User guide

What is Matrox M.Key/100?

Matrox M.Key/100 is a USB dongle with associated software that allows you to

use all the Matrox Video for Windows (VFW) software codecs on a system that

doesn’t have Matrox video hardware. With Matrox M.Key/100 connected to your

computer’s USB port, all the Matrox VFW codecs are available on your system

and behave as though you have Matrox video hardware, such as Matrox Axio or

Matrox DSX, installed in your computer.

This means that you can render and play back Matrox .avi files with your VFW

programs using any Matrox VFW codec, including those codecs that are

available only to users that have Matrox video hardware. The following Matrox

VFW codecs are available with Matrox M.Key/100:

• Matrox DV/DVCAM.

•Matrox DVCPRO.

•Matrox DVCPRO5O.

•Matrox DVCPRO HD

• Matrox MPEG-2 I-frame in SD or HD resolution

• Matrox MPEG-2 I-frame + Alpha in SD or HD resolution

• Matrox Uncompressed in SD or HD resolution.

• Matrox Uncompressed + Alpha in SD or HD resolution.

• Matrox Offline HD.

• Matrox M-JPEG (for legacy DigiSuite files).

• Matrox HDV (for playback only of Matrox HDV files)

Because the Matrox VFW codecs will behave as though you have Matrox video

hardware, Matrox offline HD files will be upscaled to full-screen size for

playback with your VFW program, and you’ll have full support of the Matrox

MPEG-2 I-frame HD codec to create .avi files with or without alpha in all

supported HD formats, including 720p, 1440×1080i/p, and full-size 1080i/p

(1920×1080). For details on using the Matrox VFW codecs, see “Using Matrox

M.Key/100 with VFW programs” on page 5.

¡ Important If M.Key/100 is not connected to your computer’s USB port when

you render or play back Matrox clips, any clips that use a video compression

format that requires the Matrox video hardware, such as MPEG-2 I-frame HD +

Alpha, will display as invalid video.

The Matrox DVCPRO HD, MPEG-2 I-frame + Alpha, and HDV VFW codecs require Matrox

video hardware and are available with M.Key/100. Unless you have Matrox video hardware

or M.Key/100, the Matrox MPEG-2 I-frame HD codec supports 1440× 1080i/p files only.