Adobe user fav! ...Pro's/cons of losing the RT.X100

Ok, you folks are generally brutal when it comes to the rtx100 xtreme pro
capture card. I can't say I've had any trouble with it since getting back into
editing. But, with the world going to HDV, ... well, you get it.

So, I guess I have a couple of questions...

1) apples to apples on current SD DV projects, if I plucked that thing out of my
system and just went with my CS production studio premium ppro2/AE 7encore 2.0,
what do I really lose? I'm not interested in a couple of cutzie transitions. I'm
asking about viewing what I'm creating on the time line and rendering/burning to
dvd times.

2) With my system which I will list below, will I be able to produce HD product
in a practical sense for upload to the internet or burning to disc? (New Blueray
burner to be installed?)

3) With Premiere only, no rtx2, what are the limitations on mixing DV and HDV in
one project? I would be buying an HD cam; already having a Sony dvcam
(PD100a/DSR-20) and would like to do a 2 camera shoot.

4) (almost embarrassing to ask... but I've always had that capture card to
firewire connect my deck to...) Capture, I'm guessing would require I get a PCI
firewire card??? and that would be seen by ppro for capture? Did I get that
right?

Thanks for any help. But I'm guessing from the tone around here that ya'll will
enjoy helping me break my Matrox habit. :-)

And one side note: I am not a "for hire" videographer. I lecture. Then
capture the events, add titles, graphics to further depict the points and once
in the can, put copies of the product up for back table sales at future events.
Meaning, I don't have the need for fast turn-around time which quick rendering
offers, say, a wedding videographer. My products do run 1-2 hrs in length.

Current System:

P4C800 Deluxe mobo
P4 3.0
3gig ddr Dual Channel RAM
VisionTek Radeon 1950 running dual 17"
250gig SATA system drive
2 400gig SATA RAID 0 on onboard Promise as my video drive
80gig drive on IDE 1 currently Page File, but could use as export.
RT.X100 Xtreme Pro
PPro 2.0 (Complete CS2 Production Studio Premium)

Thanks,

1. Apart from losing some problems, not much.
2. No, the system is below minimum requirements.
3. With the system listed, down convert HDV in camera to DV and work only in
SD.

I work for a small video production company as their editor and computer tech.
We had the Matrox RT.X100 card installed in three of our editing systems. All
three systems were based on the Asus P4C800 Deluxe and E-Deluxe motherboards. We
used the Northwood 3.2GZ processors. Well actually one had a 2.8. We started out
with the ATI 9800 Pro cards and later moved up to the X1600 512. The X1600's
seem smoother and less glitchy. They say that even a cheap video card has little
to no positive impact when used in a video editing rig. Our hardware troubles
began when we started losing equipment plugged in at one corner of our office.
We lost our email computer and a scanner. Turned out that the neutral wire in
the building was broken at the wall outlet. Fried the PC Power and Cooling 510
Deluxe.
In January we produced a live corporate staging event at the Mirage hotel in Las
Vegas. We decided to ship our two computers and flat screens from our office in
Atlanta to Las Vegas. We got a phone quote from the shipping store of this well
known delivery service of around $500. We sent our intern over to the
"store" with our computers for packing and according to him, they
ended up on the truck and down the road before the agent presented him with the
bill which ended up being around $1000. Our producer left for the show site at
the Mirage the next morning. When our computers did not arrive in Vegas, our
producer learned that the boxes did not have "for guest...." The
Mirage refused the packages and the shipping company sent them back to Atlanta.
The shipping company had our phone number but didn't bother calling us.
Fortunately I always make triple backups for show videos and had both hard
copies and copied Premiere projects on an external hard drive. I flew out the
next day with our other laptop and managed to get all of the necessary on site
show editing done without a problem.
It doesn't end there. The show went great, the client was happy. We get back to
Atlanta and our intern goes to the store to pick up our computers that were
shipped back to us. The guy at the "store" notices that one of the
boxes has a hole in it. He opens the box for us and finds our computer was
mangled. It was a Lian-Li PC 70 server case with another of our P4C800 Deluxe
motherboards. It had 6 hard drives and the lower cage was twisted around and
broken through the acrylic side window. We took the computer back to our office.
Carefully inspected the innards, replugged wires and started it up. Everything
ran fine. We immediately bought 2 new 500 Gig Seagates and began copying
everything off of our drives. The computer was insured for $1000 and the
shipping company asked us to ship it to them for inspection. I mentioned to our
producer that it was good to get everything off of the drives because some
inspector dude is going to get his grubby little hands all over static sensitive
electronics. About a week and a half later we get the computer back and they
agree to pay us somewhere around $1100. Well they tried to straighten the drive
cage and all sorts of things came back unplugged. I spent about an hour taking
the system apart and carefully re plugging everything. I started the system up
and it ran for about 15 minutes. After that we heard a loud bang and the PC
Power and Cooling 510 was fried and smoking. It tripped the breaker and all of
the other computers in the room suffered a hard shutdown. The power supply took
out nearly everything in the case as well as the $140 APC battery backup unit.
Two weeks go by and no check. The next thing we hear is the shipping company
wants us to take the computer to a computer repair shop and get an estimate. Our
producer told me that this is the last hoop. The guy provided a written
statement roughly $800 to repair and suggested that anything left still working
probably has had its life shortened considerably. The store informs us that they
received a check from the shipping company in the amount of $600 for us. He told
them that that amount is incorrect. and that is where things stand as of today.
The next thing to go is the other computer this company shipped. The power
supply poured out smoke and of course the system was dead. It was a Monarch
Computer Hornet Pro with an Asus P4P800VM and a Northwood 3.2. Fortunately, the
only dead component was the motherboard.
Anyway, we were down to 1 editing system. You can't get an Asus P4C800 Deluxe
anymore. I found a SuperMicro server board with the Canterwood chipset and was
able to pop in the original hard drive without reinstalling XP. The board cost
us $60 but it has a bizarre set of features. Dual Gigabit LAN no onboard sound,
a load of PCI slots and no AGP or PCI express slot. At least it works and we can
get some work done until we build a proper replacement.
The other day I looked in amazement at a Fry's ad and decided to build a really
cheap system, just for the experience. The motherboard combo cost $79. It is a
ECS 945GCT with an Intel E2200 processor! I got 2 Gigs of Crucial for $22 after
rebates and an $80 Antec Power supply for $14 after rebates. With the original
Hornet Raptor 36GD hard drive and some other parts we had on our shelf,
including a Matrox RT.X100 card, I was able to build a complete system for
around $139. Just for the heck of it, I put the hard drive from the old fried
computer in the new ECS 2200 system as is. I was surprised that it booted into
XP. I uninstalled the old chipset drivers and a load of other old drivers and
replaced everything with the appropriate stuff and this system runs GREAT!!. It
has never crashed and even the quirky Matrox RT.X100 card works flawlessly. At
least so far. Those RT.X100 have been nothing but trouble for us... damaged
project files, large project crashing issues, export to tape issues, you name
it. Personally I would only use the RT.X100 for adding effects to small segments
of video and sometimes capturing Analog. Other than that, stay out of the Matrox
mode in Premiere.

I brought a 4 minute AVI clip into Premiere Pro 2.0 on my Asus P4C800 Deluxe -
4GB of Crucial PC3200 Ram - Northwood 3.2 processor system. I added Shadow
Highlight, Auto Color, Auto Contrast and Posterize. The Render time for the
aging Asus system was 20 min. 15 sec.

I brought the same 4 minute clip with the exact same effects into Premiere Pro
2.0 on my new $78 bargain basement Fry's motherboard combo; ECS 945GCT - 2GB
DDR2, with the lowly E2200 Intel processor. The render took 9 min. 32 sec.

We bought the P4C800 Deluxe video editing systems with the 3.2/3.4 Northwood a
few years back, as many of you did . I think we paid upwards of $1500 for the
system.
In March 2008, our systems get their @ss's kicked by a Fry's $89 special.

Our Asus boards at work seemed to last about 4 years of constant use with a good
power supply. The common first sign of a failing board in our experience has
been a failing on-board network chip. Two of our systems worked for about 3
months after that. As the motherboards continued to deteriorate, we would get
the "System Failed CPU Test" voice message and the "System Failed
Due to Overclocking (even though it's not overclocked)". For several weeks,
after several attempted restarts, the system will finally boot, but in a short
time, our systems died.

So basically, if you find yourself with a failing P4C800 you can buy the ECS
Fry's special. You will need RAM and a PCI Express Video card. Unless you also
use the computer for gaming, a low end dual monitor video card will do just
fine.

In my experience, the hard drive out of the Asus system will boot the ECS945GCT
with a E2200 processor. You just need to uninstall the old chipset drivers and
any other old drivers such as the SoundMax.

The same clip with the same effects took 7 min. 4 sec. to render on an Asus
Maximus Formula system with the Q6600 Processor and 4GB Ram. Nearly 3 times as
fast as the Asus P4C800 Deluxe with the Northwood 3.2 and 4GB PC3200 Ram.