Samsung MiniKet VM-M2050 & VM-M2100 MPEG-4 recorder
By Dan Wu 
posted November 15th 2004 2:26AM
posted November 15th 2004 2:26AM
Stealing a page from Panasonic's D-Snap
line, Samsung's tiny new multipurpose VM-M2050 (512MB internal memory) and VM-M2100 (1GB internal memory) are the size
of a pack of cigs, can record MPEG-4 encoded video, play your MP3s, record audio, functions as a webcam, includes a 10x
optical zoom, and can also take 2 megapixel pictures. The 1GB model can record an hour of video, but there is a
MultiCard slot (we're not quite sure what format that is) for additional storage.
You can find more info on Samsung's website, it's featured ont the front page. From the info there, it said it's going to use Memory Stick/Memory Stick Pro.....Booooooooooooooooooooooo......should just use SD cards!
The most important thing about this model is the video resolution: the web site lists 30 fps at a full-frame 720x480. D-Crap cameras' "fine" setting is still only half-frame in size. The only other high profile tapeless camera I know of that promises to do that is JVC's Everio line... much delayed, it seems, from it's October 16th release date.
Actually, Samsung had this idea 2 or more years ago with the IT-CAM 5, (7 and 9) Had an internal mini HDD and looked pretty much the same. It was orginall showcased on the WoW site, (www.samsung.com/wow)
http://www.godmode.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4511&highlight=itcam
The "multi-card" slot is just what is says it is... like the slots you see on photo printers, and reads SD, MemoryStick, MMC, and CF.
Umm, I'll take the JVC Everio GZMC100. JVC released the the GZMC100 and GZMC200 units the 3rd week of October. However, they only make about 5000 a month and it is not exactly easy to find them for purchase yet.
The JVC units have a 4GB microdrive and dual SD and CF drives. They do not have MPEG-4 but the MPEG-2 is 8.5Mbs, 720x480/60i (60fps interlaced). Ok, MPEG-4 has around 1/11th the file size of MPEG-2 and all that but the quality of MPEG-2 is better. There was an old article on TomsHardware.com called "MPEG-4 - Copying a DVD Video to CD-ROM Guide" where they showed shots of The Matrix in MPEG-2 and 4. I remember thinking it was no contest. MPEG-2 was way superior in quality. If file size does not matter, I'll take MPEG-2. Besides storage media prices are dropping dropping dropping.
Panasonic's D-Snap line is pretty crummy with the exception of the SV-AV100 which is only marginally crummy. The SV-AV100 does have MPEG 2&4 but the best quality MPEG2 is 6.5Mbps and the MPEG 4 is only 1/2 size at 320 x 240.
It would really be nice if the new Samsung Miniket had MPEG-2. However it is a real improvement over Panasonic SV-AV100 crummy 320x240. Although they really screwed it up (for most people without Sony products) with the Memory Stick media slot. It would have been a better product IMO if there was an SD or even CF slot.
According to Samsung's Website and Flash promo, it ONLY has Memory Stick and Memory Stick Pro slots.
Aaron:
Here's what you're missing.
MPEG4 is better quality than MPEG2. You have to understand that the bitrate used was much much less than what was being used for MPEG2. If you had a video encoded at 7mbps in MPEG2 and 7mbps in MPEG4 it will almost ALWAYS look better in MPEG4.
You talked about a guide for reencoding a DVD so it will fit on a CD. Think about that. The source video is already encoded to MPEG2, and has a bunch of artifacting all over it, et cetera. Not to mention the fact that their encoding method was almost certainly primitive, since the article is pretty old. Of course reencoding a video in such a fashion will reduce quality. That wasn't the point. If you had the original source video of The Matrix and you encoded it to MPEG2 and MPEG4, even with half the bitrate for MPEG4, it'd still look better in MPEG4.
What I would like to know is whether you can use the expansion card (CF or SD) for saving video or is it simply for extra stills? It seems that the write speed of the various storage media could not support 8.5Mbps. I have not been able to locate an owner's manual on the product or any info from JVC's website. Does anyone know? By the way, Amazon has the camera up on its website.
Memory Stick has a write speed of 15 Mbps so its one of the only media cards they would be able to use for recording video. Its true that this is pretty much a replica of the IT-CAM from 2003 but they probably replaced the hard drive factor to boost battery life. The IT-CAM only had enough battery life to fill up the hard drive with video before it died. My guess is they weren't satisfied with the IT-CAM so they changed some things and out came the MiniKet
Mpeg 4 has a maximum bandwidth of 1.5 Mbits/sec and is designed for web video, it's actual a transport protocol for multiplexing video, audio, cad objects, and all sorts of meta data. the best results come from a vbr 2 pass transcoding from mpeg 2 which is much more suitable for capturing video. recording straight to mpeg 4 will give you more artifacting than transcoding from mpeg 2.
I've got a miniket VP-M110s/xsa and was wondering if i can use a 2 gb memory stick pro with it, also does the cmos sports lens that comes with the new sports miniket work on mine.
Cheers for any help
I am looking for opinion and feedback before purchasing the Samsung miniket 110 sports model