CompressHD

DESCRIPTION
If you’re a professional content creator delivering H.264 files for Blu-ray, the web, and mobile devices, you need a fast, flexible, high quality encoding workhorse. Matrox CompressHD is the first implementation of Matrox MAX technology in an amazingly affordable H.264 accelerator card. It works in systems with or without a video I/O device and extends the life of your current system investment, giving you the power you need to deliver today’s premium H.264 formats faster than ever.

If you’re delivering H.264 content for the web, mobile devices, Apple TV, and Blu-ray discs, you know how painful it can be to wait for the long encoding times needed to create high-quality video files using software only. You might even be tempted to sacrifice quality for speed. With Matrox MAX technology, you no longer need to even consider making that trade off.

Matrox MAX for PC is a unique technology that implements lightning fast H.264 encoding for resolutions ranging from iPod to HD, as well as direct capture to H.264 files using the Matrox MAX H.264 Capture app. MAX technology is available in the Matrox CompressHD accelerator card and the Matrox MXO2 family of I/O devices. It uses a dedicated hardware processor to accelerate the creation of H.264 files for the web, Apple TV, Blu-ray discs, and mobile devices including iPad, iPhone, and iPod. By using specialized hardware acceleration, jobs are finished with amazing speed and system resources are liberated for other tasks. Quality and flexibility are ensured through direct integration with professional applications such as Adobe Media Encoder and Adobe Premiere Pro on the PC.

Not only do you get superior speed and quality, you can also tweak the power of Matrox MAX to meet your specific needs. The vast array of fine-tuneable controls lets you optimize encoding speed and video quality. Web video publishers, in particular, will appreciate the ability of Matrox MAX technology to deliver superb quality video at low bit rates.

Matrox MAX technology lets you customize the following setting parameters in any supported H.264 encoding application:

Additional customizable encoding parameters are available in specific applications.

Matrox MAX technology taps into Adobe Media Encoder to let you quickly and easily create H.264 files from a variety of video sources including SD, HD, and RED R3D 2K and 4K files. The dedicated MAX processor cranks out your H.264 deliverables, freeing up system resources for other tasks.

You can use the two categories of Matrox MAX presets – Matrox 264 (Blu-ray) or Matrox MP4 – or you can create your own customized settings. Matrox Blu-ray presets are used to create Blu-ray compliant H.264 files. Matrox MP4 presets are used for other H.264 deliverables such as those destined for Apple TV, YouTube, Flash, the web, and mobile devices including iPhone, and iPod. The Matrox MAX hardware performs proper color space conversions from HD to SD and SD to HD as well as proper color space conversion from RGB to YUV to prevent gamma shift.

The following frame rates are supported: 23.98, 24, 25, 29.97, 30, 50, 59.94, and 60.

Matrox MAX technology lets you create Blu-ray H.264 video files, directly from Adobe Media Encoder, that can be authored in Adobe Encore and burned without re-encoding on either Blu-ray or DVD media.

Use H.264 level 4.0 if you want to create Matrox MAX H.264 files intended for mass replication of Blu-ray discs. Use either H.264 level 4.0 or 4.1 if you want to author and burn individual copies that are compatible with Blu-ray disc players.

Matrox MAX technology is also accessible directly from Adobe Premiere Pro. You can export your editing sequence to an H.264 fi le using the Matrox export function.

The stand-alone Matrox MAX H.264 Capture application lets you capture directly to H.264 files for the web, mobile devices, and Blu-ray using any Matrox MXO2 product equipped with Matrox MAX technology. You can capture material from any of your MXO2 device’s video and audio inputs, and monitor the source material that you’re capturing using the MXO2 video and audio outputs. Matrox MAX H.264 Capture is quick and easy-to-use with default presets for many popular delivery formats. It also gives you the ability to create your own custom presets using the parameters described above and any of the following frame rates: 12.5, 14.98, 23.98, 24, 25, 29.97, 30, 50, and 59.94. You can capture to the .mp4 file wrapper for web, iPad, and other popular H.264 deliverables or you can capture to .264 elementary stream files for immediate Blu-ray authoring without transcoding.

Matrox MAX H.264 Capture is ideal for delivering dailies in a fraction of the usual time or archiving from tape and legacy equipment.

While recording to your camera’s media format, you can also be capturing to H.264 files. As soon as the capture is finished, you can upload your dailies to the target device of your choice – the web, iPad, YouTube, etc.

Matrox MAX H.264 Capture is the perfect tool for archiving all your old master tapes to Blu-ray discs. Simply use any of your MXO2 device’s video and audio inputs and encode directly to H.264 Blu-ray fi les that can be authored in Adobe Encore without transcoding.

Matrox MAX H.264 encoding performance with Adobe Media Encoder

Which MAX implementation is right for you? http://www.matrox.com/video/en/products/pc/max/which_max/

Matrox MAX for MAC

Matrox MAX is a unique technology that implements faster than real-time H.264 encoding for resolutions ranging from iPod to HD. It uses a dedicated hardware processor to accelerate the creation of H.264 files for Blu-ray, the web, and mobile devices. By using specialized hardware acceleration, jobs are finished with amazing speed and system resources are liberated for other tasks. Quality and flexibility are ensured through direct integration with professional applications such as Apple Compressor and Telestream Episode on the Mac.Matrox MAX technology on the Mac is available in the Matrox CompressHD accelerator card and the Matrox MXO2 family of I/O devices.

Release 2.3 provides the following new features for Matrox MXO2 Family and CompressHD:

Support for Mac OS X Lion v10.7.
Added closed captioning workflow support for web deliverables (.mov) using Matrox MAX technology in Apple Compressor. When an SCC (CEA-608) closed caption file is associated with your source media file in Compressor, Matrox MAX technology now embeds the closed caption data to the encoded video file when encoding at 1:1, or when downscaling.
Updates to address specific customer issues and to improve overall stability.

Key Features

Faster than real-time creation of H.264 files, for resolutions ranging from iPod to HD
A specialized, dedicated hardware processor liberates system resources for other tasks
Accelerated encoding for Blu-ray, Apple TV, YouTube, Flash, web formats, and mobile devices including iPad, iPhone, and iPod from various video sources including SD, HD, and RED proxy files up to 2K
Direct integration with Apple Compressor to simplify workflow
Support for Telestream Episode, Final Cut Pro, Avid Media Composer, Adobe Media Encoder, and QuickTime Pro through the QuickTime codec component
Customizable encoding parameters including VBR, CBR, constant quality, scene detection, noise filtering and many more
Creation of Blu-ray H.264 files that can be authored in Apple Compressor 3.5, Adobe Encore CS4, and Roxio Toast 10 then burned without re-encoding
Support for Apple Qmaster to take advantage of multiple systems with a Matrox MAX processing engine for distributed encoding across a network

Complete controls for highest quality, lowest bit rate deliveries

Matrox MAX technology lets you customize the following setting parameters in any supported H.264 encoding application:

Resolutions: even frame sizes from 64x64 to 1920x1088
Bit rates: from 100 Kb/s to 50 Mb/s
Baseline or main profile, CABAC or CAVLC entropy encoding
GOP structure controls
2.0, 3.0, 3.1, 4.0, 4.1 and 4.2 level support
Constant bit rate to ensure that the bit rate remains stable. Quality varies depending on the complexity of each frame.
Constant quality to deliver your desired quality on each frame at the lowest bit rate possible. Matrox MAX analyzes each video frame and delivers the targeted quality without regard to bit rate.
Noise filtering to save bits by reducing high-frequencies in your video
Hardware de-interlacing
Additional customizable encoding parameters are available in specific applications.

Support for Apple Compressor

COMPRESSOR v4 NOW SUPPORTED!

Matrox MAX technology taps into Apple Compressor to let you quickly and easily create H.264 files from a variety of video sources including SD, HD, and RED proxy files up to 2K. You can use the three categories of Matrox MAX presets – Fast Encode, High-Quality, and Blu-ray – or you can create your own customized settings.

Matrox Fast Encode presets and Matrox High Quality presets are used to create H.264 deliverables such as those destined for Apple TV, YouTube, Flash, the web, and mobile devices including iPhone, and iPod. Matrox Fast Encode presets use the MAX hardware and your CPU to deliver H.264 files faster than real-time. Quality is better than Compressor Single-pass. Matrox High Quality presets use the MAX hardware exclusively, thereby freeing up your CPUs for other tasks. Quality is comparable to Compressor Multi-pass. Matrox Blu-ray presets use the Matrox High Quality technology to create Blu-ray compliant H.264 files faster than real-time. The Matrox MAX hardware performs proper color space conversions from HD to SD and SD to HD as well as proper color space conversion from RGB to YUV to prevent gamma shift.

Matrox MAX technology lets you create Blu-ray H.264 video files, directly from Compressor that can be authored in Apple Compressor, Adobe Encore, or Roxio Toast and burned without re-encoding on either Blu-ray or DVD media. Use H.264 level 4.0 if you want to create Matrox MAX H.264 files intended for mass replication of Blu-ray discs. Use either H.264 level 4.0 or 4.1 if you want to author and burn individual copies that are compatible with Blu-ray disc players.

Additional customizable encoding parameters supported in Compressor include:

Variable bit rate to squeeze out the highest quality possible at the target bit rate. Matrox MAX analyzes each video frame and determines which frames require more or less compression data to deliver the highest possible quality at the targeted bit rate.
You set the minimum and maximum bit rate per job.
Scene detection to give you multi-pass quality in a single pass
Source video complexity adjustment that lets you redefine the low and high clipping limits
Data rate slider control to produce smoother or more abrupt transitions
Sample rate option to monitor compliance with targeted data rate
Frame rates: 15, 23.98, 25, 29.97, 50, and 59.94

Matrox MAX performance

Support for Telestream Episode, Final Cut Pro, Avid Media Composer, Adobe Media Encoder, and QuickTime Pro

Matrox MAX technology is also accessible to all applications that support the QuickTime codec component such as Telestream Episode, Final Cut Pro, Avid Media Composer, Adobe Media Encoder, and QuickTime Pro. You get faster than real-time delivery of H.264 files, at resolutions for iPod to HD, directly from the application. You can take advantage of all the familiar settings or customize your own. With these applications, frame rate is completely customizable.

Matrox MAX H.264 Encoding Performance with Telestream Episode

Support for Apple Qmaster

Support for Apple Qmaster is provided to take advantage of multiple systems with a Matrox MAX processing engine for distributed encoding across a network.

Which Maxtrox MAX implementation is right for you? http://www.matrox.com/video/en/products/mac/max/which_max/

REQUIREMENTS

MAC - Note: For supported versions of the operating system and programs, refer to the Matrox CompressHD Installation and User Guide specific to your version of CompressHD. Click here to view the CompressHD documentation. http://www.matrox.com/video/en/support/downloads/

Matrox CompressHD requires a Mac system or Apple Xserve system with the following configuration:

Intel-based Mac Pro or Apple Xserve.
Mac OS X Leopard / Snow Leopard / Lion
One free PCIe x1 slot.
Supported programs:
- Apple Compressor (required for Blu-ray Disc).
- Apple QuickTime Pro , Apple Final Cut Pro, Adobe After Effects, Adobe Encore, Apple Motion, Apple Qmaster, Telestream Episode and Episode Pro, Boris FX Media 100 Suite, or other QuickTime-based video applications.

PC - Note: For supported versions of the operating system and programs for use with a particular CompressHD release, refer to the Matrox CompressHD Installation and User Guide specific to that release. Click here to view the CompressHD documentation. http://www.matrox.com/video/en/support/downloads/

Matrox CompressHD requires a computer system with the following configuration:
A computer that supports Streaming SIMD Extensions 2 (SSE2), such as an Intel Pentium 4 or AMD Athlon 64 or later.
Dual-CPU, or one dual-core CPU.
Microsoft Windows 7 Professional, Ultimate, or Home Premium (64-bit) with Service Pack 1, or Windows Vista Business or Ultimate (64-bit) with Service Pack 2.
4 GB of RAM.
One free PCIe slot.
Supported programs
Adobe Premiere Pro, Media Encoder, Encore, and After Effects.

Matrox MAX H.264 encoding performance with Adobe Media Encoder

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