The Electronic Mailbox - G400TV Review

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I may be a videoguy, but, I'm not a tech guy! Up until now my interest in video editing has always been as a spectator admiring from the sidelines. However, while Gary was away on vacation we got in an evaluation unit of the new Marvel G400-TV from Matrox and I saw my opportunity to get into the game. I was very interested in the G400-TV but was somewhat intimidated to install it in my brand new computer. I decided however to put trust in Matrox's claim of ease-of-use and simple installation and give it a shot.

INSTALLATION

I have a new K6-3 450MHZ with 128MB RAM and a Seagate 13GB 5400RPM Ultra ATA hard drive. I brought the Marvel G400-TV home on Monday night and could not believe how easy the installation was. I started installing the card at 6:30 and was done before 7:00. (This includes waiting for the machine to re-start after each software installation!!!) Matrox provides a complete instruction manual as well as a fold out poster that walks you through the 12-step installation process. This is a great idea! I spread out the poster on the floor beside me as I breezed through the installation and found that this quick-reference made the whole process a lot less intimidating.

GRAPHICS

As soon as I started up my system I noticed the difference in the graphics of my computer monitor. I have an extensive background in graphic design and immediately noticed the clarity and crispness of the colors. It has always been a pet peeve of mine when the colors on the screen are not the same as the colors that print out. Obviously, it is not a calibrated system that designers pay thousands of dollars for, but, it made my generic 17" monitor look very good. However, we all know that the true test of graphics is gaming! I am not a big gamer but I do have some games which I launched and I was very impressed. Matrox also provides some pretty cool games in the software package with the G400-TV including Wild Metal Country and Tonic Trouble. After talking with friends who are more into the computer games than I found that Matrox has always had an excellent reputation for providing the high-quality graphics for all of the latest and greatest games- now I know why!

TV TUNER

It was starting to get late on Monday night and the football game was about to start. Gary, Rich and I have two Fantasy Football teams and I am a pretty big football fan. My fiancée was watching another movie on our big TV so instead of picking a fight I thought I'd check out the new technology. I opened the Matrox PC-VCR Remote, hit the TV button and tuned to ABC just in time to see Jerry Rice score a touchdown. Unfortunately, he was on the team we were playing against, OUCH! Then I opened up Netscape and went to NFL.COM where I followed the game over the internet. I was in all my glory! The football game was in one window on my computer while the stats were rolling down from the web page right beside it. The only thing I needed now was Charlie Garner to score a TD and BOOM! There it was! What a night!!!

DVD & DIGITAL AUDIO

After sports, my second passion is surround sound. I have a state-of-the-art home theater system (at least to my standards) which I have built slowly over the years with tons of research and a good chunk of change. The Matrox Software DVD Player and support for Dolby Digital audio have prompted me to find a way to move my computer next to my home theater set-up without affecting the interior design of our apartment. This is easier said than done, but I am determined to find a way!

THE VIDEO

Now for the part I'm supposed to be reviewing (after all, we are "the videoguys"). I waited until Tuesday night to tackle the video editing because I really wanted to devote a lot of time and effort on a tape of my vacation to Vegas that has been sitting on my shelf for over three months. The Marvel G400-TV will capture video from the PC-VCR Remote or within the Avid Cinema software. I opened Avid Cinema and was amazed at how easy they made the whole process. Let me remind you, I am not a video "geek" like some of my co-workers! I understand the technology, I've seen dozens of demos, but I have very limited experience actually using this stuff. So the simplicity of Avid Cinema was a breath of fresh air! When Avid Cinema opened it checked my system to make sure all settings were correct and then gave me a choice of capturing video in the "Best" or "Good" quality. Since I have only a 5400rpm drive I decided not to risk it and went for the "Good" setting. I captured about 5 minutes of video and loved that Avid told me exactly how much hard drive space it was taking and how much I had left. Capturing the video was as easy as pressing the record and stop buttons and naming the clips. It was unbelievable. I did one quick edit and output the video just to check out the quality playing out to tape. It was awesome! I was unable to notice any loss in quality from my original footage! After I was completely satisfied with this little test I captured some more video and started poking around the Avid Cinema software. The interface consists of 4 tabs- Storyboard, Bring Video In, Edit Movie, Finish Movie. I don't know how it could have been any easier. The Storyboard includes several pre-programmed templates including Travel Vacation, Birthday Party and Wedding. These templates make it easy for even the creativity-challenged to produce an enjoyable movie. I am getting married in about 10 months and although I am not comfortable enough to fire my videographer I did have him agree to provide me all of the original footage as well as his edited productions. It's not because I think I can do a better job than a pro, but, with the Marvel G400-TV I can take our wedding video and cut out the people who stiffed us! (Just kidding!) In the Edit Movie screen there is a window where you can view the video as you are editing. Although the Avid Cinema lets you work pretty quickly, I am somewhat of a perfectionist so the Vegas Vacation video will probably take me some time. Once I finish editing the video, I plan on using the LSX-MPEG2 Transcoder software to convert my video to an MPEG which can be posted on the web. This software transcoder is a must for anyone who wants to use video for multimedia. I was shocked that Matrox included this software as well! The more and more I play with my computer, the more I realize that Matrox has provided everything I need in the Marvel G400-TV!

In summary, I give the Marvel G400-TV five stars! It really is an all-in-one graphics and video editing system. I would highly recommend this card for anyone who has any interest in testing the waters of video editing! In fact, I would recommend the Marvel G400-TV for everyone who wants the best of everything- graphics, tv tuner, editing & more!

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