Mini Single Channel Digital Video Recorder, H.264

Sometime last year we started carrying a mini, palm-sized digital recorder.  Its a small white rectangle thats about 4 inches long and an inch wide and about 1/2 in depth.  The size of it alone is just remarkable and the fact it can record  to an SD card makes it even more attractive.  This little unit can support a single camera with its standard attachments in the box and has a single channel of audio available.  The audio connection is a standard 3.5mm stereo jack versus most DVR’s that have RCA.

The menu’s are relatively simple and even show you how much record time you will get depending on your resolution settings and SD card size.  You can playback video from the unit, limit the size of each record file and even do motion only recording.

With the simplicity of the menu interface and player software, we sell lot’s of these units as do-it-yourself nanny camera systems.  Just choose your camera, add a battery pack and a little bit of creativity and you have your new low cost mini camera and recorder setup.

The unit can support up to an 8GB SD card so you are looking at a math quiz, 100 min to over 2,000 minutes of recording.   Now, the player software is necessary to play back the video on a computer and is Vista compatible.  Hopefully by next week, I’ll be able to report on if it works with Windows 7.  We already have dozens of these units in the field and working extremely well, they have been fitting quite a few situations where getting power to a larger full size system would’ve been a challenge.

Now to top it all off, this handy little recorder has a remote control and uses just a few colored lights on the side, to let you know what mode it is in.  Such as stand-by or recoding or Stopped.  Also on top of that, it has a record default once its not in the menu.  Whatever you set it on, whether motion or continuous, once you exit the menu it will go to record mode automatically.  Forgetting to hit the record button happens more often than people would care to admit, so this unit will do it for you.

So what else could there be that could top, its size, default recording, having a remote control, motion recording, battery pack operated and can support an 8GB SD card? Well, it would be the fact that we have them available once again. Take a look at it here.

SCS4/B. Eaton

So how about a miniature recorder?

Gadgets, gadgets everywhere …..  So technology changes and new toys enter our world almost everyday, whether it’s in the form of a new communication device or a new surveillance tool.  Technology changes so quickly that it almost seems like a struggle for most of us to keep up.  But as complex as it may seem, to try to find out what’s out there to use, it actually isn’t.  A majority of our world today follow a few basic rules, for example, the square on your remote control is Stop and the right triangle is Play.  So applying  those few simple things we have learned over the years from Beta max tapes to Blu-Ray, operating a new toy is relatively simple.  Let’s talk about a miniature cam-corder, palm sized and portable and now SD card based.  Remember VHS-C? Now look what we can do.  It’s amazing isn’t it, how they can put so much in such a small device.

We get asked all the time – Whats out there that I can use to record someone that is harassing me? or – I’m going on vacation and really don’t want to lug around my full sized cam-corder, what do you have?  Well we have  a miniature palm-sized recorder with the capacity to hold video from an evening on the town or if you really needed it to, a full day’s work.  But, of course there’s that pesky problem of battery life.  Unfortunately you’d have to charge it about every hour for nearly an hour to get all that recorded, so you’ll have to stick to small things like a morning meeting or that encounter with the person who didn’t make more coffee after taking the last of it, and then denies it.

So other than size, what else makes this thing so attractive?  Well its recording resolution of 720×480 at 30fps, time date stamp, it can be used as a webcam and it records audio as well.  Now it does come with some accessories, such as a usb cable, 2 types of mounts pocket and magnetic and of course the webcam software.  Its easy operation with the one button on the top, stop and record and then a power button on the side.  There is a tiny light on the top to show its mode of course, whether in record or no SD card present.  Playback through the PC is simple, just plug it up and play it back in VLC player or in Windows Media player or you can take out the micro SD card and put that in the computer instead.

So how about a more descreet type of recorder, hu? Well, there are pens, sunglasses, keychains, cell phones and lots of others.  So when deciding on what would be best for you, always think of  the situation, ease of operation for when you need it and make sure you will be able to practice with it before taking it out in the field.