Windows Real Time Capture Upscale from SD to HD

semperego · Guest

Is it possible to upscale video from SD to HD at capture time (on the flly) using the Matrox software that comes with the MXO2 Mini Max in avi format (uncompressed) and if yes would that impose special laptop requirements?

autumn · Joined: 04 Jul 2005 Posts: 629

Yes, the MXO2 products will upscale during capture. I do however question if you really need "Uncompressed" video. What is the source? Uncompressed HD video requires special hard drive arrays costing thousands of dollars. Not practical for laptop use (typically no way to connect them).

Matrox can capture to the "Matrox MPEG-2 I-Frame HD" codec which is 4:2:2 intra-frame with data rates up to 300Mbps. This is great for most applications. In any case, you should never capture to the C: drive and should have a separate fast drive just for video. Something like Firewire 800 or eSATA connection is a good idea, or USB 3.0 on newer laptops.

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers
www.sharbor.com

Guest · Posted: Sat Jul 28, 2012 3:15 pm Post subject:

Yes, the video goes on a SATA 6 drive other than C:. Now, for existing DV avi files can this device be used to upscale to HD without using any of the Adobe or Avid software? I know it comes with Matrox utilities but do any of Matrox utilities have the conversion capabilities from DV AVI to H.264. I usually do my editing in "other" programs and I would only do the upscaling last. The simpler the upscaling software the better.

autumn · Joined: 04 Jul 2005 Posts: 629

I'm not really clear on what you wish to accomplish, which makes it difficult to give the best answer.

Whether capturing inside Premiere, or using the Matrox AV Tools utility, you can for instance capture SD video as 1080i (coming in S-video for example) in an .avi file.

With the MAX option, you can capture SD straight to 1080i as H.264 video, ready for burning to Blu-ray in Encore. I would not capture to H.264 if you intend to do any editing at all, as this is a compressed delivery format.

From Premiere, you change the playback settings and actually output HD video from MXO2, using an SD timeline.

What Matrox does NOT do is accelerate any up or down-conversion inside Premiere, for instance exporting an SD sequence to an HD file through Media Encoder. Matrox only does conversions on video coming in or playing out.

May I ask what is your workflow or intentions for the conversion? If I understand what you are doing, it will help me to make the best suggestions for your particular needs.

Thank you

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers