Customer Reviews

Elgato Turbo.264 HD Encoder for Apple iPhone, iPod, iPad 1, iPad 2 and Mac Computers (10020196)

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(15)

 

 

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.

This is a great device for accelerating h.264 encoding on the Mac.

I'm giving it 4-stars instead of 5-stars for one reason only: the quality of the encoded quality is not nearly as good as that provided by Quicktime Pro when transcoding 1080p video. The upside: it's fast. Perhaps this is something Elgato can address in a future software update as the issues involve artifacting during high motion segments and slight softness in general. Perhaps not enough to bother most consumers, but it is readily apparent to anybody that compares the results.

But, when converting standard definition video (such as DVD video_ts) to AppleTV or iPhone/iPod it really impresses with fast and high quality transcodes.

In summary this unit will please consumers wanting to transcode SD video and most HD. Pros or picky consumers will still want to use software methods to transcode 1080p video at the very highest quality.

El Gato just released new software/firmware for this product. My previous review gave it only one star because of HD video quality. I've revised here to 4 stars. The new transcoder is greatly improved. I use the product with EyeTV software to transcode 1080i to 720p. The output video is now much cleaner. Great for my purposes. Would give an extra star if Elgato gave me more info about customizing/limitations of the Turbo H264 coder settings in EyeTV.

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.

I purchased this to speed up h.264 encoding of an hour long concert video shot in HD. What was taking 4 to 6 hours to encode now takes about 45 minutes. That simple. . .it saves a LOT of time.

You do sacrifice some control of quality as your options for quality are diminished, but I've found the quality settings are more than adequate and you can always go back to software compression if you need granular control.

It's a tool in the arsenal and can really save you time, especially for intermediate renders to check edits and quality. Simple to use and integrates with Final Cut Pro.

Also useful for transcoding videos for use on your iPod/iPad/AppleTV.

This device is fantastic. It easily integrates with eyeTV to improve iphone streaming as well as dramatically increasing encoding for ipod/ipad or appleTV. I use it mainly when I'm streaming live TV to the iphone and it decreased stutter substantially. I have a 2 gigahertz mac mini that previously had issues with streaming due to high processor utilization. When exporting videos from eyeTV to the ipod it works flawlessly with great video quality.
The standalone encoding software is great too. It easily allows saving into itunes, which is my most often used functionality. In conjunction with Perian it allows a wide variety of video formats to be transcoded. It took about a half hour to transcode a 1.5 hour movie (mkv) for importation into itunes for my iphone.

I picked this up just a few hours ago and have been able to see the difference on the encoding jobs I have had to do this afternoon. I owned the non-HD model and what an improvement this little guy is!
It automatically knew about my HD camcorder and picked up on the tricky encoding anyway. I've been saving stuff up for week to transfer over just so I can use the .264 HD.
The encoding is different this time around and seems to use some of my system resources, but isn't a complete hog on my CPU (see QT Pro, iMovie, etc...).
Also, if you are an EyeTV fan, this one doesn't suffer from the problem of losing sound/sound sync'd poorly that the Turbo.264 had.
The only two complaints I have come from the fact I didn't have it until today. Elgato, why not give us this sooner? I would have loved to been able to trade in my previous model (because I was a little soured when it didn't live up to their promises) along with some of the other owners who have felt a little burned.
Further, DON'T BUY THIS FROM ANTonline!!! (Or, probably anything else, judging by some online reviews I've read of this business). They lied (and as of right now, are currently lying) about their stock. If Amazon says it is out-of-stock, but there are 2 available from ANTonline for a higher price, wouldn't you think it would be available? Turns out, these jokers have been jerking me around for a whole week, just to let me know that it is now "unfortunately" out-of-stock. THEN WHY IS IT LISTED AS BEING IN STOCK RIGHT NOW ON THIS VERY PAGE!?!? Liars!
But I won't hold this against Elgato.
Well done, gentlemen. Well done, indeed.

I purchased this unit to convert existing files and encode MiniDV content to H.264, but it turns out that I can use it for so much more. It looks like the software has been updated since some of the other reviews because I have not experienced any of the shortcomings described in previous reviews. I went out of my way to test the darkness issue and found that the encoded file was virtually identical to the original DVD in terms of shadow and highlight.

On thing that surprised me was that I can make RipIt DVDMedia files and use the Turbo to convert them in to H.264 in less than half the time it took me with Handbrake. It also allows me to drop multiple files and render them to different settings, or combine separate files in to one. Some editing and adjustment is available, but I have not really needed to use them.

The unit also integrates nicely with several of my other Mac video editing applications, which really improves the output speed when I am encoding material for the classroom. I have not done any really long encodes, but I have found it is encoding hour-long shows in around 20 minutes for best quality AppleTV setting.

Overall, I cannot think of anything wrong with this or the price. If you think of this unit as nothing more than time saved, it soon pays for its $130 price tag very quickly. If I had one grouch, it would be that the unit does not work with PowerPC machines.

Most of the "good" reviews here speak about encoding speed. Yes it is fast(er). I wanted this product for two reasons: faster encoding, and AC3 passthru.

But there is little talk about watching the video that has been encoded. My experience has been awful.

Everything that I have converted has had the audio out of sync. On multiple Macs, with multiple sources, it has all been junk. Visualhub and Toast convert just fine, Elgato does not.

Go read the Elgato support forums before buying. I am hopeful, but not entirely optimistic, that Elgato will fix this. For now, run away from this product.

Good luck.

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.

UPDATE 11/29/09 : This company can no longer be trusted. They do not like it if you post bugs or problems on their forums , I learned this after posting a PS3 issue on their video capture product .... the product claimed to make mp4's but just not on the ps3 and then they blame the ps3 for it. ZERO STARS for support by this company .