Posted by Troy on October 18, 2009 22:50
My unbelievably wonderful wife bought me the Flip UltraHD Video Camera for my birthday. I'd seen several Flips in action elsewhere and I thought it looked awesome. The no-nonsense easy nature of the thing hooked me. It totally lived up to my criteria for most must-have gadgets in my life, "Do one thing and do it very well." The flip has a record button, which doubles as the stop button, zoom, play and delete. Easy as anything. And the slick "FlipShare" software that came with it makes sharing the videos as simple as clicking a button. It apparently also has some basic editing ability, though I haven't had a chance to play with that yet.
Unfortunately, I've spent the past few days trying to get the camera to charge...I took it out on a minor excursion the day after my birthday and was only able to record for about 10 minutes before the battery died. This is after an entire night of being plugged into my laptop at home. I tried again that night, but this time stayed at the computer, slogging through the week's worth of Facebook that I had ignored during my busy birthday week. So I was right next to the Flip when it gave a little chirp, which began to repeat over and over...when I flipped the video screen up so I could see it, the message there read "Check Battery Pack. Charging Paused." Figuring that I had put it in wrong, I took it out and made sure it was in more securely this time, but got the same result. After looking up the error online, I finally just registered my product and contacted Flip's support department. They have an online question form that they claim will respond within 4 hours of posting your question (during business hours, of course). I was really happy to find a reply in my inbox within the hour, giving me the following directions.
1) remove the battery pack from the camcorder
2) connect the camcorder to a powered USB port on your computer
3) when the "Connected" indicator comes on, insert the battery pack into the camcorder
4) safe eject your camcorder from your computer
5) reconnect your camcorder to your computer
6) the battery pack should now begin to charge within the camcorder
I had seen similar advice to this on my previous search for answers, but either they hadn't included (or I had ignored) line 4...safe eject your camcorder from your computer. I had been ripping the thing in and out of my USB port all day. So, I followed the directions.
And they didn't work.
I was just going to write the support department back to see if they had any other advice, when I figured I would give it one last shot. I followed the directions again, and this time, it worked. The camcorder has been charging for over a half hour now with no errors. Whether this holds remains to be seen, but so far, so good.
So, moral of the story, it may take more than once attempt to get this charging correctly? I'm hoping I don't have to fight this battle every time, but here's hoping things go smooth from here on out, because everything else that I've seen of the flip so far has been quite impressive.
Update: I went downstairs the next day to check on the progress, and it hadn't charged at all, it had simply not been giving me the "Charging paused" error, so I wasn't hearing the constant error chirp. So that appeared to have not worked either. Frustrated, I ventured out and bought the wall charger, because I have a friend who uses that to charge his Flip Ultra, and he said he has never had this problem. Upon getting it home, I plugged it in, and it immediately gave me the error. So, without even unplugging the flip from the charger, I took the cover off the battery compartment...I think I was planning on flinging the battery pack across the room, I'm not sure...when a funny thing happened...I got the icon showing that it was charging. I left the cover off and left it for a few hours and returned to a fully charged Flip. Perhaps there is something wrong with the way the batter pack cover fits? Regardless, I seem to have found the solution. Still...frustrating!
Posted by Troy on March 16, 2009 21:39
I'm not trying to say anything bad about where I live, really...it's just that recently I've noticed some fairly odd things as I've been out walking the dog.
For instance, take this plaque, which is found in Carriage Place park, not far from my house:
...really nice, right? Except:
And then, right around the corner is a billboard I passed the other day...I read it, drove past it and actually had to turn the car around to make sure it said what I thought it did:
That's right...it says "When it DOESN'T STAY in Vegas...Saia & Piatt Divorce Attorneys"
Crazy times, my friends!
Posted by Troy on March 15, 2009 18:55
I'm not sure how many people actually know that I do a podcast. I'm one of the three regulars on The Watchercast, an episode by episode review of Joss Whedon's Buffy the Vampire Slayer TV series. Yeah, I know, geeky, right? Still, it's a great show, and it's amazing how much there is to talk about from episode to episode. I'm joined by my friend Jason and my wife Kathleen, who are the true Buffy scholars. I'm the n00b of the group, who has only been through the series once. Jason has watched each episode around five or six times, and Kathleen has watched each episode somewhere in the neighborhood of a Jillion-Billion times. One for each person she has converted to the cult of Whedon. Seriously, she's a Joss Whedon Typhoid Mary over here. God bless her.
Anyway, we're getting to the good stuff now. We recorded the episode that covers Surprise and Innocence....two of the most pivotal shows in the Buffy canon a few weeks ago, and we've quickly turned around the episodes for Phases and Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered...one every two weeks, which is the schedule we're shooting for. If you like Buffy, give it a listen. People seem to enjoy the show.
Posted by Troy on January 22, 2009 22:07