable
and there is no breakout box option.

3. Matrox MXO2 Mini supports eight tracks of embedded audio through HDMI so you can monitor up to 7.1 surround sound – Intensity Pro supports only two tracks.
4. Matrox MXO2 Mini provides high-quality 10-bit HDMI input and output – Intensity Pro provides 8-bit HDMI input and output.

5. Matrox MXO2 Mini features a 10-bit hardware scaling engine that works on capture and play out to let you perform realtime HD to SD downscaling, SD to HD upscaling, and 720 to 1080 and 1080 to 720 cross conversion – Intensity Pro does not provide upscaling from SD to 720 and cross conversion from 1080 to 720.

6. Matrox MXO2 Mini supports RGB as well as YUV output via HDMI and component for compatibility with a wider range of monitors – Intensity Pro provides only YUV output.

7. Matrox MXO2 Mini lets you output HD and SD simultaneously – with Intensity Pro you have to choose one or the other.

8. Matrox MXO2 Mini turns your HDMI screen into a professional-grade video monitor with Matrox’s unique color calibration tool. Controls for hue, chroma, contrast, brightness, and blue-only are provided. You get accurate color representation so that you can use your HDMI monitor even for color grading – Intensity Pro does not have a calibration tool.

9. Matrox MXO2 Mini is backed by a three-year hardware warranty – Intensity Pro comes with a one-year warranty.

10. On the PC, Matrox MXO2 Mini lets you capture to the highly-efficient Matrox MPEG-2 I-frame codec at adjustable date rates up to 300 Mbps to optimize quality and storage usage – Intensity Pro uses an older M-JPEG codec that is limited to 128 Mbps and is not user adjustable.

11. On the PC, Matrox MXO2 Mini provides WYSIWYG support for a wide variety of applications including Autodesk 3ds Max and Combustion, NewTek LightWave 3D, and Eyeon Fusion (32-bit versions) – Intensity Pro does not provides WYSIWYG support for these applications.

12. A version of Matrox MXO2 Mini is available with Matrox MAX technology for faster than realtime H.264 HD file creation – Intensity Pro does not offer this important benefit.

Gary
Videoguys.com - Search for "mxo2mini"

Now that this is shipping will we see a dedicated area here on DVinfo for discussion??

I'd sure like to know how its working out for everyone...

can this run off of a battery??

I'll look into the battery question for you. comes with ac adapter.

I'd love to see an HD hardware section. For discussions on Matrox, Aja, Blackmagic etc.

Gary

I wonder if this is the reason the Intensity Pro dropped down from $349 to $199.

It is. When Black Magic found out about the MXO2 Mini at NAB they immediately reacted and dumped the price on the Intensity Pro. I guess they realized the MXO2Mini was twice as good!

Gary

I could ask this over in the Cineform area but I'd like to keep it here...

The question is...

I know Cineform has the box and they are working on a Cineform capture solution...
any one heard how they are doing and when it might be available...

If I can get battery support for out in the field with a laptop and Cineform.. I'm on board.

I also have a question that could be asked in the CF area, but will ask it here:

For direct capture from the HDMI port of our V1's, why would we want MPEG compression and THEN conversion to CF for editing? (like MX02 mini)

One of the benefits of HDMI is capturing before MPEG compression takes place and converting directly to CF. (like Intensity Pro)

This is important to us, as we do lots of chromakey work and MPEG compression makes a mess of that.

Gary,does the unit do a file conversion? Can it convert a HDV file to SD MPEG2 for DVD authoring? I do not mean output from the connectors just within the PC, convert one file format to the other in high quality. A high quality conversion is not that easy to accomplish without edge effects and motion artifacts that takes a long time with just software.

Ron Evans

file conversion. The MAX technology gives you accelerated H.264 encoding. the MXO2 Mini is simply I/O and cross conversion, not format conversion.

Gary

Does it have SDI ?
 

I would like to use the JVC HM 700 to ingest into my laptop using SDI is this possible

Doug

You are thinking of the MXO2. Mini is HD Component and HDMI.

-C

I believe MAX technology is a waste of money when Elgato Turbo.264 HD exists for half the price.

-C

The Elgato is a cool little device, but it's a consumer grade encoder. The Matrox MAX technology is for professional apps. Not just more powerful, but integrates with Apple compressor or Adobe encoder and offers you a full range of settings and options.

Gary

Gary,
Do you have any idea whether the surround audio outputs over hdmi can be addressed separately? I was wondering if the mini could act as an alternative to the Motu V4 interface with Digital Performer, for final soundtrack mixdown/foley etc. It would be great to have a one box solution to this that doesn't cost the earth. Cheers

Adrian: I think that goes beyond the abilities of the mini. I know MAtrox is monitoring this thread, so if I'm wrong, someone will let me know or jump in.

Gary