Elgato Turbo.264 - Video H.264 (MP4) Encoder Hardware 10020500

by Elgato

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 7.8 x 2.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B000V1V4GC
• Item model number: 10020260
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #78,342 in Electronics (See Top 100 in Electronics)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: August 9, 2006

Product Description

H.264 Video Encoder Hardware. It accelerates video exports to iPOD and Apple TV formats and comes with optional software to convert video files to H.264(.mp4) format.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Not worth the money or aggravation, May 14, 2010

By 

R. Medina (Orange, Ca USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Elgato Turbo.264 - Video H.264 (MP4) Encoder Hardware 10020500 (Personal Computers)

I bought this to encode movies for my AppleTV. When it works it's great but more often than not it doesn't work and you won't know that until after the movie has finished encoding which can be quite a while depending on the length of your movie. The problem is that the encoded movie will, at a certain point during playback, become totally pixelated and resemble a moving mosaic. This issue is apparently a well known bug as there is a forum devoted to this on El Gato's website. This mosaic effect makes the movie totally unwatchable although the sound plays normally. After a while the mosaic effect disappears and may or may not rear its ugly head by the end of the movie. Why this occurs is beyond me and is totally random. El Gato's tech support had me connect the device directly to my iMac while removing all other connected usb devices but the problem remained. I also reinstalled the Turbo software but again, the problem remained. I've since chucked the unit into the trashcan as life is just too short. My advice to any Mac owner considering this product is to stick with Handbrake or Quicktime 7 with Perian extensions installed to encode your movies. Both Handbrake and Quicktime 7 have export functions specifically for AppleTV or iPods. While your processor will take a hit, you'll get much better results without the added aggravation or expense.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great for certain encodings, January 28, 2009

By 

Bernard F. Gilmore (Chelsea, MA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Elgato Turbo.264 - Video H.264 (MP4) Encoder Hardware 10020500 (Personal Computers)

I bought one of these a little over a year ago, intending to use it to convert videos for use on my iPhone. it works great for that purpose, speeding the production of videos substantially, even on my fast iMac.

This Christmas, I got a Sony PS3 and started to try to use the PS3 as a media server. First, I wouldn't recommend depending on the PS3 for this; it's limited in what files types it supports and very finicky about filenames, etc. But the turbo264, unfortunately, encodes in a format that is unreadable by the PS3. So, the turbo works well for what I bought it for -- so it deserves at least 4 stars. But be aware, it's a piece of hardware with preset and unchangeable characteristics about how it encodes. Great for use with Apple products; not so hot with a PS3. It will encode for PSP, but that's a pretty low resolution and looks terrible on a big screen.

5.0 out of 5 stars Accelerates mp4/h264 creation using mac mini, September 7, 2010

By 

Carlos (Missouri, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Elgato Turbo.264 - Video H.264 (MP4) Encoder Hardware 10020500 (Personal Computers)

Makes the conversion of all sorts of media types to h.264 (mp4/m4v) much faster. Simple software, easy to use.