Elgato adds 1080p processing to H.264 dongle
updated 04:10 pm EDT, Thu March 19, 2009
Elgato H.264 Turbo adds HD
Elgato on Thursday announced it has added 1080p compatibility to its original Turbo.264 USB video conversion dongle, resulting in the Turbo.264 HD. The new product is now much faster than its predecessor, and still allows users to convert videos into the H.264 format that is compatible with portable electronics such as iPods, iPhones, the Apple TV and Sony's PSP and similar devices. Besides resolution, it also adds support for HD camcorder formats such as AVCHD as well as MPEG-2- and MPEG-4-encoded HD content. The Turbo.264 HD automatically detects AVCHD camcorders and moves the recordings in standard- or high-definition to selected source devices.
Elgato says the conversions using its device are faster than a Mac Pro can manage, and can be used to boost the speed of the export function in iMovie. Videos can also be quickly downsampled and uploaded to YouTube.
Apart from those already listed, supported video formats include QuickTime, AVI, DV, WMV, MPEG-1, MP4, M4V, H.263, H.264, XviD and raw VIDEO_TS files from DVDs, among others. Users have the option of previewing, trimming and batch processing videos. They also have nine export presets that range from a small iPod size (320x240) to the full 1080p, though custom profiles are options.
The Turbo.264 HD is compatible with Intel Core-powered Macs running on at least Mac OS X 10.5.6 and QuickTime 7.6. ElGato says it's now available for purchase, priced at $150.
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Mar 2007
hopefully a bit faster
I've got the original Turbo.264 stick, and while it was useful at first, it's been quite quickly outstripped by the speed of the newer machines. Hopefully this new version will be faster.