Which editing card to choose for a several uses? at DVinfo.net

Yaakov Shoval · April 12th, 2009, 08:46 AM

Hey all :)
I want a recommendation for editing card that will work with Premiere , Avid (Common but very meticulous with the hardware right?), Vegas etc...

I'd good experience with some Matrox (RT.X 100 I think) and premiere 2.0,Wedding in most of the cases and this will be serious part of the uses.

Thanks in advance.

Yaakov.

Harm Millaard · April 13th, 2009, 05:59 AM

The best capture card with all those NLE's is a 1394a card or use the one on the mobo.
Matrox I would definitely advise against.

Yaakov Shoval · April 14th, 2009, 08:56 AM

Capturing and editing suppose be separated cards (?).
Capture cards is suppose to be cheap compared to editing card so I'll take care of it later.

Premiere with Matrox on PC crashes (too?) many times.What's about the Blackmagic cards?

Andrew Smith · April 14th, 2009, 05:16 PM

If you are getting crashes with Premiere and a Matrox card such as the X.100, then you are most likely to have a sub-optimal hardware setup. Don't blame Matrox for this.

I put together my X.100 editing box from the list of hardware components that were tested and approved by Matrox. The end result? Rock solid real-time editing. Can't recommend them highly enough.

Andrew

Mike McCarthy · April 14th, 2009, 05:55 PM

What do you want the card to do? Are you capturing SDI? Fullscreen playback to an LCD? CPUs have advanced to the point where hardware accelerators are rarely of value. Matrox's acceleration is obselete, and only really useful as an I/O card. For an I/O card, the question is which compression format would you like to use? Matrox uses MPEG, BMD uses MJPEG, AJA can be used with Cineform, Avid's Mojo uses DNXHD, etc.

Blackmagic and AJA are both supported in Premiere and I believe in Vegas as well. Avid only supports their own dedicated hardware, in the Mojo DX and Nitris DX. As noted before, I/O is the only real reason to need a card at this point, but what kind of I/O do you need? Are you capturing from decks, or shooting tapeless? AJA and BMD support dual link RGB, Matrox and Avid do not. They all support 10bit color at a certain level. You just need to figure out what your requirements are.

Andrew Smith · April 16th, 2009, 02:48 AM

I wouldn't call Matrox's acceleration cards obsolete at all. Especially if you prefer to have your video monitor always operating at 100% resolution (compared to a Premiere-degraded computer screen display) and/or a time lag between what you do and what you eventually see (for those previewing through a firewire connection to their camera or deck).

Matrox (speaking in the case of the X.2 card which would be of most relevence here for HD video) will not only capture in Mpeg2 format (MPEG-2 4:2:2 I-frame up to 50MB/sec), but the native DV and HDV codecs as well.

Then there's the incredibly valuable feature where you can save thousands of dollars by using a regular DVI connected LCD screen as your video monitor, complete with the tools to calibrate it to perfection.

Stack 6 layers of HD video in a timeline with individual colour corrections and other filters applied and tell me that a software only solution does it for you.

Even if you only use it to save dollars on othewise purchasing a professional LCD video monitor, the Matrox-enhanced workflow is far from obsolete.

Yaakov Shoval · April 21st, 2009, 04:29 AM

Hey Andrew Smith,
The prevailing opinion in my area the Matrox + Preimeire + Windows = Crashes,good to hear that is wrong.

Hey Mike McCarthy,
The source videos will be received from photographers (tapes) in most of the cases,
The main use is to receive tapes and to return disks that the costumer can watch.

Multicam is very important (ABroll).
Sorry for the not detailed answer,I don't have the knowledge to explain myself better.

Thanks again.

Steve Oakley · May 2nd, 2009, 09:31 PM

Matrox cards work fine IF you have properly spec'd hardware. if you don't, YMMV. The acceleration that MAtrox cards do for Premiere is a big big help. once you use one, you'll not want to go back to anything less.

Avid ONLY uses Avid hardware, period. Only FW I/O is their generic interface.

April 12th, 2009, 08:46 AM	#1
Yaakov Shoval Tourist Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: Israel Posts: 3	Which editing card to choose for a several uses? Hey all :) I want a recommendation for editing card that will work with Premiere , Avid (Common but very meticulous with the hardware right?), Vegas etc... I'd good experience with some Matrox (RT.X 100 I think) and premiere 2.0,Wedding in most of the cases and this will be serious part of the uses. Thanks in advance. Yaakov.

April 14th, 2009, 05:55 PM	#5
Mike McCarthy Major Player Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Northern California Posts: 517	What do you want the card to do? Are you capturing SDI? Fullscreen playback to an LCD? CPUs have advanced to the point where hardware accelerators are rarely of value. Matrox's acceleration is obselete, and only really useful as an I/O card. For an I/O card, the question is which compression format would you like to use? Matrox uses MPEG, BMD uses MJPEG, AJA can be used with Cineform, Avid's Mojo uses DNXHD, etc. Blackmagic and AJA are both supported in Premiere and I believe in Vegas as well. Avid only supports their own dedicated hardware, in the Mojo DX and Nitris DX. As noted before, I/O is the only real reason to need a card at this point, but what kind of I/O do you need? Are you capturing from decks, or shooting tapeless? AJA and BMD support dual link RGB, Matrox and Avid do not. They all support 10bit color at a certain level. You just need to figure out what your requirements are. __________________ For more information on these topics, check out my tech website at www.hd4pc.com

April 13th, 2009, 05:59 AM	#2
Harm Millaard Trustee Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Rotterdam, Netherlands Posts: 1,832	The best capture card with all those NLE's is a 1394a card or use the one on the mobo. Matrox I would definitely advise against.

April 14th, 2009, 08:56 AM	#3
Yaakov Shoval Tourist Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: Israel Posts: 3	Capturing and editing suppose be separated cards (?). Capture cards is suppose to be cheap compared to editing card so I'll take care of it later. Premiere with Matrox on PC crashes (too?) many times.What's about the Blackmagic cards?

April 14th, 2009, 05:16 PM	#4
Andrew Smith Equal Opportunity Offender Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: Brisbane, Australia Posts: 3,065	If you are getting crashes with Premiere and a Matrox card such as the X.100, then you are most likely to have a sub-optimal hardware setup. Don't blame Matrox for this. I put together my X.100 editing box from the list of hardware components that were tested and approved by Matrox. The end result? Rock solid real-time editing. Can't recommend them highly enough. Andrew

April 16th, 2009, 02:48 AM	#6
Andrew Smith Equal Opportunity Offender Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: Brisbane, Australia Posts: 3,065	I wouldn't call Matrox's acceleration cards obsolete at all. Especially if you prefer to have your video monitor always operating at 100% resolution (compared to a Premiere-degraded computer screen display) and/or a time lag between what you do and what you eventually see (for those previewing through a firewire connection to their camera or deck). Matrox (speaking in the case of the X.2 card which would be of most relevence here for HD video) will not only capture in Mpeg2 format (MPEG-2 4:2:2 I-frame up to 50MB/sec), but the native DV and HDV codecs as well. Then there's the incredibly valuable feature where you can save thousands of dollars by using a regular DVI connected LCD screen as your video monitor, complete with the tools to calibrate it to perfection. Stack 6 layers of HD video in a timeline with individual colour corrections and other filters applied and tell me that a software only solution does it for you. Even if you only use it to save dollars on othewise purchasing a professional LCD video monitor, the Matrox-enhanced workflow is far from obsolete.

April 21st, 2009, 04:29 AM	#7
Yaakov Shoval Tourist Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: Israel Posts: 3	Hey Andrew Smith, The prevailing opinion in my area the Matrox + Preimeire + Windows = Crashes,good to hear that is wrong. Hey Mike McCarthy, The source videos will be received from photographers (tapes) in most of the cases, The main use is to receive tapes and to return disks that the costumer can watch. Multicam is very important (ABroll). Sorry for the not detailed answer,I don't have the knowledge to explain myself better. Thanks again.

May 2nd, 2009, 09:31 PM	#8
Steve Oakley Trustee Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: United States Posts: 1,158	Matrox cards work fine IF you have properly spec'd hardware. if you don't, YMMV. The acceleration that MAtrox cards do for Premiere is a big big help. once you use one, you'll not want to go back to anything less. Avid ONLY uses Avid hardware, period. Only FW I/O is their generic interface.