The unusually low-priced RT2000 nonlinear editing system from Matrox is now shipping, and we've had our hands on this beast, putting it through its paces.

Real time DV editing for $1295?! Huh? This must be a misprint, you say. Nope. It's the real thing, folks, and I'm here to tell you, it's smokin'! You get a lot for your $1295, too, because included in the package are the Matrox Millennium G400 graphics accelerator, the RT2000 codec card, an audio/video breakout box, the speed-enhanced Premiere 5.1 RT, Acid Music for composing your own royalty-free music loops, Cool 3D for great-looking titles, and DVDit LE to send all your creations to DVD. I spent a lot of time with this now-shipping system, and here's a preview of what you'll see (see accompanying story update about the product's recent release).

The main event with the RT2000 is its real time effects. They perform as advertised, but with a stipulation: No changes, unless it's a duration. For example, there's no ramping up or down of transition rates, no position changes of picture-in-picture effects, or no shape changes in the wipes. That's what you'll sacrifice for this rock-bottom price tag. Beyond that, an enhancement included in the RT2000 but neglected in more expensive systems is real time shadows on graphics and video. Nice. But get this: The thing also has real time 3D effects, available only as an option in Matrox's higher-end DigiSuite. At the click of a mouse, we were curling pages, perspective-flipping and conjuring up a slew of hokey-looking effects (to the uninitiated, I've never been a big fan of flying, twisting box effects).

The best part of all this is that flying around all these whiz-bang effects is done by a software-based engine. Of course, the software is accelerated mightily by the RT2000 card, but the instructions for the effects are all written in software. The advantage here is that Matrox has an ace team of software writers under its wing, and these dudes are already creating extra effects that will be available for download on Matrox's site, at the rate of a few great new effects each month. And, insiders at Matrox whispered to us that there are real time effects like shattering glass, ripples, shimmers, lens effects and embossing -- all definitely on their way.

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