Matrox RT.X100
Unleashing the Power of X to make your NLE dreams come true!

RT2000 & RT2500 Owners: Trade-Up To RTX100 Xtreme!! Offer extended through July! Matrox RTX100 - TRADE-UP! Upgrade your RT2000 or RT2500 to Matrox's latest & greatest, award winning RTX100 Xtreme!! The RTX100 Xtreme Trade-In Bundle includes the RTX100 PCI Card w/ Xtreme drivers, Break-Out Cable, 1394 Cable, X-Tools CD and Sonic DVDit! SE. Trade-Up does not include Adobe Premiere 6.5. Customers will require Premiere 6.5 to use RTX100 board with Xtreme drivers. For just $150 more you can upgrade to the RTX100 Xtreme w/ Sonic Reel DVD Studio professional level DVD authoring w/ AC3 support! RTX100 Xtreme Trade-Up $599 RTX.100 Trade-Up w/ Reel DVD Studio $749 We must get your RT2x00 card back. We can advance ship the RTX100 Xtreme Trade-Up with a $250 deposit. You will be refunded the $250 deposit upon receipt of your old RT2x00 hardware. Click here for more details.

Here are just a few of the “wishes” that Matrox has made come true for digital videographer's: Matrox RT.X100 Xtreme delivers many unique professional features that are not available on any other video editing card in its class. It's ideal for corporate communicators, event videographers, project studios, educational facilities, and digital filmmakers. RT.X100 Xtreme empowers Adobe Premiere and Sonic ReelDVD Studio. You get full-quality, full-resolution, no compromise realtime editing and professional DVD authoring at a price that is comparable, or even lower, than other software-only realtime applications. Matrox RT.X100 Xtreme builds on the success of the Matrox RT.X100 realtime editing platform that has won numerous international awards. New workflow and productivity enhancements include:

• Real-Time DV Output and analog at the same time
• Professional quality Real-Time Color Correction
• Gorgeous Real-Time Chroma & Luma Key
• Super Smooth Real-Time Slow Motion and Speed Control
• Real-Time Export of DVD ready MPEG-2 files directly from the Premiere timeline
• Matrox MediaExport & MediaTools for the best video capture and file export
• Even more Flex 3D Real-Time FX w/ improved Keyframer interface
• Premiere integration w/ 60 Real-Time Premiere Transitions

The Power of X
What is the Power of X? Here's what Matrox has to say about it:

“The Power of X – that's what we call the ability of the new generation of Matrox products to leverage the scalable power of your CPU with the explosive performance of dedicated hardware for the ultimate real-time video editing experience.”

Software based non-linear editing products like Avid Xpress DV, Vegas Video and Final Cut Pro rely on today's speedy computers to deliver a wide range of real-time performance. These applications are limited to real-time VGA previews and FireWire only. Hardware based solutions like the RT2500 and Pro-One deliver a ton of real-time features, but the limitations of the hardware meant that even with a blazing fast dual CPU machine, you still get the same features and performance. So you get real-time previews via analog output and cool 3D FX, but when you wanted to output via FireWire, you had to render. What Matrox has done is give you a product that is really the best of both worlds. Actually it's much, much better then that. They've taken Premiere to a new level. The Power of X makes this the most powerful real-time product on the market. The heart and sole of the RT.X100 is still Matrox graphics hardware and Flex 3D technology, but now it has been turbocharged with software based technology that unlocks the real-time features and performance digital videographer's have been craving. You can actually combine up to 16 effects in real time on two layers of video and two layers of graphics in real-time! Want even more for your money? Down the road you will get even more real-time FX and new features as CPU speeds increase and new drivers get released.

Now that we've explained to you The Power of X, lets take a deeper look at just what tools and features you get from it in the new RT.X100. Before we do this, I have to comment on just how easy it was to install and set-up the RTX.100

Installing the RTX.100 is a BREEZE!
We installed the RTX.100 in an HP 1100i workstation P4 2.2 Ghz, 784 Megs of ram, Win XP Pro, G550 graphics card, 80 GB system drive, integrated sound and networking. We then added a Medea VideoRaid SCSI 160GB drive for video and a Pioneer DVR-A04 DVD burner for authoring. I really like this workstation. The case is really well designed with easy access to the slots and drive bays. I also like the two USB jacks in the front of the unit. Enough about the HP workstation, I'll be posting more info about them on our website soon. Back to the RTX.100 install.

Like I said, installation was a breeze. The card was immediately detected and the software loaded in one easy step. Kudos to Matrox on this one, they learned a lot from the RT2000/RT2500 and they listened to user and dealer feedback. They invested a ton of engineering effort to make this product install easier and work better than any other card in the market. Here's a few examples of this:

1. They've designed an all new GUI for the installation. It detects what items/ features are installed in your system. You then use this same interface to install additional features like the After Effects/Lightwave WYSIWYG driver or any additional Flex 3D features that have been added.
2. In device manager you get a separate Matrox group. All the Matrox device drivers show up together. This makes troubleshooting super easy.
3. Matrox sets up their own registry and area in windows for all their dll files. This way rouge programs can't right over them or erase them.

Real-Time DV output
With the RTX.100 you can capture and playback analog and DV. The real-time output is both via FireWire and the analog breakout box. This means you can preview your work on a TV monitor and then instantly record out to DV. Even more important, you get this real-time output while you are working. Matrox calls this “in context” editing. I call it being able to see every layer, with every effect in full resolution on your playback monitor – while you are creating it. This makes layering and positioning multiple layers of video, titles and graphics significantly easier.

Real-Time Color Correction
Not just some simple controls, but an advanced menu with the same level of image correction tools as Photoshop power users get. You get 4 proc amp controls – hue, saturation, brightness, and contrast. You get a powerful color balancing tool that gives you RGB color correction plus the ability to adjust just the shadow, midtone, and highlight levels for an unprecedented degree of control over the final image quality. You also get luminance controls that allow you to adjust the black, white and gamma levels on the input, and black and white levels on the output.

By far and away the most incredible tool is the automatic real-time white balance. Lets face it, 90% of all our bad video footage can usually be blamed on one problem – improper white balance. This can happen from panning by an open window, changing quickly from poor to bright lighting or vice versa, fluorescent lighting, or from poorly set up gear. No matter how it happened, we all wish it didn't – especially the bride with the red or blue wedding dress in the video. The RT.X100 can fix it instantly! Just click on a section of the video where you know a white object is. The RT.X100 intelligently analyzes the footage and sets in the correct settings to fix the white balance.

Even more impressive, all these excellent, professional quality color correction tools can be keyframed. My only complaint is the rather clunky interface here. Photoshop experts who understand the numerical meaning of these settings will love it. I'd prefer to have a more graphical interface with easier to master controls. I think we'll get just that in future releases of the RT.X100 software.

Real-Time chroma & luma key
Keying lets you superimpose one video object on top of another. The most familiar use of chroma-keying is your local weather report. The weather gal stands in front of a blue or green screen in the studio, while we at home see her in front of the weather map or a shot of the snow coming down in the local park. The RT.X100 does a fantastic job with chroma-key and it is all in real-time. This is no small task; one of the weaknesses of the DV compression has been the difficulty with keying. The RTX.100 up-samples your DV video to 4:4:4 resolution and uses advanced noise reduction algorithms to ensure superior results. The results are fantastic even with poor lighting. The auto key lets you use a dropper to pull out the key color from your video. It compensates automatically for shadows and soft edges. You then get 8 additional controls to tweak it for the perfect look. With this level of control you'll be able to see cleanly through your key subjects hair as it blows in the wind.

Real-Time Speed control
You can really experience the Power of X when you start using the real-time speed controls of the RT.X100. The slow motion is field based and looks smooth and jitter free at every setting, as does the accelerated speed controls. This is a major improvement over other real-time cards in the market that are either frame based, or require you to stick with 33%, 50% or 66% for decent slow motion. With the RT.X100 you can actually adjust the speed of two video layers independently and in real-time with fantastic results!

Advanced DVD creation tools
Now that DVD burners are readily available for well under $500, digital videographers all want to create their own DVDs. With the RT.X100, this is easier than ever. The RT.X100 allows you to export DVD authoring ready MPEG-2 files directly from the Premiere timeline – in REAL-TIME!! (DVD Note 1: This feature requires either a dedicated hard disk for the MPEG-2 export, or a RAID based video storage system such as a Medea VideoRAID.) These MPEG-2 files can then be imported into the supplied DVDit! le software and you can author your DVDs. (DVD note 2: I feel that anyone serious about DVD authoring will want to upgrade to DVDit!PE for chapter points, 16:9 and dolby digital audio support.)

Matrox MediaExport
If you require higher quality video then the real-time export tool gives you, or you want to create VCD or SVCDs it is a snap with the RT.X100. Ligos GoMotion technology has been integrated into the Matrox MediaExport tool. GoMotion gives you full control of your MPEG encoding streams and it is very fast. The Media Export tool also lets you batch export streaming video in RealMedia & WindowMedia at multiple bandwidth/quality settings.

Matrox MediaTools
Matrox's SinglePass capture utility automatically scans, logs,and batch captues your DV clips in a single pass. This is a really cool feature! You don't have to waste editing time setting up batch captures. Just start up MediaTools, turn on your DV cam, enter the name for the tape and the clips, and then let the RTX.100 do all the work for you. If you shot 45 minutes worth of video then it willt ake 45 minutes to scan and capture. Watch a ballgame on TV, go out to dinner, play with the kids. When you get back you'll have all your clips broken out into individual files. You can go in and trim them, then add your own comments or rename them. When you're done you just import them into Premiere and start editing. Not only does this cut your time spent capturing video by 50% or more, it cuts down on wear and tear on your camcorder. MediaTools can also be used for single frame and stop motion capture. This is by far and away the best DV capture utility I've ever used.

Matrox has also changed the FireWire device control driver to the new Microsoft Direct X OHCI spec. This should ensure perfect device control with a much wider assortment of DV camcorders, decks and other FireWire enabled devices.

Flex 3D to the Power of X
Since the RT2000 was first introduced Matrox has been the world leader in real-time 3D FX. Their expertise in designing and producing graphics chips gives them a big advantage over the other vendors of real-time hardware and/or software. The 3D FX produced by the RT.X100 are superb. The quality of the edges and the compressed video images within each effect are better then any other real-time card in the industry. The 3D Flex technology goes way beyond 3D page peels, and 3D moving Picture-In-Picture effects. The same Flex 3D graphics technology also gives you real-time blur, lens flares, ripples and particle effects. When combined with the Power of X you can actually have 2 layers of video with 2D/3D fx, plus color correction, slow motion and 2 layers of graphics all in real-time!!

Premiere to the Power of X
When you add the RT.X100 and the Power of X to Adobe Premiere, the result is a professional NLE solution that can hold its own with any other NLE app on the market. The responsiveness of the Premiere timeline was excellent. There is no delay at all when scrubbing or trimming or playing back in the timeline. As I mentioned earlier, you can playback directly from the Premiere timeline to analog, DV or MPEG-2 in real-time. If you create multi-layered, complex sections of your video that do require rendering, the Matrox TurboDV rendering engine is faster then ever and will take full advantage of all the processor speed you can throw at it – including dual processors. You can create your own custom keyframed effects and save them for future projects. 60 native Premiere transitions are real-time and in the future I think we will see even more native Premiere features in real-time.

Give it the Power it needs!
We tested the RT.X100 in an HP 1100i workstation with a 2.2 Ghz P4 processor, 784 megs of Ram, G550 graphics card and Medea 2/160 VideoRAID SCSI for storage running Windows XP. This system meets or exceeds the recommended system specs for this card. As a result we were able to get all of the advertised features of this card and combine them. Even when we combined 2 layers ach of video and graphics with 3D Fx, color correction and speed controls we had perfect playback, both DV and analog. If you put the RT.X100 in a system with less power, you will get less real-time performance. I do not recommend using the RTX.100 in anything less then a P4 2.2 Ghz or Athlon XP2000+ or faster.

For real-time export of MPEG2 files you will require an additional dedicated hard drive or a Medea VideoRAID. With a single VideoRAID you can store all your video and have enough disk throughput for real-time MPEG2 output. Even better, with a VideoRAID all your storage is available to you. You aren't dedicating an entire drive just for real-time MPEG2 output files.

Matrox lists a minimum system requirement of a Pentium III at 1 GHz, Pentium 4 at 1.7 GHz, or Athlon XP 1500+. If you choose to run the RT.X100 in one of these minimal configurations you will NOT get real-time DV output or the ability to combine multiple real-time filters and effects. To me, this is like buying a Ferrari and only driving it in crowded city streets. I just don't see the point. If your going to invest in a great card like the RT.X100, the least you can do is give it the CPU power it needs to get the job done right!

One final note about the Power of X and using multiple filters and FX. You must apply the software based, CPU intensive filters first to your clips, before you add in the Flex 3D hardware based FX. These CPU intensive filters are the speed control, color correction and chroma key. If you apply a Flex 3D effect/filter to a clip before adding one of these software based filters, you will not get real-time DV output. This is really not a big deal, since you can easily move your filters up and down to see that the ones that need priority get it. I did find it confusing at times, and Matrox needs to do a better job identifying those filters that require priority placement.

Click here for our Matrox RTX.100 order form and bundle configurator

The Electronic Mailbox 800 323-2325 Instant Product Locator Master Product Index ADS Pyro / Pyro Platinum / Pyro Pro / 1394 Drive Kit Adobe Premiere 6 / After Effects Applied Magic Screenplay / Sequel Avid Xpress DV / PowerPack Azden wireless mics for consumer and BorisFX 6.0 / Graffiti /Red Canopus DV Storm / ADVC 100 / RexRT Pro DataVideo TBCs & Editing gear Dazzle / Hollywood Bridge/ DVC2 / Digital Juice Jump Backs DPS Velocity / Reality DV Logic DV Elements EZ Keyboards JVC HRDVS-3 / JXS777/ JXS555 / DV tape/ Lacie FireWire Storage Matrox RT2500 / RTMac Medea Video Raids Panasonic DVD Pinnacle Pro-ONE / DV500 DVD / Studio Deluxe / Studio DV / Bungee Pinnacle Software / Commotion / Hollywood FX / TitleDeko Pro Pioneer DVR-A04 & DVR-S201 DVD burner Pixelan Video SpiceMaster / Spices Promise FastTrack Sima SCC / SRW62 / Copymaster / Sonic Desktop Smart Sound/ SonicFire & Pallettes Sonic Solutions DVDit! SE / PE / ReelDVD Sonic Foundry Sound Forge / Vegas Video / Acid TV One CorioScan & DeltaScan genlocks Ulead Media Studio Pro 6.5 United Media Multicam Vitec DVD Cut Machine / Profiler Video Capture Card Matrix

What's New | Home videoguys.com | The DTV Handbook On Line | The DVD Cookbook On Line |
Monthly Specials| Product Index | Article Index | VIP Specials |
Tech Support | FTP Drivers | Free Software | Catalog request Form | Secure Order Form | Jump Page |

Click on the icons above to find the gear that's best for your needs.