Hardware Transcoding

This method requires the usage of baseband connections, that is, SDI cables, or even legacy component or composite connections. Hardware transcoding also requires a video I/O device, such as those offered by AJA Video Systems or Blackmagic Design. The cables are connected from the video I/O output of your editing/finishing workstation into a purpose-built transcoding “appliance” which will create your files.

While this process is real-time, encoding appliances are traditionally more expensive than similar software versions.

As a general rule, hardware encodes tend to look slightly better than software transcodes, but hardware transcoders tend to lack the flexibility of software transcoders