The news
Anyone who's tried creating video for portable media players, such as Apple iPods and Sony PSPs, will intrigued to hear of the arrival of ADS Tech's InstantVideo To-Go. This £80 memory-stick-style gadget is a hardware-accelerated video converter for Windows that's claimed to create MP4 (H.264) video footage up to 15 times faster than a computer - and be the first of its kind available.
ADS - which made its name selling affordable but decent-quality FireWire cards, external FireWire drive cases and analogue<>digital converter boxes - reckons that this little USB 2.0-attached device can convert from most of the common video formats played on PCs, including MPEG-1, MPEG-2, DVD VOBs (unprotected), DivX and Quicktime Movie.
The company says that conversions are up to five times faster than real time. As an example, it claims that a 100-minute MPEG2 or DVD VOB file takes just 20 minutes to be converted into high-quality 320x240, MP4/H.264 video.
That, ADS reckons, compares with the five hours it would typically take someone to convert the same file using software-only encoding.
Click for larger imageThe unit can natively produce four types of iPod footage and three for PSP. It also comes with ArcSoft Media Converter software to give unaccelerated conversion to MPEG-4 AVI, various Windows Media formats, MPEG-4 ASF, various QuickTime formats, MPEG-1 and 3GP and 3G2.
Accelerated iPod output formats are:
High – 640 x
480, 1,536 kpbs, 30 frames per second, AAC audio 48KHz, 64 kbps
High – 320 x 240, 768Kbps, 30 frames per second, AAC audio 48KHz, 64 kbps
Medium – 320 x 240, 512 kbps, 30 frames per second, AAC audio 48KHz, 64 kbps
Low – 320 x 240, 320 kbps, 15 frames per seconds, AAC audio 48KHz, 64 kbps
High – 320 x 240, 768Kbps, 30 frames per second, AAC audio 48KHz, 64 kbps
Medium – 320 x 240, 512 kbps, 30 frames per second, AAC audio 48KHz, 64 kbps
Low – 320 x 240, 320 kbps, 15 frames per seconds, AAC audio 48KHz, 64 kbps
Accelerated Sony PSP output formats are:
High - 320 x 240, 768
kbps, 30 frames per seconds, AAC audio 24KHz, 64 kbps
Medium - 320 x 240, 512 kbps, 30 frames per seconds, AAC audio 24KHz, 64 kbps
Low - 320 x 240, 320 kbps, 150 frames per seconds, AAC audio 24KHz, 64 kbps
Medium - 320 x 240, 512 kbps, 30 frames per seconds, AAC audio 24KHz, 64 kbps
Low - 320 x 240, 320 kbps, 150 frames per seconds, AAC audio 24KHz, 64 kbps
Stated system requirements are Windows XP (latest service packs recommended); a P4 1.5GHz CPU (or better); QuickTime 7.1; 256MB RAM; 128MB video RAM; and a free USB 2.0 port.
So, how does this little fella appeal to you? Check out the InstantVideo To-Go home page and ADS's press release on page two of this article, then let us know your thoughts in this thread in the HEXUS.lifestyle news forum.
HEXUS.links
HEXUS.community :: discussion thread about this articleExternal.links
ADS Tech - InstantVideo To-Go home pageADS Tech - company home page
