Original URL: http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/05/16/elgato_unveils_turbo264/
Tired of waiting for your Mac to convert your videos into an Apple TV-friendly format? AV add-on specialist Elgato claims it has the answer: a plug-in video transcode accelerator.
Elgato's Turbo.264 looks like one of the company's TV tuner dongles, but this puppy speeds up movie conversion by an extra 300 per cent. It said a 2GHz MacBook running QuickTime Player Pro 7.1.5 took almost a minute to convert a same video on its own. Plug in a Turbo.264 and the transcode time fell to just over 11 seconds, Elgato claimed.
Phew.
As its name suggests, Turbo.264 converts video into the H.264 format ready for playback not only on Apple TV, but the various video-capable iPods and Sony's PlayStation Portable. Video is converted at up to 800 x 600 resolution in PAL and NTSC formats.
Elgato Systems announces a hardware encoder in USB Stick format that rapidly converts video files to the high quality H.264 (MP4) format for iPod, Apple TV, and Sony PSP. Turbo.264 accelerates exports by a factor of 4 on an Intel Core 2 Duo up to a factor of 10 on a Power PC G4. The rate of acceleration depends on the Mac processor type.
Source material can be in any format supported by QuickTime and third-.party plug-ins to Apple's multimedia software. It'll also handle MPEG streaming files and unencrypted HD DVD and DVD content.
The Turbo.264 will cost $100/€100 (£69) from Elgato's online shop. It's available now.
• Elgato EyeTV Diversity dual-tuner digital TV dongle (http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2006/12/28/review_eyetv_diversity/)
• Elgato EyeTV Hybrid USB TV tuner for Mac (http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2006/09/25/review_elgato_eyetv_hybrid/)
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