Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

elgato turbo h.264 accel

S

spacepower7

macrumors 68000
Original poster
May 6, 2004
1,509
1
New product under development? Looks like Elgato are making a h.264 encoder (USB 2.0) for high speed conversions.

http://www.macnews.de/news/98679

http://blogs.sun.com/seapegasus/entry/turbo_quicktime_encoding


Looks promising


"I just wanted to show this (macnews) and this (MacWelt) to a colleague of mine, but noticed that there are no English articles to be found describing this new piece of hardware, so I just write one myself.

Elgato Turbo 264 is an external CPU in a USB stick. When you encode a lot of H.264 Quicktime movies (for iPod or Apple TV), you know how it maxes out your Mac's CPU(s), and still takes between 4h and 20h to encode one movie? Right, so the idea is to let this specialized additional CPU do the encoding for you, and take off the load of the main CPU.

The main advantage is of course speed: The tested prototype's statistics for encoding a 1 min long 640x480 video on a Mac with 2 G5 CPUs are: 3.5 min (without turbo), versus 46 secs (with turbo). Presumably, if you already have an uber-fast Mac Pro, the speed gain is less noticable, but for everybody else it should make a big difference.

The included software comes with a plugin that adds the hardware encoding option to the Quicktime Exporter menus, e.g. in EyeTV, iMovie and Quicktime Player Pro. It also support a video format compatible with Sony Playstations somewhere. If you don't have Quicktime pro, you can get the functionality (*) included in the stand-alone version of the product.

And why am I advertising it? Let's say I might know someone who may or may not possibly have had a hand (or two) involved in the development of the software's spiffy GUI. ;-) (Sources: MacWelt and MacNews)

PS: (*) To be more clear, the stand-alone version does not contain a QuickTime Pro license, but something with equivalent functionality by Elgato."
 
Wow! Anything To Encode mp4 Faster I'm All Over It

I want one now.
 

Attachments

  • ElGatoTurbo.264Unit.jpg
    ElGatoTurbo.264Unit.jpg
    16.5 KB · Views: 175
  • ElGatoTurbo.264ScreenShot.jpg
    ElGatoTurbo.264ScreenShot.jpg
    25.2 KB · Views: 180
spacepower7 said:
Looks like the elagto turbo is the same as this ADS h.264 encoder. Elgato are probably rebranding the same hardware and writing the Mac software.




http://www.engadget.com/2007/01/15/ads-techs-instant-video-to-go-offers-up-ipod-psp-video-conver/
Click to expand...

They did the same exact thing with the eyetv hybrid. Check out the hauppauge 950. I bought the 950 for $60 after rebates from Circuit city. Plugged it into my mac and EyeTV 2.0 recognized it as an eyetv hybrid and it works perfectly. Same exact hardware.
 
$60 Vs. $150 !! That's Crazy MacEnforcer

macenforcer said:
They did the same exact thing with the eyetv hybrid. Check out the hauppauge 950. I bought the 950 for $60 after rebates from Circuit city. Plugged it into my mac and EyeTV 2.0 recognized it as an eyetv hybrid and it works perfectly. Same exact hardware.
Click to expand...
Thanks for telling us NOW?!?!?! They resell it for $150! Holy Sh*t! :eek: :mad:

Why weren't you enforcing our bad buying decisions before now!! :mad:
 
WOW! That is freaking awesome; the 950 would totally make DVR on my Imac economically feasible and set aside money for the turbo. Hmm, I wonder if the net amount of this 950, which is still on sale from Circuit City, plus a Turbo with an :apple: TV and hard drive upgrade is a tipping scale in my decision to go from Mac Mini to Apple Tv for a media center...
 
Thanks

Thanks for the info about the hauppauge 950.

I have seen that and a Pinnacle version of the same hardware at Circuit City and Microcenter.

Since I have a $50 credit at Circuit City, I am going to go pick up a hauppauge 950 tomorrow for $10 ($30 - $20 rebate) more. I bought a copy of EyeTV when it was on sale for $40 awhile ago. So now I can have an EyeTV hybrid for $10 out of pocket. Awesome.

Thanks for the info.
 
This seems like it would only be useful for older/slower machines. My Mac Pro can already encode SD res 1500kbps .h264 in 2x real time.
 
Multimedia said:
How? What workflow?
Click to expand...

I use handbrake settings:

mp4 h.264 main profile
1500kbps video, 128kbps AAC
average output file size for 2 hour movie - a little over 1 gig.

I usaually average around 65-70 FPS encoding, so on 23fps movie that's 2-2.5x faster than realtime. The resolution of the movies varies due to different widescreen aspect ratios that the movies were shot in, but all are at least 720 pixels wide. My Mac Pro chews through renders much faster than my old 2ghz G5, it's scary.
 
Laslo Panaflex said:
I use handbrake settings:

mp4 h.264 main profile
1500kbps video, 128kbps AAC
average output file size for 2 hour movie - a little over 1 gig.

I usaually average around 65-70 FPS encoding, so on 23fps movie that's 2-2.5x faster than realtime. The resolution of the movies varies due to different widescreen aspect ratios that the movies were shot in, but all are at least 720 pixels wide. My Mac Pro chews through renders much faster than my old 2ghz G5, it's scary.
Click to expand...

just out of intrest - what FPS would you be getting using normal Mpeg setting (no h.264) on 2500k and 160 for audio ?

i get round 50-65 on a Core2 1.83
 
liketom said:
just out of intrest - what FPS would you be getting using normal Mpeg setting (no h.264) on 2500k and 160 for audio ?

i get round 50-65 on a Core2 1.83
Click to expand...

I have no idea, I haven't used handbrake to encode regular mp4. I'll try a sample using the above settings and get back to you.
 
Laslo Panaflex said:
I have no idea, I haven't used handbrake to encode regular mp4. I'll try a sample using the above settings and get back to you.
Click to expand...

thanks if you crunch through H.264 at that speed i would be very intrested in dropping the money down on a Mac Pro like yours


awaiting the results :)
 
Laslo Panaflex said:
This seems like it would only be useful for older/slower machines. My Mac Pro can already encode SD res 1500kbps .h264 in 2x real time.
Click to expand...

Is that particularly impressive? My MacBook CD encodes SD @ 2000 kbps MPEG-4 at 2x real time as well, around 50-60 fps average.
 
GFLPraxis said:
Is that particularly impressive? My MacBook CD encodes SD @ 2000 kbps MPEG-4 at 2x real time as well, around 50-60 fps average.
Click to expand...

It's much better than my old G5, so yeah, it's impressive to me. A Mac Pro would be much faster if mediafork/handbrake was optimized better, it usually only uses between 130-150% of CPU. I use episode to encode for none DVD rips, it utilizes all 4 cores efficiently.
 
macenforcer said:
For $60 it doesnt come with the remote or video cable but check this out. FUlly mac compatible.

http://registration.hauppauge.com/webstore/hardware2.asp?product=hvr900_avcable
Click to expand...

Unfortunately, the Hauppage does not come with the EyeTV software either, which Elgato sells for $80. Together, they add up to the Hybrid's price.
http://www.elgato.com/index.php?file=shop_onlineshop

I think the software UI here is probably the most important thing, so if you don't already own the EyeTV software, is there any other way to use this tuner?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back