Elgato 10020196 Turbo.264 HD Encoder/Accelerator

Other products by Elgato

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 5.1 x 1.2 x 7.3 inches ; 6.4 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B0021AEPTY
• Item model number: 10020196
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,995 in Electronics (See Bestsellers in Electronics)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: January 27, 2009

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

Turbo.264 HD Video Encoder & Accelerator Convert HD video to the universal H.264 format The Turbo.264 HD is a USB hardware device and accompanying Mac software that works together to dramatically accelerate the conversion of video to H.264 format. H.264 video is a universal format that can be played on iPod, iPhone, Apple TV, gaming consoles, YouTube, and much more. The Turbo.264 HD accepts nearly any video file and outputs high quality H.264 video, in formats up to full 1080P HD. "iPod/iPhone Video Accessory of the Year."  - www.iLounge.com
Highlights Convert videos at amazing speed Intuitive and easy to use Instant access to your AVCHD camcorder Preview, trim and combine video files Accelerates encoding from QuickTime-enabled applications Upload video directly to YouTube
	Incredibly fast and easy to use Comes with intuitive software and converts videos at amazing speeds. Crop, scale, trim, batch process, and easily merge multiple clips into one movie.
Easily transfer HD camcorder video to a Mac Preview and move HD camcorder movies to your Mac or iPod in one fast and easy step. Turbo.264 HD automatically detects AVCHD camcorders and lets you add all your video clips to the batch with one click.
	Suitable for pros as well as novices Dramatically accelerates video encoding when used with Mac applications such as iMovie, QuickTime Pro, Final Cut Pro, and EyeTV. Select from a range of presets or add your own video output profiles with complete control over bitrates, frame rates, resolution, and more.
Works with the new EyeTV iPhone App* If you're an EyeTV user and have the new EyeTV app on your iPhone, the Turbo.264 HD has special benefits. By adding the Turbo to your setup, the main processor will have less work to do, plus you get the advantages of 'adaptive streaming' which can deliver higher quality live streaming under varying network conditions. *Optional - Available at the iTunes App Store.
System Requirements Macintosh computer with Intel Core processor 512 MB of RAM a built-in USB 2.0 port Mac OS X 10.5.6 Leopard (or later) QuickTime 7.6 (or later) Input Formats AVCHD Video QuickTime AVI DV WMV MPEG-1 MPEG-2 MPEG-4 MP4 M4V H.263 H.264 AVC Xvid VIDEO_TS and many more. Output Formats Apple TV Video iPod High Video iPod Standard Video iPhone Video Sony PSP Video YouTube Video YouTube HD Video HD 720p HD 1080p Custom profiles - H.264 High Profile, 1080p, 30fps, 20MBit/s max.

Product Description

Turbo.264 HD is the fast and easy way to convert HD camcorder clips and other videos to a format that can be played on an iPod , iPhone , and Apple TV , and shared on the web. Turbo.264 HD is an encoder and accelerator that converts all popular video formats, including HD camcorder video, to a high-quality H.264 file in standard or HD resolutions. It is incredibly fast and comes with an easy-to-use software application.H.264 is the universal video compression standard that can be played on an iPod, iPhone, Apple TV, gaming consoles, selected smartphones, and on the web. It offers extremely high quality video in small file sizes.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Elgato missed an opportunity, June 10, 2009

By	pdX (West Hollywood, CA United States) - See all my reviews

I've been using Elgato's digital-analog TV tuner for a year and was happy with it. So I'm surprised how poor the quality of this product. I think they missed an opportunity to really understand their user base and what we might use this device for. I use it to convert video from one format to another - mostly avi to m4v so that I can play and archive my videos - TV Shows, Music Videos and Films - within iTunes. For this purpose, the Turbo 264 HD not only doesn't shine, but almost destroys good video.

I submitted two photos of my results as customer pictures - they show two conversions for comparison. On top is a QT conversion at a lower bitrate. On the bottom is Elgato's default AppleTV setting. The results for the Turbo device are surprisingly poor. Much darker and with a serious loss of detail. Also, it doesn't allow you to customize the settings "like a pro" (their words from advertising) - no 2-pass (an obvious requirement), no adding a poster frame, no control over multiple audio tracks, no control over subtitle files, and until the HD software was introduced no modifying the kbps - many the things we expect from QuickTime or ViddyUp or the plethora of dedicated video converters.

Again, it seems Elgato missed an opportunity to make a great, flexible product. It's a good idea, but not well executed.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Works great., April 16, 2009

By	John Hillestad (Ft Lauderdale, FL USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Amazon Verified Purchase

Tried it on my mac pro and it turned a 15min avchd file into an iphone file in 8 minutes. In Toast 10 w/o the stick it took almost 16 minutes. Other mov files took it 45 seconds and viddy up took 2m23sec . So it is faster and very handy to use.
If you use an avchd camera it will take those mts files and create mp4 files fast and easy.... the only other product that can do this is Toast 9 and Toast 10.

this stick is for some reason intel only so G5 , powerpc users are left out.... dont know why since its those machines that need the most help.... my G5 uses the older h.264 stick.

Its easy to use , the appletv setting even works on my PS3 for playback.... I wish tey would include a PS3 setting but appletv setting will work unlike the older stick that never had the wrapper correct so the PS3 would declare the video invalid this version of the software wraps it correctly and the PS3 sees it fine.
The PSP will now make a proper 16x9 unlike the older stick.

So far very pleased.

I wish they would make a avchd stand alone player that uses the stick for playback since .mts native playback is a chore for any computer it would make a nice added feature if I could ever use it for playback of avchd.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Turbo HD can't be beat!, April 8, 2009

By	Robert D. Fields "Meanbrew" (Plympton, Massachusetts) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I just purchased Turbo HD and it converts my recorded HD TV shows on my Mac quickly- about 3X faster. I record HD shows using "HD Homerun" on my network with clear Qam HD TV with Elgato 3.0 software. The standard Turbo .264 will not work on my Mac to convert these shows to Apple TV format. So, to convert these HD shows it takes My 2.16 GHz 24" intel Mac from 20 to 30 minutes for every hour of HD recording resulting in a compression from 7 GB per hour to 1.5 GB and the HD quality is excellent. Turbo HD also converts shows to other formats like iPhone, iTouch or iPods, Wide screen, or standard screen. The Turbo HD will also convert your standard home movies at about 95 fps rate. Where I achieve only 32 fps on the standard Turbo .264. So, I am recommending this product 100%, even though I think it's very pricey. But Amazon.com has the best price.