As of DVD Catalyst 3.80, a new optional booster pack can be used to speed up conversions.

The boosterpack installs a new conversion engine, which can speed up conversions quite a bit, for both older computers, as well as newer multi-core computers.

(Note, boosterpack is NOT compatible with Zune 30 devices)

Below a few conversion speed indications performed by some beta testers:

on a core2duo 2.16Ghz system, conversion speed using the Apple iPhone format at it’s default settings went up by 30%

DVD conversion speed: a 2 hour movie in about 30 minutes!

on a Core i7-920, 2,66MHz, Quad Core system, the Apple iPhone conversion format went up from 4x speed to 12x speed (66%)

DVD conversion speed: a 2 hour movie in about 10 minutes!

on a Dual Quad Core Xeon, the HTC Touch HD HQ format at it’s defaults went up by about 20% (note this is for the HQ format, not the standard)

DVD conversion speed: a 2 hour movie in about 15 minutes!

The reason why the booster pack is provided as a separate download is because there *might* be issues with some conversions. While all the commonly used formats have been tested successfully, not all of the less-commonly used formats have been tested at all, so there is a slight possibility that issues can occeur. We decided to release it as-is, due to the significant performance boost it offers on newer as well as older computer systems.

If you only use DVD Catalyst for popular devices, it’s definitely worth the download.

Use the download link on the side to download it.