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Provides: Accelerated video conversion
Developer: Elgato Systems
Minimum Requirements: Macintosh with Intel Core processor, 512MB RAM, Mac OS X v10.5.6, built-in USB 2.0 port, QuickTime 7.6
Retail Price: $149.95
Availability: Out now

It's been a year-and-a-half since I reviewed Elgato's Turbo.264 video conversion accelerator, and a lot has happened since then. The most obvious, judging from the title of Elgato's new Turbo.264 HD Video Encoder & Accelerator is the worldwide love shown for high definition video. The kids these days are all about their high def cable and their high def camcorders and their high def leopard (as in Snow Leopard), and Elgato's not about to be left behind.

So, obviously, Turbo.264 HD Video Encoder & Accelerator supports high def transfers. Before we get there, though, a recap of what Turbo.264 HD is. The sole purpose of this fairly small USB device is to format and encode your video transfers. By taking this process away from your computer, you are free to work on other things while completing a lengthy video transfer. And because the Turbo.264 exists solely for this purpose, it's much, much faster at it than your computer was to begin with.

It's also very easy. Plug the device into an open USB port (it's kind of fat, but Elgato thoughtfully included a short, thinner USB cable for tight squeezes) and launch the included software. You then take the video you want to convert (supported formats include AVCHD Video, QuickTime, AVI, DV, WMV, various shades of MPEG, M4V, H.263, H.264 AVC, Xvid, VIDEO_TS and many more and drag it into the program's window. It's then just a matter of selecting the destination format and firing it up. Pre-formatted output devices include Apple TV, iPod, iPhone, Sony PSP, YouTube, and HD. There's room for multiple flavors of most of these, and you can also set up custom profiles that the software will remember.

Details on each of these formats can be found at Elgato's website.

Likely, though, you just have two questions at this point: can it read camcorders directly, and can it rip DVDs? Yes, on both counts, but with some major limitations. First, it can't rip copy protected DVDs. Don't worry, though; there's free software available for that just a Google search away. Second, Turbo.264 will detect a camcorder when plugged into your Mac, but only if it's AVCHD. Sadly, Turbo.264 is not the long sought after solution for those of us unfortunate enough to have purchased a MacBook during the brief period when Apple removed the FireWire.

Curse you, Apple.

It should also be noted that if you've got old iMovie or QuickTime movies you'd like to shoot out again, Turbo.264 works there, too. After installing the software, a Turbo.264 HD option will appear in your export movie drop down options.

Should you choose to work directly in Turbo.264, you're still given some basic trimming and cropping options before shooting content out to the desired device. This isn't helpful for professionals, but I imagine most professionals aren't using Turbo.264 for video editing. Rather, they're using it to save time when compressing and encoding video, and that's where this device shines. I mentioned earlier that it's fast, but it bears repeating; the Turbo.264 HD Encoder/Accelerator is very fast. It doesn't matter if you're reformatting a DVD for your iPhone or compressing a series of client-produced AVIs for web use, Turbo.264 HD zips right along in the background, freeing up your computer for other use.

Like the previous version, then, this is where you have to justify the cost. For all its capabilities, will you save enough time to justify the rather hefty $150 price tag? For the personal user who's simply converting movies, that's a hard sale. Yes, the newer Turbo.264 HD reads more formats and offers presets for more destinations (including direct posts to YouTube), but chances are you'd only need to use one or two of these. It makes more sense to those using EyeTV, as you'd likely have a few shows per week you'd want to move along to your iPhone, iPod or Apple TV.

Those who work with video regularly, however (web developers, for example) shouldn't convert another video without it. Turbo.264 HD saves you a ton of time in three ways. I've already covered the fact that it encodes videos faster and that it frees up your computer for other tasks, but I probably glossed over the format capabilities. Being able to tell a client, "Doesn't matter, just get it to me," when discussing file formats is a wonderful thing. Turbo.264 HD can read and convert just about anything a client throws at you.

And that's just good business.