> C'mon folks! Seems like this is (or should be) the topic of the nanosecond.
>
> Let's hear some informed and opinionated debate about the merits of these 2 new hardware options. Which one should I buy? Everybody seems to love Kona... IO is obviously not Kona, but is it good enough to be the One to Get? Is it worth twice as much as the Matrox?
>
> Inquiring minds want to know...
>
>
Hi David,
I am using the MXO2 Mini, mainly because it was the only choice prior to MC 5.5. It is a great little box that works with Media Composer, Final Cut Studio and the Adobe CS5 apps. I get no conflicts (using MC5) with the other apps and have not seen any crashes and such due to the Matrox. I have occasionally seen video freeze through the Matrox in spots in the sequence where MC indicates it may have issues playing (based on the coloured stripe at the top of the timeline). But certainly not a show stopper for me.
One plus of the MXO2 mini is that if you are on a tight budget, you can use any HDMI TV and calibrate the screen within the limits of the TV because the Matrox will output blue only, so you can tweak the output with bars. They claim that you can make any TV a broadcast monitor. Yeh, right. But at least you are as good as the TV can handle. The down side is that there is no SDI out if you want to use something a little more high end. I am using one of those cheap Sony LMD-2110w monitors that has HDMI. For what I am doing, it is sufficient and gives me Euro-standards that a Best Buy TV won't.
One potential downside with Matrox—they are slow at times with drivers. I had the original MXO with Final Cut Pro and was forever waiting for drivers when there was an OS or software update available. I mean 6 months at times. I HOPE that is not the case with this product. Looks like I spoke too soon. I just went to the Matrox forums and there is an issue with the HDMI calibration utility. It looks like all HDMI is not equal and they have issues with accuracy. I use the blue setting on my monitor, so I did not notice, Here's the typical Matrox drill - This was posted as a known issue on January 13 and here we are the end of March, and it is still an issue for a major feature that they push as being an advantage for their product.
MXO2 mini is essentially a monitoring device and does it well, Your only input options are HDMI and analog, It does not do VTR control either. It is 10 bit and will up down and cross convert in real time, You can monitor HD and SD at the same time.
If you want to double the price, you can add the MAX chip that will encode h264 faster, but only with Matrox specific codecs. Apparently it also accelerates effects in Premiere CS5, I don't have it. I am not in that big a hurry for output and I don't want the limitation of their codec,
For a home studio, I would still consider the Matrox. because it is cheap and well made. If they fix the calibration tool (and they will eventually), it is pretty slick, I used it with the older MXO to calibrate an Apple Cinema display into a reasonable setting. But now, I would also look hard at the AJA. i/o Express. It has full I/0, including SDI with embedded audio and machine control (assuming Avid enabled this). If you need to use a cheap HDMI TV, you can calibrate it with bars using an astronomical blue wratten filter over one eye for $20. Works fine. I use this for my TV at home. At least you won't wait 6 months for a driver for it to work right as with Matrox.
And if Avid is reading this, it was the MXO2 mini and AMA that brought me back to Avid. If and when Avid supports the full AJA i/oHD, the rest of the organization will likely come back to Avid because that is what we are using with Final Cut Pro suites now. We have a server full of Final Cut Pro digitized media in Finland and we record OB and studio to Prores on AJA KiPro recorders. AMA makes the potential for the return to the promised land much easier. I have had great success with AMA, MXO2 mini and FInal Cut Media with all kinds of mixed frame rates and sizes.
I hope this helps.
Dennis
Dennis Kutchera
Great Commission Media Ministries
www.gcmministries.com
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