Rainbow Runner Resurrection

[John Chatzidakis]

I hope you can help me folks. A few years ago I bought a Rainbow Runner when it first appeared on the market. I did some basic capture & editing but got fed up with it because the drivers used to conflict with drivers for any games I’d load. As I wasn’t very computer literate as far as system building and repairs was concerned then I removed the Runner, boxed it and it’s been sitting on a shelf until now.

I have recently built a spare PC as a test machine from bits a friend gave me and some new parts and I would like to resurrect the Rainbow Runner as I have loads of footage on 8mm (we were burgled the day after our wedding and the ba*****ds stole our TRV900) that I would like to edit and dump down to tape. The spec of the PC is: A Pentium 2, 300 MHz MMX, 128MB ram, Abit BE6-11 Revision 2 Motherboard with Intel BX chipset, Maxtor 40GB hard drive, Sound blaster 128 PCI sound card, US Robotics external modem, networked to a couple of other PC’s so I can share the printers and scanner, clean install on Windows 98 SE.

My questions are: Am I still limited to using the original drivers with the supplied Mediastudio 2.5 editing software or are there drivers available for Premier 4.2 which I have a copy of. I also have a copy of Windows ME which I haven’t got round to fully investigating yet, but does it have a 2GB file limit & can I use the Runner coupled with the ME software hopefully without any conflicts are crashes – but I’m not holding my breath! To capture, perform basic editing and dump to tape?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated, I subscribe to Camcorder User and have copies since December 96 and also subscribe to Computer Video with copies starting from September 98, so if there are any useful articles among those, please point me in the right direction. Thanks again.

[Patrick]

I'm still using an RR-S with a Mill2 even though I've recently gotten a digital camcorder. I've only recently really began to get serious using the RR even though I've had it for over a year or so. Now that I'm starting to master most of it's quirks, I'm hesitant to get a DV capture card and have to learn all of it's quirks.

For what it's worth, here's my suggestions:

1) Stick with Win98SE
2) Get a second smaller drive to use as your boot drive and use the 40 Gb drive only for capture.
3) Use the MSP editing software instead of Premiere.
4) Download the latest drivers recommended for the display and capture cards you have. Do NOT download and use drivers that are only for newer versions of the RR (if it's indeed an RR-S you have). It's all quite clear at the Matrox site.

Even though most of the latest postings at this forum deal with newer hardware, there's a ton of old postings relating to our "dinosaur" cards in the archives. Plus there's stubborn people like me still using ‘em. Good luck with the RR.

[Dr Mordrid]

Yup. I have two systems on the network using the RRS cards. They work just fine with MSPro6 and deliver very good video. In fact some folks think the old RRS actually has the highest quality MJPeg output of all the Matrox cards, new or old.

You might, however, consider picking up a TV tuner addon for it. This adds a lot of functionality to mine.

Dr. Mordrid

[John Chatzidakis]

Hi Patrick, Thanks for the advice, I've got an IBM 4.3gb hard drive in stock to use as a system drive and I'll try and get some upgrade software to take me up to MSP 5 or 6.

Regards John Chatzidakis
From rainy London

[John Chatzidakis]

Hiya Doc, thanks for the advice, I'll try and get my hands on MSP 6, I hear it's got some great fetures. Where do I get the drivers to work the Rainbow Runner with MSP?

Regards John Chatzidakis
From rainy London

[cuddles]

I run a RRS on P1 100 40mg ram with acceptablr results so just up date Graphic mother bd and RRS drivers and u should be rockin.

[John Chatzidakis]

Cuddles, thanks for the tips. When I originally fitted the RRS, I got totally fed up with things crashing and conflicts appearing time & time again, but thanks to you & everybody else's help out there, my faith has been restored in the product. Thanks again folks. P.S. Keep the advice coming!

[Patrick]

John, in case there's any confusion, you don't get new drivers for your RR just to work with a particular editing program (although the editing program may work better once they're installed). Does that make sense?

Have you found the proper ones at the Matrox site for your hardware?

[John Chatzidakis]

Patrick, I’ve been to the Matrox site and book marked it as I have more time to download the drivers over the weekend. I’m currently waiting for an updated version of MediaStudio Pro, which I’ll install once I’ve installed the RRS and see how well it works. If it’s unreliable I’ll probably install the Matrox drivers, but I’d like to see the comparison before and after the drivers are installed. Yes I know, I’m a glutton for punishment!

I’ve also looked at a comparison chart and unless I’m mistaken, MSP6 has a 2gb work around built in and MSP5 does not. Is this true?

[Patrick]

Ummm.... I always output to tape using "Cutlist Editing", so I haven't had to worry about any size limitations. I'm sure someone else can set you straight about this.

I'm not sure why you wouldn't want to use the proper drivers right from the start. It's not like they're new and untested, but to each their own...

[Pertti]

Originally posted by John Chatzidakis:

I’ve also looked at a comparison chart and unless I’m mistaken, MSP6 has a 2gb work around built in and MSP5 does not. Is this true?

You are mistaken, the Matrox cards have been able to get around the 2GB limit with whatever version of MSP since the release of the RR-S (summer -97)

The MSP6 now allows also the non-Matrox capture cards this freedom.

[John Chatzidakis]

Pertti, thanks for the clarification