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MATROX RAINBOW RUNNER
STANDFIRST
Has the often uneasy marriage between PCs and
video finally been consummated? Rick Maybury plugs in and plays with the Matrox
Rainbow Runner, video capture, recorder and output card
COPY
Rainbow Runner might seem like a slightly
unusual subject for review, unlike pretty well all of the other products we
test, this one is not a stand-alone peripheral but a dedicated add-on module
for the Matrox Mystique 3D display card. However, the Mystique is now fitted as
standard to quite a few new multimedia PCs and has become a popular upgrade, so
it’s likely that some of you will already have one. If not don’t rush off, you
never know, you might be in the market for a Mystique card and Rainbow Runner
by the time you reach the end of this piece. For the record street prices for a
4Mb Mystique average out at around £130, the Rainbow Runner package sells for
£220, both prices include VAT.
So what precisely do you get for the thick
end of £350? We needn’t dwell too long on the Mystique card, suffice it to say,
it’s one of the fastest 64-bit PCI bus graphics accelerator cards in the
business; it make games fly along with smooth, fluid motion, and eye-catching
3D effects on supported software. Rainbow Runner unlocks it’s potential to
handle PAL video, turning it into a capture and output card, video editor and
recorder.
System requirements call for a Pentium-class
multimedia PC, minimum 90MHz, (133MHz is better), with at least 16Mb RAM
(preferably 32Mb), and 300Mb of spare hard disc space, though you will need a
large (2Gb) fast IDE mode 4 or SCSI drive if you intend to do any serious video
capture. At the highest compression (lowest quality) setting moving video
gobbles up just under 2Mb of disc space per minute, anything approaching
useable VHS quality requires over 200Mb/minute. It’s also worth adding that to
get the most out of Rainbow Runner you’ll need a multi-synch monitor, or one
that can handle a refresh rate of 50Hz. In addition to the board and cables,
you also get fully functional versions of iPhoto Express picture editor, Ulead
Media Studio video editor and VDOPhone internet video phone software on CD ROM.
Physically Rainbow Runner is a small board
that fits onto a set of four multi-pin connectors on the face of the Mystique.
It’s a reasonably simple job that takes just a few moments, though great care
has to be taken with one connector as the pins are barely long enough to reach
into the adjoining socket. Once the
Runner card has been fitted the two cards can be re-installed inside the PC, on
a spare PCI connector.
The Mystique card has two D-connectors, one
is for the VGA output to the PC monitor, the other one is for a plug that
handles all of the video inputs and outputs. It has four flying leads,
terminated with a pair of phono sockets for composite video input and output,
and two mini DIN sockets, for S-Video signals. We suffered a few installation
and configuration problems, the first one -- the card not being assigned an IRQ
-- was covered in the troubleshooting guide, and involved changing a setting in
the PC’s BIOS.
Problem number two was the disabling of the
card’s input and output functions. This showed up as ‘greyed-out’ video input
selections on the settings menu. After some consultation with Matrox UK it was
decided that this was a software problem and a new CD ROM installation disc was
supplied. This made no difference, so we tried a second Runner board. This
worked, but we continued to suffer from a number of configuration problems. The
exact cause remains a mystery, our best guess is that it may be something to do
with repeated installations, and an as yet unidentified interactions with other
installed applications. If we ever find out we’ll let you know...
Neither difficulty would have fazed a PC expert
for long but we suspect this type of rather exotic hiccup will keep the Matrox helpline
busy. Incidentally, the installation CD ROM provides speedy access to the
Matrox US web site. When we looked at it there was plenty of useful information
and downloadable software for other products, but very little on Rainbow
Runner, apart from a lengthy description and spec sheet.
OPERATION
First contact with Rainbow Runner is usually
via a utility called PC-VCR Remote. This brings up a stylised TV remote control
graphic, and a display window. The remote control is designed to look like a
VCR handset, it has three buttons to select video input (file, TV and line). The
TV button is for an optional tuner card, file is for calling up material stored
on disc, and line selects an external video input. Below that there’s a set of
TV tuner buttons, in the middle there’s a status display window, and at the
bottom a set of VCR transport keys, for controlling recording and playback.
It’s all very simple to understand and use, and from there it’s possible to
control or access most of Rainbow Runner’s core functions.
The TV output feature is likely to prove
popular with PC games enthusiasts, and anyone who wants to use a TV to display
computer graphics. There’s one small catch however. In order to use the video output
the PC display is changed to a 50Hz refresh rate. Comparatively few monitors
can operate at that frequency and they will have to be turned off, which means
the PC has to be controlled from the TV, and that can be tricky as a PAL
display is nowhere near as sharp or steady as a monitor.
Media Studio is a well-featured editing
program that simplifies the whole business of organising video clips, along
with stills, graphics and even sounds, from a variety of sources. iPhoto
Express is for manipulating still images, it features a number of pre-formatted
styles, for turning digital photographs into posters, calendars, slide shows,
even screen savers. A fun and easy to use application that kids really take to.
Lastly VDOnet uses Rainbow Runner in video capture mode, with a camera or
camcorder, to send moving video over an internet connection. At the moment it’s
a slightly esoteric facility, that depends entirely on you knowing someone else
with a similar, compatible set-up, moreover, the speed at which video can be
sent in this manner is still very slow, but if you know of someone else with a
Rainbow Runner it might prove interesting.
PERFORMANCE
All sorts of bold claims are made for the
video recording and playback capabilities of PCs but the bottom line is that
even the fastest machines, running the latest wizzo software, still fall short
of what’s possible using a VHS VCR, costing a couple of hundred quid. Matrox
haven’t come up with any magical solutions, on Rainbow Runner, it works as well,
and maybe even a little better than some of other M-JPEG cards we’ve seen. ‘Near’
VHS quality video output is only achievable if you trade running time for lower
compression, but this means you need a very large, very fast hard drive in
order to maintain any sort output quality. If you don’t mind titchy video
windows, jerky movement and coarse colours, then higher compression rates yield
longer recording times.
Imported video looks quite good at medium and
low compression settings on the PC monitor screen. Colour fidelity is largely
maintained, though there’s some reduction in contrast, especially in highly
saturated areas, and there’s a noticeable loss of fine detail. There are
further, more significant reductions in resolution and contrast when images are
converted back to analogue video, and by the time they’re re-recorded on VHS tape,
it’s starting to look quite ragged around the edges.
CONCLUSION
It really depends what you want it for. If
you’re thinking of using Rainbow Runner to lick your latest three-hour camcorder
holiday epic into shape, forget it. Even if you’ve got a superfast Pentium with
a monster hard disc, it’s still impractical to try and edit clips lasting longer
than a couple of minutes, and by the time the moving video image has been
through the digital mangle and back onto video tape, it emerges in a state that’s
far worse than a second generation video copy, for example.
However, as it stands the package is ideal
for creating short video and multimedia clips, that will remain within the PC
domain. It’s generally well designed
and easy to use -- installation problems notwithstanding -- but the key feature
has to be the price. Even if you take into account the cost of a Mystique card,
is still pretty good value for a combined capture and output card with software.
SPECIFICATIONS
Make/model Matrox
Rainbow Runner STUDIO
Price £220
What is it? add-on
module for Matrox Mystique PC graphics card, enabling video capture and output,
M-JPEG compression (recording and playback) and editing
System req. IBM
or compatible multimedia PC with Matrox Mystique graphics card, 90MHz Pentium or equivalent, 16MB RAM,
Window 95, minimum 300MB free hard disc space
Audio
Sockets VGA
output, 25-pin D-SUB to phono and mini DIN (composite and S-Video input and
output)
Contact Matrox
UK Ltd., (01793) 44100
CV RATINGS
Performance ****
Colour fidelity ***
Edit facilities ****
Build quality ****
Ease of use ***
Value for money ***
Overall rating 78%
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Ó R. Maybury 1997 0406
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