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    Comments on: Sony Announces MemoryStick Video RecorderSony Japan has announced a Tivo like device, that records television and video in a format for Handhelds. The VR100K records video to a memory stick in a format optimized for playback on a Clie handheld.
Detailed Comment View (27 Total Comments)
The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. PIC is not responsible for them in any way. login or register for free in order to post comments.  Not bad for a Japanese market only first shothkklife @ 9/12/2003 5:17:29 PM #
Nice, but essentially a toy. Now, if this thing had some sort of dual-function/dual purpose as an external USB video capture box with a pass thru to a PC, then it might have some merit. Right now, I don't expect to see this hit the US market, at least in the current iteration of the product. I'm sure we'll see this capability integrated into some of the new VAIO desktops in late '03 or early '04-like a sort of Sony-centric Avantgo/Mazingo just for OS5+ CLies. Still, a nifty idea that shows that the Palm platform has finally arrived (mostly) as far as multimedia goes.  RE: Not bad for a Japanese market only first shot
Hmmm... maybe not a toy. Looking at the new Sony Palm devices, and the new handheld movie player you can see a trend that Sony is going after. I noticed this item on Sony's site over a week ago. Several other sites have had quite a few comments made on it and how one would use it day to day. Since it is able to be told in advance what TV shows to record it is simple enough to be bought into by the U.S. buyer... if they have a means to view the card's contents. Further thoughts on other sites is that all this can be done with a desktop PC right now... but if this unit comes in at 250 bucks as the current translation works out to it will be hard to beat on hardware costs. Then there is the time issue. If you have ever done a TV/VHS/DVD to mpeg conversion to watch on handhelds - it takes time, it is hit and miss on audio/picture sync, and it is way beyond the average person. I'm sure there will be a lot of people here saying I'm off my rocker on these thoughts. But then, soon I will be able to watch David Letterman at six am on my handheld on the way to work and set up time was ZERO! ----------------- My wife has to sell a lot of candles (www.ccandles.com) to buy her new Palm. RE: Not bad for a Japanese market only first shot
Actually, Vaios already have this. The ones with the built in capture card use software called Gigapocket to format the show in MPG4 and put it directly to the Memory Stick for viewing on the Clie. If this thing is less than $200, it might not actually do half bad. Not bad at all,
It always amazes me how a few people feel the need to proclaim any new product a "toy" if they have no need for it or imagination for its applications. The fact that I may not care to watch TV on a PDA has no bearing on whether or not this product "has some merit". It is no more a toy than TVs, DV cameras, DVD players, VCRs, LD players, etc. To unilaterally dismiss it as such would be arrogant and inaccurate. Not bad at all.
If this thing is less than $200, it might not actually do half bad.
If this device does *half* as well as the MD, I would be suprised. I really liked that format, but Sony *still* can't make it catch fire. This is an interesting wrinkle on the Memory Stick, something that's having somewhat better success than the MD. I am curious as to what a program will look like. But I can't imagine fully appreciating Pammie and her girls cavorting around in VIP reruns shown on a PDA. I think I remember hearing in an ancient studies class that in a rare Japanese dialect, "sony" means proprietary. RE: Not bad for a Japanese market only first shotpalmmongrel @ 9/15/2003 10:37:38 AM #
pfft.. if even the MEMORY STICKS themselves were less than $200, THEN it might catch on. I mean, a stick capable of holding a couple hours of these movies, like a 512 Pro. But noooo, not Sony...
RE: ?
Isn't one tivo enough? Of course not. Don't be silly. Choice is good and competition can make better, less expensive products. Without competition, Palm would not be as far along as it is today. No
No, what I'm saying is: why would anyone want to record to the very expensive memory stick if they could buy a tivo that comes with an 80 gig hard drive? 80 gigs worth of memory sticks is alot more than I can afford. RE: ?Raptor1313666 @ 9/13/2003 2:56:57 PM #
Because you can't carry a TiVo in your pocket. :) -Richard "Raptor" Powell "Nice guys may finish last, but you know, the company's much better back here." RE: ?
Well I would have no need to put a tivo in my pocket, because I would keep it hooked up to my tv. I seriously doubt that many of you people would actually need put it in your pocket. I think it's just the novelty of the size that has you hooked. One Palm to rule them all! -Sniffer RE: ?Raptor1313666 @ 9/13/2003 11:26:04 PM #
No no no, it's not the device I wanna put in my pocket, it's the media! Seriously speaking, I do keep one Memory Stick on me with some of my favorite anime so I can watch if I'm REALLY bored. With this, I can actually use it to record some of the shows I miss during the day/evening when I'm at work (like the ScreenSavers on TechTV) instead of having pre-canned stuff. Considering the relative length of time of conversion nowadays, this should make it nice'n'easy. Granted, I'm not REALLY going to buy one unless the price is within my budget, but I CAN see some uses for it in my current lifestyle.
"Nice guys may finish last, but you know, the company's much better back here." RE: ?
You know Raptor, I have never really wanted to watch tv on my handheld (considering the screen being only 3.8 inches at most), and I don't really know why you would either. For portability, I would much prefer a laptop with the files copyed onto it. The laptop is bigger, but the screen dworves the size of a handheld's. One Palm to rule them all! -Sniffer RE: ?Raptor1313666 @ 9/14/2003 8:37:50 PM #
"You know Raptor, I have never really wanted to watch tv on my handheld (considering the screen being only 3.8 inches at most), and I don't really know why you would either." Ah, but you see that you are NOT me. And our needs/desires differ greatly it would seem. Please do not make the folly of assuming that your desires are the same desires as others. I work in a place where I need to be up and about much of the day, and I do not have the luxury of setting up my laptop in a permanently safe location. "For portability, I would much prefer a laptop with the files copyed onto it. The laptop is bigger, but the screen dworves the size of a handheld's." True, but let's drop back to that "laptop is bigger" statement. A laptop is great if you have a solid place to hunker down for a length of time, but not so good if you're consistently up and on the move. Even if you continually use the "hibernate" feature (which I do, thus avoiding the long boot-ups and shut-downs), there is a still an amount of setup and space necessary to use a laptop. Not so with a PDA. Please understand that I DO see a purpose and a use for this device. For me and my lifestyle, a TiVo just doesn't cut it for portable entertainment, and my laptop isn't the best solution, either. I rely on my PDA not only for information retrieval (net/email access, datebook, phones, text information), but also for personal productivity (I write while on the go as well) and entertainment (games, media, and music). As such, this little video recorder shows some serious potential for me. I WAS considering an Archos AV320/340, and I still am (20-40GB portable HD, MP3 player, and PVR), but if this device is released stateside, I may reconsider. "Nice guys may finish last, but you know, the company's much better back here." RE: ?
Ah, but you see that you are NOT me. And our needs/desires differ greatly it would seem. Please do not make the folly of assuming that your desires are the same desires as others.
And why do some people insist on assumimg everyone else wants what *they* want, and if *they* don't want it, nobody else should either? This lasted Sony venture will be quite pricey, I'm sure. But the fact that somebody did it may mean that others will follow suit. That means competition, and choice. I'm OK with that. RE: ?
I know you aren't me. You may have different views than I do, but you must have much better eyes than me to watch tv on a pda
One Palm to rule them all! -Sniffer
RE: 320x480??
Don't settle for 320x480. Tell those Sony ingrates that you won't buy it until they impliment PDA HDTV! RE: 320x480??
Standard TV has a screen ratio of 1.33 to 1. Widescreen HDTV has a ratio of 1.78 to 1.
320x480 screens are 1.5 to 1, (viewed in landscape 480x320 which would be optimal). The maximum vertical resolution you could get is 320 lines, which is less than the vertical resolution of standard analog TV (480i). The PDA screen can't display full resoultion standard TV, let alone HDTV resolution of 720p or 1080i. The only advantage of HDTV on a PDA would be a widescreen (16x9) format. Who cares about that. Did anyone notice that it records only in 15 fps? I'd never want to watch my TV in choppy 15 frames per second!
Welcome to the future...Strider_mt2k @ 9/13/2003 6:46:32 AM #
This is a cool product! Sure, it seems kinda iffy now, but when you consider that handhelds are the direction things are going, it's a logical development. It just needs to evolve a little, it's new. RE: Welcome to the future...
Exactly.
Why can't my PC do this?skennedy1217 @ 9/13/2003 9:00:19 AM #
My video card has a TV tuner in it, so I can already do everything on my desktop that TiVo can do. I also have a flash memory card reader (all formats except XD). All the hardware is there, so where is the software that would allow me to do this? Scott RE: Why can't my PC do this?
I haven't heard of any yet. The key might be the "player" for the PDA, as well as some technic of getting the data onto the card. And Sony being Sony, they'd want sole control of this technology. They're still made that the MD didn't supplant the cassette. RE: Why can't my PC do this?
Make that- They're still mad.... I need a sugar rush. RE: Why can't my PC do this?
"My video card has a TV tuner in it, so I can already do everything on my desktop that TiVo can do. I also have a flash memory card reader (all formats except XD). All the hardware is there, so where is the software that would allow me to do this?" There is plenty of software to do this already. But if you use it, every time you upgrade your PC, you have to worry about it breaking, you have to leave your PC on all the time, etc. The PC video libraries keep changing quite a bit, for example, because Microsoft like to add "Digital Restrictions Management". This is a box that you just put somewhere and it keeps on working. You keep a memory stick in there and take it out just before you leave the house in the morning. It's probably poor quality video, but for watching news broadcasts on the go (think Japanese commuters) it seems like a pretty decent solution. For US commuters, it probably doesn't make a lot of sense: only people with a death wish would watch television while driving. RE: Why can't my PC do this?
I think there are a fair number of US commuters who use mass transit and would like something like this. Yeah, it might not be so useful in Atlanta, Dallas or LA but in Chicago, San Francisco and New York it could be really nice.
I think there's a big benefit in not having it dependant on a computer so you could keep it on all the time but having a network interface for downloading video from the computer would be a nice tough. I also don't get why it won't record in 320x480 format. Seems like a no brainer...why wouldn't you want to use all the real estate you can.
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