Matrox announces the new RT.X100

[Elie]

Yes folks, anyone been waiting for the ultimate NLe editing card, check out the new RT.X100 !!!!!!!

http://www.matrox.com/video/home.cfm

[Dr Mordrid]

eYup.

Just too damned cool

Must use a lot of PCI resources with all those realtime f/x though.

hmmm......

Dr. Mordrid

[Jerry Jones]

Is Matrox offering a "trade-in" allowance for RT2000/2500 owners?

:-)

Too bad it only works with Premiere.

On the other hand, Canopus has to be afraid... very afraid.

Jerry Jones

http://www.jonesgroup.net

[Dr Mordrid]

You have no idea

Dr. Mordrid

[paulw]

Maybe they should also offer it to you RT users with Premiere installed already a discount. Seems pointless buying a product with yet another copy of Premiere.

[Rob100]

Wow - I've only been away for a day and I missed this! Now I love my RT2000, but this is so good.

Does anyone know when it will be available and how much??

Rob.

[Dr Mordrid]

Paulw:

the Matrox RT cards always come with the full version of Premiere in the software bundle and I don't think they'll split it out. It wouldn't save you much anyhow because Adobe gives a large discount to bundlers.

Rob100:

The word we're getting from the Matrox Video guys at the DV East release is that it almost caused a stampede.

Adding insult to injury is the fact that the Pinnacle booth was right next to Matrox's and they were caught totally by suprise. From what they told us the look on their faces was priceless

It should be in the retail chan in mid July. The list is $1099 but several online retailers are listing it at $999;

http://www.videoguys.com/

http://www.guygraphics.com/rtx100/home.html

You also might want to check out Elie's post about using the RT.X100 with a Parhelia in triplehead mode;

http://forums.murc.ws/showthread.php?s=&threadid=33767&pagenumber=3

Impressive, isn't it?

Dr. Mordrid

[miya]

Too bad you have to use Premiere. If this thing could accelerate After Effects, now that would be something. I'm very surprised someone hasn't stepped in to fill the void left by Ice.

[Dr Mordrid]

I agree that something other than Premiere would be nice, but the realtime hardware/software combo of X.Tools does mitigate most of its more annoying problems (speed & stability).

Dr. Mordrid

[Jerry Jones]

The thing that is truly bothersome and disturbing is that Matrox 'trained' many of us to use MediaStudio Pro by way of earlier product bundles and then pulled a fast "switch-a-roo" that would force many of us to use what does seem to be only an 'editor' and not a 'suite' of tools.

In addition, Matrox has had ample time to take advantage of Ulead's SDK for real time hardware based on C-Cube Microsystems chips.

...and based on what I've read the RT.X100 is based on C-Cube.

Add to that the fact that Pinnacle appears to be very close to offering an alternative to Premiere called 'Edition.DV' that will undoubtedly have the reviewers 'twittering' endlessly in the weeks ahead. Here's some information about this new software:

http://www.abcdv.com/editing/pinnacle/editiondv/betareview01.html

I'm already dreading it because I still have very bad scars from dealing with Pinnacle's obnoxious tech support representatives a few years ago.

But it's clear that Pinnacle at least sees the need to provide a viable alternative to Premiere.

Matrox has now positioned itself as the 'lone standard bearer' for Premiere, passing up an opportunity to have provided an established industry alternative such as Ulead MediaStudio Pro.

I'll never understand what happened to have caused this - unless the rumors about shaky finances at Matrox are, indeed, true.

Jerry Jones

http://www.jonesgroup.net

[Dr Mordrid]

RT.X100 is based on a C-Cube chipset, but it's not the one in the RT-2x00 cards. It's been updated.

I totally agree that Matrox has made a strategic error in going too far into Adobe's camp. Adobe itself hasn't exactly had the best finances of late, so if something happens to them where does Matrox go for an editor.

IMHO they had better bet in touch with Ulead about their MSPro realtime SDK pronto, just to cover their arses if not for a more stable platform.

Dr. Mordrid

[AlgoRhythm]

Does the RT.X100 by chance have an updated Matrox chip for the Flex3D functionality of the card? (I looked in the specs and couldn't tell)


AlgoRhythm

[KuroNeko]

Doc, you say the C-Cube chip has been updated.

How is realtime MPEG2 encoding? The RT2000 did a very poor job on that, has this been improved?

Neko

[Dr Mordrid]

The RT.X100 uses two different MPEG encoders.

The C-Cube update addressed quality issues and is better at realtime MPEG capture to *.m2v than the RT-2x00 cards, however....the real high-quality MPEG exports are done using the MediaExport modules GoMotion Pro.

This is not your fathers GoMotion and is capable of much higher quality than you are used to from Ligos. It's not realtime, but it's hardware accelerated and it supports not just the DVD profiles found in the RT-2x00 cards but VCD, SVCD and custom MPEG-1/2 profiles as well.

In fact MediaExport can be set up to render a project to multiple MPEG, Real or Windows Media profiles in one sitting and will even let you crop individual exports if need be. Just set up the dialog, click OK and go to lunch.

Flex3D is no longer the feature set used on the RT.X100. That has been replaced by something new called Power of X. This is a mix of highly optimised software and hardware acceleration that works much better than Flex3D ever did.

Power of X is the primary reason why the RT.X100 can do high quality DV bluescreens & effects with systems as low as a single CPU AthlonXP in an el'cheapo ECS K7S5A/K7S6A mainboard. In fact those mainboard/CPU combos are some of the better performing single CPU setups with the RT.X100. Go figure....
In terms of operability the R.X100 has it all over the previous RT cards. It's smooter and faster then either of them. In fact 99% of the time you can't even tell the hardware is there, save for all the neat tricks it performs

Matrox learned a lot from the RT's and put just about everything they learned and the kitchen sink into the RT.X100. I beta'ed the damned thing for many weeks and am still finding new things and combinations to try

One other interesting feature: the firmware can be updated when installing new drivers. This means that if a firmware bug is found it can be easily fixed.

Dr. Mordrid