ArsGeek

A few days ago Pure Digital Technologies, up until now best known for making one time use digital cameras and digital video recorders released a product called Flip Video. What exactly is this? Simply put it’s a small, extremely easy to use digital video recorder with a USB connection and built in software (for Windows 2000/XP and OSX) which allows for instant video editing, saving, emailing and uploading to YouTube. Pure Digital Technologies is promising an easy to use, good quality digital video recorder that goes well beyond simply recording and will allow a technical novice to save, email and share through popular sites any videos they care to make.

A few days ago we also received a Flip Video recorder from Pure Digital. They currently come in two flavors, a 30 minute unit (with 512MB of built in flash memory) or a 60 minute unit (with 1GB of flash memory). We received the 60 minute unit and spent most of the weekend using it.

Before I get into the review proper, let’s look at what a Flip Video unit has to offer. Each unit has a 1.4 inch LCD screen for viewing and playing back videos, along with a 2x zoom. There’s built in TV out capability (with RCA cables included), a flip out USB connector, hence the name, flash memory, a soft carrying bag, wrist strap and two AA batteries. It weighs in at just under a third of a pound and at 4.1” x 2.3” x 1.3” is just about the size of a standard deck of playing cards.

The 30 minute unit retails for $119.99 while the 1 hour unit goes for $149.99. In addition to plugging it into your USB port and saving and sharing your videos through your computer, you can also bring this into a number of retail establishments, plug it into a kiosk and pick up a DVD an hour later for $12.99.

Now, on to the my thoughts and experiences.

When I first opened the unit I was immediately struck by it’s size. The thing is small! It fits very nicely into the palm of your hand for video viewing and can be held with the thumb and your first two fingers for video recording. There are four buttons on the back and a 4 way controller. There’s power, play and delete with a big red record button smack in the center of the 4 way controller. The 4 way controller allows for zoom in/out while recording and volume up/down during playback (up and down arrows). While the unit’s on but not playing or recording you can push to the right or left to move through your stored videos.

I brought the Flip to a few different locations to test it. I also brought along my wife and my 4 year old daughter. We hit a few yard sales, and an outdoor fair. Pure Digital’s intention was to create an easy to us digital video recorder that wouldn’t break the bank and would also allow folks without a ton of computer experience to share their creations with the rest of the world. Let’s see how they did.

It took me about 5 minutes to get the unit out of it’s packaging and about 2 minutes to shoot my first video, which was about a minute long. So really, that’s one minute from out of package to shooting video. Like any geek I put the instructions aside for my first examination and found the power button on my own. Once powered up I pointed it at my cat and pushed the centrally located red button. That was it! When I had taken enough footage of the cat, I pushed the red button again and the recording stopped.

It takes about 10 seconds for the unit to power on. When it does you’ll see your current view through the lens and a bright green “Ready” at the top of the LCD with a display of how much time is left for you to record at the bottom.

While the Flip Video records there’s a bright red light on in the front of the unit and a flashing display of the current video length on the LCD display. When you push the zoom in/out controls it also displays your zoom level.

Clicking to the left or right on the 4 way controller scrolls through your saved videos, which are stored by number. Each video also displays the first frame on the LCD display. Playing a video is as easy as clicking to the left or right to find it and pushing the play button. Want to stop in the middle, push the play button again. Pushing the delete button while on a video will prompt the Flip Video to ask you if you really want to delete it. Push the button again for confirmation and you’re video is gone. Playback is crisp and the sound is good for the size of the single speaker.

The instructions that I had put aside earlier are in the form of a simple flip booklet and are smaller than the unit itself. There’s not really much too them and that is a testament to how easy it is to use this little video recorder. It’s not that the instructions are lacking, it’s that there’s not a lot you’ll need to learn to use it.

Easy to use? Definitely. While we were out and about filming at various locations I liked the fact that it powers up quickly and is ready to within 10 seconds or so. I didn’t like the fact that in bright sunlight it’s almost impossible to see the display, although the video I was taking did come out well. While it’s easy to carry around (in it’s carrying bag it easily fits into my pants pockets) I did notice that on a few occasions I would accidentally hit the power button and would hear the unit turn on in my pocket. Once I also accidentally deleted a video through the method of leaning against something and pushing buttons. Perhaps that’s not the best place to carry the Flip.

I also encountered one instance where I couldn’t get any video to play, even after powering the unit on and off several times. I could still navigate through the videos though and on a whim I deleted a short (~20 second) video. That seemed to do the trick as I had access to all of my other videos again.

After shooting about 45 minutes worth of video it was time to return home and check out the various ways of displaying videos. The TV out is extremely simple to use and it resulted in playback quality that quite honestly surprised me. You plug the provided cable into your Flip Video and the Picture in and Right/Left sound on your television. Turn on the unit and suddenly you’re looking at full screen video that was of a very decent quality. What surprised me even more than the video quality was the sound. Everything was clear and undistorted. I didn’t find myself cranking up the volume like I had expected either.

Getting your videos on to your computer or online was also and easy and painless process. I did this on my XP computer. Without even turning the Flip Video on, you plug it into an available USB port. XP immediately installed the necessary driver and the software launched. In about a minute I was looking at the Flip Video control panel. From there I could save my videos to my hard drive, email them, upload them to either YouTube or Grouper, send a video card or edit my videos (and add the music file of my choice).

I chose to upload a video (at the end of this article) to YouTube. I selected the video I wanted (you can select one video, a few videos or all of them) and clicked the upload to YouTube button. The software then converted my video to WMV format, and stored it in a folder on my desktop called Upload to YouTube. My default browser then opened to YouTube. Since I was already logged in (thanks to a cookie) I went directly to upload the video. In a few minutes the video was online. One thing I can say is that the audio isn’t as good as in any other playback. Whether that’s an artifact of the Flip or of YouTube I can’t say. I can say that watching a video on TV or on my computer was a pleasant experience.

Emailing a video was even easier. Click the email (or create an ecard) button and fill in the addresses you want the video sent to, your name and your email address. The files can be a bit large, as is to be expected with digital video but the delivery couldn’t be easier.

My final report: Flip Video is very impressive, for the price you won’t find anything better or more fun. Pure Digital Technologies delivered on the promised quality and ease of use and the price is a huge win for them and us as well. For $150 anyone can record digital video, save their files locally, watch them almost instantly on their television and get them out to their friends and relatives through email or on YouTube. At this price I’m predicting that this will be a very popular product. I’ll admit that I’m in love with this little video recorder after a weekend of use! My wife and daughter are also smitten which says a lot about it’s ease of use.

Technorati Tags: dvr, digital video, flip video, pure digital technologies, review, gadgets