Matrox MXO2 ! Now with Output and INPUT!!!

bigbossbmb

bigbossbmb

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The new MXO looks amazing and definitely has some very generous upgrades.

I'll definitely be looking hard at one of these.
 
Must buy, definetly. Gives AJA's IOHD a run for its money, and a lot less expensive. Ideal for low budget productions!
 
Yeah, I definitely give this the edge (for me) over an ioHD or a Kona card. This gives me the I/O and allows for the calibration of consumer displays. To get that with the AJA or Blackmagic products, you'd have to add a Blackmagic HDLink for another $500.
 
Saw it today. Seems like it will be nice (just a box with connections for now, not hooked to anything). Not all that portable as opposed to the original MXO size wise.

Technology moving forward...
 
Guys, can anybody check this out alive for us?

I liked the specs a lot. I almost bought a MXO last week (ouch!), since i need a monitoring solution for my laptop.

The only difference i see on the MXO (comparing to its new brother) is that it has a DVI output. Matrox still list both of the models. So is Matrox betting on HDMI output to a LCD TV display as a cheap monitoring solution? MXO1 (let's call it this way) has LUTs for ACD Dell etc... how can we expect to get the same excelent results from a LCD (TV) display?

If someone can ask these questions it would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers,

Eduardo Serrano.
 
eduserrano said:
So is Matrox betting on HDMI output to a LCD TV display as a cheap monitoring solution? MXO1 (let's call it this way) has LUTs for ACD Dell etc... how can we expect to get the same excelent results from a LCD (TV) display?
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This sounds like an excellent question for Shane Ross, the expert around here on the MXO [1] as a monitoring solution for HD. I know I get good results using the original MXO with a 23" ACD to monitor HD in FCS.

Kevin
 
kwoff said:
This sounds like an excellent question for Shane Ross, the expert around here on the MXO [1] as a monitoring solution for HD. I know I get good results using the original MXO with a 23" ACD to monitor HD in FCS.
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yeah, and he is working on the Matrox booth. So can anyone over NAB annoy Shane just a bit and ask this? He wrote on twitter he was going to blog about it...
 
From Matrox site: "For use with Intel-based MacBook Pros and Mac Pros"

-Does this mean it doesn't work well with iMacs, and I have have to upgrade my computer?

And how about the DVI output? I was particularly planning to buy MXO for color correction purposes with the Apple Cinema display with precise pixel-to-pixel mapping. I don't think those LCD display TV's are at all "professional" even with HDMI, and an HD-SDI professional monitor is quite out of my budget at the moment... Well, I think Dell uses HDMI onnectors, do they?
 
It seems that these might be two different products, and only overlap slightly. I think using the MXO moniker is somewhat confusing... at least for me, who expected the original MXO (main function is accurate DVI monitoring) with more inputs/outputs.

Nevertheless, this is a very interesting product, and would be a great addition to indie studios. But is it compatible with PPC macs?
 
proffit said:
Does this mean it doesn't work well with iMacs, and I have have to upgrade my computer?
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It won't work at all with an iMac. It connects to the computer via PCIe (for a Mac Pro) or ExpressCard (MBP). The iMac has neither of those.

I'm interested to see what TV's Matrox recommends with this system. Before this announcement, I was looking at the Panasonic Pro Plasma displays paired with a Blackmagic HDLink and a capture card. This MXO2 would replace the capture card and HDLink. I'm so excited for this and I think it is at the perfect price point.

I'm also curious about the capture performance with a MBP. Bringing in an HD SDI signal, would a MBP be able to encode to ProRes HQ on the fly?

I'm so excited for this and I think it is at the perfect price point. And btw, 10-bit hardware conversions is a great bonus.
 
Geesh, so I guess I'll have to buy MXO before it updates to MXO v.2. It's a shame since MXO was about the only professional monitoring-conversion option for iMacs.
 
proffit said:
Geesh, so I guess I'll have to buy MXO before it updates to MXO v.2. It's a shame since MXO was about the only professional monitoring-conversion option for iMacs.
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Matrox is selling both on their site. I think they see them as different market segments.
 
MXO2 is independent of the original MXO. Matrox will continue to sell both. No rush for getting the MXO.
 
Shane Ross rescued me on my email as well. He also asked about this thread, so i guess he's going to show up here latter. Great guy btw. This is what he had to say about it:
The only difference i see on the MXO (comparing to its new brother) is that it has a DVI output. Matrox still list both of the models. So is Matrox betting on HDMI output to a LCD TV display as a cheap monitoring solution?"

I do not think that I personally would trust that. But then again, I didn't trust the ACD solution either. That remains to be seen.

MXO1 (let's call it this way) has LUTs for ACD Dell etc... how can we expect to get the same excelent results from a LCD (TV) display?

Not sure. THey have engineering working on it. But as to WHAT they are woring on...that I am in the dark.

Oh! and are we getting phantom powered audio inputs?

NO phantom power.
Click to expand...
 
I hope Shane does a side-by-side comparison with MXO and MXO2, if there are any differences in the picture quality. Especially if one is looking to buy MXO for color correcting purposes, like I am.
Looking at the MXO2 specs (from their site), I see that MXO2 doesn't have the Scan conversion mode, and it lacks the DVi artifact removal (because it doesn't use DVI). In any case the real question is if using HDMI is suitable for color corrections purposes.
 
Hey guys...sorry, busy busy booth with the original MXO and the new MXO 2. I tried posting all that I could on my blog, which was linked to. But, there are a few questions I see.

"Can this be used to capture 4:2:2 through hdmi from an HV20 for example?"

Yes. YOu can capture via HDMI as DVCPRO HD, ProRes (MacPro only) and uncompressed HD. Note how I said that ProRes was only available on the tower. This is because there is no ProRes hardware encoder on the unit...that is one thing that makes it cheaper, and what sets the AJA I/O HD apart. That unit allows ProRes capture on a laptop because of the hardware encoder. The MXO 2 cannot capture ProRes to a laptop...that ability is dependent on the processors of the mac, and it requires a quad core Intel mac, so that is MacPro only. This is what makes the unit inexpensive. On the laptop you can capture DVCPRO HD and uncompressed 8-bit. And you will needed hardware raided firewire drives like the Firewire VR or G-Raid.

The MXO 2 will not output a signal to an ACD like the MXO 1 does. They are boxes with separate abilities.

No, the MXO 2 will not work on an iMac, and BigBoss explained why very well.

I am not sure about turning HD TVs into broadcast quality monitors...that remains to be seen. I didn't believe it could be done with a computer monitor. I need to get my hands on one before I can claim anything.

The BIGGEST thing for me is that it, and the MXO, contain TRI-SYNC...meaning that you can send reference to an HD Deck like the HDCAM and D5. Normally that is a separate box, like the AJA one, run for $400. So this does ALL of this, plus tri-sync. MAN.
 
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