by Tom Eason

The Matrox RT2500 includes the capture card, a breakout box and an impressive software bundle. After a surprisingly smooth installation, the first step was to capture some material from my Sony TRV-900 camcorder. I used the included FireWire cable to connect the camera to the RT2500 FireWire connector, which is not located on the breakout box, but rather on the card itself. It would have been easier to connect if the FireWire was located on the breakout box. To capture the footage, I started the "Matrox Tools" program. This application allowed me to operate the camera controls from an on-screen interface with traditional VCR-type controls. I was able to set the "in" and "out" points of the desired video clip. With the click of a button, the program automatically controlled the camera, rewinding to the correct "in" point, recording the footage on to the hard drive, and stopped automatically at the "out" point. Although the timing was occasionally off by a frame or two, this feature worked very well.

With my clips captured I started Adobe Premier video editing software, which is included in the Matrox RT2500 bundle. I imported several video clips and dragged them to the timeline. I used the A-B method of editing and overlapped my clips so that I could add transitions. In order to perform real-time transitions you must use one of the specific transitions that come with the Matrox card. There are a wide variety of transitions available, from simple wipes and dissolves to impressive particle- and 3D-type effects. In addition to these transitions, the RT2500 will perform 100 of Premier's native transitions in real-time. I felt that this was a big value-added bonus, as other real-time cards are limited to their own pallet of transitions. New transitions added to the RT2500 library may be downloaded at no charge.

I experimented with a few transitions and found the RT2500 flawlessly performed the transitions in real-time without any rendering. By double-clicking on a transition, I was able to modify it in a number of ways. I was impressed with the amount of control offered. The size, position and rotation of the video are just a few of the options and changes were immediately available for preview.

The next step was to add a text layer. The RT2500 comes bundled with "Inscriber RT" a plug-in for Premier specially designed for the Matrox that allows real-time playback of text over video. Inscriber has many options to control text color, outline and shadow. The available templates make the creation process easier, although the interface for actually entering the text seems a bit clunky. Once I had finished with my title text, and chose "Save to Premier," the title appeared on my overlay track. I could extend or shorten the length of the title by simply stretching the title on the timeline. Upon playback, the title played back on top of the video in real-time and looked very good. I was able to fade the title in and out by using the rubber band feature in Premier. These fades were performed in real-time as well. I then added a motion path to the title. This is where the real-time capabilities of the RT2500 were exceeded. While it would perform static titles without rendering, the movement of the title had to be rendered. It took less than 30 seconds to render my four-second motion path, after which the video played back in real-time.

I discovered that the RT2500 could perform a transition and a static title simultaneously in real-time. Any layering beyond that required rendering, which could be accomplished in a reasonable amount of time.

Adobe Premier comes bundled with Smart Sound Quicktracks. This is a soundtrack program that allows you to create custom-length music that will fit your timeline exactly.

Once my test project was complete I was ready to export back out to tape. I could simply play back the timeline and record through the analog connectors, but I wanted to stay digital. I discovered that in order to export the timeline back to the camera through the FireWire port, the computer needed to render the entire project. This was a bit of a disappointment, but fortunately it did not take a long time. Using the "print-to-tape" function in Premier, the computer rendered the timeline and played the footage to the camcorder.

I did have some other options for outputting my material. I could have rendered the timeline in a number of ways including compressing the video for the web, or importing it into a DVD authoring program, such as DVDit, which is included with the RT2500.

The Matrox RT2500 is a great solution for churches wanting to produce high-quality videos without great expense or headache. Installation was easy and uneventful, and the system performed flawlessly with no crashes or lack of performance throughout the entire test.