| Update Features New Real Time, Keyframeable 3D Effects and More |
| Here's a review of the RT2000 MEGA Pack by Digital Media Net Senior Producer Charlie White |
MONTREAL, CANADA (Dec. 6, 2000) -- Matrox Video Products Group today announced that the RT2000 MEGA Pack has begun shipping after an extensive beta testing program that involved over 1000 of the nearly 30,000 RT2000 owners worldwide. A super set of the RT2000 editing platform, Matrox RT2000 MEGA Pack brings the total number of real time effects powered by the Matrox Flex 3D technology to over 1,000. Three entirely new classes of effects include particles, distortions, and 3D tile transitions. In addition, real time effects now feature keyframeable perspective settings for even more creative freedom. MEGA Pack also provides a variety of new productivity features, 1394 tools, and other product enhancements.
"I
bought one of the very first RT2000 cards in February and have used it
in my small production company just about every day since. With
each new effects pack and service pack Matrox has given me new features
and improved stability, but this new MEGA Pack release is really amazing,"
said Francois Dompierre, RT2000 beta tester and co-owner of Kangoo
Films. "Just the effects alone double the value of my RT2000
and the other new features save me so much time, I'm pumping out more
projects than I ever imagined, including DVDs and video for the web."RT2000 MEGA Pack brings the total number of precreated effects to over 1000. They can be used as is, or as a starting point for complex creations created using the new keyframeable perspective settings. Real time 3D particle effects include explosions, shatters, and shaped cut outs controlled by real-world attributes such as gravity and dispersion. Distortion filters include shimmers, waves, bevels, shower door effects, and many others that can be applied to video or graphics in real time. 3D tile transitions slice video into a myriad of tile and slab patterns that rotate, flip, swirl, pivot, or spin to reveal the next clip.
New productivity
features
RT2000 MEGA Pack includes a variety of new productivity tools including:
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Direct capture to MPEG-2 IBP format for DVD authoring
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Matrox File Converter utility to facilitate distribution on the web, video servers, and networks
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Matrox Video Player for play back of Matrox audio/video files directly on computer display and video monitor at full frame rate
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Windows Me support
New 1394 features
RT2000 MEGA Pack features new and improved 1394 support including:
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1394 hot swap
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Four-channel DV audio support
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DVCPRO support
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Analog MPEG-2 I-frame or IBP capture with DV-1394 device control
Other product enhancements
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Improved A/V sync on both analog and 1394 capture and improved over-all stability
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Improved audio scrubbing
Matrox RT2000 is a dual-stream native DV and MPEG-2 nonlinear editing product. It provides true three-layer real time editing with real time broadcast quality 3D digital video effects, powered by Matrox Flex 3D technology. MPEG-2 output for DVD authoring, support for a variety of web-streaming formats, along with 1394 and analog video output for tape distribution, round out the editing system. The complete MEGA Pack bundle includes the RT2000 codec card, the Matrox Millennium Flex 3D Edition graphics accelerator, an audio/video breakout box, and a complete software suite -- Adobe Premiere for real time editing, Inscriber Title Express for professional titling, Pixélan Video SpiceRack Lite for real time organic transitions, Sonic Foundry ACID Music for audio editing, Sonic Solutions DVDit! LE for DVD authoring, and Ulead Cool 3D for 3D text creation.
About Matrox
Flex 3D
Matrox Flex 3D is a fully programmable architecture that applies 3D
texture mapping to video in real time using a Matrox 3D graphics accelerator
chip and graphics memory. Motion video or graphics are treated
as source textures and mapped onto polygon-based 3D shapes such as page
curls, planes, and particles. Broadcast-quality effects are achieved
using special features that are built into the 3D-accelerator chip and
exploited through the Flex 3D architecture:
Streamlined data paths between the graphics accelerator and the codecs allow multiple streams of uncompressed video to be interfaced directly.
High chroma bandwidth RGBA or YUVA 4:4:4:4 processing combined with high-precision YUV to RGB and RGB to YUV color space conversion maintains high-quality video and produces sharp, crisp effects.
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Full alpha channel support enables linear keying.
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Hardware-accelerated, compression-free internal processing enables multi-layer compositing of an infinite number of graphics and video layers, full of effects, without multiple generation loss.
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Tri-linear and anisotropic filtering ensure high-quality video scaling and rotations.
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Sub-pixel precision guarantees ultra-smooth DVEs and transitions.
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Anti-aliasing ensures smooth edges.
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True environment-mapped hardware bump mapping produces an unlimited variety of effects.
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Control over ambient and spot lighting produces true reflections in 3D space and enhances realism.
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Field-based processing ensures high-quality effects without motion artifacts.
Matrox Video Products Group creates digital video hardware and software for real time editing, DVD authoring, and web streaming applications. For more information visit matrox.com/video.
