RT2000 real time editing or not?

[JPDuV]

I was reading some posts about the RT2000 and became confused (happens more than i would like).

What i will do is explain what i think i should be able to do using the RT2000. If i am incorrect please correct me, and offer any possible solutions. Thank you in advance.

Shoot DV (or MiniDV). Import/capture using firewire. Edit two streams of DV. Add titles and effects (like fades, and an occasional 3D effect transition like a rotating cube, etc.) and not wait for those effects to render to see them actually working in the project. Output to DV for archiving, and print to VHS for client. (all this without changing file formats or any compression, just DV)

Can i do this all in real time? If not, which parts must i wait for. and for how long?

Thanks - Jon Paul

[KrisGurrad]

You are supposed to be able to do the effects and transitions in real-time to the analog output. However, if you want to output back onto firewire, it will have to render the transitions and effects to send out to the camera. See http://www.matrox.com/videoweb/endus.../dv_rt2000.htm
for a more complete description of what is going on in that area.

Kris

[Jan De Wever - Anyvision]

About that specific subject ahs been a whole debate going on. But from what I gather, both from people's demo experiences and from my own demo sessions, I would say: no, you cannot do that.

If you stick to DV, and DV only, so set the RT2000 to work in native DV mode, it cannot do anything in RT. It needs to render everything, including the RT effects.

Why? It uses the C-Cube chipset which is only capable of 25MBit/s datarates. Unfortunatly, DV IS 25MBit/s. So, this chipset cannot process 2 of that streams at the same time. So, no RT if in native DV.

You only get RT, for the pre build fixed effects, when using MPEG2 mode. This means your DV footage is converted to MPEG2 when capturing, and converted back to DV for outputting. But while editing, you only get to see the limited RT effects on the analogue outputs. DV outputting still needs rendering, and converting now!

Next week I will be attending another trade show in Brussels, where there will be another pre-release RT2000 station present. I'll report back if there are any changes.

------------------
Jan De Wever - Leuven, Belgium
Anyvision Media Services

[KrisGurrad]

I was under the impression that the C-Cube chip is capable of 25mbits per stream, not total. You are supposed to be able to work in DV, and it will output DV real time via the analog outputs. To send it firewire it will need to render it. Of course, I could be wrong. But that is what I gathered.

Kris

[DaddyBay]

My understanding is that the RT2000 can handle two 25 Mbps DV streams. You get real time special effects while editing. You can output realtime to analog, but for DV output, it takes extra time to render special effects and transitions.

In other words, I agree with Kris.

[This message has been edited by DaddyBay (edited 09 November 1999).]

[JPDuV]

Thank you all for your posts...

Lets see if i am understanding you.

You all are saying that when you output to DV via firewire, you must render things.

Some of you think you can do RT edits and effects only when you are using video converted to MPEG2. And some of you think you can indeed edit RT and RT effects in native DV.

And it seems the worse case senario for RT editing and effects is converting to MPEG2, do your edit, be happy, then autoconform using the original DV. Much like doing an "offline" edit and conforming to "online" yes?

Am i getting the gist of the debate?

--Jon Paul

[JPDuV]

One more question about this for clarification:

When reading the Matrox offical literature and web pages, i get the impression that you can edit in DV in realtime and do real time transitions. And you may have to wait for things to render when outputting.

Are people saying Real Time DV Editing is not possible with native DV... or are people saying that Real Time DV Output is not possible... or both?

Thanks again.

--Jon Paul

[Jan De Wever - Anyvision]

If you don't believe me, look at the C-Cube link I povided here. Look especially at the comparison table of the DVXpress 25 and 50 chipset. The RT2000 uses the MX25, the Matrox DTV (Digisuite DTV) uses the MX50. For the MX25 it sais very clearly: only 1 DV stream at 25mbits/s. For MPEG2: 2 streams of MPEG2, together maximum 50mbit/s.

This makes RT editing in native DV mode imposible. But I must admit it makes me wonder how the DV500 does it. It uses the same chipset and is a native DV editor. So, no MPEG2 is being used, so they claim. I will look into it further.

see http://www.c-cube.com/products/dvx_mx25.html

------------------
Jan De Wever - Leuven, Belgium
Anyvision Media Services

[DJ]

Jan

The RT2000 also has a 32 Bit graphics layer. So (my interpretation) that the DV stream along with the graphics stream is sent to the G400 which would do its Flex 3D thigamagig and presto realtime uncompressed video output at the analog terminals. Because there is not a third codec to recompress the combined effects and video streams, no realtime effects are available at the 1394 terminal. In any case (according to Matrox) as long as these effects (effects only) are rendered, then the whole project can be played back from the timeline in realtime even at the 1394 terminal.