MXO2 Mini capture to Laptop?
 

Is anyone using the MXO2 Mini to capture from HDMI to a laptop? If so, can you please tell us about your experience?

Wow, why is no one talking about this product? What am I missing?

What about using a HD-SDI to HDMI converter to go from an EX1 to the Mini? I am getting the Mini tomorrow or the next day and was thinking of using it this way also since its 10-bit whereas something like the Intensity Pro is only 8 bit.

However, to record to laptop thru HDMI, you would need an external Raid box(for uncompressed) and/or a very fast CPU for rendering the captured video to Matrox Mpeg.

I have an ASUS Core Duo with six gigs of ram and I was thinking about a G-Raid with an esata connection. Do you think that would work?

I am currently using a Sony Z5, and are immediately considering investing some money in a the most powerful laptop I can afford (windows, something mobile nehalem i7 based) and a Matrox MXO2 Mini.

Would hard disk write/transfer speeds limit me much in the highest bitrates I could record to using a laptop? As I doubt a laptop using a RAID array and the rest of the specs I am looking for will be within my budget.

Anyone had any experience with this?

Also I would love to see some images from a Sony Z5E captured directly instead of the annoying HDV compression, anyone done this?

How about the G-Raid ESATA hard drive, has anyone had any experience with it and a laptop?

I've used the Matrox MXO 2 mini to capture a few of our shows using a MacBook Pro with Final Cut. With ProRes standard quality you'll be able to get full 1920x1080 on one of the newer MacBook Pro units. I never thought I'd see the day when we could capture this kind of quality for $449. I've captured both through HDMI and through component. Here's an example of one of the shows we captured with component from our realtime hardware keyer - keep in mind that an external G-Drive Mini dropped frames. We had to use a 2 drive RAID 0 G-Drive to capture.

I've also used the AJA IO Express with the Panasonic HPX170 and HD-SDI. It's $999 if your camera has HD-SDI, it's the way to go as it is shipping now. Matrox is coming out with a similar model soon called theMatrox MXO2 LE

Guy,

If I can pick your brain for a moment...

Both the BlackMagic Design's Intensity Pro and Matrox's MXO2 Mini specify that they are really intended to work with Adobe's Premier Pro on the PC side of things. Does Adobe Premier Pro have a capture utility that would allow capture to any of Adobe's codec's? And if so, which codec's?

Thanks in advance.

Not sure on the PC side, but on the Mac side with Premiere CS4, if I choose capture, both my AJA IO Express and the Matrox show up as Sources. I can then hit the Compression Tab and choose the various codecs; everything from XDCAM, DVCPRO HD, Uncompressed, ProRes, Photo JPEG, Animation, they're all there. Should be the same on the PC, well, minus ProRes.

Hope this helps,

Thanks Guy.

Just to clarify, the Intensity Pro doesn't show up as a possible source in Premier Pro? Or it's just not installed for you to try with?

Ah, I'm on my MacBook Pro (laptop) so only AJA and Matrox work on those. I'm sure that Intensity Pro would show up as a source on my desktop Mac with the PCIe card installed. With the Intensity Pro, you also get a simple capture utility with limited codec choices. I made a video of it awhile back YouTube - Intensity Pro The cool thing about the Matrox line is that you can add Max for H.264 acceleration. I bought the Matrox CompressHD PCIe card which is a standalone Max accelerator, but you can get say for instance, the Matrox Mini with Max for another $400. Here's a video of what Max does http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ErU-cs1S0Kw

I was aware of their capture utility. The reviews I've read of their MJPEG capture were less than the greatest. I was hoping for the possibility of some form of 1920x1080 MPEG2 60i/30p capture at a better quality level.

I normally use Vegas. I just downloaded Adobe's Premier Pro Trial to play with :-)

Keep in mind that the MXO H264 acceleration is not available while recording. You need the separate PCIe card for that. AFAIK

Here is what I know so far:

I had the Mini hooked up for about 2 days and now its a paper weight because it has caused many problems. First, editing in Premiere is a bit slower. With the Mini hooked up to a 32" LCD and two 20" LCDs for the desktop, I have Premiere stretched across both screens with the timeline across the entire bottom and the Source & Program monitors on the 2nd screen. With the Mini, I do not see anything in the Source and barely anything in the Program - I only see the video in the 32" LCD connected to the Mini. Also, switching from the Source to Program and vice versa, the Mini takes a couple of seconds to switch. This slows me down as I usually adjust the Source video and drag onto timeline. Just dragging onto timeline and then being able to do anything else takes at least 5-6 seconds with the Mini. And add a couple more seconds switching back to the Source monitor.

Second, here is the worst for me, you must use a Matrox preset for the sequence to use the mini. The bad part is that sequence does not work well opened on a computer without the Mini connected and powered on. AND my After Effects does not work anymore. It keeps crashing.

To answer the question about capturing with the Mini: it only captures to their MPEG2 I-frame from 50-300Mbps.

If you still are serious about getting the Mini, go to Matrox's forums and read all the problems people are having.