Matrox MXO review

I received the Matrox MXO review unit last week, but didn't get to test it until this weekend. Unfortunately it wasn't a FULL test. I lack an Apple Cinema Display to test the capabilities of the MXO in that manner...so see whether or not I get a broadcast quality image on it. Which, of course, is the main reason I wanted to see the unit. I'll get a hold of an ACD soon. My producer has one he is willing to loan me, but has been swamped. So...soon. But I did test the MXO output to my HD CRT, the Sony PVM-14L5. I copied over a dozen shots from my Raid to a G-Raid and connected that to my Powerbook, since what people want is a box that can output from a laptop or iMac. So I wanted the test to be real world. I connected the MXO to my Powerbook via the DVI port, and a USB port. Then thru the MXO to the Sony via HD SDI. One question that people have been asking me is does it play back 24p footage properly. Yes, it does. I loaded the same DVCPRO HD 23.98 shots on the tower and the laptop and pressed play, and it played back just fine. In fact, I switched back and forth between the MXO and my Kona LH (the monitor has two HD SDI inputs) and the images were identical. So the unit is capable of converting the DVI signal into a broadcast signal. AND...it carried embedded audio. I heard the audio from the clips playing back on the monitors speakers. The MXO is also designed to extract timecode information from the DVI port as well, but I don't have a deck to layback to and test this. read more...