VIdeoguys' RT2000 tech tips page We have sold a ton of RT2000 and the vast majority of our customers love it. What has been tricky is resolving compatibility issues. The RT2000 install is more complex then with other cards. This is caused by the fact that it is a 2 card installation and the 2 cards are connected directly together. We have seen some technical support issues that we feel can be avoided with some advanced knowledge.

Do these tips work? Just look what Kevin Goodwin posted on the Unofficial RT2000 board on 5/20/2000, 12:59 am

All I can say is thank you. After weeks of installing and reinstalling the RT2000 hardware and software, I finally used the tech tips and followed them verbatim from aclean install. My system has worked beautifully since I installed the last time (a week ago). Not a single booger or glitch, not a single page fault, not a singlereportable problem (except the ones I created myself). Thank You

We have put together this page with help from Matrox, Fred Wilharm of Mainstreet Productions and the other members of the Unofficial RT2000 users group, as well as our own tech support team. I am breaking this list down into several parts:

Danger signs to avoid before installing

Motherboards:
Your RT2000 is a 2 card solution that requires both cards to work together to process the real-time effects. As a result, the RT2000 depends on the motherboard giving it the resources and throughput to get the job done. Unfortunately not all motherboards are created equal. Newer BIOS updates and drivers will make this situation better, but for now we urge you to use an approved motherboard whenever possible. The Asus P3B-F motherboard seems to be the best choice for your RT2000. If you have a Matrox approved motherboard, you want to make sure that you have all the recommended driver upgrades or BIOS updates INSTALLED BEFORE you put the RT2000 hardware in the machine. Warning: Before you install any software for your bios/ motherboard, make 100% sure it is the right software for your exact model/version. Installing the wrong bios update/revision can really mess up your system.

Operating System
Make sure you are running Win98SE, it just makes things go better. Win2000 support is coming, but we think it will take a Service Pack release from Microsoft before we recommend Win2K for any of our products.

Sound Card issues:
Some sound cards are a pain in the neck. Your sound card should take only one IRQ. If it takes two, tame it to one or replace it. We recommend the Creative MP3+ card. We have had excellent results with it in many different systems. Make sure you disable the DOS emulator (legacy sound card) portion of your sound card BEFORE you install the RT2000. We have found that the cheap soundcards work smoother with rt2k. We have discovered issues with these sound cards:

1. SB 128 Pci soundcard, gives blue screens often during editing.
2. SB Live1024, if you use this soundcard please do not install the drivers from the CD at all, download drivers for this card from Creative's site and ONLY install this update.

Storage

1. Integrated Ultra66 controllers
   There are some driver issues with integrated Ultra66 controllers on variuos motherboards. The symptoms can be jittering on output, lack of video output, problems with DV capturing, and/or gray boxes with DV output. If you are running into any of these problems and you have a motherboard with integrated Ultra66, go to the motherboard vendors website and download the latest bios versions/ patches/ fixes.

2. Ultra66 PCI card
   We've seen problems with systems using a separate ultra66 controller card for all your EIDE drives. We've had much better results with an install using the motherboard EIDE controller for your boot drive. After the RT2000 is up and running, you can install an ultra66 controller and then just run your video storage on it.

3. Promise FastTrack66
   We have seen some issues with the FastTrack and the RT2000. If you are going to use a FastTrack, we advise you get it up and functioning before you install the RT2000. But, if you get into IRQ troubles later on, we suggest removing the FastTrack from your machine completely (hardware & software). Then try re-installing the RT2000. After the RT2000 is up and running, install the FastTrack again. If it knocks out your RT2000, you'll need to find a different storage solution.

20 steps to an easy RT2000 Install

20 steps to an easy RT 2000 installation: (Assuming your storage devices are ready-system drive, fast video drive(s), Promise FastTrack system already installed & configured if you have one).

1. Make sure you have the latest bios for your motherboard, even if it is brand new your bios could be outdated. Same applies to soundcard drivers, and drivers and bios for your Promise FastTrack card if applicable, or onboard ATA66 drivers.

2. The RT2000 needs to have a high AGP aperture setting. You change this setting in your system BIOS. 256 is ideal, 128 is also good. 64 will work, lower then 64 will be a problem. If you can't set your AGP to 256, you can download a fix from Matrox that does work for most of our users.

3. With the RT2000 it is very important that all power management is disabled in your computer. You must disable PM in both Windows and the BIOS. If you don't disable power management, you will find that your system will lock up whenever PM kicks in.

4. In 98, under disk properties, enable DMA for each A/V disk and interconnected CD or disk. If you don't have a checkbox for this, you need to make sure you have DMA drivers installed in your system. Some newer systems with Ultra66 controllers built on the motherboard install DMA automatically, so there is no checkbox.

5. Install Premiere 5.0 CD AND THEN the 5.1c update. The 5.1c update is found on the Matrox CD. Do not go any further until you have Premiere 5.1c installed. Install will stall if it does not find 5.1c. Note: If you have installed any other versions of Premiere on your system, make sure they are fully removed. The installer may detect this older version and stall your installation.

6. Remove the drivers for your current graphics card. Go into display properties > settings > advanced. > adapter >change. This will launch the Device Drive Wizard. Hit Next > Select Display a list of all drivers in a specific location > Next > Select show all hardware. Scroll up to (standard display types). Select Standard Display Adapter (VGA). Next > OK. Do NOT select to restart your machine. Go to Start and Shut down your computer.

7. Now that the machine has shut down, remove your existing video card and install the G400 display card in its AGP slot and connect your monitor and the ribbon cable.

8. Install the RT 2000 card, being sure it is firmly seated, in the next slot down from AGP (IRQ sharing with the G400 is normally OK). Connect the ribbon cable.

9. Connect the CD audio cable per manual. The connection is very critical. The cable that comes with the RT only works to hook up your CD Rom to the white RT2K INPUT. The cable that did run from your CD Rom to your soundcard is used to go from the BLACK OUTPUT of your RT2K to the BLACK INPUT of your soundcard. You must connect the BLACK connector of the RT2K to your soundcard's CD input jack. (or line input jack).

10. Connect the breakout box per manual and connect your DV device. BREAKOUT BOX MUST BE CONNECTED!

11. If you have a DV cam, have it powered up, in DV input mode and attached to the RT2000 via FireWire.

12. Turn on computer. New hardware will be detected. When Wizard detects display card, DO NOT check any boxes. Click Finish and restart.

13. When PCI Multimedia Device (RT2K) is detected, check CD ROM box, click finish and restart.

14. When 1394 Host detected, DO NOT check a box. Windows will ask for 98SE disk, insert it and let it copy files.

15. When prompted, insert Matrox CD and let it install Video Tools. Restart - your display will be automatically resized.

16. Benchmark tests will come up. Run the test on your A/V drives. If you do not get the "green flag", troubleshoot your storage system.

17. Go to Premiere, designate your video drives per the manual, install your presets and try a capture (WITHOUT enabling device control). Capture two clips, put them on the timeline with a transition, and watch the magic!

18. Now enable device control. If it works, congrats, you have done a successful install. If not, go to the Matrox site and download and install the "DVconnect310" patch. This setup file contains the new Texas Instruments DVConnect 1394 driver files version 3.1.0. These drivers resolve detection and control issues with some 1394 devices.

19. Go to the Matrox support site and install the SP-1 service pack and any other applicable patches. They will work wonders at clearing up problems.

20. Power down your system completely. Wait 30 seconds. Re-power up and go into Premiere. Make sure the RT2000 is still working great! We recommend this step because sometimes you will think you have a working system, but upon rebooting an IRQ conflict will result. If you are now running into problems, proceed to our tech tips section.

RT2000 tech tips to get up and running

1. If you experience any crashes or screen freezes during set up or using the RT2000, you probably have an IRQ conflict.
   Go to device manager and see what is sharing. If your system is working and stable, don't agonize over every shared IRQ - it's already proven that in many cases, an RT2K system can share some IRQ's without problems. This is especially true of the G400, RT2000 board and 1394 - supposedly they are able to share with each other OK (but not with other devices).

2. If the RT2000 has an IRQ conflicts with your sound card, Video storage controller, network card or modem, remove one of them from the system.
   (Not the RT2000, but the other card). Re-Boot Windows twice. Now try using the RT2000. There is a very good chance it will now be stable. If it still has problems and you still have IRQ conflicts, take out another card. If the Rt2000 is now working fine, you can try re-installing the cards you removed (one at a time). Very often they will now install to different IRQs and your system will remain stable. If adding back a particular piece of hardware makes your system unstable, look for an alternate card to replace it.

3. If you have removed all extra cards and the RT2000 is still not stable, then the best solution is too strip down the machine, re-format the boot drive and re-install the OS.
   Follow the install portion of the manual for a system with the G400flex as the original graphics card. This is a pain in the neck, but it leaves you with a better running, faster machine. Very often your machine comes with software and drivers that you have absolutely no need for. All they can do is get in the way. A clean install gets you exactly what you need, a clean system.

Audio sync problems

1. Re-run the Matrox disk benchmarking tests. All video drives need to be in the green. A yellow result can cause audio issues. Also make sure that all your Premiere temp files are directed to your video drives.

2. Also, with analog, try capturing from a DV device if you have one through the Y/C output (DV signal is inherently stable) If sync is now OK, you may have problems with the stability of the signal of your analogue device. You will need a device with a built in TBC, or an inline TBC to supply the RT2K with the stable signal it seems to need (Matrox needs to fix this).

3. Connect your CD-ROM audio cable to your soundcard. Put an AUDIO CD in your CD-ROM drive. Play the CD and make sure you can hear the music playing in your soundcard speaker.

4. Now disconnect the end of the cable that is connected to your CD-ROM and connect it to your RT2K black connector.

5. The Audio section of the RT2000 has been updated in the readme tech notes.The RT2000 will not show up in the Start > Settings > Control Panel > MultiMedia > Audio section. This is not a problem. Matrox changed the way the audio driver is handled during the beta testing phase.

6. Matrox is working on a new service Pack that will fix most remaining audio sync issues. SP2 should be available in a week or two.

No device control or no DV connection (When you are sure drivers are properly installed and all else works):

1. Make sure your DV device is powered up and in DV input mode before you open Premiere.
2. Many DV cams require you to go into a set-up menu and manually put it into DV input mode. See your Camcorder manual for exact instructions.
3. Under Premiere > File > Preferences > Scratch Disks & Device Control > Select your DV device.
4. If you are sure your camcorder is properly set up, and you still can't get device control, try going to Device manager/1394 host and check box labeled "enable non compliant devices".

Make sure that your dedicated EIDE drive for video is hooked up on the same EIDE cable as your boot drive.
In some systems you can use a dedicated Ultra DMA EIDE drive for your video. If you choose to go this route, make sure both your boot and video drive are on the Primary EIDE channel. The CD Rom and any other storage (ie Zip drive, tape backup etc) should be on your secondary EIDE channel.

General Operation tips & tricks

1. Make sure you load one of the RT2000 project settings before you begin editing in Premiere. It is these settings that enable all the functionality and speed of the RT2000.

2. Timeline playback to DV requires the DV device be attached and set up with device control. When you export to DV the RT2000 will put your DV cam into record, so make sure you have a blank tape inside. You don't want to accidentally tape over your original footage!

3. For making long format videos (over 15 minutes) use timeline playback! There is no reason to export a huge file to your hard drive. This wastes storage and it is very inefficient. Timeline playback is the best tool for long format video, especially with DV footage. When you export from the timeline via FireWire to your DV cam, you get an identical copy of the original footage. DV in = DV out! The only time you need to export to a file is when you are exporting your MPEG2 file for DVDit! authoring.

4. I have found that for best results outputting to DV, make a preview of the entire project, then export it to DV. The rendering takes the same amount of time, and you do not render again for export. By rendering out the preview first you'll be able to watch the video as it renders. This is pretty cool, and it will let you see where there are any problems in your timeline.

5. If you have a system that seems to get flaky, delete the Prem50.prf file in your Premiere directory. Your plug-ins and the RT2000 FX will now be recreated the next time you open Premiere

6. Brief flashes during timeline playback at transition points: (these flashes won't be there in final rendered file)- hit F5 to open the capture window, then close. Sometimes this stops the flashes.

7. If you are new to Premiere or experienced with it, you want to get Adita Videos Premiere Tutorial CD-ROM. These 7 tutorials not only show you how to use Premiere, they teach you all the best shortcuts and tricks. For only $50, this disk will pay for itself with the first project you do after you've used it.

8. Timeline Instability Fix ( from David LaBorde at the Unofficial RT2000 discussion board)
   

   I think I may have found a solution to some of the timeline instability most seem to experience at one time or another. First of all; my system has been very stable from the “get-go”. I never have crashes in Premiere (except today – I’ll explain another little “tid-bit” in a minute). The only problem I have routinely experienced is after approximately 30 minutes to 1 hour of continuous editing I begin to get jumps in the timeline when playing back or when start / stopping the cursor, etc. Always sporadic and it doesn't stop me from editing. I know one solution is to re-boot - AHHHH– NO NO. It always seems to become more frequent after making a large number of transitions (most RT). Given the stability in the beginning; I knew this was not an IRQ or drive issue but primarily a problem in how Premiere was handling temps, previews files and the fact that the RT-2000 pushes the limits with timeline playbacks, etc. This was the only little glitch I have had and the only one keeping it from being what I would call an almost perfect system (for the price of-course – I really like Digisuite). This was ticking me off ! After some digging I found out that Premiere automatically checks for keystrokes (while playing back video – timeline or source/target monitors). Default setting (get this) is to check every 50 milliseconds !!!! Good grief I can’t even blink my eyes that fast much less stroke a keyboard. Anyway I found out how to increase that time to improve playback performance verses quicker response time. In the Premiere 5.0 ini file I added the following line (note your file should already have a section labeled [override] – if not you will have to add because the following must go under it : type this (exactly as I have here) “VFWWatchTimer=200” leave off the quotation marks. Save the file and re-start windows. Making this change now makes Premiere check for keystroke every 200 milliseconds. Newbies - Don’t be scared, worse case scenario you can go in and delete it if you don’t like.

OK, I've read the RT2000 tips, now I want to check out our Win98 SpeedTweaks to further optimize my system for the best non-linear editing possible.

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