Advice for new DV system

[schmosef]

I have a friend that is looking to build a new DV system.

He's got a lot of experience with the Adobe line of products and wants to continue to use them on this new system.

We've been looking at the middle system on this page as a basis for the system to build:

http://www.future-micro.ca/2ndpages/MatroxVideoSystem.htm

The issue of whether to include a Matrox rt.x100 is currently under debate.

Checking out the forums on Matrox's own site (http://forum.matrox.com/rtx100/), it seems like the advantages of this card are a toss up. If the features you use a lot work, then it's great. If the features you use a lot don't work, then it sucks.

Also, from what I've read, there seem to be a lot of outstanding driver issues that Matrox is only hinting that they are working on in a driver to be released for Premiere Pro 2.0, whenever that ships. I guess I've been burned too many times by Matrox's promises for fixes in future drivers to put much stock in their hint.

I'd like to know what you guys, the experts, think. Remember, my friend has a lot of time and energy invested in learning the Adobe suite and is very reluctant to switch. Is it worth his while to include a Matrox rt.x100? Would his system be significantly less stable? Is the preview that much better (faster/higher rez) with the Matrox kit? Is there another accelerator for Adobe that is better? Does anybody know about Bluefish? They are mentioned on Adobe's site as certified for PPro 1.5.

The Matrox forums mention Canopus as an alternative card vendor, but I think that their cards are for their own software, not Adobe's. Is that not correct?

[schmosef]

Sorry, I should note one more issue. He doesn't need analog capture capability in this DV system. All of his source material will be digital/firewire.

[Dr Mordrid]

Don't depend on the Canopus Storm2 being a viable alternative, it's been out of production for some time now

It's hard to beat the RT.X100. It adds a lot of hardware acceleration, smoothing a lot of PPro's rough edes. It also makes ~60 of PPro's standard effects realtime in additon to its 300+ realtime organic wipes (VERY handy) and a similar number or DVE's.

Other useful tools include realtime color correction, including automatic white balance and chroma/luma keys, Media Tools (a terriffic batch capture tool), a great batch export module etc. etc. etc.

The list could go on for pages.

IMO if you're editing a lot of DV, especially if you're doing it for money, the RT.X100 is worth the ticket.

The downside is that not every mainboard can provide the PCI to host memory bandwidth it requires, so anyone considering an RT.X100 should use it in built for the purpose system that meets the Matrox system chipset and mainboard recommendations. They should also use a dedicated bootup (dualboot, removable boot drive etc.) for editing, which is always a good practice.

Not doing the above makes up a huge proportion of those who have problems with this card.

Dr. Mordrid

[schmosef]

Thanks Doc,

Can I ask you about stability?

I've heard a lot of people say that PPro can be unstable. Does the rt.x100 make it worse? A lot worse? Should I tell my friend to expect regular crashes?

[schmosef]

Also, I wanted to ask about platform options.

Is 64bit or dual core an advantage these days? That is, is PPro optimized to use 64bit or dual core?

Does the rt.x100 even work on 64bit Windows?

[Dr Mordrid]

IF the bootup is done using proven hardware drivers and a fresh Windows install stability is enhanced quite a bit. Sometimes new display driver builds cause problems, just as they can with software only editing solutions, so once you find one that works stick with it. If it aint broke don't fix it.

PPro isn't so much unstable as it is quirky. Many of its operations, such as scrubbing, can be best discribed as un-smooth. The RT.X100 greatly enhances these operations, making PPro better to use with an RT.X100 than without it. It ain't even close IMO.

Dual core could be advantageous as it gives many of the same enhancements as a dual CPU system, but this is all best seen in a WinXP system. Win2K's dualie performance is patchy at best.

Hardly anything works in 64 bit Windows right now, so don't even go there yet. IMO 64 bit support won't come into its own untiil M$ Vista (Longhorn) is released.

Now for the cautionary note: remember that all hardware editing cards now available are based on SD (standard definition) 4:3 & 16:9 DV video and are geared for use under WinXP, but the world is moving to HD and HDV is just the opening shot.

Because of this move to HD you're now seeing HDV software solutions coming to market with the perfect example being MSPro 8. Once M$ Vista hits the hardware HD solutions will start coming to market and todays hot hardware offerings will be left by the wayside.

Dr. Mordrid

[schmosef]

Thanks for all the info Doc.