Samsung SC-X300L First Impressions Reviewby James MurrayPublished on Jan 18, 2007 12:00 PM 
|
|
Compression
The Samsung SC-X300L has 2GB of internal flash memory, capable of recording up to an hour of MPEG-4 ASP video at a maximum resolution of 720 x 576 and 30 fps. In addition to the installed flash memory, the X300L can also record to removable SD/MMC memory cards, but not the higher cacpacity SDHC cards. This flavor of MPEG-4 is the kind you'll find on a lot of digital cameras and multimedia devices, and is not very friendly to quality. Last year’s video was so compressed that it imbued shots with artifacts that were especially noticeable with fast-moving action. Again, is that what you're looking for in a sports cam?
In addition in the highest quality Super Fine video setting, the SC-X300L includes two lower quality settings called Fine and Normal. A lower quality 352 x 288 resolution setting, presumably intended for YouTube-bound video, is also available.
Media
With an increase to 2GB from the previous years top-end 1GB model, the Samsung SC-X300L records up to a hour of SuperFine video to the onboard flash storage device. The camcorder also accommodates SD/MMC memory cards via a card slot located beneath a smartly designed port cover on the front of the body. While Samsung did improve the onboard memory, 2GB falls far short of the 30 to 60GB capacities found in many HDD-based camcorders. Nonetheless, flash memory is a solid-state format that should stand up to the extreme sports action the SC-X300L is marketed for. HDD differs little from the hard drives found in laptop computers and are relatively fragile – if spacious – storage devices. During really bumpy conditions, the writing needle could skip and ruin your shot, or worse - destroy your hard disk. Flash memory is much studier. The ideal media here and one that we can expect to see in the future is high capacity memory cards, like SDHC. Older SD cards, like the ones this camcorder uses, have a 2GB limit . SDHC can reach up to 32GB. Match that with a better compression than MPEG-4 ASP and you're really on to something.
Editing
Samsung was unable to comment on whether the SC-X300L would include the same software package as last year's model. The representatives at Samsung’s booth implied that users' response to last year’s software bundle may lead to a change, though it was not clear whether that would mean a new package, updates to the previous bundle, or no software at all. Unfortunately, the footage requires a codec supplied from Samsung, so these files cannot be instantly dropped into any NLE of your choice. We were actually surprised that last year's software bundle, that included ULead VideoStudio SE DVD 9.0, was among the better bundled software of the year. They could do worse than simply re-package it this year.