Matrox RT.X2 and Axio add a lot of extras to Premiere Pro and this is one of the reasons they will cost more than just a simple i/o card like a Matrox Mini

They give you improved workflow, more responsive editing and a better range of effects which will play back in realtime.

Capture enhancements

The Matrox cards add quite a few enhancements to capture with Premiere Pro.

Better HDV capture

On its own when capturing HD Premiere Pro does not show you the picture as you capture and also does not do scene splitting (this is where the computer will notice when you paused the camera and make a new file for every time you did so).  With Matrox RT.X2 and Axio it will do this, which is a great time-saver.

Better editing of HDV footage

Adobe Premiere Pro can edit native HDV pretty well but you do not get much in the way of realtime playback of effects and setting up multiple layers or multi-camera timelines can be a pain.  Matrox have their own way of dealing with HDV footage - they still capture the native format but also split the original MPEG audio from the incoming picture into a separate uncompressed sound file and saves the video as a standard AVI file.  The net result is a that you get much nicer to use footage and can manage to playback a 4 camera multi-camera timeline in realtime on a decent system.  This format is special to Matrox RT.X2 and Axio so these kind of files will not playback on other systems without buying an extra gizmo called a Matrox M-Key. 

With CS3 we had issues with the way Adobe captured and played back 720P footage - which it did not do properly at all.  Matrox cured these problems.  We have yet to run extensive tests to be sure that CS4 works properly with 720P footage, although we know it will work properly with a Matrox card.

The Matrox will play back normal Adobe HDV properly as well.

Audio Levels on Capture

The Matrox cards also add in audio level display on capture - an often requested feature for Adobe but one which you only get with a Matrox card.  A Matrox Mini will also add audio levels on capture although none of the other enhancements we list here.

Matrox MPEG and Uncompressed capture

The RT.X2 and Axio can capture live into the correct format of video for a DVD.  This is standard definition only but a great time saver if all you need to do is make a DVD quickly.

The Axio will capture into 10 bit and 8 bit uncompressed as well as MPEG i-frame.  To do these definitions in HD you would need to have a very fast hard drive array in your computer like the Sonnet Fusion D800.  Uncompressed HD will take about 400GB per hour as well so you need to bear this in mind when working out how many hard drives you need.  If setting up your own RAID system to do this be very careful on the one you choose.  We know from testing the Sonnet system works, but other systems we have tested which claim that to be able support these kind of data rates sometimes do not manage to work for sustain periods.  RAID controllers built-in to system motherboards also generally fail to perform well enough for uncompressed HD.

Obviously the best way to ensure you get a system that can cope with uncompressed HD is to buy the whole configured system from us at DVC.  Please ring us for an up-to-date quote.

The Power Of X

...is a phrase invented by Matrox to explain how they use both the power of your computers CPU and the power of the processor on your graphic card to produce their range of effects. The obvious intention is to use the most of the resources inside your PC.

Matrox 3D

Premiere has a lot of effects natively but one thing it is bad at is 3D.  It has a "basic 3D" filter but it is fiddly and not good at playback.  There are also a couple of GPU-based transitions that give you nice page turns.  But Matrox add a whole new layer of 3D which works a lot better than the native Premiere effects.  All 3D is done by your graphic card - so you need a decent card with at least 512MB RAM.  If you have this then you can achieve multiple layers of 3D effects.  The 3D GPU filters include:

Matrox 3D

Fly images around in 3D with full control of X, Y and Z positions and rotation.  Handy on-screen controls means you just click on the rotate tool and reposition the image.   Everything is keyframable and it is all on the Effects Control Window so it works like every other Premiere Effect.

Matrox Shine

Generate light beams from your image - typically used to make it appear that light is shinning through a title.  It can be used on titles or still images and everything about it can be animated - so the light source can sweep across the screen, the beams can change colour and density and so on.   This effect requires quite a lot of effort from your computer graphic card so may not play back in realtime on some systems. However, it is something you cannot do in Premiere without adding another plug-in.

There are also a large number of presets to get you started for use on both text and images.

Matrox surface finish

This is another effect which uses the graphic card to do the work.  Your image is projected on to a high quality 3D surface, like a brick or block of granite which you can fly around the screen.  This works great in conjunction with titles.  You can even have the words of the title moving across the block as it flies around.  Many preset surfaces are included and everything is animatable. 

CPU based Effects

In addition to using the graphic card for effect Matrox also uses your computer processor for some.  This means you are making your computer work as hard as possible.  The CPU effect are:

Colour Correction

Matrox colour correction is excellent and includes full colour matching. Premiere Pro’s standard colour correction is actually very good too, although not quite as simple as the Matrox version and not realtime. You can use both Adobe’s standard effect and the Matrox effect in a Matrox project.

The RT.X2/Axio LE colour correction dialogue box. Note the colour pickers for removing a colour cast and for colour matching. To use these just select the colour picker and drag out a box over the colour you need to balance. The RT.X2 then averages the colour area in the box an removes the cast. It does the same for colour matching - averages the colours in a box that you need matched, which produces better results than just a one-click, as with most effects.

They actually include 4 different colour correction effects, split into two types, Primary and Secondary.  Primary colour correction means that you effect all the colours in the image, and secondary means that choose to effect only some colours (just the reds for example).  They have advanced versions of both which give you better control over the colour and brightness of the images, with control to define the sections seen as shadow, midtones and highlights and a more advance version of the luminance graph which gives you greater control of the gamma of the image.

Matrox track matte

Put a moving or still piece of video on one track and use it to determine the opacity of various areas of your main image.  Premiere does this natively but Matrox does it in realtime. 

Chroma and lumakey

Matrox keyers are much better than Premiere version - if you have After Effects you would have the non-realtime ‘Keylight’ keyer is better. However that means two things - first that you own After Effects as well as Premiere, and secondly, although it will preview as well as After Effects can manage it will not playback in realtime.   The Matrox keyer will play back instantly, even with HD footage and will be quicker to set up.  Keying in Premiere without Matrox is fairly poor.  To get a decent key without a Matrox card you will have to buy another plug-in, like Boris Continuum.

Of course, with the Adobe software you can always just pop into AE for your keying and then drop that composition straight on to your Premiere Pro timeline using Adobe’s Dynamic link.

Realtime Premiere Effects

Many of Premiere’s standard effects - practically all the wipes, picture in picture, scale to frame size - are done in realtime by the Matrox cards. All other Adobe effects preview in realtime as well, although most will have to drop frames or play at reduced quality unless rendered (this is how Premiere plays all effects without the extra hardware).  In particular the Matrox cards speed up Premiere's native motion path editor which you will use all the time for 2D pnp effects.

Matrox Timecode

Matrox took the Premiere filter which stamps timecode in frame and made it realtime.  

Matrox Garbage Mattes

Premiere has 4,8 and 16 point garbage mattes and made their own realtime versions, and added extras like feathered edges.  These garbage mattes are not an alternative to proper rotoscoping that you can achieve in Adobe After Effects, as you only have a limited number of points and no curved edges.  However the feathing added by having a Matrox card means they are a lot more usable than the native Premiere versions for things like picking out an object on screen and then making the shape follow the object.  If  you want to take a bride in a wedding video and isolate her in colour while the rest in in Black and White this will make it possible and look a lot nicer than using the version that ships with Premiere without a Matrox card.