Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Friday, 05 December 2008 08:18
Opinion and Analysis
Page 1 of 2
Although camcorders with “YouTube” recording modes aren’t new, Samsung
has finally joined the YouTube revolution by releasing a camcorder with
a dedicated YouTube mode.
Called the VP-MX20 camcorder, Samsung says its newest SD-card enabled video camera has a new YouTube mode.
Using an “advanced H.264 compression technology” which presumably delivers .MP4 files, Samsung says it “enables higher video quality and extensive recording time”, with four hours on a 8GB SDHC card, eight hours from a 16GB SDHC card and 16 hours on 32GB SDHC cards.
And what’s all this recording time without a battery to match? Most video cameras only deliver an hour of battery life, but the VP-MX20 delivers a three hour battery life as standard, which is pretty impressive!
Samsung’s
website lists the camera’s features and a detailed look at its video processing chip, which delivers vivid colour, 3D noise reduction and face detection technology, while other features such as interval recording and “super LCD screen clarity” are also explained.
Full specs of the VP-MX20 are
listed here at Samsung’s site, where we see the native resolution of the camera is 720x576, with TV Super Fine, TV Fine, TV Normal and “Web and Mobile” recording modes.
This means the VP-MX20 can record higher quality videos, or videos specifically designed for easier upload to YouTube, or instant transfer to media players that are compatible with the H.264 video standard.
The “Web and Mobile modes” automatically adjust the camcorder’s resolution to 640 x 480, making it easier than ever to upload files to websites, blogs and social networking sites.
What this means for YouTube’s new 640x360 16:9 widescreen format is yet to be seen – perhaps VP-MX20 users will now want to avoid the special “YouTube” feature and instead record in the native 720x576 format, letting YouTube’s video converter on upload handle the resize to 640x360 widescreen itself.
So, what else does Samsung have to say about its new camcorder, what does it cost, and what are some of the other key features?
Please read on to page 2 where a picture of the VP-MX20 can also be seen.
