Part I - Introducing Matrox RT.X2 LE
What is the difference between Matrox RT.X2 LE and other capture cards?
Matrox RT.X2 LE is a real-time hardware accelerator. This means that it is far more powerful then just a simple Input/Output capture card. With Matrox RT.X2 LE you get real-time performance that goes beyond what you can accomplish from software alone.
 Can I edit HDV footage with Adobe Premiere Pro CS3 on its own? Why do I need a Matrox RT.X2 LE?
Although Adobe Premiere Pro CS3 software alone can edit HDV footage, it's not going to give you the same smooth, quick editing environment you are used to with DV footage. Not only does HD footage contain more pixels and bits of information, the compressions used put a huge burden on your systems resources. Matrox RT.X2 LE alleviates this burden and editing HDV footage is a breeze. It is BETTER because it is real-time!
So what exactly do you mean by real-time?
Matrox RT.X2 LE hardware allows you to play back multiple layers of HD video and graphics directly from the Adobe Premiere Pro CS3 timeline without rendering. That includes adding filters, transitions and special effects. That's something that software can't do on its own, even with the fastest quad core computers. For example; our DIY 6 Quad Core machine with Matrox RT.X2 LE can play back a timeline that includes two layers of HDV video with a slow motion filter on one layer and color filters on the other, as well as a graphic overlay. This plays back in real-time, directly from the timeline, with no rendering!
 Do you mean real-time preview on the computer screen or output to tape?
Matrox RT.X2 LE will let you playback your timeline in HD via the Component video output of the card directly to an LCD or Plasma flat screen HDTV. So you can view your footage in all its HD glory! There really is no reason to go out to tape other than for archiving. In fact, our real recommendation for showing off and distributing your HD production is to author and create a Blu-ray Disc.
Does Matrox RT.X2 LE help create a high-definition Blu-ray Disc or multimedia video?
In addition to its real-time editing, Matrox RT.X2 LE is a hardware accelerator for all your Blu-ray Disc and multimedia video encoding. When we created a Blu-ray Disc on our DIY6 machine with Matrox RT.X2 LE we found a more than 30% increase in speed but that number may be even faster for you depending on the type of footage you're encoding and the machine you're using. Matrox RT.X2 LE also accelerates export to Flash, standard DVD, Windows Media, Quicktime, MPEG-1, MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 - it will even accelerate export to Adobe Clip Notes.
 What's the difference between the original Matrox RT.X2 and the New Matrox RT.X2LE hardware?
The features and benefits of both cards are the same except for the overall physical design and DVI Digital Output. Matrox RT.X2 LE is a ¾ length PCIe 1x card and the original Matrox RT.X2 is a full size PCIe 1x card with a handle on the end of it. This is a big deal because the smaller hardware may now fit in more motherboards and installation is a breeze. Matrox RT.X2 LE offers HD output via Component while Matrox RT.X2 also includes a DVI output. This digital DVI HD output is not necessary for most videographers but is a very cool feature for those doing professional color grading and other exacting work that requires a precise pixel-by-pixel rendition on the video.
Part II - HD Workflow Questions
 What HD camera do you recommend for use with Matrox RT.X2 LE?
The Videoguy have been using a Canon HV20 camcorder. It uses the HDV format and we found that Matrox RT.X2 LE handled the footage with no trouble at all. Some of the guys here shoot with a Sony FX-7 and we had no issues at all editing their footage either. One of the big advantages of Matrox RT.X2 LE hardware is that you get full support for so many of the HD flavors, including some of the more exotic settings. Here’s a quick list of supported HD cameras:
- JVC HD110, HD200, HD250
- Sony HVR-A1, HVR-Z1, HVR-V1, PDW-F330
- Panasonic HVX200, HDX900, HDC27H, HPX2000
- Canon XH A1, XH G1, XL H1, HV20/HV30
Matrox RT.X2 LE and Adobe Premiere Pro CS3 does not currently support the AVCHD format so we are not yet recommending camcorders that shoot in AVCHD to our customers. For now, these cameras are really best-suited for point-and-shoot productions and video archiving. We hope Matrox and Adobe will add real-time editing support for AVCHD, but for now, it’s best to stay away.
For more information, Matrox has an excellent page on their web site that goes into more details on supported HD workflows. http://www.matrox.com/video/en/products/rtx2/workflow/
What kind of hardware acceleration and real-time performance does Matrox RT.X2LE give me if I upgrade to the full Adobe Production Premium CS3 software bundle?
Matrox RT.X2 LE will allow you to see your work directly on your HD video monitor via the component video output while you are working in Adobe After Effects and Photoshop. The Adobe Dynamic Link feature is also supported so you can easily switch between Adobe applications – and the video output will automatically change to the active application.
Matrox has an excellent page on their website that goes into more detail on the productivity advantage of Matrox RT.X2 LE http://www.matrox.com/video/en/products/rtx2/productivity/#WYSIWYG
Part III - Technical Support and System Recommendations
 What graphics card works best with Matrox RT.X2LE?
Matrox RT.X2 LE technology taps into both the CPU and GPU performance of your computer so some graphics cards will work much better then others. That’s why, in the system we built for our DIY6 article, we are using the less expensive Radeon HD2600XT with Matrox RT.X2 LE. We tried using the NVidia Quadro FX1700 card and it worked without conflicts but it did not come close to the real-time GPU performance of the less expensive Radeon card. In fact, we could not match the real-time performance of the Radeon card with a Quadro FX until we installed the thousand-dollar Quadro FX 3700! Now, if you’re doing a lot of compositing and effects work in Adobe After Effects CS3 the investment in the Quadro FX3700 will be well worth it.
What kind of TV monitor should I use for previewing my timeline in HD with Matrox RT.X2 LE?
We picked up an inexpensive 32" Olevia 720p LCD HD TV at our local Costco on sale for around $500 and the HD preview looks great! Matrox RT.X2 LE connects to the Component video inputs on the monitor and allows us to watch our productions on the same HDTVs our audience will be using. If you don't already have an HDTV close to your edit station our advice is to shop the sales at your local electronics superstore or warehouse club or go on-line to Newegg or TigerDirect and you'll be able to find an HDTV with Component input at a very surprising bargain. Sure, you can spend more and get an even better picture on HDTVs with higher contrast ratios or 1080p support but we find that for use in our edit suite 720p more then gets the job done and we'd rather stretch our budget for the larger screen size.
 Does Matrox RT.X2 LE support Windows Vista and Vista64 bit operating systems?
As of today, Matrox RTX2 LE only runs on Windows XP 32 bit and we strongly recommend Windows XP Professional. WinXP Pro is a stable and a proven platform for video editing and is fully supported by Matrox, Adobe and our Videoguys' on-staff technicians.
There is a public Beta available for Windows Vista 32 bit for those who want it and you can get more information and feedback from the Matrox User Forum Vista Beta Drivers thread at the Matrox Forums. We've spoken to a lot of customers and Matrox developers about Vista and we decided that we can wait for full Vista support. We support Matrox's decision to put their efforts into delivering the best possible Vista 64 bit drivers they can and announce full Vista support at that time. When we get rock solid 64 bit drivers from Matrox and 64 bit optimized code from Adobe we will certainly be singing a different tune. Until then stick with Windows XP Professional. |
