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The Osprey Video Talon G1 is a solid entry into the encoding market. The future of the generable Osprey line of video capture cards has been in flux for some time but the new company, now going by the product name, has served up several new products and their engineers are committed to bringing new innovative products to market.
After speaking with Osprey at the Government Video Expo in Washington, DC a couple of years ago, I left with the feeling that the future of this company is bright. I was reassured of this when seeing some of the prototypes that were displayed in Washington come to life as shipping products at NAB Show 2016 in Las Vegas. One of those products is the Osprey Video Talon G1 encoder. [editor’s note: Sandy Audio Visual sells this product and there is also a decoder version. This article looks at the encoder only]
My first impression of the Talon is that it is well built. It is mostly aluminum with a silk screened hard plastic cover. The connections feel solid, with perhaps the exception of the RCA connector for composite video, which could use some reinforcement. The big surprise was that the encoder is a lot smaller than I had envisioned it. It’s about the size of two decks of cards stacked side-by-side.
There’s a lot to like from this encoder. Here are my major “pros”:
One of the most useful feature of the Talon is it’s ability to go into “LC” or lecture capture mode. This allows, for instance, your video to come in over HD-SDI, which your Keynote slides come in over its HDMI connection. Each input can then be streamed to a different publishing point. This is great as you do a competent lecture capture with only three devices: a good HD camera with HDSDI output; a laptop with an HDMI output; and the Talon.
The multi-bitrate feature is also a big plus. The Niagara series of encoders, which had Osprey video cards at its heart had a similar feature called simulcast
Biggest disappointments:
Overall I’d call this encoder a hit. I like the size, quality of the picture, and relative ease of use. I’d prefer the confidence of some sort of external display to know that the device is configured correctly and performing as expected. I’m certain there will be a “G2” that will likely address many of the shortfalls in this model but hopefully keep a similar price point. For “set-it-and-forget-it” applications, you really can’t go wrong with the talon. For this segment of the market, the less parts you have to fail, the better – so something like an on-device display would actually be more of a negative. If reviewing from that perspective, however, I’d have to give more scrutiny to the web-based configuration software.
While we work with many encoders, this one is definitely on the “buy” list as it provides the major features you need while not breaking the bank.
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