RT2000 ...6 months later

[jeff b]

Paul Bailey, in a recent post on rec.video.desktop, said that he downloaded the beta 5 drivers for RT2000 and found that this had handled all the bugs reported in beta release 4. He also speculated that, since Matrox will apparently be submitting beta 5 to Adobe for certification, this will probably be the release version for the first week of February.

It also looks like Ulead's MSP version 6.0 may be up for a February release, too. That makes for an interesting month, doesn't it?

[DaddyBay]

Yahoo!!

[This_Idiot]

Well I'm interested in Paul Bailey's work too, since he contacted me (as a supplier) and gave me a lot of information that I could have published.

I did ask him to name other sources to which he was pushing information, since It's pretty ludicrous for me to try and claim exclusives when he has published all over the web. He didn't reply, which insinuates that he isn't interested so much in consumer rights as pushing the product.

All of this, of course, has no bearing on the product itself, but I would urge you all to be somewhat carefull of independent (and unsubstantiated) claims of excellence.

I might be maligning the author of the article in question, but I'd ask you all to be carefull over the rumours that you accept, reject, or treat with caution.

[DaddyBay]

I'm sure that Matrox would have much preferred to release the RT2000 on time. Instead they are taking the extra time to get the bugs out of the drivers. Speaking as someone who plans on buying an RT2000, I can tell you that I don't care how late it is as long as it works as advertised when it is released.

It seems to me that this is a better long term strategy for Matrox. If they rushed the RT2000 out the door full of bugs, then the many people buying it for a business would be very upset, and likely go to some other company for their next NLE solution. OTOH, no matter how late it is, if it works well, then those who buy it will go to Matrox first when it comes time for a new system.

[jeff b]

Paul's had a few posters taking issue with his motives over on the NG's, to be sure. I don't know him at all, so all I can say is that his posts indicate that he's basically a positive and optimistic type of person.

The bottom line, though, is that Paul is just one out of an endless flow of posters that have an opinion to offer. The more opportunity anyone has to sift through this stuff, the more likely one may come away with some feel for how good or bad any particular product might be.

For me, I'm on the fence regarding whether I'll spend any money on a new card. I mean, it's beginning to look like MSP version 6.0 may be all I need to work with DV and a cheap-o 1394 card (which I already have). The only difference that I see looming is whether I want to spend more money to render certain types of transitions faster. Also, if it ends up looking like it's worth the money to have hardware encoded MPEG-2, then that might make the difference for me, with the RT2000.

If the RT2000 had been released early last fall, however, I would've rushed right out and bought it. Now, though, there is going to be another less costly alternative to DVRaptor, DV500, and RT2000, if all you really want to do is work with DV.

I mean, why spend big bucks when you're not doing NLE professionally, and you don't need the time saving features? As long as the quality of DV isn't compromised, the only difference is speed.

Well, maybe not the only difference... there is also the compatability issues, complexity of setting things up, and all that, too. I mean, the IEEE-1394 port works just fine on my computer right now. DV flows perfectly in and out of my camcorder to the computer. The only thing I'm missing is the software that will take care of the Type 1 vs Type 2 issue.

In the end, what I'm keeping my eyes open for is something about the more expensive solutions that will make the cheap solution less desirable. If the quality of the final product going back out to tape is not an issue, it's going to take something very 'GEE WHIZ' and WOW! to spend $1200 (USD) at this point. I mean, I spent less than that for a whole new computer!

The bottom line here in this thread, however, is that the RT2000 was announced at the beginning of August... Paul Bailey or no Paul Bailey, Matrox has certainly managed to remain true to their past performance in being late, late, LATE!