USB Stick Creates Mobile Movies 15x Faster

ADS have unveiled a usb-memory-stick-style gadget that contains a hardware-accelerated video converter for Windows which it claims creates 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.


ADS Tech Instant Video To-Go

The 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

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

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.

Video To-Go homepage: adstech.com.