The WinFast PxVC1100 Video Transcoding Card: Worth The Price?

Features
By Don Woligroski
published

The WinFast PxVC1100

The WinFast PxVC1100 has a long name, but it's a short card. Less than seven inches long, it sports a low-enough profile to be fitted with a half-height bracket for folks with small PC cases. Note the small PCI Express (PCIe) x1 interface, suggesting that this card doesn't need a lot of bandwidth to perform its duties.

With its diminutive cooler and four-pin auxiliary power connector, the WinFast PxVC1100 could easily be mistaken for an entry-level graphics card, right up until you take notice of its I/O-less expansion bracket.

There are three versions of the WinFast PxVC1100 listed on Leadtek's Web site. The first includes no software bundle, except an Adobe Premiere plug-in (although we couldn't find this version for sale). The second sports a large bundle, including Ulead VideoStudio 11 Plus, DVD MovieFactory 5, and WinDVD 8, which we found on Newegg for $185. The third includes Pegasys' TMPGEnc 4.0 XPress software, available on Newegg for $290.

The sample we received for testing was option number three, including TMPGEnc 4.0 XPress. Aside from the driver/software CD, the card came with an installation manual, a half-height bracket, and a Molex-style power adapter.

Don Woligroski
60 Comments Comment from the forums
  • paxiam
    I think for someone who does use their PC for encoding on a regular basis, this would certainly be a welcome addition, but otherwise, forget it.
    Reply
  • paxiam
    I think for someone who does use their PC for video encoding on a regular basis, this would certainly be a welcome addition (the price is reasonable), but otherwise, forget it.
    Reply
  • paxiam
    Reply
  • SpadeM
    These miscellaneous type of articles is what brightens up my day. Good to know that there aren't many products that launch and slip between the cracks of processor/graphics wars. Great job, nice article!
    Reply
  • how does this compare to using ATI AVIVO to encode, with a $200 dollar card?
    Reply
  • kumaiti
    Any info on future software support for this card? This card would be extremely useful if plug-ins for other video editor could be made.
    Reply
  • 4745454b
    Considering AMD has all but abandoned AVIVOm, the better question to ask is how this compares to CUDA. From what I've seen there aren't any problems with the output file. $200 is a bit much but at least it comes with the software. For those that have the $$$ to spare and do the encoding work, this is a big time saver. You could get the 620, mobo, and the card for probably about the same price as the 920 and a good Mobo. The difference is this setup will encode faster, and you can use the computer to do other things while encoding. I don't remember 100% for sure about it, but I think it will use less power as well.
    Reply
  • JofaMang
    Want.
    Reply
  • apache_lives
    hmmm get the feeling this will go the way of the dedicated physx (only) cards...

    what we need is a more GENERALISED co-processor card/device for this type of workload and many other uses, Intel's Larrabee had a good *idea* going - easily programmable, multi-purpose etc
    Reply
  • g00ey
    I was rather thinking that this hardware could be useful in portable media players where it is designed to consume less power and allow playback of all video formats out there.

    Moreover, this could also be useful in HD video cameras that are either stand-alone HD video cams or fitted into mobile phones (such as the Samsung Omnia HD) or digital snapshot cameras.

    I'm also thinking about its capabilities to be used in Live video applications that is streamed over the internet, either professional or teleconference applications such as SkypeHD.
    Reply