V-Mate Video Memory Card Recorder product reviews

When I first heard about this little unit, I thought it one of those many, MANY "Too good to be true" toys we hear about constantly on TV and in spam-emails... A device that can record any incoming signal, shrink it down, compress it, and cram it all onto a memory card, in a range of formats to suit any multimedia playback device (such as the iPod Video or the stunning new contender, the SanDisk Sansa e200 series player)... Nah, it's got to be just marketing hype... right?

Wrong... this little wonder lives up to the hype! Easy to install, moderately easy to use, and thoroughly effective... you're going to want to make sure you have bought BIG storage cards. (Keep in mind that this unit only accepts SD, MiniSD, MicroSD, and the Sony MemoryStick variants). So saying, you can cram up to 7 hours onto a 2gb card... but I wouldn't advise it, as that is minimal quality, maximum compression. I recorded about 3 minutes of TV at moderately-high quality (640x480 MP4 format), with a resulting file-size of a smidge over 77mb... not too bad, not too bad at all. The quality was good enough that I could play it back on the TV and it still looked pretty close to the original broadcast, with some very minor sound distortion. I had to push it through a spectrum analyser to be sure.

The unit has another great secret... with the use of the supplied InfraRed Emitter, it can take control of your VCR or DVD-Recorder, so you can preset it to record your programmes straight to card while you're not home! As easy to set and use as your normal recording device, this has to be a winning feature... it sure is in my book!

Overall, this is a remarkable development, and one I am really pleased and proud to have been able to put through it's paces. it's small, sleek and discreet in form, but huge in function. The only negative for me was the process of recording... I would have liked to have seen a one-button record feature, same as you find on most, if not all, VCRs... and beware of creating an AV Loop... this unit MUST be part of a chain of devices that do not connect back on themselves... otherwise you end up getting a screaming hum in the sound, and something that looks like the opening scenes of a classic Dr Who show. Still, if you want something really nifty, look no further than this!