Summary
With the RT.X2, given enough underlying computer and graphics-card horsepower, there isn’t much in the basic Premiere Pro toolkit you can’t do in real time and in two layers at once in HDV— plus more in SD
Target Apps
Editors who want real-time performance but whose projects typically top out at HDV production
What It Costs You
$1,995 list price (bundled with Premiere Pro) plus a qualified computer (my Dell XPS600 cost $2,500)
What's Cool
Across-the-board acceleration, including color correction, keying and supers; support for the multi-camera module; WYSIWYG for the associated Adobe Production Studio apps
What's Missing
RT transitions palette is rather skimpy; online forum not a great resource
Ratings: Products are rated for features, performance, ease of use and overall value.
Smart Advice
To make the RT.X2 run effectively requires hat you outfit it with one of a very small list of approved systems or components (found on the Matrox Web site). The RT.X2 leverages processing power out of both the CPU and the graphics card.
Matrox includes a function that every edit system should have— a software switch that limits black video to the NTSC-standard 7.5 percent black level and clamps whites at 100 percent.
You have to admit, there’s something compelling about Adobe Premiere. While there’s no drought of capable PC-based editing software, Premiere holds the singular distinction of being the only one to have third-party manufacturers building accelerator cards for it consistently. I edited for years with Premiere 6.5, using a Canopus DVStorm card with great success. At the same time, Matrox and Pinnacle were also in that market. After Canopus decided to drop support when Premiere Pro came out, it was time to make a choice. Happily, Matrox stepped up to the plate with not one, but two solutions: the previously reviewed Axio (November 2006) and its slightly little brother, the RT.X2.
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3D DVE
Position your clips anywhere in 3D space while adding soft edges and gradient borders in real time.
Chroma keying
Upsampling and advanced noise reduction ensure clean chroma keys even with DV and HDV material shot in less than optimal lighting conditions.
Color Correction
If you have a timeline in Premiere Pro with any of the Matrox Flex CPU effects and you copy/paste the timeline into After Effects, the Matrox effects will remain intact. This is a huge time saver, given that these effects are real time in Premiere Pro.
Comments (1) for "REVIEW: Matrox RT.X2"
1.
I have a Panasonic HVX200 with p2 cards. Does the RT.x2 support that camera the way Canapus does
Posted by Philip Dichtenberg on Wednesday, July 18, 2007 @ 12:01 PM
