H.264 Pro Recorder.

This looks like a great starter box for encoding betacam sp masters for the internet and video contests in general. It also comes with NLE software and uses USB 2.0, I think?

So this may be the perfect compromise for me to get started with. Can you explain what a downside might be?
For instance, lets say I use your encoder, and enter a film festival or video contest. If my production were accepted, might the video contest organizers then want a higher quality file than H.264 for broadcast purposes?

That's not necessarily a deal breaker because if a better quality file is required, it probably means I won something and could afford to do a higher quality version of the project.

That doesn't upconvert. Isn't that what you wanted (according to your prior posts)

Yes, but as a Plan B, it fulfills the aspect of not filling up a mac mini hard drive with uncompressed files and giving me the best quality direct to H.264, plus it works off of USB 2.0

I already have uploaded stuff on the internet that looks nowhere near as good as the betacam sp original because it was limited to 1 mb per second. I assume I can set the level of mb per second with your device?

Alex. I don't work for Black Magic. It's not my device.

Yes... you do have options to adjust the bit-rate of the record... however I have only ever used it for encoding HD signals. No idea how it looks for SD quality.