Pure Digital Flip Mino Camcorder Reviewby David KenderPublished on Jun 25, 2008 5:47 PM
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Compression (3.0)The Pure Digital Flip Mino compressed video in the MPEG-4 AVI format. We don't think there's much need in this review to go into a long and detailed point-counterpoint between compression options in this price range. For one thing, most buyers of the Flip Mino are not shopping with video quality as a top priority (if you are, perhaps you should prepare to spend in the $300-and-up range). For another, nearly all the camcorders in this price range use a similar type of MPEG-4, so there's little choice.
This next bit is for the techies ... The Flip Mino's MPEG-4 video is recorded in 30 fps progressive, then outputted as interlaced. The average bitrate is a paltry 4 Mbps. That's amazing, considering higher-end videophiles are livid that current AVCHD camcorders are maxing out around 18 Mbps. That's over four times the bitrate of the Flip, and with a far more efficient codec. However, the poor compression of the Flip is offset somewhat by the fact that the CMOS sensor, while low resolution, has large pixels that give it an edge in low light performance.
The video produced by the Flip Mino is wrought with compression artifacts, which include blocky clusters of of discoloration and instances of "posterization," wherein areas of the picture with lots of subtle differences in color are reduced to a few shades.
It's important to note that if you plan on uploading your video to the web, especially YouTube, it will most likely be automatically recompressed, further reducing quality. One line of thinking argues that this should give you the freedom to shoot with whatever cheap camcorder you can find. The opposite line posits that this should necessitate an even higher standard of quality from the outset to ensure as little loss as possible. It's your decision. Naturally, we argue the latter because we want your videos to look as good as possible.
Media (3.0)
The Pure Digital Flip Mino has a 2GB internal (non-removable) flash memory inside. Expandability with a card slot would have certainly been a welcome option, but Pure Digital strives for simplicity, so perhaps they thought you wouldn't be able to work out the complexities of a removable memory card (after all, you have such a hard time figuring out how to remove toast from the toaster, right?). 2GB is not a huge amount of space, but should suffice for the day or weekend trip if you make sure you're erasing the old clips before you start. By comparison, the RCA Small Wonder, another in the cheap and easy camcorder category, does offer a card slot for expanding the memory.
The Flip Mino has a helpful reminder at the bottom of the screen that tells you how much recording time you have left. Below is a chart of approximate recording times on the Flip Mino and the previous generation, the Flip Ultra.
| Recording Time (approx.) | |
| Flip Mino (2GB) | 60 min |
| Flip Ultra (2GB) | 60 min |
| Flip Ultra (1GB) | 30 min |
Editing (7.0)
The big feature most people mention when talking about the Flip (aside from ease of use) is the ease of upload to YouTube and other online video hosting sites. The Flip Mino features editing and upload software built right into the camcorder. When you connect it via the pop-out USB arm, the camcorder registers as a drive on your computer. Simply double click on the software icon to boot either the PC or Mac version of the software (yes, it does both!).
First, it reads your contents, then displays your clips in groups of four.
A simple click to any of the clips will expand it to a larger size. This is where you can edit your clip. Click and drag the Start and End tabs at the bottom of the clip to set where you want the clip to begin and end.
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From this point, you can save the edited clip as a new file, delete the clip, or rename it. You can also take a frame from any point in the clip and save it as a photo by pressing Snap. You'll be prompted to enter a new filename.
To stitch together several clips into a single movie, click Make Movie from the menu on the left. You will be asked to create an "album" into which your clips are sorted. We gave ours the creative title of "Album Name" and selected two clips. Then click Begin.
Your newly created movie beings to play automatically.
Now for the fun part - uploading to YouTube. From the previous screen, you'll need to hit the Back button a couple of times until the menu appears on the left side again. Click on Share Videos.
All your video clips appear. Click on the clip or clips that you would like to upload. A small blue frame appears around those you have selected. There are three options in the upper right corner: Private E-mail, Share Greeting, and Public online sharing. The first two options compress your video down to a small size that makes it sendable through e-mail. The interface is incredibly simple. You don't even have to open your e-mail client, just enter your name, e-mail address, and the e-mail address of the recipient. A one-minute video takes about one minute to convert and save.
The web page where your "Private Email" video is hosted
The Share Greeting option is essentially the same, but rather than sending a simple video, the software provides a handful of colorful, banal frames to really nail down the spirit of the greeting. Themes include Birthdays, Holidays, and so on. After you choose a theme, you fill out the same e-mail information.
In both of these options, the video file is not actually being attached to an e-mail and sent. Rather, the video is hosted on a private page somewhere within the recesses of the Pure Digital website. There's little information given as to the privacy of these videos. Though the URL is difficult to guess, you'll probably want to be careful what you post. There's also no information as to how long the videos remain active, so don't plan on using this as your archive.
The final option is Public Online Sharing. The software provides easy upload to AOL, YouTube, and MySpace. You have the option to upload to other hosting sites, but the process is not as easy. If you plan on uploading elsewhere, the software creates a folder on your desktop, then fills it with converted clips that should be easy to upload anywhere, but it won't walk you through the process of how to upload.
The walkthrough is where this software really stands out. Let's upload a video to YouTube as an example. First, the software prompts you to log in. If you don't have an account, click on the Create a Free YouTube Account link.
Once you log in, the videos you've selected begin the conversion process. If you've selected a lot, this could take some time. Go get a drink or a snack.
When you return, it should tell you the upload is complete.
Click on Go, and your browser opens and go right to the video. Unfortunately, Pure Digital felt you might not be the best product ambassador, so it went ahead and branded your video for you. If you'll look in the video description on any of your YouTube clips, you'll read the following; "Recorded on (Month, Date, Year) using a Flip Video camcorder." Feel free to change this description if, for some reason, you think it misses the artistic intention of your video.
That's it. It's that easy to upload to YouTube. The camcorder doesn't do much, but it sure makes uploading easy.
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