Matrox Video Capture Cards

The Matrox MX02s are external i/o devices for use with different editing programs. They can be used on either a desktop or laptop (with the appropriate card) and you can have other interface cards on different computers so you can move the same MXO2 between different machines.  They add analogue and digital i/o to Adobe Premiere Pro and Apple Final Cut Pro.  The Matrox MX02 Mini can also be used with Avid Media Composer 5 & 5.5. Please note it is only the MINI that works with Avid, not the MX02 LE, MX02 or MX02 rack.

MX02s and Adobe Premiere Pro

With Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 MX02s only added a range of inputs and outputs.  With Premiere Pro CS5 they also add a range or realtime effects which includes colour correction, track mattes, timecode and chromakey.  If you buy the MAX version of any of the MX02s these effects will be in realtime.  With CS5 you will get realtime playback of native Adobe effects using the right kind of graphic card using Adobe's Mercury Playback Engine.  If you do not have the right kind of card for the Mercury playback engine Matrox effects will still be in realtime - which means you can still have realtime colour correction etc on a system with a lower spec (and cheaper) graphic card, or a laptop.

Drivers for Adobe Premiere Pro CS5.5 now available!

On 20th June Matrox released their first drivers for Adobe Premiere Pro CS5.5.  These drivers also added some new features and enhanced old ones.  They are only certified for use under Windows 7 64 bit - not for Windows Vista 64 bit.  Adobe Premiere Pro CS5.5 can work under either Vista 64 or Windows 7 64; the best operating system to choose is definitely Windows 7 64 bit.

What is the difference between the MX02 range and Matrox RT.X2 and Axio?

With Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 there were significant differences in performance and ability between the older Matrox cards and the new MX02s.  With CS5 this is no longer the case - a Matrox MX02 Max will perform exactly the same as the RT.X2 and Axio.   Matrox will not be providing drivers for the RT.X2 and Axio to work with Adobe Premiere Pro CS5.5 - CS5 is the last version that will work with these two cards as they were discontinued some time ago.  Media captured on old Matrox RT.X2/Axio systems with CS2, CS3 or CS4 will open in a Matrox MX02 based system - even the Matrox HDV files which traditionally only work on systems with the RT.X2/Axio installed.  Old projects should open as well, although the Matrox GPU effects which are no longer available with CS5 & CS5.5 will be removed.    For a limited time there is a loyalty discount for owners of the older Matrox cards, when buying a Matrox MX02.  Click here for more information.

Take it to the MAX...

You can buy each MXO2 in a MAX version. The MAX have an inbuilt H264 encoding chip to make Blu-ray discs fast. The MAX version works on both PC and MAC.  The MAX encoding works using Adobe Premiere Pro, Adobe Encore and Adobe Media Encoder, on MAC or PC, Apple Final Cut Studio 3 on the MAC, and directly out of Avid Media Composer (the Avid support is currently ONLY on the Apple MAC, not PC version)

If you buy the non-Max version of the MX02 you cannot upgrade the actual MX02 box to a Max version, however you can add in a Matrox Compress HD board which will add both the fast H264 encoding and enable the extra real-time performance.

AVID MEDIA COMPOSER 6 & the MATROX MX02 range

With AVID Media Composer 6, released in November 2011, the entire range of Matrox MX02s are supported for both playback and capture.  With previous versions only the Matrox MX02 MINI was supported, and even then you could not capture with the Mini, only playback.  Now with the release of MC6 this has changed and all of the MX02s do everything.

You capture directly inside of Media Composer into any of the main MC formats such as DNxHD, uncompressed (if you hard drives are faster enough) and many other codecs.  You can capture up to 8 channels of sound if required.

Output off the timeline includes some special settings for STEREOSCOPIC projects.  None of them output FULL quality frame-packed 3D but can do SIDE-BY-SIDE and TOP/Bottom so you can monitor the edits properly on a 3D screen.

What is the difference between the MXO2s?  And what does the MAX bit mean?

There are 4 MXO2s with Max and non-MAX versions available.

• MXO2 Mini - SVIDEO, composite, component and HDMI in and out.
• MXO2 LE - as above with HD-SDI and can run off a battery (not supplied with battery)
• MXO2 - like the LE but with 5 phonos for surround sound out (the MX02 is only available in the MAX version).
• MXO2 rack – a rackmounted version of the LE (the MX02 is only available in the MAX version).

The Max version has a special chip for H264 encoding (both HD and SD).   In a computer that would take 3 hours to encode and hour of video for Blu-ray the MAX chip would take 1 hour (i.e. realtime). The MAX chips works in Premiere Pro and in Adobe Encore.

The non-MAX versions will still make H264 files for Blu-ray, but they use the standard Adobe Premiere way of doing so, which means how long it takes depends on the speed of your computer - typically taking 2-3 hours to encode and hour of footage.

MATROX RT ACCELERATION

Matrox have always added acceleration to Adobe Premiere Pro as well as ins and outs.  The same is true with the MX02.  With CS5 you only get the extra acceleration if you buy the MAX version of the MX02, with CS5.5 every MX02 adds extra acceleration.

|Matrox accelerate dealing with certain files types and also include their own range of effects. This is similar to the effects found on previous Matrox products (such as the RT.X2).  If you have an old project using Matrox colour correction then this should still be there when you open the project in CS5.5

Matrox range of effects are are:

• Colour correction (better than the Adobe Premiere version and much easier to use to correct a badly filmed shot)
• Chromakey - very good realtime Chromakey, similar to the new Premiere keyer, ULTRA, and better than the keyers in all previous versions of Premiere Pro.
• Luma Key
• Track matte
• Gradient wipes

The list opposite shows the full list of Matrox accelerated effects.

Click here for here are full details of the effects available.

Matrox XTools

The  MX02s come with their own capture program for capture and playback, similar to the XTools program that used to be supplied with the old Matrox RT.X100,. Alternatively you can capture using the editing program (Adobe Premiere Pro or Final Cut Pro). The XTOOLS program is only available on Windows, although Matrox have developed a different program, called Vetura, for use on the Mac.

You can capture from any of the inputs on the MX02 into 2 different Matrox AVI types. You either choose to capture footage uncompressed, either 8bit or 10bit, which will give you the best quality but take up a lot of space (400GB per hour for full HD footage) or capture into Matrox MPEG I-frame.

For uncompressed footage you will need a very fast hard drive RAID system since a single drive will not be fast enough for uncompressed footage. Matrox I-frame, as it is compressed, can be captured on to a normal hard drive. The amount you compress the Matrox I-frame can also be varied from 50MBS (low quality with HD footage) to 300GB (for the best quality)

High quality 10-bit hardware scaling

Matrox MX02's dedicated 10-bit hardware scaling engine provides high-quality capture and playback in the formats you need, no matter what you started with. It can take footage and downscale/upscale in realtime using the hardware.

• HD to SD downscaling—Matrox MX02provides realtime HD to SD downscaling with proper conversion of the HD colour space to the SD colour space and proper aspect ratio conversion to anamorphic, letterbox, and centre cut. You can monitor or record an SD master of your HD project in real time.
• SD to HD upscaling—Matrox MX02 provides realtime SD to HD upscaling with proper conversion of the SD colour space to the HD colour space.  MX02 will "pillarbox" 4:3 footage and scale 16:9 SD footage to full screen.
• Cross conversion—Matrox MX02 offers realtime cross conversions from 720 to 1080 and 1080 to 720.

The MX02 will output both HD and SD from an HD timeline at the same time - HD out of the HDMI socket and SD via component, composite or SVIDEO.  All the work is done by the MX02 and does not downgrade the performance of the editing at all.  Normally anyone producing an HD version of a project will have to produce an SD one as well - with the MX02 you can view both when editing so you do not get a sudden surprise when the edit is encoded.  This function works on all the MX02s, and inside Adobe Premiere Pro, Apple Final Cut and Avid Media Composer.

HDMI Calibration utility

A common questions we get from users is how do they set up their video monitor properly so they know what they are seeing is correct?  If you buy a broadcast screen it will be preset, but a broadcast quality HD screen is going to cost around £2,000!  If you use a lower cost screen, such as the 22" LG M227 screen we recommend how do you know what are the correct settings for brightness, contrast and colour?  To solve this Matrox have introduced a calibration utility so you can configure your LCD screen properly.  This is not a simple "stick up a graphic and fiddle with the controls" utility - it has several pages (all on screen) of tests to carry out with simple instructions on how you should adjust the screen to get the best quality image possible.  This utility is unique to Matrox and an extremely useful addition to the software.  It is part of the basic software all MX02s have so works with all the editing programs.

Realtime capture into H264 (MAX boards ONLY)

If you have a MAX version of the MX02 you can capture live into H264.  This is not a great format for editing, although if you have an up-to-date computer a program like Adobe Premiere Pro will take the footage and use it quite happily, but is great of all you need to do is take some footage and burn a Blu-ray disc or put it on the Internet.

Using the MX02 on a Mac

The MX02 will work on an Apple Mac computers or PCs. On the Mac, Matrox MX02 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 MX02 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 MX02 hardware on both PC and MAC.