SmartCapture - Real-time H.264 / AAC Video Capture Dongle

Fastvdo whose specialty is in AVC video solutions has introduced SmartCapture - a real-time H.264 video / AAC audio capture in the form of a USB dongle. This reminds us of the ADS H.264 'accelerator', but the SmartCapture is different in that it digitalizes from analog source (NTSC / PAL) into H.264 in bit-rates ranging from 32kbps to 4Mbps and in variety of res up to 720 x 576. The compression takes place in the dongle to offload all the heavy work from the CPU.

The company spokesman claimed the dongle is perfectly adequate for anything in standard definition, yet we are hoping to get our hands on the HD version that he said will support up to 1080i and will write out to MPEG-2 TS. Consumer-type applications are what we expected, from ripping for iPod / PSP / YouTube to digitalizing decade-old VHS tapes. Industrial applications include IPTV streaming, surveillance and etc.

What caught our attention is SmartCapture's support for distance learning. We reckon a lecturer can simply connect his camcorder to the USB dongle connected to his laptop, and start streaming right away over the Internet without cluttering up too much bandwidth. The SmartCapture doesn't come cheap at $250 apiece.