Turnkey Editing System Review: DVGear DV Dream Matrox RT.X2 (page 2)

How a system will perform depends on many factors all working together, not just a fast CPU. Since we're video editors, we'll be looking at how the DV Dream handles day-to-day editing tasks, beginning with the basics.

We started our test drive by loading an 84-minute HDV project and related media that contained mostly straight cuts, with some dissolves and simple graphics. If you've worked with Premiere, you know it needs to index video and conform audio the first time it sees new media. This took a total of 13:19 on the DV Dream and nearly 21 minutes on our comparison system (see Figure 1). We also captured a few clips in both standard- and high-definition video from our JVC GY-110U.

Video on our timeline played back smoothly, even when we tossed in the standard-definition clips on the same timeline. We then stacked three additional HDV video tracks with audio and scaled and moved each over a five-second period. Again, very smooth real-time playback. Only when we added a fifth A/V track with motion did the system start bogging down. Our comparison system could handle only three tracks smoothly. Finally, we pulled out a known logjam - the Three-Way Color Corrector effect - and applied it to a single layer of HDV video. Our playback now had some stuttering, and we lost accurate audio sync. Matrox includes additional real-time effects, such as 3D DVE, blurring and others that perform as advertised.

We next loaded a 17-minute standard-definition video clip, to test DVD encoding speed. Using the Adobe media encoder to render an MPEG2-DVD file with 48/16 PCM audio at the highest-quality settings and two-pass variable bit rate, our DV Dream beat our comparison system by about 14% (see Figure 1). Matrox has its own flavor of media encoder; however, we did not see a marked increase in encoding speed over our previous test.

For about a week, we kept tossing various small projects at the DV Dream and were very impressed with its design and stability. While we felt confident this could handle most of our routine editing needs for high-definition material, for even more blazing speed or more real-time options, you'll need to upgrade to a faster CPU or another system. Of course, DVGear's Web site will allow you to customize your machine to fit specialized needs.

CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo 6700 at 2.66GHz
Capture Card: Matrox RT.X2 DV/HDV, including Adobe Premiere Pro CS3
RAM: 2048MB of 800MHz DDR2 running in dual channel
Video Card: nVidia GeForce 8800GTS
Audio Card: Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme
System Drive: 250GB SATA 700RPM
A/V Storage: Two 500GB 7200RPM drives in RAID 0
DVD Drive: Pioneer DVR-112DBK 18x dual layer
Power Supply: Antec TreePower Trio 650 watt

• Excellent system design
• Excellent engineering and optimization of hardware and software

• Lack of balanced audio connections on breakout box
• CPU limits some HD editing tasks

A well-built, stable, good-looking and moderately fast turnkey video editing system..

Contributing editor Brian Peterson is a video production consultant, trainer and lecturer.

DVGear
2808 Hoyt Ave, Ste 301
Everett, WA 98201
www.dvgear.com

$5,357

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