The Mini MX02 is an external capture device for Windows.  It works with Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 and can be used on either a desktop or laptop.  It comes with either a PCIe card for a desktop or an express card for a laptop.

It will capture through HDMI, component, SVIDEO or composite into Matrox I-frame format AVI files or uncompressed 8 bit files.  It will work at sizes up to 1920 x 1080 in both progressive and interlace.   It would also output the same footage to a monitor or TV connected to the breakout box.

The Mini comes with its own capture program, similar to the XTools programthat used to be supplied with the old Matrox RT.X100, for capture and playback, or can capture using Adobe Premiere Pro CS4.

Why buy a Matrox RT.X2 or Axio when the Mini is so much cheaper?

The Mini is not like a Matrox Axio or RT.X2 - those cards don't just add extra inputs/outputs, they also add a large range of Matrox effects and improve the performance of Premiere as a whole.  Without a Matrox RT.X2/Axio card you are unlikely to see more than one layer of HDV video playing back in realtime on any Premiere Pro based system - with the Matrox RT.X2/Axio we get 4 or even more layers on a modern system. The Matrox RT.X2/Axio also increase the speed of encoding to various formats, so assist in getting your projects finished faster.   (Of course, if you have a Mini with the special h.264 chips for faster-than-realtime h.264 encoding, the Mini will be faster than the RT.X2 for this particular format.

Why buy the Mini?

The fact that it does not accelerate Premiere is one of the reasons why the Mini is cheaper.  Plus it is the only HD capture/playback device that will work on a laptop.

The Mini will capture and playback footage at up to 1920 x 1080 size, whereas the more expensive RT.X2 is limited to footage of up to 1440 x 1080 size.  The RT.X2 was really designed as a card for editing HDV, at which it excels.  You can also play back footage which was originally filmed at 1920 x 1080, and the quality is practically the same as the original, and some formats (such as XDCam-EX) will even play back in realtime.  The RT.X2 is not so good at playing back DVCPro HD or AVCHD footage, however.

Since the Mini basically adds extra i/o to Adobe and everything else is done by the Premiere software, it will play back footage just like Premiere does - which means it will play back all varieties of DVCPro HD with no problems (the RT.X2 will not) and currently plays back AVCHD better than an RT.X2 system.  The Axio is still the best at handling XDCam and DVCPro HD, and also adds extra features from these formats, like proxy editing, which are not present in Premiere.

With which laptops does it work?

The Mini is very new and so we have not tested it extensively with many laptops.  It works with both our M571 DVC laptop and also the special build of the HP8730 laptop that we sell for video editing.  The latter is particularly useful because it has an eSATA port on the laptop as well as the express card slot - so you can attach the Mini at the same time as attaching some fast external hard drives. 

The Mini MX02 will work with Windows XP32, Vista 32, Vista 64 or Windows 7 (32bit and 64bit).  As with the latest crop of Adobe software Windows Vista 64 or Windows 7 64 bit is the recommended choice. Of the two, now that both Adobe and Matrox have given it the ok, we would recommend Windows 7. Its is also better to use the 64 bit version because it works better with Adobe CS4, and Adobe have also said that CS5, due sometime next year, will only be 64 bit.

Matrox MXO2 Mini works with Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 on the PC and provides WYSIWYG support for popular applications such as Adobe Encore CS4, Photoshop CS4, and After Effects CS4; Autodesk 3ds Maxand Combustion; and NewTek LightWave 3D (32-bit versions only).

High quality 10-bit hardware scaling

Matrox MXO2 Mini's dedicated 10-bit hardware scaling engine provides high-quality capture and playback in the formats you need, no mater what you started with. It can take footage and downscale/upscale in realtime using the hardware.

• HD to SD downscaling—Matrox MXO2 Mini provides realtime HD to SD downscaling with proper conversion of the HD color space to the SD color space and proper aspect ratio conversion to anamorphic, letterbox, and center cut. You can monitor or record an SD master of your HD project in real time.
• SD to HD upscaling—Matrox MXO2 Mini provides realtime SD to HD upscaling with proper conversion of the SD color space to the HD color space. MXO2 will "pillarbox" 4:3 footage and scale 16:9 SD footage to full screen.
• Cross conversion—Matrox MXO2 Mini offers realtime cross conversions from 720 to 1080 and 1080 to 720.

The Mini will output both HD and SD from an HD timeine at the same time - HD out of the HDMI socket and SD via component, composite or SVIDEO.

Using the Mini on a Mac

The Mini will also work on an Apple Mac computer. On the Mac, Matrox MXO2 Mini lets you capture from either the analogue or HDMI input to uncompressed video or to any of the compression formats supported by Apple Final Cut Pro including ProRes.

Matrox MXO2 Mini works with Final Cut Pro, Apple Color, Adobe After Effects, and all QuickTime applications that support the V-out component.

You can use the same Mini hardware on both PC and MAC.

The MXO2 is available now.  The Mini Max is also currently available, however, there are currently no drivers available for use under Windows, only under Max OSX. Windows drivers should be released in the next few weeks. The Windows drivers will be available at no extra cost.