Review: Telestream Episode Engine

HD Trials
Not surprisingly, HD encoding trials fell right into line with the SD results. Here, I encoded a 100-second 720p file to my standard 800Kbps encoding parameters in WMV, H.264, and VP6 formats using Split-and-Stitch and compared the encoding times to Carbon Coder. Episode Engine handily beat Carbon Coder in H.264 and VP6 encoding but lost badly in the Windows Media trials (Table 3).

Where does that leave us? If you’re committed to encoding on the Mac platform, Episode Engine is one of the most industrial-strength options. It’s a very strong choice for H.264 and VP6 encoding, as well as MPEG-2, but much less so for Windows Media encoding, particularly if file throughput is paramount.

Blackmagic H.264 Pro Recorder: High Quality, Frustrating Limits

This real-time hardware encoder offers strong output. If only it weren't beset by limitations and technical snafus.

30 Mar 2012