Matrox Axio. Release Notes. March 18, vy

Transcription

1 Matrox Axio Release Notes March 18, 2008 vy

2 Trademarks Marques déposées Warenzeichen Marchi registrati Marcas registradas Matrox Electronic Systems Ltd.... Matrox, Axio, Axio.utils Adobe Systems Inc... Adobe, After Effects, Photoshop, Premiere eyeon Software, Inc.... Fusion Microsoft Corporation... Microsoft, Windows, Video for Windows Panasonic (Matsushita Electric Industrial Co.)... Panasonic, DVCPRO HD PCI-SIG... PCI-SIG, PCI Express, PCIe Pipeline Digital, Inc.... Pipeline ProVTR Sony Corporation... Sony, DVCAM, HDV, XDCAM Victor Company of Japan, Limited (JVC)... JVC, HDV (English) All other nationally and internationally recognized trademarks and tradenames are hereby acknowledged. (Français) Toutes les autres marques et tous les autres noms déposés reconnus nationalement ou internationalement sont également reconnus par les présentes. (Deutsch) Alle sonstigen national und international bekannten Warenzeichen und Produktnamen werden hiermit anerkannt. (Italiano) Eventuali altri nomi di prodotto menzionati in questo manuale sono dei proprietà di rispettivi produttori. (Español) Por medio del presente se reconocen todas las demás marcas y nombres comerciales reconocidos a nivel nacional e internacional. Copyright 2008 Matrox Electronic Systems Ltd. (English) All rights reserved. (Français) Tous droits réservés. (Deutsch) Alle Rechte vorbehalten. (Italiano) Tutti i diritti riservati. (Español) Reservados todos los derechos. Disclaimer Matrox Electronic Systems Ltd. reserves the right to make changes in specifications at any time and without notice. The information provided by this document is believed to be accurate and reliable. However, no responsibility is assumed by Matrox Electronic Systems Ltd. for its use; nor for any infringements of patents or other rights of third parties resulting from its use. No license is granted under any patents or patent rights of Matrox Electronic Systems Ltd. Unauthorized recording or use of broadcast television programming, video tape, or other copyrighted material may violate copyright laws. Matrox Electronic Systems Ltd. assumes no responsibility for the illegal duplication, use, or other acts that infringe on the rights of copyright owners. Matrox Electronic Systems Ltd St. Regis Blvd., Dorval, Quebec, Canada H9P 2T4 Tel: (514) Fax: (514) World Wide Web:

3 Contents About these release notes... 1 Visit our website for the latest downloads... 1 What s new in this release?... 1 Installing Matrox Axio.utils version If you have problems updating Adobe Premiere Pro CS3...2 Connecting the internal power supply cable to your Axio LE PCIe card...3 Improving performance when capturing embedded SDI audio on Axio LE...4 Creating Matrox EZ-HDV AVI files for playback of large HDV clips with VFW applications...4 New options in the Matrox Playback Settings dialog box...5 Exporting multiple audio tracks to an.mxf file...6 Exporting to a generic OP1a.mxf file...6 Selecting your MPEG-2 settings...8 Exporting to tape using Pipeline ProVTR RS-422 device control.. 10 Issues when working with long or complex projects Sluggish user interface issues...11 Low-memory issues...11 Suggestions for dealing with sluggish user interface and low-memory issues...12

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5 About these release notes These release notes provide a list of new features and other important last-minute information applicable to Matrox Axio.utils version 3.5. This information supplements the Matrox Axio Installation and User Guide (September 12, 2007) and the Matrox Axio Readme. 1 Visit our website for the latest downloads To ensure that you have the latest software updates and documentation available for your Matrox Axio system, check the Downloadable files section for Matrox Axio on the Matrox Video Support website at Our website also offers up-to-the-minute information about Matrox products, access to our user forums, and special promotional offers. What s new in this release? Matrox Axio.utils 3.5 provides the following new features: Support for the new PCI Express (PCIe) version of the Axio LE card. This card can be installed in a PCIe x4 (or greater) slot that has been electrically wired with at least four lanes. This card also requires an internal power supply connection as explained in Connecting the internal power supply cable to your Axio LE PCIe card on page 3. All other system requirements and features for this card are the same as described for Axio LE in your Matrox Axio Installation and User Guide. Matrox EZ-HDV AVI utility for support of large HDV.avi files in Video for Windows (VFW) programs, such as Adobe After Effects. For details, see Creating Matrox EZ-HDV AVI files for playback of large HDV clips with VFW applications on page 4. Audio conforming is no longer required for most clips in your Adobe Premiere Pro projects. The following new options are provided on the General page of the Matrox Playback Settings dialog box to allow you to customize how you want to work with your Adobe Premiere Pro projects: $ Suppress creation of PEK files Lets you suppress the creation of audio waveform (.pek) files for imported clips. $ Postroll after stop Lets you determine whether or not you want any postroll when you stop the playback of a sequence. $ Optimize memory usage Lets you reduce the amount of system memory that Matrox Axio allocates to work with your project. For details on these options, see New options in the Matrox Playback Settings dialog box on page 5. About these release notes

6 2 Support for exporting 5.1 audio channels to.mxf files for Adobe Premiere Pro sequences that have a 5.1 master audio track. For details, see Exporting multiple audio tracks to an.mxf file on page 6. Improved audio quality for captured HDV clips. Most of the Matrox effects that support scaling (resizing) of your clips, such as 3D DVEs, now have an Enhance Sharpness slider that you can use to adjust the sharpness of your clips. Installing Matrox Axio.utils version 3.5 If you have a previous version of Matrox Axio.utils installed on your computer, you must uninstall it by choosing Start > All Programs > Matrox Axio.utils > Uninstall Matrox Axio.utils, or you can choose Uninstall Matrox Axio.utils from the Matrox Axio menu on your Matrox Axio installation DVD. You must also choose to remove the Matrox effect patterns when prompted. Important Before installing Matrox Axio.utils version 3.5, you must install Adobe Premiere Pro CS3. Both Adobe Premiere Pro and Matrox Axio.utils must be installed on an NTFS-formatted drive (usually your system drive). After installing Adobe Premiere Pro CS3, you should install any other third-party programs for which you want to install the Matrox WYSIWYG plug-in, such as Adobe After Effects, Adobe Photoshop, and eyeon Fusion. To install Matrox Axio.utils, choose Install Matrox Axio.utils from the Matrox Axio menu. For details on installing Matrox Axio.utils and other Matrox Axio software, see your Matrox Axio Installation and User Guide. If you have problems updating Adobe Premiere Pro CS3 If you try to update Adobe Premiere Pro CS3 to a later version with Matrox Axio.utils installed on your computer, you may receive a message that the update was unsuccessful. If this happens, you should temporarily stop the Matrox WYSIWYG plug-ins. To do this, right-click the icon on your Windows taskbar and choose Exit. You can then run the Adobe Premiere Pro updater again. To restart the Matrox WYSIWYG plug-ins, choose Start > All Programs > Matrox Axio.utils > Matrox WYSIWYG Control Panel. If the Premiere Pro update is still unsuccessful after you ve stopped the Matrox WYSIWYG plug-ins, you ll have to uninstall Matrox Axio.utils, update your Adobe Premiere Pro CS3, and then re-install Matrox Axio.utils. Installing Matrox Axio.utils version 3.5

7 Connecting the internal power supply cable to your Axio LE PCIe card The PCIe version of the Axio LE card requires power from your computer s internal power supply. An internal power supply cable is provided to connect your Axio LE card to your computer s internal power supply. 3 Attach the female end of your internal power supply cable to the male connector on your Axio LE card. Internal power supply connector The installation instructions for the PCIe version of Axio LE are the same as described for Axio LE in your Matrox Axio Installation and User Guide, with the following exceptions: You must install your card in a PCIe x4 (or greater) slot that has been electrically wired with at least four lanes. Once you ve installed your card in an appropriate PCIe slot, you must connect the male end of the internal power supply cable to a free power outlet of your computer s power supply. Connecting the internal power supply cable to your Axio LE PCIe card

8 4 Improving performance when capturing embedded SDI audio on Axio LE To improve performance when capturing embedded SDI audio on Axio LE, you can select an option to process only one audio pair for the capture. For example, if you experience dropped frames when capturing embedded SDI audio on Axio LE, you can set your audio source to SDI (embedded audio) - One pair only. You can then select any one of the four available SDI audio pairs to be captured. Creating Matrox EZ-HDV AVI files for playback of large HDV clips with VFW applications The file size limit for playing back HDV.avi files in VFW applications is 2 GB. For example, when you play back a large HDV.avi file in Adobe After Effects, the clip stops playing at the 2-GB point. To overcome this limitation, you can use the Matrox EZ-HDV AVI utility to create small.avi files, and the associated mono.wav files, that reference your large HDV clips. These reference HDV.avi and.wav files will play back completely in your VFW application. Note For HDV clips that have a frame size of , the created reference HDV.avi files will have a frame size of and a pixel aspect ratio. To display these files correctly in Adobe After Effects or Adobe Premiere Pro, you ll need to use the Interpret Footage command to change the pixel aspect ratio to 1.0. You can configure Matrox EZ-HDV AVI to create only video files, only audio files, or both types of files. By default, Matrox EZ-HDV AVI is set to create both video and audio files. To create Matrox EZ-HDV AVI files: 1 In Windows Explorer, right-click the desired HDV.avi file (or selected files), and choose Matrox EZ-HDV AVI > Configure. 2 In the Configure Matrox EZ-HDV AVI dialog box, specify the type of files you want to create (video and/or audio), and click OK. The created reference files will be named Filename_Ref.avi, Filename_Ref.Mono1.wav, and Improving performance when capturing embedded SDI audio on Axio LE

9 5 Filename_Ref.Mon2.wav. For example, if you re creating both video and audio files for a file named Demo.avi, your reference files will be named Demo_Ref.avi, Demo_Ref.Mono1.wav, and Demo_Ref.Mono2.wav (only mono reference.wav files can be created for stereo HDV clips). Note The file type settings will remain in effect until you change them. 3 Right-click the desired HDV.avi file (or selected files), and choose Matrox EZ-HDV AVI > Create. Your reference.avi and.wav files will be created in the same folder as your source.avi files. Important Once the Matrox EZ-HDV AVI files are created, do not change the location or name of the referenced HDV.avi files or your VFW program won t be able to locate your original HDV clips. If this occurs, Matrox Axio will display an appropriate error message. New options in the Matrox Playback Settings dialog box The following new options are provided on the General page of the Matrox Playback Settings dialog box to let you customize how you want to work with your Adobe Premiere Pro projects: Under Audio Waveform File Creation, you can select Suppress creation of PEK files if you don t want.pek (audio waveform) files to be created for clips imported into your project. Doing this provides faster editing of your project immediately after importing clips, but because Premiere Pro needs the.pek files to draw the audio waveforms for your clips, you won t see the waveforms in the Timeline panel. You can clear this option later if you decide that you want to display the waveforms, but you ll need to restart Premiere Pro and open your project again in order to create the required.pek files for previously imported clips. Under Sequence Playback, clear Postroll after stop if you don t want any postroll when you stop the playback of a sequence. When you do this, the playback will stop at the current-time indicator, and you ll see a slight jump in the video output when the playback stops (but the correct frame will be displayed). Under Memory Usage, select Optimize memory usage to reduce the amount of system memory that Matrox Axio allocates to work with your project. Although this optimizes memory usage, the changes in memory management could affect realtime performance depending on the content of your project. If you experience dropped frames, try clearing this option to see if the performance improves. New options in the Matrox Playback Settings dialog box

10 6 Exporting multiple audio tracks to an.mxf file When you export an Adobe Premiere Pro sequence to a Matrox.mxf file, you can choose to export more than two audio channels if your sequence has a 5.1 master audio track. In the Export to Matrox MXF dialog box, the Audio Channels list will be enabled and you can select the number of audio channels that you want to export. For example, you can select 2 channels to export stereo audio, or 6channels to export 5.1 audio. Depending on the type of.mxf file and compression format that you selected for the export, such as Sony XDCAM with DVCAM or MPEG HD compression, you may be able to export only four audio channels instead of all six. In this case, the three front channels and left rear channel of the 5.1 audio will be exported. For details on exporting to a Panasonic P2 or Sony XDCAM.mxf file, see your Matrox Axio Installation and User Guide. For details on exporting to a generic OP1a.mxf file, see the next section. Exporting to a generic OP1a.mxf file You can export your Adobe Premiere Pro sequence to a generic OP1a.mxf file as follows: 1 Choose File > Export > Matrox MXF. 2 From the File Type list, select Generic OP1a. Exporting multiple audio tracks to an.mxf file

11 7 Note Exporting to a generic OP1a.mxf file is supported only for NTSC, PAL, 50 fps and fps, and 1080i projects. 3 From the Range list, select Entire Sequence to export your entire Premiere Pro sequence, or Work Area Bar to export only the area selected by the work area bar. 4 Select Export Audio if you want to export both video and audio (the Export Video option is always selected because Matrox Axio does not support audio-only exports to an.mxf file). 5 From the Compressor list, select the compression format you want for the export: Note The SD and HD formats available depend on your project s video format. The format is shown in brackets beside the codec name, such as [NTSC]. Only supported formats will appear in the Compressor list. $ Matrox DVCPRO HD Renders video to DVCPRO HD format (supported only for 1080i projects). $ Matrox MPEG-2 Renders video to MPEG-2 I-frame or IBP format using a selected MPEG-2 profile and data rate. Note If you re exporting an NTSC or PAL project, the compressor will be set to Matrox MPEG-2. 6 If you selected Matrox MPEG-2, click the Configure button and from the displayed dialog box, select the settings you want for the video compression as explained in Selecting your MPEG-2 settings on page 8. 7 From the Aspect Ratio list, select the aspect ratio you want for your exported video: $ 4:3 Exports video to the standard TV screen format. If you re downconverting HD video to NTSC or PAL, the video will be exported in letterbox mode. $ 16:9 Exports video to the widescreen 16:9 format. If you re downconverting HD video to NTSC or PAL, the video will be exported as anamorphic (horizontally compressed 4:3) video. Note When exporting to an HD format, the aspect ratio is set to 16:9. 8 If you re exporting audio and your sequence has a 5.1 master audio track, the Audio Channels list will be enabled to allow you to export either two or four audio channels. If you select 4 channels, the three front channels and left rear channel of the 5.1 audio will be exported. 9 Click the Browse button to select the drive, folder, and file name for the export. Exporting to a generic OP1a.mxf file

12 8 10 Click Export to perform the export. If you want to use the exported files in your Adobe Premiere Pro project, you will need to import the.mxf files manually to the Project panel. Selecting your MPEG-2 settings When you select the Matrox MPEG-2 format to export video to a generic OP1a.mxf file, click the Configure button to display a dialog box similar to the following: 1 Under Compression Type, select one of the following: $ MPEG-2 I-frame Renders video to MPEG-2 intra-frame format. $ MPEG-2 IBP Renders video to MPEG-2 IBP format. 2 Under Data Rate (Mb/sec), you can select the encoding type and data rate for the MPEG-2 compression. $ Encoding type From this list, select one of the following: Constant bit rate (CBR) Video is compressed at your selected target data rate, which is useful when you need to limit or predict the size of Exporting to a generic OP1a.mxf file

13 9 your.mxf file. However, if your video is very complex (such as scenes with many colors or sharp edges), you ll need to select a high data rate to avoid having frames of very blocky video in your file. Variable bit rate (VBR) Video is compressed at varying data rates based on the complexity of the video. The target data rate you select is used as the average data rate for the compression. $ Min, Target, and Max sliders Use these sliders to select your desired data rate. The higher the target data rate you select, the better the video quality will be. Only the Target slider will be available if you selected Constant bit rate (CBR). If you selected Variable bit rate (VBR), all three sliders will be available so that you can set the minimum, target, and maximum data rates for the video compression. Note The maximum target data rate varies for SD and HD video and depends on your selected encoding type and MPEG-2 profile (see below). 3 Under GOP Structure, you can customize the GOP structure for the MPEG-2 IBP compression as follows: $ GOP length Determines the number of frames in the GOP (Group of Pictures). $ Subgroup length Determines the subgroup length of B-frames and P-frames in the GOP, after the initial I-frame. For example, a subgroup of 3 appears as BBP, and a subgroup of 2 appears as BP. The available subgroup lengths depend on your selected GOP length. 4 Under Profile, select one of the following MPEG-2 profiles: $ 4:2:0 This profile uses 4:2:0 luminance/chrominance sampling and is suitable for broadcast transmission and distribution on DVD. $ 4:2:2 This profile uses 4:2:2 luminance/chrominance sampling and is suitable for high-quality distribution and archiving. 5 Under Motion Estimation, drag the slider to adjust the quality of the motion estimation used for the video compression. The default setting gives good results for most video. However, if you have a lot of fast motion in your video, such as fast-paced sports footage, you can get better results by dragging the slider to the right (towards Slow/High quality). This improves the quality of the motion estimation, but decreases the speed of the video compression. Alternately, if you have mostly slow-paced video, you may want to drag the slider to the left (towards Fast/Low quality) to decrease the quality of the motion estimation and speed up the video compression. 6 Click OK to save your settings. Exporting to a generic OP1a.mxf file

14 10 Exporting to tape using Pipeline ProVTR RS-422 device control The Pipeline ProVTR plug-in for Adobe Premiere Pro lets you control your VTR while performing export to tape operations. You can purchase Pipeline ProVTR directly from Pipeline Digital, Inc. For information about setting up Pipeline ProVTR RS-422 device control, see your Pipeline ProVTR User Guide. To export your sequence to tape using ProVTR RS-422 device control: 1 Open the project and activate the sequence you want to export to tape. 2 Make sure your VTR is properly connected, turned on, and set to Remote mode. 3 Load a striped recordable tape into your VTR. 4 Choose Edit > Preferences > Device Control, and select ProVTR 7.3 from the Devices list. 5 Click Options and make sure that the ProVTR setup options are correctly set as explained in your Pipeline ProVTR User Guide. 6 Choose File > Export > Export to Tape. For more details about exporting your sequence to tape using Pipeline ProVTR device control, see your Pipeline ProVTR User Guide. Important Before disconnecting your device, make sure that you turn off the ProVTR device control by setting the device control to None or selecting another type of device control. As well, make sure that your device is properly connected before you select the ProVTR device control. Exporting to tape using Pipeline ProVTR RS-422 device control

15 Issues when working with long or complex projects When working with long or complex projects in Adobe Premiere Pro, there are two types of issues that may occur: sluggish behavior of the user interface and low-memory issues. The following sections describe these issues and give some suggestions on how to help avoid them. 11 Sluggish user interface issues While editing in Adobe Premiere Pro, such as when trimming clips or adjusting controls for a Matrox color correction, the user interface may be slow to respond and you may get the Updating Timeline message. For example, while trimming or scrubbing a clip or selecting new colors in the color balance graph, the video preview may freeze or be slow to update. Once this happens, you may have to wait up to two minutes for the video preview to resume. Low-memory issues There may also be times when your system is running low on memory. Each process in Windows XP can use a maximum of only 2 GB of memory, regardless of the amount of physical memory (RAM) you have in your computer. This means that whenever Adobe Premiere Pro needs to perform a very memory-intensive operation, there s a chance that you ll encounter one or more of the following symptoms of low memory: Non-realtime segments of the timeline are output as red video. This occurs when you preview clips, export clips to disk, or export clips to tape. You get errors or Adobe Premiere Pro crashes when you do any of the following: $ Open a project, start Adobe Title Designer, start the Project Manager, or open the Capture or Trim panel. $ Copy and paste large sections of a sequence. $ Start an export to disk or a loop playback after a long editing session. If you experience any of the above low-memory issues and you re still able to work in Adobe Premiere Pro, immediately save your project or choose File > Save As to save a copy of your project, and then quit Adobe Premiere Pro. Issues when working with long or complex projects

16 12 Suggestions for dealing with sluggish user interface and low-memory issues You can avoid most low-memory issues by making sure that you select Optimize memory usage on the General page of the Matrox Playback Settings dialog box (choose Project > Project Settings > General, and click the Playback Settings button). The following are additional suggestions to help you avoid sluggish user interface and low-memory issues: In Windows Control Panel, double-click the System icon, click the Advanced tab, click Settings under Startup and Recovery, and then click Edit. Depending on your Axio hardware, make sure that the following text is present in your boot.ini file on the line directly below [operating systems]: For Axio HD or SD: /3GB /USERVA=2500 For Axio LE: /3GB /USERVA=2700 If needed, update the text or add it to the end of the line and save the file. Note If you re still experiencing low-memory issues on an Axio HD or SD system with the /USERVA value set to 2500, you can try increasing the value to 2700, but be aware that this may cause your system to spontaneously restart or display a blue screen. If this happens, restart your system in safe mode and change the /USERVA value back to Break your large or complex project into multiple sequences, or into two or more separate projects. Trim your clips as you build your sequence. For example, after adding a few clips to the timeline, preview and trim the clips if needed before adding more clips. Try to avoid trimming clips in the middle of a sequence. While editing and before saving your project, make sure that you have only one sequence open on the timeline (preferably a small sequence). Open only the sequence you want to edit, and close it before opening another sequence. Important To free up the system memory, you may need to save your project with only a small sequence open (not longer than about 15 minutes), then quit and restart Adobe Premiere Pro. Issues when working with long or complex projects

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