Recommend good general, external hardware video converters?

[tbessie]

I'd like to find a box that will take USB2 or Firewire and convert between multiple video formats (AVI, MPG(1,2,4), et. al.).

Most encoder boxes I've seen listed here and online are capture boxes, but I want one that is mostly just a workhorse for doing conversion among file formats.

Does anyone know of a box that does all that, and does it really well?

Incidentally, I noticed that none of the websites of converter boxes that I checked even MENTIONED "AVI" as a format. Is that the same as "DV", or are there just very few AVI converter boxes?

- Tim

[edDV]

What is your budget?

There are several pro-broadcast level alternatives but they are pricy.

example
http://www.ensembledesigns.com/products/brighteye/
http://www.extron.com/product/index.asp

...

Incidentally, I noticed that none of the websites of converter boxes that I checked even MENTIONED "AVI" as a format. Is that the same as "DV", or are there just very few AVI converter boxes?

- Tim

AVI is an envelope and dosen't imply a format other than maybe uncompressed RGB or YUV. DV format streams can be contained in an AVI envelope and as such have a *.avi extension but so will many other types of video.

[harley2ride]

Not sure about the MPEG4, but Plextor, Canopus, and ADS Pyro AV/Link all do AVI to MPEG, AVI to AVI, MPEG to AVI, etc, and are all external units. I believe that the plextor is USB, and the CANOPUS and ADS are USB or Firewire.

[edDV]

Each of the external boxes mentioned specialize by format. None do MPeg2, MPeg4 and DV. You need to match the capture unit to the process you envision.

DV is best for serious editing but requires a separate MPeg2 encoding step.

MPeg4 is less standard and is very difficult to edit.

[FulciLives]

The ADS Instant DVD 2.0 is a most excellent USB 2.0 external box that has analog A/V inputs and is a hardware MPEG encoder. It even has the ability to do 15,000kbps CBR "I" frame only captures. It features "audio lock" for A/V sync but only when using MP2 audio.

ADS is about to release (just about any day now) the ADS Instant DVD + MP3 which was originally to be called the ADS Instant DVD 3.0 because it is essentially the same thing but now has the capability to do hardware encoding AC-3 audio! It can also do WAV and MP3 for music only sources.

For more info check out the following links:

Official ADS website

Info on the new ADS Instant DVD + MP3

Official ADS Forum Board

I would like to point out that I tested the ADS Instant DVD 2.0 and found the quality to be mostly very good to excellent. The only reason why I didn't keep it (I returned it) was because I needed more flexability for TV show scheduling. The included software only allows for 1 scheduled recording at a time.

Here is a thread where I talk about my experience with the ADS Instant DVD 2.0 ---> CLICK HERE

Another option for external MPEG hardware encoder would be the Hauppauge WinTV-PVR USB 2.0 which is not to be confused with the Hauppauge WinTV USB 2.0

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[harley2ride]

Each of the external boxes mentioned specialize by format. None do MPeg2, MPeg4 and DV. You need to match the capture unit to the process you envision.

DV is best for serious editing but requires a separate MPeg2 encoding step.

MPeg4 is less standard and is very difficult to edit.

Thank you edDV for clarifying that.

[Bonnevue]

stay away from the plextor, quality is very disapointing for mpeg 2, and divx or mpeg4 conversions is almost useless, the latter produces very large files in a awfull quality. I would go for the Hauppage pvr, capture in MPEG 2 and convert afterwards to whatever you want

[tbessie]

Thanks everyone for their advice!

The reason I don't want to capture in MPG2 and then convert or edit is 'cause most of what I need it for is video I've downloaded and want to put on DVD. There's enough of it that I don't want to wait for a whole day for my laptop to encode it for every clip I've got.

That's why I wanted something that could convert among formats, especially non-MPG2 -> MPG2.

- Tim

[junkmalle]

most of what I need it for is video I've downloaded and want to put on DVD.

Buy a DVD recorder and use it to recored your computer's video out port.

[tbessie]

Hey, FulciLives... I see nothing in the specs of either of those two boxes that says anything about converting already-digitized video to other formats. It only talks about capturing analog sources and converting them into digital formats.

Am I missing something?

- Tim

[FulciLives]

Hey, FulciLives... I see nothing in the specs of either of those two boxes that says anything about converting already-digitized video to other formats. It only talks about capturing analog sources and converting them into digital formats.

Am I missing something?

- Tim

I didn't read your original post very well. I thought you were asking about capture devices.

The best suggestion so far for what you want is what junkmalle said ... play back on the computer ... output via the graphics card video out ... record to a stand alone DVD recorder.

This method will not give "best" quality but it should be "good enough" and is very fast.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[tbessie]

The thing is, I want a 100% digital solution to this problem -- it's elegant and relatively lossless. My laptop has only an S-Video out, not the best analog format for duplicating video, I'd think.

Why does what I'm looking for seem so hard to find? Surely there are plenty of people who need to convert between digital formats... there are PCI-bus boards for doing so, I'd bet, so why not an external box?

I'm wondering if the Canopus boxes can do this. I may call them up and ask them.

- Tim

[junkmalle]

The thing is, I want a 100% digital solution to this problem -- it's elegant and relatively lossless. My laptop has only an S-Video out, not the best analog format for duplicating video, I'd think.

Why does what I'm looking for seem so hard to find? Surely there are plenty of people who need to convert between digital formats... there are PCI-bus boards for doing so, I'd bet, so why not an external box?

I'm wondering if the Canopus boxes can do this. I may call them up and ask them.

- Tim

I believe the PCI cards you refer to all convert analog video to digital in several forms, raw YUY2, DV AVI, MPEG etc.

I don't think what you want, a box which converts digital video files from one container/codec to another, exists. Well, actually it does, it called a PC, and you're probably using one right now.

[FulciLives]

I don't think what you want, a box which converts digital video files from one container/codec to another, exists. Well, actually it does, it called a PC, and you're probably using one right now.

The trick of course is that you have to use software to do the conversion meaning it may not always go as fast as you might hope ... but ... you can do what you want to do with software.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[tbessie]

Yeah, I know I could always just buy another computer to do this (my laptop, which is my main computer, tends to run VERY hot when running high cpu-usage tasks like this for a long time, so I don't want to use it for that if I can help it).

But if there's a box just for this purpose, I'd rather use something like that. Don't want to buy a whole new computer for it, even if it means paying more for a special-purpose box... I don't have the room for a tower.

- Tim

[junkmalle]

Consider this: there isn't even one single program that can convert any format to any other format. So it's unlikely that anyone could make a stand-alone box that could. If they did the cost would be very high because of all the licensing fees. It would likely be very buggy too.

Consider a small form factor PC and a KVM switch so you can use your current peripherals with it.

http://www.anandtech.com/systems/showdoc.aspx?i=2495

Of course, you'll still need to collect a lot of software and learn how to use it all...