ADS Tech took another step in enhancing iPod entertainment this week by announcing the new Instant Video To-Go at CES. The industry's first self-contained, hardware-based video content conversion solution for consumers, the ADS Tech Instant Video To-Go costs less than $80 and does the complete high-quality conversion five times faster than real time.
Using the company's proven hardware accelerator, Instant Video To-Go can quickly be connected to any USB 2.0 port to convert videos, movies, and TV shows to formats that can be enjoyed on the Apple iPod, Sony PlayStation Portable, and other portable media players. The Instant Video To-Go will convert a 100-minute/2GB MPEG2 or VOB video file into high quality (320x240), H.264 video in approximately 20 minutes. The same video would require about three hours to convert with software encoding.
ADS Tech spokesperson, Andy Marken, stated, "The most obvious advantage of the new Instant Video To-Go is that it uses a very robust hardware codec, which enables the product to be used with a very minimally configured computer, thus freeing the CPU from the cycle-intensive workload in encoding the content for the specific target playback device. In addition, even when using the unit with a high-performance system (such as a dual processor) the encoding still averages five times faster in preparing the content for the device."
The ADS Tech Instant Video To-Go has other benefits, as well. "By using a dedicated hardware codec, it not only is faster and more efficient, but it also frees the computer up for other work," adds Marken. "In many instances when software codecs are used, you have to devote the computer to the video project so that you end up with a flawless video that is free of dropped frames or audio that is out of sync."
A complete hardware/software solution, Instant Video To-Go includes ArcSoft Media Converter 2 software, a simple two-step application that converts the most popular media formats: MPEG-1, MPEG-2, VOB (unprotected), DivX, and QuickTime Movie into H.264 (MPEG-4 Part 10) for instant playback on mobile devices. ADS Tech's video accelerator combines with ArcSoft Media Converter 2 to provide consumers with a lower cost, which, Marken adds, "is economical and an easy-to-use solution for converting, enjoying, and sharing favorite videos, TV shows, and sporting events any time, anywhere."
The new Instant Video To-Go is part of a complete family of ADS Tech mobile player accessories for recording and converting video and music to the iPod/MP3/mobile player formats. In addition to Instant Video To-Go, ADS Tech offers DVD Xpress DX2, Instant Music, Instant Music for Mac, and Instant FM Music.
