Clie Video Recorder Available Soon

Posted By: Ryan Tuesday, September 23, 2003 11:34:37 AM

Sony has announced a Tivo like device, that records television and video onto a memory stick in a format optimized for Clie handhelds. The VR100K Video Recorder accessory can record hours of programming and the recorded videos can be viewed on a TV, PC or anywhere the handheld goes.

Computer displays with a video input jack will also be able to receive cable and TV signals through the unit's built-in TV tuner. The TV Tuner can receive VHF channels from 2-13 and UHF broadcast from 14-69 and cable channels 2- 128. It has a external antenna connector and standard RCA input and output jacks. It can be hooked up to a standard TV antenna, cable service, satellite receiver, VCR, or video camcorder. The device itself is about the same size as a VHS tape.

Clie Video Recorder Computer displays with a video input jack will also be able to receive cable and TV signals through the unit's built-in TV tuner. PC viewing of recorded videos requires QuickTime v6 or higher).

The CLIÉ VR100K recorder compresses video directly onto a Memory Stick PRO or standard 128MB Memory Stick media. The device's bundled video utility software allows users to program a Memory Stick media with the time of the show they would like to record. Once inserted into the recorder, the device then does the rest.

The device can record up to 16 hours and 40 mins using a 1GB Memory Stick PRO in LP1/LP2 mode, or 4 hours in top quality. A 128MB stick can store approximately 130 minutes in LP mode. It records to all 128MB memory sticks and all memory stick pro sizes.

The video is compatible with all of the Palm OS 5 Sony Clies, including the NX series, the TG50, NZ90 and the UX series. It uses the MPEG4 Simple Profile video codec.

The device will be available this month for about $300 at retailers nationwide. It is available now for pre-order from SonyStyle.com.

"The CLIÉ handheld's value lies in its endless multimedia capabilities," said Russell Paik, vice president of handheld marketing at Sony Electronics. "Digital video recorders allowed people to view TV and cable programs at anytime. We're adding a new facet to that possibility by enabling people to view those shows anywhere."

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SD Adapter

GHaavy @ 9/23/2003 12:03:39 PM #

Anyone out there feel like making an adapter to allow memory stick media to be read in an SD slot?

I'd be able to watch Joe Shmo re-runs to my heart's content. Now that would be sweet.

I'm not a smartass in real life, I just portray one on the web.

RE: SD Adapter

Fammy @ 9/23/2003 12:55:16 PM #

I working on taking video from a ReplayTV and converting it to a Palm friendly format. Seinfeld on the go! I'm not having much luck thus far. There are a lot of tools available to pull the video onto your PC, but it's in a slightly corrupted MPEG2 format.

Anyone tried anything like this?

-- Fammy

RE: SD Adapter

Token User @ 9/23/2003 1:09:22 PM #

Go to PlanetReplay.com and check out http://makeashorterlink.com/?T1C423CF5

These tools adjust the header to be something more standard.

NX70V + RTV5040 + DVArchive + RTVTools = Sony Clie Video Recorder?

~ "Don't be too proud of this technological terror you've constructed." - DV ~

RE: SD Adapter

hkklife @ 9/23/2003 2:26:48 PM #

What we *really* need are larger-capacity SD cards at decent prices-it seems like 256mb SD cards hav been "stuck" at a street price of ~$65 for a while now...and I don't take rebates and similar scams into account as far as final pricing goes.

I mean, I have a handful of 128kb MP3s and some Kinoma images on my 256mb SD card and I'm out of room, after adding AvantGo content and a few apps and games. I could easily find a use for a card 2x that size (but not 2x or 3x the price).

Additionally, having Sandisk work the bugs out of their cards would be a good step in the right direction, seeing as how they are the only major, affordable brand available at mass merchants nationwide-Costco, BBuy, etc-and also seeing how many other brands of cards are rebadged Sandisks (Lexar et al).

With the recent announcement of the Panasonic camcorder that records its video data exclusively on SD cards-something like 20 mins on a 512mb card-the market is waiting with bated breath for some larger, cheaper solutions from someone.

Recorded TV on my clie? I'd rather go live

a3 @ 9/23/2003 12:24:31 PM #

If I'm not wrong Sony announced a couple of months ago a TV tuner memory stick... That would be better because I am not going to buy this recorder just to be able to see my favorite shows in PDA size. I wouldn't know he difference between MLD and NFL...

____________________________________________
Former Tapwave's Helix fan, now a T|T3 fan.

RE: Recorded TV on my clie? I'd rather go live

HardyM @ 9/23/2003 2:37:33 PM #

Why should I prefer 30 minutes live over hours of replay?
30 minutes is the the time an Ipaq can run with a PCMCIA-DVB-T-card.

RE: Recorded TV on my clie? I'd rather go live

Raptor1313666 @ 9/23/2003 2:48:00 PM #

But a TV tuner memstick would either be:

A) Broadcast only (over the air programming, not cable or satellite.

B) Worryingly large to include RCA/Coax jacks for "wired" television.

For me (and it's a personal thing, obviously), this little recorder's a nice little device. Especially at $300, which is about $200 - $300 less than I was expecting it to be (afterall, this is Sony's pricing we're talking about here).

Hmm, I may just pre-order one to compliment my new UX. :)

-Richard "Raptor" Powell

"Nice guys may finish last, but you know, the company's much better back here."

RE: Recorded TV on my clie? I'd rather go live

Palm4u @ 9/23/2003 3:57:20 PM #

This would be a perfect companion for the UX-50!! A dream team combo!

$300 bucks, that's not bad at all for Sony !!

128meg stick would suffice. Probably watch Late Show on the bus or subway on the way to work. So max would be like 1hr. Well, actually ON and OFF, unless you don't have to look where you are stepping on and off the trains/buses.

================================
PDAs rule the world !

Good for the NX-Series, Bad for others...

doctor__no @ 9/23/2003 2:48:14 PM #

This machine would be good for the Sony NX-series because of the large 320x240 screen, but it would be pointless to watch TV shows the smaller 320X320 screens out there.

I just wish that current PVRs, like Tivo, just included a MemoryStick or SD slot to begin with; so that you could compresss the video and take it with you.

Also, this toy would make more sense once flash memory prices start falling. Recently the cheapest I saw for a MemoryStick was $25 for 128MB, we need to wait a couple years before we see 1GB to fall to an acceptable price range.

RE: Good for the NX-Series, Bad for others...

Strider_mt2k @ 9/23/2003 6:02:13 PM #

Why would it be pointless?
Wouldn't it just be a little smaller?

If I had a high end Clie' I would buy one of these, given say it's third iteration so they can shake the bugs out and find out what features are being asked for.

RE: Good for the NX-Series, Bad for others...

doctor__no @ 9/23/2003 8:29:53 PM #

>Why would it be pointless?
>Wouldn't it just be a little smaller?

It would be pointless to watch on a small screen because image would be significantly smaller being that your TV aspect ratio is 4:3, so for a square 1:1 screen that is 320X320 the image needs to be scaled to fit the screen. So you would be watching an image that is still smaller on an already small screen.

For instance the TG50 screen is around 2.9" square, because the image needs to scale to fit you would really be looking at 2.1" image. If you were to use the NX-70/80, you would see a 3.8" image on the 3.8" screen rather than the measly 2.1" on the TG50; since it's 4:3 aspect ratio already being 320X240 in landscape mode.

Still Sony is on to a good concept, If I had an NX or UX and the price of this device was cheaper I would really consider it. At this point it's way too expensive, being $300 + (cost of memorystick).

File format?

mikecane @ 9/23/2003 6:09:16 PM #

How are the files played on the CLIE? Is it via Kinoma?

What is to stop anyone from taking the MStick video and, via card read/writer, move the file(s) from the MStick to an SD to play on, say, a TT3?

I'd be very interested in this if I knew I could do the above transfer.

RE: File format?

Gar @ 9/23/2003 7:22:46 PM #

The movies play on Sony devices using the newer version of the sony movie player. Some folks have played with 'Movie Player' so it would see movies stored on CF cards (NX devices) but I don't know about it running on other devices.
I assume (could be wrong, haven't played with this new hardware) the reason you have to use the new Sony Movie Player is copy protection. The current system, you could move the files off the MS onto your computer, convert the files over to mpegs and view them on other hardware. I'm sure Sony wanted to put a stop to that before they released this hardware... give it a little time though, others will figure a way around whatever barriers are put on the files.

-----------------
My wife has to sell a lot of candles (www.ccandles.com) to buy her new Palm.

RE: File format?

mikecane @ 9/23/2003 7:52:48 PM #

That is too bad and really stupid. Selling only to CLIE owners is a limited market (vs ALL PalmOS devices). Then again, it does use MStick only, so...

RE: File format?

doctor__no @ 9/23/2003 10:57:31 PM #

Actually, It seems that Sony compresses the file to Mpeg4 compliant codec, it even says the recorder videos can also be played back on PCs with QuickTime ver 6.0 or higher.

I'm sure if you had a palm device that can playback Mpeg4 files you could playback the files that this machine encodes. But it seems to me to be kinda tedious, if you really wanted to do that you could just capture the video using a cheap capture card on your PC and just reencode the video to be smaller and fit on a PDA.

Needs more channels

treo007 @ 9/23/2003 6:24:42 PM #

Looks interesting and it is a pretty good idea. The problem is that you can only get channels 2-128 (and you probably don't get to pick which of the 126 you can record from). Like a lot of us, I have hundreds of cable channels. Many of those I watch are after number 128 (including most of the premium networks).

Sony licenses Tivo technology. The ultimate would be a memory stick equipped Tivo box that could of course encode to a Clie friendly format when recording to the memory stick.

RE: Needs more channels

Raptor1313666 @ 9/24/2003 4:23:54 PM #

This may be a silly question, but don't you have a digital box to reach those high channels? Or does your TiVo have the Digibox functionality built in?

The way I see it, just plug this thing into the TV out plugs of the digital box and you can record any output that the Digital box can display. You know, sorta like leaving your TV on channel "3" for older VCRs and the like.

I'd be interested in seeing this device. I want one, and the price seems about right anyway. Hopefully it won't be too limited.

-Richard "Raptor" Powell

"Nice guys may finish last, but you know, the company's much better back here."