Instant Video To-go

I bought this product to convert video for an iPod Touch and an iPod Nano. I expected it to rip DVDs out of the box, and also do the promised 5x conversions (compared to software transcoding).

I was very disappointed to find out this uses an old (2 years old) version of Arcsoft Media's MediaConverter (2.0). There is a 2.5 version available for this, as a paid upgrade ($15) but *do not upgrade* if you own the InstantVideo To Go version 2.5 of MediaConverter does NOT work with this product the included version (2.0) is specially programmed to work with the hardware encoder.

And this is why this product is so bad. Yes, it will convert faster than typical software encoder / transcoders (my limited tests show it to be about 2-3x faster, not 5x), but the only software that apparently works with it is 2 years old, only has limited support for "iPod Video" (which won't work with AppleTV, and is lousy for the new iPod Touch and Phone screen reqs) and DOES NOT RIP DVDs out of the box.

Version 2.5 of MediaConverter apparently does most of the above, and also apparently has much more product support (claims 50 devices in the output field, vs 5 in the 2.0 software). It's a shame that you can't upgrade to 2.5 and have it use the InstantVideo To Go if you do, MediaConverter will do a software-based conversion, taking about 3x longer than 2.0 does.

The Arcsoft software is best described as "janky" poorly designed, poorly documented, and very limited in your encoding options. They seriously need to update this software and I wouldn't recommend anyone buying this hardware encoder until ADS does a major software overhaul for the device.

Also, ADS's website is a bit of a joke. I tried to submit a support ticket to ask about iPod Touch / Apple TV support, and you go through several pages trying to submit a question, only to get to the last page, where it stalls, and never submits the question.

Bottom line: doesn't offer encoding options for newest iPods; doesn't rip DVDs natively; has severely limited encoding options (and half of them are for obscure products), doesn't work with AppleTV, and ADSTech's website support is non-existent. Don't buy, until they update the software.

1. The product is great but hampered by bad software

2. Incompatible with Vista

The product under windows Xp was marginal at best. It created better than average videos. The reason I say it is hampered by bad software is that ElGato Systems uses the same hardware for the Macintosh platform (Turbo 264) but writes it's own software for it and THAT one is flexible and encodes great video (I have both). The software that ADS Tech bundles with the Instant Video To-Go, ArcSoft MediaConverter 2 has not been updated -for this unitsince release (except for 2 drivers that were finicky).

The drivers are now incompatible with Vista. I've been hearing of problems with ADSTech dropping old hardware compatibility with Vista. Their website sites EVENTUAL compatibility but does not give a timetable... and their track record is not so good in this regard.

While no manufacturer is under obligation to support a product after an extended length of time, they have not released a successor to this unit and thus cannot claim to just "developing for a newer product".

This is the first thing I purchased from this company. It will be the last and I will be spreading the word.

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This product isn't worth the time saved.

Aspect ratio is not preserved. So, maybe on a 2 inch iPod screen it looks OK, but anything bigger and wide-screen video looks messed up.

Despite advertisements, it's not AppleTV compatible. Simply doesn't work.

Can't handle DVDs properly.

Total waste of money. Don't buy it.

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This product does produce H.264 many times faster than normal software based encoding. I would like to see a Windows Vista version of the software and drivers since all new computers run Vista. I would like to see a Mac OS X version of the software and drivers since the Mac is a primary video platform. One major problem was that I took unprotected VOBs and MPEG2 video and encoded under the InstantVideo. I transfered the video to Apple TV and the picture was unsynchronized. Lastly, the Media Converter v2 software has a later version 2.5. This version crashes under Windows XP with the InstantVideo tongle attached to the USB port.

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Could not successfully stream the MP4's created by this device to my appleTV. I adjusted parameters without success. It does speed up encoding however.

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