User guide

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Chapter 7, Using RT.X100 Xtreme with Video for Windows Programs
Overview
When using Video for Windows programs to render (compile) material to an .avi
file, such as in the case of a completed video production or an animation, you can
use a Matrox codec to create a Matrox .avi file. For example, you may want to
render an animation to Matrox DV/DVCAM format so that you can record it onto
DV tape. You could also use your Video for Windows program to render video to
a Matrox .avi file so that you can import the file as a realtime clip into your
Adobe Premiere projects on Matrox RT.X100 Xtreme.
Your Matrox RT.X100 Xtreme hardware also allows you to use your Video for
Windows program to capture analog video. The Matrox realtime plug-in for
Adobe Premiere lets you capture analog and DV clips. You can, however, capture
analog clips using capture programs other than Adobe Premiere, such as Sonic
Foundry’s Vegas Video. You can also use many messenger and video
conferencing programs (such as Microsoft NetMeeting) to send streaming video
over the internet or your corporate intranet.
The following sections explain the various settings you need to make to render
and capture material using a Video for Windows program with your Matrox
RT.X100 Xtreme system. For details on exporting video from Adobe Premiere to
a Matrox .avi file, see “Performing a Premiere export to disk” on page 64. Using
Adobe Premiere to export video on your Matrox RT.X100 Xtreme system lets
you overcome the 2-GB .avi file limit of Video for Windows programs.
Remarks
• Be aware that .avi files do not have an alpha-key channel for storing
transparency information. If you want to render an animation containing
transparency information so that it can be alpha-keyed using your nonlinear
editing program, you should render the animation to a series of .tga files, not
to an .avi file. You can import a .tga sequence into Adobe Premiere and
alpha-key the sequence after placing it onto a superimpose track, but your
sequence will not play back in real time. If you render a single-frame .tga
file with an alpha-key channel, however, you can set up a realtime graphics
overlay in Adobe Premiere as explained in the section “Setting up realtime
graphics overlays” on page 167.
• Instead of using your Video for Windows program to capture analog clips on
your Matrox RT.X100 Xtreme system, you’ll get much better results using a
Matrox capture format in Adobe Premiere to capture your analog clips.
• Although Matrox has tested many Video for Windows programs, there may
be certain operational limitations when using Matrox RT.X100 Xtreme with
some of these programs (as well as with untested programs).