Elgato Turbo.264?

So I am looking into expanding my mac mini for use of audio and video editing. I have used my mini for about a year now for doing professional audio editing in Logic Express and have found it just dandy, still do. But my 80GB internal harddrive was getting even more cramped, especially after loading 10.5 Leopard a few days ago. Plus my 120GB and 250GB external HD's are packed with audio and video content I can not afford to erase so I went out and purchased another Lacie, 500GB USB2.0 and it works amazingly.
BUT... I feel my graphics are lagging. This is of course because the mini has integrated graphics, but more then this, while rendering in Final Cut and Motion. It has become a MAJOR pain, especially when my friend with a MB Pro sits next to me rendering the clip super fast. So I saw the elgato turbo.264 which states it will help with this, i have also read reviews into it.
My only question is, will this overtake day-to-day graphics processing? Thanks for any help!

turbo.264 will not accelerate, thus will not help you, your rendering needs. That job belongs to your CPU and your GPU, which are limited in a Mac Mini.
I own elgato turbo.264 and really does work and speeds up things in my dual 2.0 GHz G5 tower.
Because of my work, I encode a lot of videos to Apple Devices codecs in H.264. That is what the turbo is made for: encoding. it is not a graphic accelerator. it is an encoding accelerator. Regarding it being a USB, that has no effect. It works and does that fast. Time is money and now I am able to encode many times faster.
On the negative side, I have not been able to use it as an export component with Compressor just because I prefer it for professional jobs that require more control and metadata within the output file. If that does not apply to you, their application works perfectly and does batch exports. It also has custom settings.
Another minor negative is that Apple TV export are limited to 800x600 or 960x540 (anamorphic) thus not supporting the AppleTV supported 720p24... looks good but is less than what the AppleTV is capable of as long as your footage is 24 frames per second.
Hope this helps and that it can answer your question.
To me, I give elgato 4.9 out of 5.0, which I'll change to 5 out of 5 as soon as I can fix the Compressor thing

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Elgato turbo.264 export fails in Compressor as a QuickTime Component

I would like to know if any user of Compressor 3 and elgato turbo.264 hardware accelerator has had succes in using the device as a QuickTime export component within Compressor.
I setup a few export settings but the Batch Monitor reports "3x encoder type unavailable".

You should report this to Elgato on their support site if you have not already. Add a trouble ticket here: http://support.elgato.com/

Can anyone confirm if Elgato Turbo.264 HD works with iMovie '11?

I've been reading a couple of accounts of people who seem to be using Turbo.264 HD (hardware) to accelerate iMovie '11 encoding.
Yet on the Elgato site there is an (admittedly old) support article that says it is only compatible with iMovie '09. Other reviews around the 'Net say the same, and have not been updated with info about iMovie '11.
So can anyone confirm that they have a working setup with iMovie '11 and Elgato Turbo.264 HD (hardware version)? I'd like to make sure before I plunk down the money.
P.S. I know it doesn't seem to work with Final Cut Pro X, I'm focusing on iMovie for now.

confirmed
does an excellent job with my set-up (MacMIni, C2D, 2.26GHz) ...
in FCPX it's a 2step process: export timeline, drag resulting .mov into Turbo.app ...

Elgato Turbo.264 problem

After installing Elgato Turbo.264 on an Intel iMac 27" a problem with HTML5 video playback in Safari appeared.
When playing videos on Vimeo.com in the HTML5 mode the error message "Ooops something broke..." shows up. I have to switch to the Flash player.
It seems there might be an incompatibility problem with QuickTime or Safari but Elgato support does not have a clue. Did anyone else notice this issue? Or does anyone know what to do about it? Please let me know. Thanks!

Encountered same problem. I submitted a support ticket to Elgato, but no reply yet. I suggest you do the same thing so they work on it ASAP. http://support.elgato.com/index.php

Anyone know if Elgato Turbo.264 works with iChat?

thx!

Hey Ralph:
Thanks for the reply. I think you're under the impression this is a camera. I probably should have explained that the Elgato Turbo.264 is a H.264 hardware encoder on a USB stick. It looks like any application using the Quicktime codec has the processing offloaded to the Turbo.264. But, I didn't see iChat specifically mentioned on their web site. I'm going to guess this is just wishful thinking on my part.
http://www.elgato.com/index.php?file=products_eyetvturbo&PHPSESSID=21dffb0258a18 bfd2133462f0367f997

FCE VS ELGATO TURBO 264 HD

I import MTS files from Panasonic HDC SD100 and edit them to produce 1080 PAL video to see on 1080 TV Aquos.
I tried a lot of different ways with FCE but it always give me some artefacts especially on diagonal lines. I get a better result only if I use Jes Deinterlacer after FCE.
Then I bought Elgato Turbo 264HD and discovered that if I use only it without FCE it gives a better video. Even Elgato used as export format indise FCE does not give the same good result but I need again to go to Jes.
I am missing something ??? Do I make some mistake ??
Of course the power of FCE in editing is not comparable with Elgato but.....
FCE is somway old... should we expect a upgrade ???
Would final cut pro be better ?? But for home use is too expensive and may be too complicated.
I also never used iMovie...I was guessing it could not be better than FCE but shoud I give it a try ?
Thanks for your opinions

WOW !!!
Alchroma, thanks a lot !
I have now not jet solved the question but may be Thanks to you I am on the right direction.
Jes.. I was importing direct from SD card and using "Custom" setting instead of the AIC1080. I was not confident with this settings because I do not use FCE so often and in the past I had to log and transfer some standar def DV tapes. Now I changed the camera and probably I was not aware of the necessary settings to change.
Your suggestion is great value and I am now testing the Log and transfer again from SD card but using AIC standard 1920*1080 50.
THe artefacts are still there (seen on MAC screen - I have not TV here) , may be a little less but it is still lower quality if compared with Elgato direct import, or after a treatment with Jes deinterlacer....
I will try to import direct form the camera.
Thanks again

Will Elgato Turbo converter/encoder fix the posterization issue in iMovie?

I know this is a well-known issue with iMovie. Dark spots and shadows look posterized or color-banded in iMovie. I've scoured the internet in search of a solution, but short of learning how to hack my computer and install different codecs, I can't find a reasonable solution. I know the elgato turbo USB stick is an encoder. My question is, if I used the elgato turbo to export my videos, would that get rid of the color-banding issue? Does that even make sense? (I'm not a video expert.) If anyone has tried this, let me know. If you don't know what I'm talking about and what I'm trying to get rid of, see the image below.

Ok..here are some files to help demonstrate the problem I am encountering.
access my iDisk here: https://public.me.com/testpilot58d
*RC Stuff.mov* is the footage from my camcorder in iMovie.
When I export it to HD 720p setting using turbo.264 HD, the resultant file is *RC Stuff.mp4*. This file is beautiful...perfect...crisp...looks just like my HD camcorder. It is 1280x720 progressive (Apple TV spec), avg bitrate 4,907 kbps (Apple TV spec) but it is 59.940 fps (NOT to spec) size 3.2mb
When I choose the "Apple TV" output option, I get file *RC Stuff.m4v*. It is flat, not crisp, doesn't "popp" on either my iMac or when viewed on Apple TV. It too is 1280x720 progressive, avg bitrate of 3,438 and 29.970 fps. I changed output size to 1280x720 in the Apple TV preset and it still looks flat and crappy.
So....who can get me from point A to point B? How do I need to process RC Stuff.mov to that it will LOOK like RC Stuff. mp4 but is compatible with Apple TV specs and looks as good on a HDMI LCD flat screen TV? How do I deinterlace/what field order, etc to cut the frame rate in half and still look sharp and crisp?
Thank you anyone in advance!

HELP!!! EyeTv and Turbo.264

This is driving me mad!
When I use the 1'click export to Apple TV button on EyeTV2 with Turbo.264 plugged in, the red progress bar will go up and then down and then up and then down... and keep doing this for ages.
Then it will do one of two things:
1. Delete the output file leaving nothing
2. Leave me with a file which has the video broken up in the wrong order, but with constant (correct) Audio - (maybe the video is mirroring the jumping red progress bar??)
Without turbo.264 plugged in, it's fine. The iPod export works fine, as does the AUTOMATIC Apple TV export which you select for each 'Scheduled' programme.
I am using the latest software for ALL aspects.
Any thoughts much appreciated.
Thanks!

I have also bee using EyeTv 2.4 and h.264 1.1 since day dot and all is working perfectly. The only issue I have is that once exported and imported into iTunes the software doesn't clean up and remove the converted file from my Movies directory (I found 50gb of HDD last weekend)....
Cheers.
Dean
20 G5 iMac + BT Mac OS X (10.3.7)

Something faster than the Elgato Turbo?

Hi,
I have a Mac Pro 2.66 and from what I've read on line, there's no point in getting the Elgato Turbo Encoder. Is there something I can get which will encode faster than the Mac Pro 2.66?
Thanks
-Dean

8 core mac pro. i'm going to end of year. probably save 25% more time.

Turbo.264 and Quicktime Broadcaster

Anyone know if these two are compatable?
Trying to speed up my encoding speed on live streams on my xserve g5.

Much thanks for the feedback.. I was hoping it might've been a possibility (since I like the concept of being able to do h264 640x480 encoding without hiccups without having to use a macpro)
I did leave them some email with a few questions, so hopefully I'll hear some good news I put a post on a different board about compressor support too, since I figured that would be pretty helpful as well if it was compatable there.

Turbo.264 and compressor

Anyone know if these two are compatable?

If you're encoding the audio to AC3, the default preset in Compressor includes a dialog normalization setting as well as a film compression setting that does lower the level. It's best to create a custom AC3 preset with Dialog Normalization set to -31dbfs and Compression type to NONE.
If you're encoding the audio as PCM, there should be no discernible level drop that I'm aware of.
-DH

H.264 turbo or other conversion software

Has anyone used a converter such as h.264 turbo to speed up export from FCP.
If so what ones....with or without hardware?

I have used the Elgato Turbo.264 USB device, and the Matrox MXO2 Mini with MAX. Both speed up encoding to H.264 considerably. Both are hardware.
Shane

Working with 720p h.264 files

Is my Mac supposed to be able to work directly with 720p h.264 files? Macbook Pro 2,33 Ghz with 2 gig RAM...
From my limited testing, I have seen extremely slow scrubbing with the previously mentioned files.
I was thinking of buying a Elgato turbo.264 HD for importing video from my Canon HF11... but I don't think its worth it, if working with the video is so slow...
Any suggestions would be appreciated

h.264 is primarily a playback format. It is designed to be highly compressed, yet give high quality pictures. It is similar to AVCHD in this regard. AVCHD uses h.264 internally.
The way h.264 compression works is the [Group of Pictures compression technique|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groupofpictures], where for every full frame, there are, say, 24 frames of highly compressed information. For example, imagine a video of an eagle flying. You get one full frame of the eagle flying. The next 24 frames say, "background is the same, but shifted over to the left, eagle's wings are moving up and down, etc."
When you import AVCHD, iMovie converts all these partial frames to full frames in the Apple Intermediate Codec. You can do the same thing for h.264 by using a free tool like MPEG Streamclip. You can drag your h.264 file into streamclip and export as AIC full frames.
This makes it much easier to edit.

Is quicktime best for converting H.264??

I have a number of movies that are already in the H.264 format but now I wish to put them on my iPhone. Only problem they need to be 480x320 but they are all 720x304. Does anybody know if Quicktime Pro is the best app to do this. I have started by going to Export and then choosing my custom size and then Save as.. but this seems to be taking a very long time on my G5 iMac (2.16 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo with 1.5GB SDRAM)
Anyone know If I'm doing it the right way.
Thanks
Seb

Get MPEG Streamclip (Free).
Open batch mode. Drag the lot to the batch list - select export to MPEG-4 press the iTunes button and select iPhone (4:3 or 16:9) - if they are mixed aspect ratios do all the 4:3 first (it will preselect 4:3) and then the 16:9 next.
Press go. Leave. Come back later.
If you have great bloody piles of them or expect to have, then invest in the Elgato Turbo.264 USB device as it will transcode to iPhone, iPod, etc, settings at about 1/4 of real time, e.g. a 30 minute clip can be converted in 7 or 8 minutes. Also does batches of them.

H.264 usb gadget...

Has anyone tried this USB encoder Elgato Turbo.264? http://www.elgato.com/index.php?file=products_eyetvturbo
Is it any good? Please list pros and cons.
P

I encoded to H.264 from a 1.45GB YUV 4:2:0 file. The new .mov file was just 277MB. This is 500 frames and no sound! I have no problems with encoding times - just wish they were made shorter by using more available CPU!
Like another poster said, the load didnt hit 70%. To improve performance, have you changed your system setting to 'Highest' in the Energy Saver part of system preferences? On my machine it makes a great deal of difference - especially in playback of 1080p trailers from the web! Its enough to make the Quicktime playback constantly full FPS even when doing something else on the machine

Elgato Turbo.264?

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