Windows Phone Thoughts: Turn Your Pocket PC into A Video Maker (sort of)

Usability
I performed my tests using my iPAQ 2215, and a Sharp ViewCam (look, I spend all of my money on Pocket PC gadgets, and don’t have much left over for video gear).

I made a recording of a potential project site, complete with some narration as I walked around the site. Obviously, none of this was Oscar winning commentary or filming, but it is indicative of the kind of stuff I would use the setup for.

I started this review a little tongue and cheek saying the FlyGrabber could be seen as a “W?BIC!” type of device. And really, at 4mb for a 2 minute movie, I certainly am not going to transfer a feature length film to my Pocket PC. But that is not really what this device is for.

A fair portion of my work involves documenting some existing conditions. Much of this I will want to keep on the Hi-8 cassettes which are used by my video camera, simply because the movies are not very important, and are only needed until the project is completed. Within these movies, there is a small portion which may be of some importance. That is why I love the FlyGrabber: I don’t need to worry about moving the entire movie to my computer, and take up space. I can just grab the portion of the video I find important and keep that piece handy, always with me on my iPAQ, but what’s better, I can do this in the field. This has uses not only in the construction field, but I can see this as being of great use for real estate professionals, insurance adjusters, etc.


Figure 3: Here is my setup; the camera on the left is hooked up via an audio cable and an S-Video cable to the dongle on the CF card. It is hard to see in the photo, but the image on the camera is the same as the image on the Pocket PC.

I connected the FlyGrabber CF card to my iPAQ, connected the cables from the FlyGrabber to the video camera, and turned everything on. Using the video mail portion of the software I saw exactly what was on the camera, and could very easily control which portions of the video I wanted to use.