A marvelous toy(s)
Reading the Sunday American Statesman, browsing the Target advertising circular, Caroline spotted “119.99 SALE | AIPTEK MPVR+ DIGITAL CAMCORDER with 2.4” display. Plays music and makes MPEG-5 (sic) movies.”
She wanted to know if it might be useful for making videos, how it worked, etc. I was a little suspicious, since I’d never heard of AIPTEK, suggested that the MPEG-5 must be a typo, but proceeded to look for the MPVR+ at Buy.com. They had what turns out to be the lesser capacity MPVR at a higher price. BestBuy.com has the MPVR+ at an even higher price.
The MPVR+ seems the Swiss Army knife of portable media devices. In addition to 640×480 video camera and 5 mega-pixel still camera, it has capture inputs for composite video & stereo audio, composite video/mono audio output, a headphone jack, an SD card slot and mini-USB. So it can be a video recorder, a video monitor, an MP3 player, an external storage device, a web cam, a conferencing camera, …
I think I’ve tested most/all of these features, and they all seem to work.