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Matrox DigiSuite MAX vs. Matrox RT2500: The $5000 Difference
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But you don't necessarily need them -- without the breakout boxes you can just use snake-like breakout cables that are plugged into the DigiSuite card. These snakes can be a mess, but if you switch input and output sources only once in a while, they'll do just fine. However, most dealers just sell the video breakout box along with DigiSuite equipment, mainly because it's a nice convenience item that appeals to the engineering types who regularly purchase these units. As for audio, its breakout box isn't sold as often because station engineers usually pass their audio feeds through a mixer, which serves as a breakout box.
 | | (Click graphic for enlargement) Matrox MediaTools -- the best autocapture software I've seen |
There were quite a few new features just introduced with DigiSuite LX MAX 7.0. But one that unfortunately hasn't been implemented yet is Windows XP support. Although Matrox says most customers of DigiSuite are reluctant to upgrade to a new OS, since my testing showed that XP is a full 10% faster than Windows 2000, and is also more stable, I wish Matrox would hurry up and get its XP update ready. On the plus side, all DigiSuite MAX platforms now sport real time DV out for version 7.0, even when you're coming from M-JPEG. Another new feature I really like is the availability of Matrox MediaTools (see graphic at left), a DV-only autocapture utility that was previously available only on Matrox's lower-end RT2500 cards. I thoroughly tested this one-pass scan and capture utility against many others, and found it to be the best available. It's more efficient and was able to recognize all the shot changes on the tapes I used. Other new effects were also introduced with version 7.0, including real time blur and mask. And now, the correct time code is now embedded in MPEG2 streams, important for DVD, and this time code accuracy can be either from the timeline or from the tape from which you're capturing.
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I also like the way DigiSuite blends in well with a high end production facility. In a production house or TV station, devices throughout the plant are frequently synchronized with each other, so that each can be used along with the others. For example, in all TV stations where I've worked, the character generator (CG) was the device to which all the others were synched. When all the other devices, like VTRs, cameras and still stores, were synched to each other, in the control room during a live broadcast it was possible to dissolve from one to the other without the video shifting or color information getting garbled. So, if you want to use any device on line, it needs to be, in effect, tapping its foot to the same beat as the others, or genlocked. We called this "clockism," most call it house sync. DigiSuite can be genlocked internally or externally to run via house sync.
What if your facility makes it a regular practice of mastering to DV tape? Unlike the RT2500 and Pro-ONE, DigiSuite LX MAX can play finished DV projects back onto DV tape in real time, and there's no effects rendering necessary. Keep in mind, though, one of our shootout participants, Canopus DVStorm could also do this, but it lost out to RT2500 because it costs $300 more and couldn't cut it as far as 3D transitions were concerned. I think that if you're using DV cameras only, and you don't have any other audio equipment that uses balanced XLR connectors, if you're not ever going to need to output anything to MPEG2, or never use component video in or out, there's no need to go with DigiSuite over the RT2500 or DVStorm.
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