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Matrox has a long history of designing hardware cards that are optimized for Adobe products, dating back to its DigiSuite cards for early versions of Premiere. Throughout the development of this technology, Matrox has engineered ways to leverage the power of the computer's own processor and graphics display card. That concept originated with the company's RT.X100 cards and then migrated into Axio for Premiere Pro. The newest card, the Matrox RT.X2, builds on the engineering design of Axio to empower producers working in DV and HDV with much of the real-time horsepower of its advanced sibling.
Matrox RT.X2 is a $1,995 entry-level capture and output card that comes bundled with Adobe Premiere Pro. It is intended for the DV producer who is moving into some high-definition video production using the HDV format. Although it is designed around the Axio toolset, it doesn't offer all of the bells and whistles, so if RT.X2 doesn't do everything you need, Matrox also offers the more expensive Axio LE and Axio cards.
The RT.X2 card is a full-sized PCIe card with a tethered breakout box that houses analog and 1394 (Fire Wire) connectors. The analog connections can be assigned to pass either standard- or high-definition video, while the 1394 port is a pass-through for DV or HDV A big difference from Axio is that RT.X2 only uses compressed video. Its codecs include native HDV, DV and DVCPRO, as well as MPEG-2 I-frame at rates up to 25Mb/s for SD and 100Mb/s for HD. If you're working with Betacam SP, for example, you'll have to use the analog connections and capture to one of these codec options. One unique codec is an MPEG-2 I-frame codec that supports 4:2:2:4, which is video plus an alpha signal. This codec is designed for 32-bit keyable animations imported from After Effects and other compositing applications.
The board also includes a DVI port, which can be used to connect a 1920x1200-pixel LCD screen as an HD monitor. This configuration provides a cost-effective, pixel- accurate reproduction of your HD image. Since RT.X2 enables HD-to-SD downconversion, it is possible to edit in HD and monitor the downconverted image on a regular video monitor. RT.X2 is designed for the DV marketplace, so the breakout box uses consumer-style video...