The Video Advisor - A one stop resource for independent film making and video production advice

Matrox RTX.100 Editing System
by Andrew Lock

Matrox have truly come a long way with their editing products.  In just a few short years since the Marvel (who remembers that one), we have seen progressively enhanced capabilities with the RT2000 and now the RTX.100.  Comprising a PCI hardware card, a breakout box, and Adobe Premiere software, the system is a dream to work with.

Matrox says: “The Power of X – that's what we call the ability of the new generation of Matrox products to leverage the scalable power of your CPU with the explosive performance of dedicated hardware for the ultimate real-time video editing experience.”

So what Matrox are saying is, if you have a reasonably fast computer, you can get real-time previews of your project, as you edit. The Power of X makes this the most powerful real-time product on the market. You can combine up to 16 effects in real time on two layers of video and two layers of graphics in real-time!

It's been our experience that Matrox has achieved tremendous stability.  Even with a project that lasts over an hour long, Premiere stays responsive throughout.

Something else worthy of note is how Matrox stays active in their user forums.  Post a question that is sensible and you will receive an answer from a Matrox technician, that's far more than can be said for some other companies.

With easy to use, powerful tools like real-time color correction, chroma key, 3d effects, speed control, PAL/NTSC and SECAM compatibility, MPEG-2 hardware encoding and much more, it makes editing a joy rather than a chore.