[CIA]

Hey all, I sent this over to Mike at Xlr8yourmac but since I consider these forums "Home" I figured I would post this up here also for discussion.
Just got the .264 turbo encoder, ran some basic tests... Here are the results, some interesting numbers! No hard science here, just a stopwatch.

All latest updates applied on all machines. (10.4.9 etc)

Turbo.264 Program version was 1.0.1, Runs were done twice, and most of the time came out identical unless noted below.

Tests show machine, time to crunch, and final file size.

Quicktime crunch was done with pulldown "Movie to iPod" stock setting, or the "Movie to iPod (Elgato Turbo.264)" setting. This last one is added when you install the software that comes with the encoder.

Crunch with the Turbo.264 program was done using it's "iPod High Quality" setting.

The end file was equal in quality to the eye, and according to the "Get Info" option in quicktime, all final files were the same specs.

(These machines below are the only ones I have handy)

Test File was a 2 Min Quicktime Movie, DV Format (MiniDV capture from FCP) 436.4 MB File with mix of action shots, static scenes and flashy graphics & titles.

1st Test:

Quad G5, 2.5Ghz, 8GB RAM, Saving to 50% full RAID 0. I tested also on the normal internal (boot) drive, and numbers were nearly identical.

Stock Quicktime Export- 1:55, 23.5 MB File

1st run Quicktime Export accelerated with Turbo.264 Hardware - 2:49, 20.5 MB File (Slower?)

2nd run Quicktime Export accelerated with Turbo.264 Hardware - 2:10, 20.4MB File (unplugged all USB devices except for keyboard/mouse)

Turbo.264 Program with Turbo.264 Hardware - 2:49, 20.5 MB File (did not run second test without other USB devices like the test before)



iBook G4, 1.2 Ghz, 1.25GB RAM

Stock Quicktime Export - 10:58, 23.5 MB File

Quicktime Export Accelerated with Turbo.264 Hardware- 2:17, 20.4 MB File (Money!)

Turbo.264 Program with Turbo.264 Hardware - 3:05, 20.5 MB File (Slower then the quicktime hardware accelerated export?)2



Core 2 Duo MacBook Pro, 2.16 Ghz, 2GB RAM, 70% Full HD.

Stock Quicktime Export - 3:15, 23.6 MB File

Quicktime Export Accelerated with Turbo.264 Hardware- 2:11, 20.4 MB File

Turbo.264 Program with Turbo.264 Hardware - 2:09, 20.4 MB File



Comments:

I work for a TV station (Park City Telvision), and we got this in the hopes of speeding up some encodes so we could start podcasting some stories and shows.

First off, the time savings are nice, but not huge. I was a little surprised that my Quad G5 was faster then the hardware encoder. Just the stock quad only used 200% of an available 400% CPU, so in theory, in quicktime, I could export 2 movies using the CPU, and a 3rd using the hardware encoder, and not take a big performance hit. But how often am I encoding 3 things at once?

Second, and more important. Lack of options for the export is a major bummer. I don't know if the encoder is hardwired to only export with its (limited) options, or if it's a driver issue, but file size is important, and the ability to tweak settings is crucial for us. Some things we would like to podcast work better @ 640x480 but 15fps, but others lower picture quality and size, but 30 fps is more important (like a sit down interview vs. an action sports clip). I hope that Elgato will release a better driver with the ability to use custom settings.

Another thing we would have liked was just to compress stock DV footage to equal quality and size, but h.264 for archiving segments and/or shows on the stations RAID. Saves a lot of space, and that way we can dump that footage back into FCP if we ever needed it again quickly, and didn't want to re-digitize it off a tape. That is not possible at this time using the current drivers.

When you export using quicktime's stock "Movie to iPod" setting, the extension is .m4v, when you use the "Movie to iPod (Elgato Turbo.264)" it's .mp4, and using the Turbo.264 Program that comes with the encoder it's also .mp4.

When you use the included Turbo.264 Program program it adds whatever you just crunched automatically to your iTunes.

I did not test using the export to AppleTV or PSP settings, since the file sizes at the end are too large for our needs (simple podcasting).

Also, it should be noted that even when using the hardware encoder, CPU usage is still around 20-50% of one CPU. (my quad showed 20-30% of a possible 400%, the MacBook Pro 50% of a possible 200%, and the iBook 30% of a possible 100%).

If you have an older machine, this thing turns it into a speed demon. I wish I still had my old G4 350 with PCI USB 2 card to test how it would run on that. I suspect if you have old useless machines laying around, they can become instant encoding stations with this little device! Also, I would like to see how fast a quad core or 8 core intel MacPro can crunch my sample, for comparison.

So, in summary, this is great if you have a original model G5, G4 or older machine, and as long as tweaking settings are not needed. Speed increases are not that significant on G5 or newer intel machines.

[k squared]

I notice that the Elgato adds a plugin to work with QT, but would this also work with Handbreak? Or would a plugin have to be written?

[nerd]

I did a few quick tests as well. I'll take back my comment about saying the quality is good, it's not compared to a 2 pass x264 3mb/s encode. I haven't even looked at the data rate of the Turbo.264 yet. Here's the post.

http://forums.macnn.com/57/consumer-...a/#post3393824

Off topic a little:

Have you tried the x264 codec for your station? I daydream how we'll get all our 3/4" archived, it must be about 5,000 tapes and then there's the beta tapes that came after 3/4". I've always thought of a simple Apple Script that would compress the video using x264, add to FileMaker and then prompt the user for the metadata. The Apple Script could fire off a Compressor job to do the compressing as well so your other Macs can take part in the compressing. It really wouldn't be that hard and now that FCP Studio 2 will mix formats on the timeline without rendering that's a MAJOR bonus so you don't have to convert back to DV or whatever format you used when you need to edit with it.

[CIA]

Yeah, we kinda are in the same boat. I've used x264 before it's about the same as using the export from quicktime. It's not really a quality issue, as for SD, it all looks more or less the same. I tinkered with FFMpegX a little, and it's nice and all but a little confusing. I just need the ease of the quicktime export, but accelerated.

In 2 years this should all go away as processors get faster and faster, and apps become more MP aware. So my 80 core intel chip (lol) will crunch these jobs nearly instantly.