Fast base-62 encode/decode

I use base-62 encoding quite a lot as it's URL safe and reasonably obfuscated, however, my current implementation is not very fast and I'm wondering if there's a better route, perhaps using an iterative method, perhaps using pack() and friends. As an example: base62_encode('http://www.php.net') gives 'ScoQhfdZc5xJxw6hwvPQMo3W'.

My current implementation use bc_math to treat strings as numbers in base-256, converts them to base-10, then to base-62 (or the reverse). I do this with these functions which do arbitrary base conversions:

function dec2base($dec, $base, $digits = FALSE) {
      if($base < 2 or $base > 256) {
            die("Invalid Base: .$base\n");
      }
      bcscale(0);
      $value = '';
      if(!$digits) {
            $digits = digits($base);
      }
      while($dec > $base - 1) {
            $rest = bcmod($dec,$base);
            $dec = bcdiv($dec,$base);
            $value = $digits[$rest].$value;
      }
      $value=$digits[intval($dec)].$value;
      return (string) $value;
}

function base2dec($value, $base, $digits = FALSE) {
      if($base < 2 or $base > 256) {
            die("Invalid Base: .$base\n");
      }
      bcscale(0);
      if($base < 37) {
            $value = strtolower($value);
      }
      if(!$digits) {
            $digits = digits($base);
      }
      $size = strlen($value);
      $dec = '0';
      for($loop=0; $loop < $size; $loop++) {
            $element = strpos($digits, $value[$loop]);
            $power = bcpow($base, $size-$loop-1);
            $dec = bcadd($dec, bcmul($element, $power));
      }
      return (string)$dec;
}

function digits($base) {
      if($base < 64) {
            return substr('0123456789abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ-_', 0, $base);
      } else {
            return substr("\x0\x1\x2\x3\x4\x5\x6\x7\x8\x9\xa\xb\xc\xd\xe\xf\x10\x11\x12\x13\x14\x15\x16\x17\x18\x19\x1a\x1b\x1c\x1d\x1e\x1f !\x22#\x24%&'()*+,-./0123456789:;<=>\x3f@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\]^_`abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz{|}~\x7f\x80\x81\x82\x83\x84\x85\x86\x87\x88\x89\x8a\x8b\x8c\x8d\x8e\x8f\x90\x91\x92\x93\x94\x95\x96\x97\x98\x99\x9a\x9b\x9c\x9d\x9e\x9f\xa0\xa1\xa2\xa3\xa4\xa5\xa6\xa7\xa8\xa9\xaa\xab\xac\xad\xae\xaf\xb0\xb1\xb2\xb3\xb4\xb5\xb6\xb7\xb8\xb9\xba\xbb\xbc\xbd\xbe\xbf\xc0\xc1\xc2\xc3\xc4\xc5\xc6\xc7\xc8\xc9\xca\xcb\xcc\xcd\xce\xcf\xd0\xd1\xd2\xd3\xd4\xd5\xd6\xd7\xd8\xd9\xda\xdb\xdc\xdd\xde\xdf\xe0\xe1\xe2\xe3\xe4\xe5\xe6\xe7\xe8\xe9\xea\xeb\xec\xed\xee\xef\xf0\xf1\xf2\xf3\xf4\xf5\xf6\xf7\xf8\xf9\xfa\xfb\xfc\xfd\xfe\xff", 0, $base);
      }
}

function base62_encode($value) {
      return dec2base(base2dec($value, 256), 62);
}

function base62_decode($value) {
      return dec2base(base2dec($value, 62), 256);
}

So, they all work ok, but it's a bit roundabout. It would be nice to go directly from 256->62, but I can't seem to think that through. There are some base conversion functions in bc_math, but they only go up to base-36. The same goes for the big_int extension in pecl, which despite it's claims, seems slower than bc_math.

I think I need to ask someone who's more of a mathematician than a coder!