The Matrox Axio, a high end, broadcast quality capture card, has been available for over a year. The LE version is capable of editing DV, DVCPro 25 and 50, HDV, DVCProHD, and SD and HD through SDI.
It is also capable of simultaneous SD and HD output through SDI and will give Adobe Premiere much greater and more professional support than it is capable of on its own.

Inputs and Outputs

Axio LE inputs and outputs are housed on an external, rack mountable, breakout box which has: DV/HDV/DVCProHD, composite, Y/C, HD/SD analogue component, and HD/SD SDI input and output, 2-in/6-out AES/EBU audio, 2-in/6-out XLR audio, 2-in/6-out SDI embedded audio, and a 1/4” output jack for stereo monitoring.  The i/os are the biggest thing which differentiates the Axio from the RT.X2.  Using an Axio you can capture uncompress HD footage in 10bit qualitythrough HD-SDI.  To do so you will need a decent RAID system as these kind of files will be 400-500GB per hour and at a very high data rate.  You can achieve the same levels of quality buy using a cheaper Black Magic card but the latter do not have the levels of accelerations that come with the Axio.

What is the difference between the Axio and the Axio LE?

Matrox produced two different versions of the Axio originally, and there were some advantages to buying a full Axio rather than the Axio LE.  however as technology has evolved so have the cards and now there is no real difference between the two and no reason to buy the more expensive Axio.  At DVC we only sell the Axio LE.

MPEG I Frame

Like the RT.X2, Axio LE will edit in MPEG I-frame, as well as IBP MPEG2. The MPEG I-frame will maintain the quality, whilst keeping the file sizes reasonable.

Performance

Axio LE performance is slick and responsive, even with native HDV files. It can happily mix a number of formats on the timeline, including HD and SD clips. In addition to a lot of inputs it also has lots of outputs which include HD out from Premiere Pro via SDI and component. Axio LE will also output both SD and HD at the same time, but only if you have an SDI HD monitor.  To see the full details on the performance enhancements the Axio adds to Premiere Pro click here.

Formats Supported by Axio LE