The Great DV Shootout 2003
Page 7 of 14
Another annoyance with the Pro-ONE RTDV: You can't see edge-dragging on your NTSC monitor. This is one of Premiere's features that I like and use often, and the other two systems support this.If you're a Premiere user, you may be familiar with edge-dragging, the convenient feature that lets you see (ideally on an NTSC or PAL monitor) your video at the edge of the clip you're expanding or contracting on the timeline. I also noticed quite a delay when hitting the space bar to see a real time effect, sometimes more than the two others. You also can't see the video on the NTSC monitor as you capture it. How hard can it be to implement these little things?
But back on the plus side, It's great the way you can hit fast forward and still view the video whizzing by. On the RT.X100 you have to use the shuttle control, and it's very slow, and if you click the fast forward or rewind button, you can scan the footage. Another pleasant surprise was the unique Scene Cutter. Patrick was right -- this is fast and easy. This is a neat trick. It's a filter that you drop on a clip with multiple shots --say you grabbed all the footage on one tape in one long capture. Scene Cutter detects the scene changes and then gives you a storyboard with all the different shots lined up. As is always the case with Premiere's Storyboard feature, you can edit each shot within the storyboard, and then Automate to Timeline using the default transition. Here, I changed the default transition to Pinnacle's Cross Dissolve RT, and all the shots were automated to the timeline in real time with a one-second dissolve between each clip. It could be a nice timesaver if you're really in a hurry and know you want to use all the shots on a tape. Or it would be a great alternative to Pinnacle's tedious scan-and-then-capture auto-capture routine, a process I found cumbersome and twice as much work as the single-pass autocapture routine on both the DVStorm2 and the RT.X100. Unfortunately, Pro-ONE doesn't let you designate an in-point where you would like the scanning to begin -- it just starts from the beginning of the tape. Let's hope this whole dumbed-down process gets a little more intelligent with Pro-ONE's next update.
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Patrick Beaulieu, Pinnacle Systems:The DVStorm is a product that may look good at first sight, but it falls short in many basic editing aspects that can limit your creativity. Keyframeability is practically absent. Effects like PageCurl or DVEs can't be applied to 32-bit graphics or titles! (a shame!!) Its Title Motion filter effect is limited to very simple slide-in or fade presets. It doesn't allow you to preview your work on the analog video output while you're making edit decisions within the plug-in interface. Its new PIP effect is only available as a transition so you need to use very complex and non-friendly tools like virtual clips to achieve multiple PIP effects!
RT.X100 represents a significant improvement in Matrox' product line, however many users are complaining about its limitations. Combining effects in realtime is very restricted, there is no support for the VIA chipsets and the user only has a basic interface for 3D effects compared to our Hollywood FX. There is no Image Stabilizer, no Motion Tracker, no way to edit or preview MPEG-2 files, and no on-board audio hardware, which results in audio card compatibility issues and potential A/V sync problems.
Charlie's Comments:I agree, It is a shame that you can't apply 3D effects to graphics or titles in the DVStorm. But the keyframing on the DVStorm has improved over previous iterations, although it's still not perfect. Look at the graphic below, and you'll see that there are plenty of changes you can make to the page curl effect, for example, along with extensive keyframability. But yes, its Title Motion filter is severely limited. However, because of its limitations it doesn't take up much processor power and can be layered to tremendous levels.
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| Canopus has improved the keyframing ability of DVStorm2 with its 3DRT feature. However, some of its filters and its text motion functions have very little keyframing ability at all. By the way, that's my lovely new wife Denise in the picture there. |
I didn't notice any A/V sync problems with the RT.X100, and to avoid compatibility issues I would certainly use one of the machines recommended by Matrox if I were to install their card. In fact, let me assert here that everybody who's considering one of these cards should visit their chosen hardware company's Web site and be absolutely certain that the computer to be used for the system is on the "approved" list. These cards can be persnickety about which motherboard and chip set they'll tolerate, and each company has lists of these components which are compatible with their systems. Beyond that, I think it's probably a good idea to have a professional systems integrator put together a turnkey system for you, so you can spare yourself the grief of troubleshooting one of these configurations. While you're at it, the integrator might be able to offer you some training, too. Anyway, as with all these systems, it does take a lot of processor power to make the RT.X100 really sing, but then, processor power comes relatively cheap these days.
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