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Matrox Axio HD is a high-definition video editing system combining hardware acceleration and unique video codec software that significantly speeds up Adobe?s first-rate editing software, Premiere Pro 1.5. Available only as a turnkey system in both standard-definition (about $15,000 turnkey including storage) and high-definition (about $30,000 including lots more storage) versions, Axio proves that you can edit 10-bit high definition video without a lot of waiting around for rendering. We blasted Axio through a rigorous test drive, evaluating its hardware and software features, punishing it with multiple layers of high-definition video footage. Let?s see what it can do.
For our testing, we used an HP workstation equipped with dual Opteron 275 processors. These chips incorporate the new dual core technology, so effectively we were working with a quad-processor machine. For storage, we used an extremely fast Nexsan 6TB array, which was capable of throughput in excess of 450 MB per second. In our testing, a workstation with dual Opteron 275 processors was the fastest machine we?ve ever tested. Coupled with this highly-capable disk array, we expected to see some impressive performance, and we were not disappointed.
The heart of the Axio system consists of two circuit boards that reside in two PCI-X slots inside the computer along with a breakout box on the outside where you plug in your various acquisition and playout devices. The standard definition (SD) breakout box has a variety of analog video input and outputs including composite, component, and S-Video, along with 1394 and SDI. The HD breakout box has only digital inputs and outputs, including 1394, SDI and HD SDI. On the HD breakout box there is analog video out in the form of component and RGB outputs to enable you to use a low-cost HD monitor to view the results of your edits. For your audio monitoring, there are also analog audio outputs as well.
Even though you can?t buy the boards and software apart from the workstation since this system is only offered in turnkey form, the Axio HD cards, software and breakout box cost $11,495. The SD boards and breakout box sell for $7495. It?s just a matter of an upgrade of the breakout box if you?d like to move from standard definition to high definition. Of course, you?ll probably need more storage, too, with faster throughput as well if you want to be working with high definition, so there?s a large portion of that $30K price tag. To soften the blow of upgrading to Axio, Matrox is offering special treatment for its DigiSuite users, who will get $2500 off the price of Axio HD, and for Axio SD, they?ll get $1500 off. They?ll still need to buy a new computer, though, because after all, Axio is only available from dealers in a turnkey configuration.
Axio?s claim to fame is its real time capabilities. In our testing, it was a thrill to see the amount of high definition footage through which this monster could slice. Matrox says Axio is capable of at least two layers of video and two layers of graphics, and that can be 10-bit uncompressed 1080i high definition footage. That?s the calling card that drew me to the Axio, but it got even better as soon as I saw the performance of Axio on a dual processor dual core Opteron machine. In short, the machine is able to play back real-time effects at nearly twice that speed. How could it do that? The beauty of this design is that when processors get faster, Axio gets faster, too.
Axio further enhances its speed by harnessing together a combination of this host processor power and the real-time rendering power of its own graphics processing unit (GPU) which Matrox calls Flex3D. One of the two cards comprising Axio serves as your graphics card. Matrox claims an advantage of using its own on-board GPU as opposed to using one that?s already on a graphics card from another manufacturer, saying they?ve programmed it for their own purposes, and it?s not off doing something that Windows asks it to do when it?s time for it to display complicated video and graphics sequences. This dedicated GPU card working in concert with the processors is a combination Matrox designers call ?The Power of X,? allowing Axio to create real-time 3D graphics in HD while piling on even more video and graphics at the same time. The Flex3D chip is used specifically for blurs, glows, shadows, page curls, surface finish, mask, pan & scan effects, picture-in-picture effects (DVE, or digital video effects), and chromakeying that requires intricate shadows. The software-based effects, which in this case used the two mighty Opteron 275 dual-core processors to do their bidding, include color correction, chromakeying, luminance keying, dissolves and wipes.
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