Matrox has announced the Parhelia APVe, a PCI Express graphics card designed for professional video editing and compositing tasks.

Matrox claims that it includes the industry's first Dual-display plus HDTV output from a single graphics card, allowing users to extend and place timelines, tracks, windows and menus across two displays while providing HDTV support.

The Parhelia APVe also features Dual-DVI plus standard definition TV (SDTV) output, video input and WYSIWYG video output plug-ins, according to Matrox.

"Matrox is thrilled to offer the Parhelia APVe to creative professionals migrating to PCI Express platforms requiring a dedicated graphics card for their audio, photo and video editing needs," said Caroline Injoyan, product manager at Matrox Graphics.

"This forward-looking graphics solution lets customers take advantage of space-saving digital flat panel technology and the move to HDTV, all the while benefiting from Matrox's rock-solid driver stability and renowned image quality for truly dramatic results."

Matrox claims the 128MB Parhelia APVe is PCI Express x16 compatible and features dual 400 MHz RAMDACs with independent lookup tables for fully symmetric DualHead resolutions up to 1,920-x-1,440 per display and advanced Dual-DVI technology for resolutions up to 1,920-x-1,200 per digital flat panel.

HDTV output is supported in both 1080i and 720p resolutions via an included YPbPr analogue component cable, complementing the S-video and composite NTSC/PAL video output. Supported multi-display configurations include Dual-display plus HDTV output, Dual-DVI plus SDTV output, TripleHead Desktop Mode, DualHead Clone, and DualHead Zoom.

The Parhelia APVe also provides composite and S-video input functionality via a separate cable and features advanced video technologies such as gamma correctable Dual Hardware Overlay support, PureVideo Preview for full-screen video playback and adjustable proc-amp controls for the video window and TV.

Bundled software includes the Matrox PowerDesk-HF utility suite and WYSIWYG video output plug-ins for Adobe Premiere Pro, Adobe After Effects, Adobe Photoshop, Discreet Combustion 3, Discreet 3ds max and NewTek LightWave 3D. The Parhelia APVe is OpenGL and DirectX compliant and ships with display drivers for Microsoft Windows XP and Windows 2000.

The Parhelia APVe will be available in the first quarter of next year, costing £193 plus VAT.

From DIGIT