Elgato updates encoder software

Stephen Withers
Tuesday, 07 August 2007 03:14

Business IT - Technology

A free update to the software for Elgato's Turbo.264 hardware video encoder incorporates presets for the iPhone and encodes videscreen content more efficiently.

While the iPhone presets produce 480x360 or 480x270 video according to the aspect ratio of the source material, the software now allows users to save their preferred settings for size, frame rate and other parameters for later reuse.

The updated software also allows the selection of audio tracks for DVD content. Letterboxed content is automatically recognised, and the black bars ignored during encoding to give better image quality at a given bit rate.

Bug fixes include improved 1080i decoding, and several improvements have been made for better performance, output quality and stability.

Elgato claims the Turbo.264 can encode to H.264 up to four times faster than a Core 2 Duo based Mac or 10 times faster than a G4. It can also be used to accelerate H.264 export from programs such as iMovie, Final Cut Pro and EyeTV.

The Turbo.264 costs $US99.95/€99.95/$A199.95.