Flip Camera question

[donnajean17]

I don't know if anyone out there can help me but I just got one of those Flip cameras, it holds 60 minutes of video and has a USB that "flips" up so you can download it on to a PC. My question is, does anyone know if there are any portable storage devices I could use to download my video onto each day so I can have full acess to the 60 minutes of video again?

 

[Debi]

Bump! Does anyone have an answer to this question?

 

[daisylove]

bump. good question.

 

[bobbieh76]

I don't know if anyone out there can help me but I just got one of those Flip cameras, it holds 60 minutes of video and has a USB that "flips" up so you can download it on to a PC. My question is, does anyone know if there are any portable storage devices I could use to download my video onto each day so I can have full acess to the 60 minutes of video again?

I thought I had an answer for you I have an RCA small wonder (very similar)and it has a sd card slot but i was about to post that but decided i'd better check and see if the flip even has one and found out it doesn't..... sorry

I used my SW last time we went..... VERY VERY handy!!!! Got some great video of my Dd going nuts over cinderella at 1900 PF...

I'll ask my techie junkie brother and see if he has any suggestions!

I googled it and could not come up with anything.... only thing I can say is maybe borrow a laptop to take with you! Every site I went to listed that as the number 1 drawback to the flip!

good luck maybe someone else will have some ideas for you

 

[MrandMissVacation]

I have pondered this question for over a year and I've always come up empty. I'm leaning towards getting the SW because of the removable storage ability. I don't own a laptop to take on vacation and d/l when the Flip would be full.
Good luck

 

[Hootch]

The Flip is designed with a male USB only. It's designed to download to a computer or some other recording device. My mini dv tape camcorder only has dv and usb interfaces which make it hard to record on anything other than a computer.

I have been to Disney three times with that camcorder. I take extra tapes but have never gone beyond the first one which holds an hour. I don't record parades or shows. If you're not looking for the latter two items you may not have an issue.

 

[donnajean17]

I ended up emailing the company and this is the reponse I got:

Dear Donna,

Thank you for contacting us.

We do not currently recommend any one product specifically, mainly due to our inability to test and certify the breadth of products on the market. However, we do have anecdotal information from consumers who have had success using various flash drives with their camcorders. Again, we do not endorse or recommend any specific product, but you might find information on message boards that attest to user success.

We apologize for being unable to provide you with a more definite answer, and we hope you won’t hesitate to contact us further.

Thank you,
Flip Video Support


Also this is listed on thier website Q&A section:

Can you recommend a product that I can use to store videos from my camcorder without using a computer?

Videos recorded by the Flip Video camcorder can be saved or moved to any type of memory storage medium. However, Pure Digital does not specifically recommend one memory product over the other, mainly due to our inability to test and certify the breadth of third party memory products on the market. However, we do receive anecdotal information from consumers who have had success using a variety of storage products with their camcorder. Again, we do not endorse or recommend any products, nor have we tested them ourselves, but you might find information on message boards or reviews that attest to user success with specific products.


So it looks like there is something out there that would work besides a laptop! I just would like to figure out what would work!

 

[MrandMissVacation]

I ended up emailing the company and this is the reponse I got:

Dear Donna,

Thank you for contacting us.

We do not currently recommend any one product specifically, mainly due to our inability to test and certify the breadth of products on the market. However, we do have anecdotal information from consumers who have had success using various flash drives with their camcorders. Again, we do not endorse or recommend any specific product, but you might find information on message boards that attest to user success.

We apologize for being unable to provide you with a more definite answer, and we hope you won’t hesitate to contact us further.

Thank you,
Flip Video Support


Also this is listed on thier website Q&A section:

Can you recommend a product that I can use to store videos from my camcorder without using a computer?

Videos recorded by the Flip Video camcorder can be saved or moved to any type of memory storage medium. However, Pure Digital does not specifically recommend one memory product over the other, mainly due to our inability to test and certify the breadth of third party memory products on the market. However, we do receive anecdotal information from consumers who have had success using a variety of storage products with their camcorder. Again, we do not endorse or recommend any products, nor have we tested them ourselves, but you might find information on message boards or reviews that attest to user success with specific products.


So it looks like there is something out there that would work besides a laptop! I just would like to figure out what would work!

Yup,
This is the same info I've found and I've searched and searched for this mystery storage product.

Please let us know if you find something.

 

[Technosavant]

One of the limitations is that USB requires some kind of controlling device; it never was really intended for one consumer product to plug into another, the idea was for everything to plug into a computer. This means that any device which will do what you desire will cost quite a bit more than a garden variety external USB hard drive.

A quick search didn't readily show any all in one devices that would do what you want. However, Memorex has something called a Travelsync that will act as the controller. Plug the camera in one side, a USB hard drive in the other, and transfer the stuff over. I have no idea how well it would work- I'd try it out before I got to Disney.

Make sure you have an external USB drive with a power supply that plugs into the wall, many portable ones don't have that power supply. They draw power over the USB line from the computer, and the Travelsync almost certainly won't provide the juice needed. I'd buy a "desktop" oriented drive for this operation, since those will come with the needed power adapter- they're bigger and bulkier (and less shockproof), but that is probably your only option.

Unless, of course, that little camera uses removable memory cards, in which case I'd just recommend you buy several of those and be done with it, swapping them out as needed.*

*Edit to add- I checked out the Flip devices, and it appears that the powers that be at Flip inexplicably did not add a removable media slot to the thing. That has to be one of the stupidest design decisions since the Ford Pinto- take a device that records video, and artificially limit its capability by making it difficult to add more memory to it on the fly. Dumb, dumb, dumb.

 

[OKW Lover]

I don't know if anyone out there can help me but I just got one of those Flip cameras, it holds 60 minutes of video and has a USB that "flips" up so you can download it on to a PC. My question is, does anyone know if there are any portable storage devices I could use to download my video onto each day so I can have full acess to the 60 minutes of video again?

Yes, its called a laptop.
Seriously, these things are made to simply be plugged into the laptop. They currently don't support any other method.