Gizmos Grabowski

V-mate Functions

A reader asked me if the V-Mate digital video recorder can erase files on the memory card.

No.

All the V-mate can do is: (1) record MP4 video files using a filenaming convention based on the unit's date and time; and (2) play them back.

It also works as a card reader, so a workaround might be to attach it to a computer, and then use the computer's operating system to erase files, copy them, rename them, etc.

You can learn more from the PDF user manual at sandisk.com/Retail/Default.aspx?CatID=1474

It's disappointing that SanDisk hasn't released an update to the firmware in quite some time. There are two issues I'd like to see addressed:

* Ability to monitor recording during 640x480 mode.
* Fix the video-audio synchronization problem that sometimes occurs.

More V-Mate Tips

TIP: Too-short MP4 Files

I am busy digitizing my library of home movies (23 so far) and know that the typical 2-hour camcorder tape uses about 3GB of space on the 4GB SDHC memory card employed by the V-Mate. But then a series of recordings resulted in 0.5GB files. Something was wrong.

When I viewed the too-short files, they began normally. But partway through, the video became jumpy, as if only every 10th frame was being recorded. Inconceivable! Why would a dedicated digital recorder fail to capture every frame?

I tried a few things, and then fell into with this unlikely solution: reformat the memory card (using Windows with FAT32 format). Since then, the V-Mate has returned to correctly creating 3GB movie files.

TIP: Start Recording Blind

A limitation of the V-Mate is that it has no display, other than three LEDs:

* Green - power is on.
* Blue - memory card is inserted and working.
* Red - V-Mate is recording.

A problem is that it takes two or more selections from its menu to start recording -- and you only see the status of the menu when the V-Mate is connected to a tv or other video monitor capable of composite-video input. (I use a spare video camera that has a Line-in feature.)

I have found that t is possible to start recording with the V-Mate blindly, assuming the unit is in its normal state. If so, push the following buttons on its remote control:

1. [Rec]
2. Wait for at least five seconds
3. [OK]

If the red LED lights up, then you know the V-Mate is successfully recording. If not, then the V-Mate was in some other state that needs addressing, and you'll need to hook it up to a video monitor to figure out the problem.

(The 5-second wait is needed, because it takes the V-Mate several seconds to switch into recording mode.)

TIP: Watch the Blue LED

I have noticed that the blue LED blinks slightly whenever the V-Mate receives and acts upon a command from the remote control. No blink, no action. This another way to work with the unit sans video monitor.

Digitizing Home Movies

I have a collection of about 90 video tapes that I've made -- home movies made with camcorders. Of my kids when they were young and cute and liked to be on-camera. I have always worried about the long-term future of the tapes, and there are two things to worry over:

- that the movies on the video tapes survive. The tapes can lose magnetization over time, or could be lost due to fire or flooding.

- that the camcorders continue working in order to view the movies. The primary problem is the head, which gets dirty (can be cleaned) and wears out over time; as well, the motor or any other part of the camcorder could break down. Most new camcorders no longer use tape, and certainly don't playback the old "8" format employed by my first camcorder and its 30-odd tapes.

The Solution of Digitization

The solution is to digitize the movies. The problem to that solution is cost and time. Local places offer to digitize home movies on DVD for $35 per 2-hour tape, but that's $3,500 to do my collection -- and without any editing. With the way that DVD formats are changing, I'm not sure that's the answer. Then there is the question over the longivity of the DVD discs themselves -- which can be as little as ten years, it is rumoured.

I have tried making my own DVDs, but the process is time-consuming and frustrating -- it takes about ten hours from start to finish for each disc. And then recently my daughter watched one of my custom DVDs and several scenes no longer worked. After just a few years, the DVD was already going bad.

I was stuck: I needed to digitize the tapes, but DVDs were an unpleasant answer.

The Solution of Streaming

As I played around with SanDisk's V-mate digital video recorder, I came upon a solution: don't make DVDs! Now, I admit I don't know it this is the final answer, but this is what I've come up with:

1. I hook my ancient camcorder up to the V-mate, and then play back each video tape, which is recorded by the V-mate onto its 4GB SDHC memory card. (A 2-hour tape results in a 3GB file.) The connection is a simple RCA cord, which the V-mate includes. The quality isn't great, but that old camcorder took videos with washed out colors anyhow. And it only has an RCA connector -- no S-video or any other more modern and better quality connection.

TIP 1: The V-mate doesn't have a display, so it is hard to know which buttons to press on its remote control to start recording. As a monitor, I hooked up my other, newer camcorder, which has a Line-in mode. It lets me see the V-mate's output.

TIP 2: As I noted in other postings, it takes the V-mate about 2 minutes to close the 3GB video file. So, once you press the [Stop] button to stop recording, wait until the red Recording LED turns off before removing the memory card.

TIP 3: The V-mate is also a card reader, and so I thought I could use it transfer the MP4 movie files from the memory card to my computer. But it was painfully slow, so I instead physically move the SDHC memory card to the SanDisk MicroMate memory card reader (that came with the memory card), which then takes about 5 minutes to copy the file onto my computer -- instead of an hour!

TIP 4: Instead of the V-mate, I could use my computer to record the movie direct from the camcorder. But there are two problems: (1) computers aren't really set up to accept RCA inputs; and (2) it takes processing power to do the recording. I did play around with ATI's tv tuner, but it was a pain. By using the V-mate to do the recording, I off-load the processing.

2. I move the 3GB MP4 movie file onto one of my computer's monster-size external hard drives. (Those 90 movies are going to take up 270GB of disk space.)

TIP 5: I move the file, rather than copy it. This has two benefits: (1) the file is erased from the memory card automatically once the move procedure is finished; and (2) I found that Windows acts up when I would try to erase the file from the memory card. Sometimes I'd have to resort to formatting the memory card to get rid of the file.

TIP 6: To move the file, hold down the Shift key when dragging its file name from the memory card to the computer using Windows Explorer.

That's where I am now. I have the V-mate and two camcorders sitting next to me at my work. Every two hours, I complete another movie. This means I get through 3-5 movies a day, all 90 can be done in about a month.

Cleaning Up

The next stage is to clean up the movies. There are blank sections, and sections where I left the camcorder running, recording the inside of the camera bag, or the sidewalk. These should be removed.

Here I found that my copy of Pinnacle Studio 8 software does a good job of quickly finding scenes (where the video image changes significantly), and then lets me quickly combine found scenes into actual scenes. I have tested it, and Studio 8 works with the 3GB files generated by the V-mate, but not in MP4 format, so conversion is needed.

My plan is to break each MP4 movie file into a suitable number of scenes. Each scene becomes its own movie file, with a suitably descriptive file name that includes the date, such as July 1992.

Viewing by Streaming

The ultimate plan is to view the movies through streaming. Instead of selecting a DVD to view, the idea is to select the movie by file name, and then have the movie transmitted wirelessly from my computer in the basement to the tv screen in the family room.

I don't have the hardware yet, but eventually video streaming should become affordable. I suspect that the Apple TV product will eventually do this. Even if it doesn't, my home movies are digitized and can be converted into any other file format that might come along.

Backup Up

Video tapes grow old, hard drives fail. Just because I have digitized my home movies doesn't mean they are safe for all time. After I copy the MP4 file to one of my external hard drives, I make second copy to a low-cost 250GB external drive that I picked up last week from FutureShop for the equivalent of US$95.

Once filled with movies, I can bring that hard drive to my parent's place -- a form of off-site backup storage. They could also watch movies, or just keep the drive in the closet, in case there's a problem wtih the master hard drive in my home.

After that, I could see myself doing a second backup, burning the edited MP4 files onto dual-layer DVDs, which hold about 9GB (3 movies) each.

V-Mate Recording Tip

I've been working with SanDisk's V-Mate "digital" video recorder. One frustration, after recording two hours of home video off my old camcorder, is that the video file appears to be just 0MB in size (empty), yet Windows reports the 4GB SD card is "full."

I finally found the problem: after pressing [Stop] on the V-mate's remote control, wait for a minute or so -- however long it takes for the red record LED to turn off.

It takes that long for the V-Mate to close the file. (I dunno why, but maybe it has a slow processor that takes a long time to deal with the 3GB MP4 file.)

Once the red LED is off, you can safely remove the SD card from the V-Mate for whatever other purpose you need it for.

Update

I timed it: it takes the V-Mate just under 2 minutes to close the MP4 file. That's a long time!

Digitizing Home Movies with V-Mate

I used Sandisk's new V-mate to digitize home movies from my first video camera, one that's old enough to feature just composite video output with a lone RCA plug (and a second one for mono sound).

The process works like this:

1. Plug camcorder into power supply. Don't rely on batteries; they'll run out.

2. Attach camcorder to V-mate, and attach the V-mate to the tv screen. The tv screen is needed so that you can see the V-mate's menu items.

3. Set up V-mate for video recording. Insert video cassette into camcorder, and press Play.

4. Click OK on the V-mate's remote control to start recording. The V-mate has three LEDs that alert you to its status:

- green = power on
- blue = memory card is correctly inserted
- red = recording.

A bug in V-mate means that you cannot monitor the camcorder's output on the tv screen; when the V-mate is recording at 640x480 resolution, the tv screen is black, except for a red "Recording" word. So you need to rely on the camcorder's monitor, which in my case is a 1/2-inch monochrome image.

Results

The recording is done in real-time, which means it takes two hours to record a two-hour tape. The problem is that a 2GB memory card holds 1.5 hours worth of 640x480-resolution video recorded at Good quality level. So, you'll need to do two recording sessions per tape, if longer than 1.5 hours. (Alternatively, purchase a 4GB SDHD memory card, although those are still quite expensive.)

Recall from my earlier entry that the V-mate records videos in MP4 format, which might not be read by some video editing software packages. I found a freeware video converter, MP4Cam2AVI, which converts MP4 files to a variety of other formats, including WMV and AVI. Unlike the dismal video conversion software provided by Samsung, this software converts the 1.5-hour video in under ten minutes.

I have several video editing packages, all consumer grade. I first tried muvee autoProducer and it choked. Even though it claims to read MP4 and AVI (and others), it mulled over my video file, and after a while decided they were unsupported formats. I suspect the problem is with file size of 2GB, which might overwhelm it.

Second, I tried the free MovieMaker software included with XP. It does not read MP4 files, but when I imported the AVI file, it took the Microsoft software nearly a half-hour to import the 2GB file. But at least it worked.

Review: SanDisk V-mate Memory Card Video Recorder

I had read about SanDisk's new method of selling memory cards: the V-Mate. It looks like a larger-sized memory card reader, it is a memory card reader (but not for CompactFlash), but it also records video direct to the memory cards. Hence the "V" in V-mate

(I was suprised to see London Drugs selling it so soon, because Canada tends to be a backwater for new technological devices. For example, it took a year for Sony M2 memory cards to show up. Anyhow, I snapped up the V-Mate for CDN$140, before the RIAA and MPAA could rule the device illegal and halt sales.)

You buy a memory card (SD, SDHC, miniSD, microSD, MMC, or MemoryStick), stick it in, and then attach the V-mate to any video RCA plug. That would include your tv, VCR, DVD, and camcorder. You can set it up to record at a specific time (like a VCR) or start recording manually.

When the V-mate is connected to your tv, you can use the included remote to set it up: the current date, time, and which formats to record in (more later). At first, the tv image of the V-mate menus rolled and rolled. I finally clued it that the V-mate was set to PAL -- the European tv standard. Sliding the switch to NTSC solve the problem.

Channel Changing Cludge

The hitch is that the V-mate does not contain a tv tuner, so you have to preset the correct channel on the tv, or else use the kludgy workaround: the V-mate comes with an IR transmitter (an IR diode at the end of a wire). You plug the wire into the V-mate and then attach the IR end onto your tv or VCR, at the IR (remote) receiver.

Problem is that some industrial design is so sleek, you don't know where that IR receiver is -- such as on our VCR. And then you have to code into the V-mate a 4-digit number that tells it the brand name of the tv/VCR, so it know which codes to use to change the channel.

It would have been much better if SanDisk just included the tv tuner -- which can be had for under $100 these days.

File Format

The V-mate records in MP4 format only, which can be a problem. For example, Microsoft's free MovieMaker doesn't support MP4, so you will need to get software that converts MP4 to AVI or MVA. Even if you can find the software for free, it can take hours and hours to perform the conversion.

The V-mate lets you manually set the resolution and quality, and provides some preset options:

* MP4 compatible with Sony PlayStation
* MP4 compatible with cell phones
* MP4 suitable for PC playback.

The V-mate names the recorded file by the date and time that the recording starts, like this:

07-0306-20.00.00.mp4 = year-monthday-hour.minutes.seconds.mp4

(Note: a firmware update is available from Sandisk. Unfortunately, there is no info on what it fixes.)

Viewing the Recording

When I recorded a 1-hour tv show at 640x480 in best quality mode, it took up 1.6GB of the 2GB SD card I was using. Plugging the memory card into my computer, I was able to watch the tv show using the QuickTime video viewer (free from Apple).

I plugged the memory card into other devices. My Samsung NV3 digital camera plays back movies, but only in its own format. The camera comes with movie format translation software, but the estimated conversion time was over 3 hours,plus it stopped after 12 minutes. However, I was able to watch the first 12 minutes on the camera's 2.5" screen.

I next plugged the memory card into my Palm TX. The free TCPMP played back all the different variants of MP4 recorded by the V-mate, but without sound. Still, no translation needed! That was great.

So I paid for and downloaded the Core Player software (US$25) -- the commercial version of TCPMP, and now the recordings played back with sound.

A video recording of 640x480 overwhelmed the TX, however, with stuttering sounds and jerky video. But videos recorded at 320x240 worked just fine. The TX can playback videos fullscreen on its 3.8" screen. The Core Player has nice feature that boosts the color on otherwise bland-looking video.

Video Camera

Newer video cameras come with FireWire plugs so that you can copy the tapes directly onto your computer. Older ones do not. I used to record from my old video camera onto the new one, and then use the FireWire connection. I plan to try recording from the old video camera direct to the V-mate, and then copying the MP4 file onto the computer. I'm hoping that will cut 2 hours from the process.

Tip

Here's a conversion tip: resolution and frame rate are not important for watching tv shows. I find that 15fps is good enough, and it has the added benefit of cutting the filesize in half. Similarly, 320x240 resolution is sufficient for viewing on small screens, such as 2.5"-4" screens on cameras and Palms. An even lower resolution is good enough for watching on cell phones.