Jun 2 2007
Elgato turbo.264
Elgato makes some of the coolest consumer video hardware for the Mac (or anything). So we were pleased to hear that they are out to speed the arduous process of conversion to the latest-greatest in codecs: H.264. Elgato’s EyeTV hardware has packed countless hours of programming to high-quality files for EyeTV. With the turbo.264 dongle, get ready to compress video for your iPod and Apple TV twice as fast as your processor.
Those who use it know that hardware is the way you convert video. Software-based conversions do nothing but make your new Mac seem slow. So the question becomes: get a new Mac or invest in far cheaper hardware to do the work. the turbo.264 is all about the latter.
I’ll be honest, there aren’t many features to talk about, and given that this thing will hang off the back of your Mac, I’m not going to visit much on aesthetics. This review is all about speed. So, before we get to the numbers, a word about the purely unscientific, real world test I conducted:
The machine is an old 500 MHz G4 dual with an after-market USB 2 card (required for the turbo.264) running Tiger. I chose an older machine so illustrate the potential in reviving old “slow” hardware. The clip I used was 5 minutes of commercial recorded at 640×480 in EyeTV.
In the test, I encoded the MPEG with EyeTV 2 (using the export function), iSquint (free open source encoding) and then with the turbo.264. I was not able to match exactly the output because the utilities’ options didn’t match up – but all three encoded with the same dimensions and bit-rate.
As you can see, the turbo.264 id , as promised, halved the conversion time of EyeTV, and came in well under iSquint’s time as well. Your mileage will vary, but it is clear that the turbo.264 dramatically sped the conversion, making my old box a mean video compressor.
So, game over? Not entirely. There were a couple things that did surprise me about the turbo. First of all, my original file was encoded with DivX and while iSquint and EyeTV converted it without trouble, turbo.264 flat out rejected it. I guess DivX isn’t among the supported video formats.
As you can see above in the stats, the turbo’s file was larger, which isn’t a total shocker, since the conversion was accelerated. However, this could be an issue for video podcasters who are using their lunch money to pay the bandwidth bills.
The turbo.264 requires Tiger, which shouldn’t be a big deal these days, but will affect you if you’re using older hardware. Installation was very easy – plug, drag and compress. I was a little surprised it didn’t hate my Iogear USB 2.0 card, since other Elgato products I have tested didn’t work with it. Again, I’m not promising it will work on your non-Apple USB 2 card – Elgato requirements specify built-in USB 2.
All told, the turbo.264 is another powerful its-almost-too-easy product from Elgato. For many of you interested in getting content to your Apple TV or iPod quickly (including reviving your old Mac to do it) you will very much appreciate this easy-to-use converter. If your video comes is a compatible format and you are okay with larger files, the trubo.264 will not let you down.
Pick up a turbo.264 at Amazon ($99 at press time).
