AAUG Reviews

by David Enders, AAUG Member

elgato is probably best known for their EyeTV hardware and software products. They have supported the Mac platform since 1992. This is not surprising since the founder Markus Fest is the creator of the Toast software all Mac users know and love.

Newly released elgato turbo.264 is a hardware encoder that converts video to the H.264 format used by the iPod, Apple TV and Sony PSP. Installing turbo.264 could not be easier, pop in the CD and install the software to your applications folder. The hardware encoder connects via an available usb 2.0 port. When I installed it on my MacBook, the size of the turbo.264 blocks the second usb port. To fix this situation , elgato supplies a short usb extension cable so that this becomes a non-issue. With the encoder connected directly to the usb port it felt a bit loose. It never fell out or came disconnected , I would have just preferred a tighter fitting connector. Converting video whether it be a Quicktime movie or an unprotected DVD movie to a format suitable for your 5G iPod or Apple TV is easy. The turbo.264 will also convert the video for the Sony PSP.

If you have ever exported video to any of these formats within Quicktime, you will know it takes a longtime to complete this task. It also places a heavy load on your cpu. With the turbo.264, it offloads the cpu and decreases the amount of time required to encode (this is machine dependent) dramatically. In reviewing the documentation , they say a 1hr video should take 1 hr to encode. I found this statement to be accurate. I was able to use my MacBook during encoding for other tasks with now notable burden.

There are a couple of ways to encode your movies. You can launch the turbo.264 application and add or drag and drop the movies you want to convert. You can do this one at time or multiple movies in a batch along with different encoding methods for each movie. I would like them to add a timer so you could see how long it took to encode the video. Perhaps in the next revision they can this feature to the turbo.264 application. When you convert to iPod or Apple TV , the software will automatically import the movies in to your iTunes library. PSP movies are stored in your local Movies folder. This is a intangible feature that can save you a few steps.

The other way I was able to encode with turbo.264 was directly from within applications such as Quicktime Pro and iMovie HD. When you are in these applications you simply select the export with turbo.264 from the choices available. It was a nice convenience to be able to do this from with the application directly. elgato EyeTV software also integrates well with turbo.264 with its export to Apple TV command. I do not yet have an EyeTV , so I was unable to test this feature.

The software is so easy and simple to use , I found that I didn’t even print out the manual which usually a standard practice for me. I did use the online help on occasion. Although, the encoding formats are based on Apple’s recommendation, elgato does allow you to make custom formats. Creating a custom format is selected from the “Format” drop down menu and selecting “edit”. I did not make any custom formats since the outcome maybe unknown and the preset formats worked fine on my iPod.

I encoded 10 movies either Quicktime or DVD. I had problems only with one movie where the voice got out of sync with the video. I emailed elgato and they sent me a link to a beta version of the software which helped with the encoding. I am confident the software will become more robust in the coming months. We are after all at version 1.x.

Encoding varies with the type of Mac processor , sample times can be found on the elgato website. They say up to 4x faster with an Intel Core Duo processor and exponentially faster on a G4/G5 processor. With this kinda speed, it made we wish I still had my G5 so I could try it out.

With Apple TV becoming popular and the possibility of a future widescreen iPod , I can only see turbo.264 getting more popular as we want our video on demand and available in the interface we know and like. If you spend time converting video for your device of choice, I recommend you get turbo.264. It will save time and money.

I give the turbo.264 a 4 Moose and hope to be able to give it 5 Moose at revision 2.

There is a user group discount for $85 which includes an additional carrying case. If you are interested , email me and I can provide the link and password. This offer is valid until 9/30/07.

System Requirements

- Macintosh computer with PowerPC G4, PowerPC G5 or Intel Core processor
- 512 MB of RAM
- built-in USB 2.0 port
- Mac OS X 10.4 (or later)
- QuickTime 7.1.5 (or later)
- iTunes 7.1.1 (or later)

Connections

- USB 2.0, bus powered