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Performance

For obvious reasons, video capture was the same speed on both systems, but when we built our tricky 5-track sequence on our test PC, Edition Pro 5’s performance was not as impressive as the RT.X100 Xtreme. To be fair, we had to switch the background renderer off to see how much the software handled on its own, so you should bear in mind that it would normally be working away while you continue to edit.

Considering the absence of dedicated acceleration hardware, a respectable preview frame rate was still possible – Edition reported it as 13fps minimum. Rendering the 13.5sec clip AVI took our test system (a dual Athlon MP 1900 with 1GB of RAM) a little over 1m 48s, but it should be pointed out that you can still use the NLE during this process – something that’s simply not possible with the Matrox setup. But it was exporting this AVI to an elementary MPEG2 stream (6Mbps variable bit rate, 8Mpbs peak) that really demonstrated the difference between the two boards, with Edition Pro 5 lagging behind at just over forty seconds.

While Edition Pro 5 can’t be faulted for the degree of control over its 1000+ effects, filters and transitions, choosing the right preset in a hurry is practically impossible due to the static nature of the effect icons.

The application didn’t crash at all, but we occasionally found that, despite having rendered a sequence, the timeline still played back using the real-time preview rather than the rendered files. We were also less than impressed by the TV output handling, which switches between a rather useless desktop clone mode and the real-time preview as you change editing modes, causing the entire desktop to blank out for a second.

Conclusion

Edition Pro 5 is a mixed bag. On the one hand, you get a powerful and effective NLE with all the features, controls and effects you need to build a professional video production, while on the other, you have a capture solution that ties you down to already dated hardware. If you’re just working with digital media, then we’d happily recommend the standard Edition 5 package, but if you’re looking for the best analogue/digital real-time solution, then the RT.X100 Xtreme is a more effective solution by far – assuming you can afford it.

Verdict

A great piece of software that’s sorely let down by Pinnacle’s chosen hardware. It’s capable of going against the RT.X100 Xtreme in the real-time preview game, but can’t compete when it comes down to rendering or output.

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