Rainbow Runner Studio files compatible w. DV500 or DC30?

[snowraven]

Hi,
I've been doing digital video editing for a couple of years now, and my current system has gotten too slow to work on without a great deal of hair-pulling (PI200MMX maxed out at 64MB RAM, Win95, Matrox Mystique/Rainbow Runner Studio), so I just ordered a new Dell Precision 330 workstation (P4 1400, 256MB RAM) with a Matrox G400 Max 32MB card, and had thought I would get the Rainbow Runner G-series add-on board, but I've been reading all these horror stories on the Matrox forum about problems with their copyright protection scheme, macrovision, and am having second thoughts. It seems the copyright protection scheme is something new since I got my RRS board, and I'm not sure I want to deal with the hassle. (No, I don't pirate tapes, but I do use short clips from commercial tapes to make videos for personal use.) I've read that a hack is available that MIGHT work, but not for Windows 2000 anyway, and Win2K is pre-installed on my new system.

I like my current setup except for the molasses-like speed, and I have a lot (500 files?) of video clips recorded with it that I want to be able to continue to use along with whatever I capture with my new board, and I figured the Matrox G400/RR G series combo would maintain that compatibility.

Anyway, it's rumored that Pinnacle boards don't have this nasty little copy protection scheme, and I'm wondering if anyone can tell me if my old clips would be compatible with capture formats for either the DV500 or the DC30 (which would also require me downgrading the new system to Win98, apparently). Here are the properties for my old avi's, captured from the PC-VCR remote:

Matrox MJPEG, compression ratio 8.3:1
704 x 480
24 Bits
30 (really 29.972) Frames/Sec
some with TV quality audio, most without audio

I've seen that 704x480 is one of the default sizes for both Pinnacle cards, so I guess that part is ok, but I'm clueless about the other stuff. Maybe it depends on the software you use for video editing, and not on the hardware? I've been using Ulead MediaStudio, and I'd like to continue to use it if possible, since I already know how and it does what I need it to.

I'm going to be keeping my old computer and networking it to the new one, and I've got half a mind to forget about getting a new capture card & just port files over to the new computer to edit. I don't even have my new computer and already I have a headache-- this doesn't bode well!

Does anyone have any light to shed? Opinions on which board I should get? Virtual Alka-seltzer? I will post this to the Pinnacle forum also.

Thanks very much,
-Snow

[Dr Mordrid]

MJPeg is pretty much MJPeg, however not all use the same fourCC code, which is what identifies the codec to your video software. Matrox's is dmb1 while most other MJPeg codecs use MJPG.

One way to start attempting an importation change the fourCC of your video files with a utility program for the purpose. Here's the url to one;

http://divx-digest.com/software/avifourcc.html

If this doesn't work for the Pinnacle codec then you could also try editing with the PICVideo MJPeg codec;

http://www.jpg.com

It used to be free but now runs $18. Still a steal. It also reads the Matrox files nicely.

Dr. Mordrid




[This message has been edited by Dr Mordrid (edited 19 March 2001).]

[Dr Mordrid]

This is correct. Matrox cards since the Marvel G200 have used field order B. This can be switched using MSPro's field options tool.

Dr. Mordrid

[snowraven]

Thanks guys! What I'm hearing is that the formats are not compatible, but would require some sort of conversion to work with Pinnacle boards. Sounds kind of iffy, so I guess I might as well try the 98 downgrade/RRG/hack combo first. Who knows, maybe I'll get lucky. Or I could be back here screaming for help in a few days. Thanks again for the info.

-Snow

[This_Idiot]

Nah, shouldn't be difficult now that we're agreed on the difference.

The FO of the input clip is A. The native FO of the DCs is B. Therefore, you want your projects to be FO B within either MSPro or Premiere (DC's tend to come packaged with Premiere, mine was on 5.1C, don't know if they've upgraded to 6 yet). Either you can convert each input clip individually using the editor, or you can stick them into the project with a project FO of A and make sure that the output is set to B.

If the inputs are captured using the new equipment then you'll be using FO B throughout.

I guess there could be fun if you try combining both within a single project. Doc, any ideas on this one ?

[This_Idiot]

As I recall, the field order for the RR-S is the reverse to the RR-G. If you've got MediaStudio or Premiere you can specify field order, but I don't recall it being an option in the cheaper editors.