I just purchased a RTmac for analog capture. I paid about 480 on Ebay for it. For the price I hear the quality is excellent and looks much better than a lot of more expensive cards. Also, I can hook up two standard(not ADC) monitors and a TV/reference monitor to the breakout box.
I have no use for the real-time features of this unit, but it seemed to make sense for me to pick it up. Only problem is it doesn't work on OSX yet, but Matrox said they will be releasing the driver in late Q2.
Anyone know any drawbacks of using this setup?

Aren.

Aren,
I decided to remove my RTMac until Matrox gets its poo-poo in a pile with respect to OS-X drivers. Honestly, it's been the most disappointing purchases I've made in quite some time (at the original $1000 price, I might add). The general problem it was causing me was that it was preventing my G4 from going to sleep and/or staying asleep.

Interesting. I NEVER EVER put my computer to sleep or turn it off. When I am done I just turn off the monitor. When I am ready to use it again I just hit the power button on the monitor and it is ready to go! I do this on ALL of my computers unless I am going away for a long time. So if that was the only problem with the RTMac card, I'd never notice it.

Actually, no, the RTMac caused other annoyances as soon as I switched over to OS-X. So it sits in a box. I'd like to at least get its break-out box functionality back again someday but I'm hardly mourning.

Out of curiousity Joe, why are you so adamant about not turning off your computers?

I'm lazy! Plus, I don't like to wait when I turn the computer on.

It's probably a non-issue, but there is also the fact that objects that heat up and cool down constantly will wear out faster. By shutting down and starting up your computer constantly, the motherboard and all that COULD (not saying it will) develop cracks over time. But again this may be a non-issue.

Actually I'm wondering what reasons people have that actually shut their computers off or put them to sleep, other that saving 5 cents on the electricity bill. Other than that there really is no reason to shut off your computers. I used to shut my computers off all the time, now I leave them on (have for the past 3 years or so). I have seen little to no difference in the electricity bill.

It's a case of 6 of one half a dozen of the other. There is really no technical reason to turn them off or for that matter leave them on. I usually turn mine off as the fans make a racket and they are in an open room next to our lounge room.

On the other hand, my friend has had his linux machine running for the last 4 years without turning it off. It's his web server and it just goes, and goes, and goes, and goes...................

Some OS's, like Win9x need to be shut down occasionally as it freezes after a while, but that's not a general rule.

Sorry to mention the W word in this Mac area.

Well, y'all already know I edit on a PC but... I think it's okay for me to post here.

I've got an abnormal situation due to living out in the country: unclean electricity. Unclean, unclean! Every time the fridge compressor kicks on, the lights in the living room dim momentarily. It ain't cool! (the juice, not the fridge, which actually is cool).

Of course, this is a circa-1920 rural farmhouse. Rented. And I can't wait until we buy our own place. First thing I'm getting is a conditioned line. Clean juice. Reliable current. *New wiring.*

For that reason, the dual-CPU editor stays off when not in use. The web/general purpose computer stays on when I'm home. Everything is turned off when we're out of the house. But only because we got crappy wiring.

One of our indoor cats freaked out one day... scared out of his wits of something in the dining room. Something bugged that cat bad. Really weird. I investigated, looking for his boogeyman... expecting maybe a little snake, every once in awhile they'll get in the house. Checked out the dining room, detected a very faint burning smell, like charred wood... found an outlet plate near the baseboard quite warm to the touch. Talk about a racing heartbeat... wondering how long it would take the volunteer fire department to get out here, wondering what I could save... shut off the juice, called our landlord's maintenance guy and he told me just how lucky I was... shorted out wiring had scorched the inside of a wall, within a day or two of burning the whole damn house down. Just about to leave on a week-long trip, too... that little scaredy-cat saved our lives, or at least all our stuff. He gets to sleep on the bed these days.

Since then, very sensitive about our fragile, antique wiring... new rule: old rental house: computers off, especially when there's even a chance of a thunderstorm; new home: can't wait to leave 'em on all the time. Except for the editor, whose dual CPU's pull about as much juice as a second fridge. Power-mad Athlons...

Whoa, man are you one lucky camper!!

I hope you are using a UPS on your edit box, you'd be made not to be with wiring like that. Actually, anybody who cannot afford for a shut down should be using a UPS. I learn't the had way when a mid render shutdown destroyed my entire project, not to mention having to reformat my HDD.

Cheap insurance, won't stop your house burning down, that's what cats are for, but will give you time to save what you are working on or cancel the render job.

I goofed and wound up creating a new thread
 

...which is OK, cus we need a thread discussing UPSes. But here is the reply I originally intended to post here in this thread.

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I sure learned my lesson about UPS's ... was working here in Westport when the power browned out (yes Muffy, even in West-excusemeverymuch-port) and took my PC down hard. A complete HD reformat and reinstall of all software was not enough to exorcise all the goblins, and that CPU wound up getting swapped out (and knackered up) and a UPS got plugged in to service the new unit, never wanting to see that happen again. The Mac also has a UPS on it, and ditto at home.

Oh, as for monitors, I am currently staring at a 22-inch NEC (Mitsubishi) MultiSync FE 1250+ and ditto on the home Mac. It is a very pleasant monitor and it is FLAT! No, not a TFT flat panel like the oh-too-sexy Apple Cinema but a regular CRT, however, the front glass is flatter than the windows in Chris' farmhouse. :-) As in, hold a straightedge up to it. Really nice. The only way you know you are looking at a tube is to peer around at the (quite ample) back side of it. And for NTSC, a seasoned 13" Panasonic color monitor with front-panel switch-selectable inputs. Handy. Can borrow "home" TVs from within the building to test how the work will look on one.