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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

Matrox MXO and MXO2 test

i will run some tests.
 
Meryem,

First of all, MXO2 can scale the input with its hardware scaling. It lets you choose from SD4:3, SD16:9, 720p and 1080, also you can select from letterbox, center cut and anamorphic when you are inputting HD down to SD. Also, it could do reverse pulldown upon input scaling. So that is when you are capturing, it takes SD signal and upres to HD, or takes HD and downres to SD. Whatever MXO2 converts to, then you can capture with the converted format with FCP.

Next, when you are monitoring the FCP timeline, open timeline feature of FCP rescales your clips to the timeline you're working with, and timeline to the selected video output format. So that is more via FCP's open timeline's ability to rescale.

Lastly, upon outputting via MXO2, you can say downres from HD to SD, play 23.976 material in 29.97 (pulldown insertion) or upres SD to HD. The same scheme for the letterbox, centercut and anamorphic fit is provided and the choice of 2323 or 2332 pulldown (no 2224).

I'd say you would have to do some software conversion especially I don't know how 24p would work.

Hope you find some of your answers here.
 
Thank you very much. That is quite helpful. It kind of confirms that scaling occurs through I/O, which would only work if I had the ability to back these out to tape and re-ingest, which is kind of what I thought. It's sometimes hard to figure out what these cards and boxes do from reading the information online, it is too abstract to answer specific questions, but you've covered that for me, and I appreciate it.

I figured out how to do reasonable job of scaling and frame blending using a combination of Compressor and MPEG Streamclip, which are cleaner methods than relying on the open timeline...the FCP software conversion is a bit rough around the edges.
 
Meryem,

You are welcome, if you're buying from now then I suggest to look at the Max version. That will accelerate the H.264 encoding really fast, so will be useful to send smaller clips over the network or burning to blu-ray.
 
New complete R3D workflow using MXO

New complete R3D workflow using MXO

I posted another thread about my new, more complete workflow using MXO.
 
Anybody using MXO2 with FCP 6.0.6?

I was capturing SDI from RED with 1.5 firmware and FCP 6.0.5. without problems.
After installing 6.0.6. I lost HDMI monitoring during capture. Playback is working, but capture is without HDMI output.
 
Apple says FCP6.0.6 is recommended to all users but doesn't concern about third party products, so you should be careful, but glad it's working for you.
 
I received the MXO2 mini Max from Matrox and started testing while I'm waiting to render the feature film job.

I have it set up with MacBook Pro and LaCie 2big Quadra (firewire 800 connection) and it pretty much does everything you need for R3D proxy editing, providing 24FpS monitoring through HDMI, also works with Apple Color. Then you can render as 10-bit 422 or prores to send back to FCP and you can do online editing on FCP using MXO2 mini to monitor on HDMI again (remember to apply the master gamma value of .0810810). Then I want to create a rush as h.264 footage, I can use the Max portion to encode H.264 file very very fast. I can even save time preparing H.264 for blu-ray near realtime (I suppose). Very nice and affordable solution.
 
I use Multibridge Pro when I have to do 444. But my DP guy uses MXO2 with R3D all the time because he mainly does music video so the maximum he needs is 10-bit 422.

MXO2 advantage is clearly demonstrates that it could be connected to Mac Book Pro (most likely HP DreamColor laptop in the future, too). If you are to handle 444 format all the time and you have dual-link capable display, then Multibridge Pro would be more feasible. I'm bugging Matrox to come out with 444 capable I/O since ProRes4444 is very accessible to everyone.

And lastly, if you stay with FCS2, especially, the LUT feature of Multibridge Pro would help you to monitor and handle the gamma right in Apple Color (although that can be manipulated with master gamma in the Primary output paprameter with MXO2 or any other video I/O without LUT).
 
I think new MAX (Peter Majtan's box with REDROCKET)) could be more attractive to R3D native and mobile work then MXO2 right now(!?)

So Multibridge Pro + REDROCKET (Decode and debayer 4K R3D files realtime) with FCP3 (edit, grade, vfx, sound) still stay as a serious (4:4:4:4)

conform>>output option for the rest of us who can't afford big guys like (Pablo, DaVinci, DVS Clipster, Lustre, Smoke, Scratch, Nucoda, Filmlight, etc...).

I'm about making short films (shot digital with RED1) and those have to be recorded to film later (festivals, distribution, etc..)...
 
If you are working strictly for RED then something made for RED is obviously advantageous for RED production.

Are you finishing in 2K or 4K?
 
Kaku Ito said:
If you are working strictly for RED then something made for RED is obviously advantageous for RED production.

Are you finishing in 2K or 4K?
Click to expand...

My target is 4K but for now 2K is still enough.
 
Sanjin Jukic said:
My target is 4K but for now 2K is still enough.
Click to expand...

I discussed and confirmed with Graeme, that when you finish in 2K, using half-high debayer would give sharper image because Graeme had specially programmed resizing and enhancing that works better than resizing from full-debayered 4K scale down to 2K later.

Since half-high debayer is provided in REDLINE only, you won't be able to achieve the same sharpness out of Color. So in this case, I would do baselight using clipfinder, render out using FCP MXL with Monkey Extract, then do full grading with Color.
 
Kaku Ito said:
I discussed and confirmed with Graeme, that when you finish in 2K, using half-high debayer would give sharper image because Graeme had specially programmed resizing and enhancing that works better than resizing from full-debayered 4K scale down to 2K later.

Since half-high debayer is provided in REDLINE only, you won't be able to achieve the same sharpness out of Color. So in this case, I would do baselight using clipfinder, render out using FCP MXL with Monkey Extract, then do full grading with Color.
Click to expand...


Half-high debayer is also available in Final Cut's Log and Transfer.

So what you are saying is that Color always uses Half standard debayer when grading via the RED tab?
 
Luca Immesi said:
Great Kaku.
Click to expand...

Luca, I think the mastering mode works really well, but the Green, Cyan and Blue levels are strange in this beta. That screws us to use with the Clipfinder so I reported Matrox to get their attention. But we most likely use RED ROCKET for developing from now on though.
 
Luca,

The MXO color profile is not good on Snow Leopard. sRGB IEC61966-2.1 works better.
 
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