H.264 1080p60 Video Encoder

Solid product. Works reliably for long operation. Decent Web UI for settings. Good documentation. Only negative is that it does get hot while operating continuously. But the heat does not seem to affect encoding performance. Used it for streaming with Wowza at a wedding. Worked flawlessly at 1080p HDMI feed from camera (both video and audio).

The video encoding works well but don't buy this if you're expecting any sound from the HDMI input. Support confirmed the hardware is only capable of handling PCM audio. This means no audio from most video files, MKV, DVD, Blu-ray, cable, satellite receivers, etc... even if stereo.

I got this with the intention to stream live television to tablets anywhere in the house. My video source is 1080i with HDCP encryption. HDCP is easy to strip with certain inexpensive HDMI splitters, so that wasn't a problem. The problem was how this device handles 1080i.Though it recognizes my input signal as 1080i @ 60hz (or 59.94 hz), it will only stream at 30 FPS no matter how I tweak the encoding settings. "Full" frame rate and "half" frame rate both result in a 30 FPS encode. This is probably intentional on the part of the designers, because 60 interlaced frames make 30 complete frames once they are combined. Unfortunately, this screws up the frame timing and causes a distracting choppy effect in most television programs and movies.I have two other streaming boxes (Oupree brand) which I've tried to use for this project. One can only encode at 30 FPS by design and it produces the same type of choppy video as the Z3Stream. The other encodes the full 60 FPS, with h.265 compression even, and its video is smooth as butter, except they didn't handle the interlaced video source quite right and the streamed video bounces up and down by just one pixel every frame. After reading "High quality deinterlacer" in the Z3Stream's official data sheet, I had hoped the Z3Stream would do better, and be able to accomplish smooth 60 FPS streaming without any funky bobbing or other problems, so I was very disappointed to discover it was no better than the older and cheaper of my Oupree encoders. Actually, it is a little worse. I noticed audio stuttering sometimes with the Z3Stream. I wanted to like it, but the Z3Stream is going back :(

It works quite well for that price point. I use it mainly to publish live to a RTMP server so my review is based on that:PROS:- It works as expected, I had it working 4 days non-stop and I didn't get any issues- It really recognize all signals: sd, hd, fhd, interlaced, progressive. I never had any issues with camera direct input, input from laptop or video switchers like blackmagic or datavideo- You can use analog audio with hdmi video and analog video with hdmi audio (this is a big plus for me)- It has a high bitrate support, tested with 1080p30 with 15mbps.- The HDMI output is not a loop, you can change the size and even deinterlace the signal (you can use this as a converter/scaler with some limitations)CONS:- You can't adjust the keyframe interval, you only get 1 keyframe per second.- There is no option to change between CBR and VBR.- The device reconnects to your RTMP endpoint when necessary but fails to get a new session after a connection loss of several seconds if you are using RTMP authentication. We had to disable RTMP authentication for ease of mind.- I really couldn't get the RTSP to work with my server.- It takes a few seconds to boot up or reconnect after a failed RTMP session.I think all those CONs are software problems which can be solved with a firmware update if the vendor is kind enough.

Does not work with most of the hdmi sources. I have a Mac book and the hdmi is not accepted as may other devices since this encoder does not connect any hdmi hdcp device ( most of the hdmi devices are hdcp now ). Tested with a plain hdmi from a Cino computer without hdcp and video is good @720p but choppy when 1080p is used. It is a good encoder for the low cost price point, but not good for multimedia @ full frame.My unit also freezes every few hours so I need to power off/on every time i need to use it.Since I use this with a video camera in low frames it is ok for my app, but certainly not satisfied as I must restart every day and sometime I must do an hard reset as the web interface becomes slow or inrespinsine

Have been using the Z3 Stream for weekly shows for about two years and it's been a trooper. The company was great when I needed a repair done, as well

The Z3 Stream is a simple, robust video and audio encoder that's been successful on all the types of video streaming applications I've tried. I was first attracted to the Z3 Stream because of its price, which seemed to be about half the price of what others were selling similar products. The Z3 Stream also offered quite a bit better performance (at least on paper) maxing out at 1080p60, so I thought I would give it a try. When I first received the Z3 Stream, I appreciated its ease of setup. Unlike other units I have used in the past, there were no menus to sift through. It has a small toggle 4-way switch and no Wifi passwords to be typed in on a 1.4” LCD screen. It was simple enough for my non-technical personnel to setup. I just turned it on, connected the Ethernet cord to the computer, and launched the included Zfinder utility. To be honest, I was stunned to find it just worked based on wrestling with competitive products in the past. The interface was intuitive and easy to use, to the point that I feel comfortable giving it to folks without technological experience to operate and test without me having the be the tech support desk. The performance is great and matched the advertised specs. It's proven very durable in weeks of (not always tender) use. Well done, Z3. This would be the device I'd recommend without the price advantage, but especially so at the cost.