Instant Video To-go

by ADS Tech

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 6.4 x 1 inches ; 4.8 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B000KC5GDY
• Item model number: RDX-160-EF
• Average Customer Review: 2.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #10,213 in Electronics (See Top 100 in Electronics)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: October 2, 2001

Product Description

With software conversion often taking 4-10 times longer than real time, Instant Video To-Go, Video Transfer Accelerator converts up to 5 times faster than real time. Instant Video To-Go, Video Accelerator is the first hardware H.264 conversion solution for consumers, preparing your videos for easy playback on portable players.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Has promise, but ancient software brings it down, January 8, 2008

By 

M. Prince "The CoffeeGeek" (Vancouver, BC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Instant Video To-go (Personal Computers)

I bought this product to convert video for an iPod Touch and an iPod Nano. I expected it to rip DVDs out of the box, and also do the promised 5x conversions (compared to software transcoding).

I was very disappointed to find out this uses an old (2 years old) version of Arcsoft Media's MediaConverter (2.0). There is a 2.5 version available for this, as a paid upgrade ($15) but *do not upgrade* if you own the InstantVideo To Go - version 2.5 of MediaConverter does NOT work with this product - the included version (2.0) is specially programmed to work with the hardware encoder.

And this is why this product is so bad. Yes, it will convert faster than typical software encoder / transcoders (my limited tests show it to be about 2-3x faster, not 5x), but the only software that apparently works with it is 2 years old, only has limited support for "iPod Video" (which won't work with AppleTV, and is lousy for the new iPod Touch and Phone screen reqs) and DOES NOT RIP DVDs out of the box.

Version 2.5 of MediaConverter apparently does most of the above, and also apparently has much more product support (claims 50 devices in the output field, vs 5 in the 2.0 software). It's a shame that you can't upgrade to 2.5 and have it use the InstantVideo To Go - if you do, MediaConverter will do a software-based conversion, taking about 3x longer than 2.0 does.

The Arcsoft software is best described as "janky" poorly designed, poorly documented, and very limited in your encoding options. They seriously need to update this software and I wouldn't recommend anyone buying this hardware encoder until ADS does a major software overhaul for the device.

Also, ADS's website is a bit of a joke. I tried to submit a support ticket to ask about iPod Touch / Apple TV support, and you go through several pages trying to submit a question, only to get to the last page, where it stalls, and never submits the question.

Bottom line: doesn't offer encoding options for newest iPods; doesn't rip DVDs natively; has severely limited encoding options (and half of them are for obscure products), doesn't work with AppleTV, and ADSTech's website support is non-existent. Don't buy, until they update the software.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars ADS Tech Sucks!!!!!, May 22, 2008

By 

Duncan Idaho "Gadget addict" (San Francisco, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Instant Video To-go (Personal Computers)

1. The product is great but hampered by bad software
2. Incompatible with Vista

The product under windows Xp was marginal at best. It created better than average videos. The reason I say it is hampered by bad software is that ElGato Systems uses the same hardware for the Macintosh platform (Turbo 264) but writes it's own software for it and THAT one is flexible and encodes great video (I have both). The software that ADS Tech bundles with the Instant Video To-Go, ArcSoft MediaConverter 2 has not been updated -for this unit- since release (except for 2 drivers that were finicky).

The drivers are now incompatible with Vista. I've been hearing of problems with ADSTech dropping old hardware compatibility with Vista. Their website sites EVENTUAL compatibility but does not give a timetable... and their track record is not so good in this regard.

While no manufacturer is under obligation to support a product after an extended length of time, they have not released a successor to this unit and thus cannot claim to just "developing for a newer product".

This is the first thing I purchased from this company. It will be the last and I will be spreading the word.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Total POS, June 21, 2007

By 

T. J. Hoppa (North Aurora, IL United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Instant Video To-go (Personal Computers)

This product isn't worth the time saved.

Aspect ratio is not preserved. So, maybe on a 2 inch iPod screen it looks OK, but anything bigger and wide-screen video looks messed up.

Despite advertisements, it's not AppleTV compatible. Simply doesn't work.

Can't handle DVDs properly.

Total waste of money. Don't buy it.