Advantages of RT.X10?

[AndrewDV]

Hi,

I guess this a question for those fortunate enough to beta test the new X10. I've been using MSP6.5 and the Canopus ADVC for awhile now to edit from Hi8. The quality of the setup has made me pretty happy.

Besides the realtime FX, what advantage(s) would the RT.X10 give me?

How does it work to give professional titles in comparison to a software solution?

I see there is a color correction feature, but how well does it perform over something like the ADVC?

Is there any benefit with creation of MPEG files or do I have to still use TMPGEnc?

Really, any insight to advantages would be appreciated

I do have to say I am dissapointed that MSP is not supported. That tool is quite nice to work with. MSP is especially nice since it is compatible with Cool3D native files.

Thank you

[Dr Mordrid]

Let me address the Cool3D issue first;

You're correct in that it won't use Cool3D's native project files, but Premiere 6.5 (a free update with the RT.X cards) will load and apply an alpha channel to Cool3D's 32 bit AVI's. They won't be realtime and need to be rendered, but they do work.

I haven't beta'ed the RT.X10 but here's my take after reading the feature lists and given that it's just a reduced feature RT.X100, which I do have;

The Matrox RT cards have all been able to use Inscribers Title Express (has been bundled) or Title Motion (addon). The Premiere 6.5 bundle includes a new titler called "Title Designer", which looks for all the world like an Inscriber product. It's very powerful and works in realtime with the RT.X10 according to the specs sheet. Once you have the title designed the RT.X10's realtime (and keyframeable) 3D motion effects can be applied to make all manner of things happen. Simple and Advanced keyframing options are available.

The advanced filtering in the RT cards (anisotropic and bi-cubic) and 4:4:4 oversampling of the source files makes overlays, transitions and video filter applications look VERY clean....something that is not always the case when using software DV solutions.

The realtime colorization tool is VERY nice and Photoshop-like and includes an auto white balance button. The controls are Hue, Saturation, Contrast, Brightness, AWB as well as manual adjustment of the Cyan, Magenta & Yellow channels. You also have the choice of simple or advanced keyframing.

One thing you always hear about the Matrox RT cards is that they have a ton of transition effects. What a lot of people don't realize is that most of these are also available as video filters.

This means that a 3D Page Curl can also be applied as a video filter to make titles, images etc. curl into and out of view. Same goes for Organic Wipes and a whole slew of DVE's. The creative options are almost mind-numbing.

Over 60 of Premiere's native transitions are also implemented in realtime as well.

Premiere 6.5 comes with a built-in version of MainConcepts MPEG encoder. This thing has a full compliment of manual settings, more than Ligos or even TMPGEnc has, including a page of MUX controls. Powerful and the quality is very good.

That said you can still use the VideoServer frameserving tool (videotools.net) and send the timeline directly to TMPGEnc if you want.

Also hugely advantageous feature is Matrox's MediaTools. This capture utility does realtime scan, log and batch capture in one pass. Once done you can then export a basic Premiere project file that will import them automatically.

It also does stop motion and time lapse capture from either analog or digital sources to DV files. It can also capture stills as either *.tga's or single frame *.avi's (useful for applying realtime effects between 2 images).

Any other questions?

Dr. Mordrid