"ruview". Nicely done. I actually like the ruvi's design. If someone put a backlit LCD, made the video cartridges digital storage (2GB and the like), and made the quality a little better, it would be pretty good. (Of course some of that tech was either impractical or impossible to use for a camcorder yet)
@prebenjaeger4 жыл бұрын
Digital storage? Who the hell wants digital storage?
@Agri4582 жыл бұрын
… and the speakers.
@bakonfreek9 жыл бұрын
That cartridge looks like a mini IBM hard drive in its form. Kind of funny in my opinion.
@reddragon272849 жыл бұрын
I have one of these, the European model as I'm in the UK. Bought it in '99 and was really impressed with the video quality for such a small camera. We got it quite cheap because it was on offer, probably because they weren't selling well. It was a great little camera for holiday videos but its main drawbacks were that LCD and the 30 minute recording limit on the cartridge. My cartridge failed and a replacement would have cost over £60 (about $120 US at the time). I think we only paid £130 for the camera brand new so we ended up getting an 8cm DVD handycam which I also still have and use.
@lmull39 жыл бұрын
Sony and their proprietary formats, i swear. they have a serious affinity for those. the camera is neat, but the expensive tapes remind me of the expensive proprietary memory cards for the PS Vita. just doesn't make sense when people will just go for cheaper media anyway.
@JonnyInfinite9 жыл бұрын
I know, look their silly AMTRAC format that went up against mp3....
@JonnyInfinite9 жыл бұрын
***** oh yeah, typo. That really held them back for a while in portable audio
@JonnyInfinite9 жыл бұрын
***** I never used portable CD players as a teen, I used to stick with cassette Walkmans, as anti shock players were expensive and I had no computer worth beans to make CD-Rs anyway. The idea of taking your original albums out and about filled me with dread. Mixtapes were cheap and so were the players back then..
@JonnyInfinite9 жыл бұрын
Bill bill at least their audio isn't proprietary anymore
@Dan-TechAndMusic9 жыл бұрын
***** It was used for MiniDiscs at first, and they should have dropped the ATRAC format after the MiniDiscs died out... But it's Sony...
@P3SS3SSOd7 ай бұрын
The video quality on this is great, we had a first gen Mavica in early 1998, the pinnacle of digital camera technology at the time that used a floppy drive for storage. The quality of the shots though were absolutely horrid compared to the images captured off the video on Ruvi. I don't think Sony ever stopped their love affair with proprietary storage media.
@JohnAudioTech9 жыл бұрын
I'm actually impressed that they could get a Hi8 camcorder and tape mechanism to run with just two AA batteries. Digital cameras of that time usually needed 4 AAs and would crap out after 40 or 50 pix.
@DvdXploitr9 жыл бұрын
WHY does Sony insist on using proprietary stuff so much? Ruvi camcorder, Sony PSP, PlayStation Vita, etc...so many Sony products using proprietary formats that cost alot of money to buy storage (or video cartridge) for that could have simply used "standard" formats to keep costs down. If Ruvi used standard 8mm tapes, it may have done a LITTLE better (but been a bit bigger)....although there was still plenty wrong with it to keep it from being a successful product
@Yeen1256 жыл бұрын
DvdXploitr So Sony could charge people more money. In many ways, Sony was Apple before Apple.
@kvdp95439 ай бұрын
I had one of these and it was really awesome. I used it for skydiving video and it had several major advantages, and one or two disadvantages. At the time it was a great idea as a solution to affordable pocket-sized video, and was really easy to mount on a helmet. Remember, film was the mainstay still, and solid state memory was still not useful. It is only with hindsight and things like Go Pros that it seems weird. It was a good attempt at shaping the future. It just happens that the future turned out differently.
@SheldeniHardware9 жыл бұрын
Have this same camera, love the thing, so many home videos filmed on it and still need to be transferred. Got to love the Palm camera :)
@Fuzy2K9 жыл бұрын
Sony seems to love making impractically small products just for the hell of it. They made a Discman that was just slightly bigger than a CD single, which meant regular sized CDs stuck out of the sides, and I think they also made a Walkman that was smaller than a cassette, and had to be pulled apart for the cassette to fit inside it.
@StevenRayMorris9 жыл бұрын
Has anyone said you sound like Ray Ramano?
@geoseffr7 жыл бұрын
I've always wondered the font used in 8mm/Hi8 for the date, like at 20:10-21:11 update: fontstruct.com/fontstructions/show/1646448/sonycam-original
@MickMod4 жыл бұрын
Super late reply, but I've always used the font "VCR OSD Mono" for that kind of look, pretty sure Hi8 timestamps were that font with a thin black stroke on the outside.
@PLWhisky3 жыл бұрын
i leave a comment to screenshot this later cause i was also wondering
@geoseffr3 жыл бұрын
someone recreated the font used in sony handycams at the time: fontstruct.com/fontstructions/show/1646448/sonycam-original
@Trance889 жыл бұрын
Seems like an interesting concept and seems to work great! Obviously digital flash based memory cameras made this sort of camera obsolete.
@NathanPlays3954 жыл бұрын
Ruview Ruview Ruview
@Lachlant19849 жыл бұрын
The Ruvi camcorder is actually mentioned in the Dan Brown book Angels And Demons. I can't remember when the book was written, but I have it on audio CD. I thought the Ruvi camcorders were like the pocket digital video camcorders like the Flip HD camcorders. Interesting product, I do like the fact that it can run on 2 AA batteries.
@matmroy9 жыл бұрын
Video Quality is excellent, Defiantly ahead of it's time . It rivals the quality I get from my Sony DCR-TRV280. Again, Very nice camera/camcorder.
@natches159 жыл бұрын
Still have my Ruvi great little camera. Enjoyed the review thank you.
@fmoros9 жыл бұрын
And do you still use it? If yes, do you transfer your recordings to digital? I still have it , too
@JonnyInfinite9 жыл бұрын
That zoom looks awesome
@louisoft019 жыл бұрын
Ruveiw by vwestlife coming soon to BBC1
@lucasosucesso9 жыл бұрын
Picture quality is pretty decent for 1998 camcorder, even though it seems like a VHS footage from cameras dated 2 or 3 years before.
@scottyTy9 жыл бұрын
Great video!! Keep them coming, Enjoy seeing that old technology.
@JohnnyBareToes19 жыл бұрын
I've never heard of these before. Seems like a nice item but a bit convoluted in it's design. Still very interesting to watch. Thanks for sharing !
@MarioDXFM9 жыл бұрын
Considering the time when the camera was on sale, the video quality and the camera features aren't that bad! 1998 people still play VHS tapes, so quality of the recorded video was actually comparable to the VHS quality. Nice camera though.
@jfr048 жыл бұрын
Nice review. I think the resolution on the Ruvi looks better that the camera you were using at the start of the video.
@bishopworks32038 жыл бұрын
>:o its Ruview >:o
@RetroGamerVX9 жыл бұрын
Interesting gizmo. ...the noise from the motor on the video would have bugged me :(
@themaritimegirl9 жыл бұрын
That's a very interesting camcorder, albeit one with a mixture of nonviable technologies. The cassette is certainly interesting. What a far-fetched idea, to make what's basically the complete tape deck a consumable part.
@Rustbelt_Research9 жыл бұрын
Interesting camera, It actually takes pretty darn good videos.
@Yetoob8lWuxUQnpAahSqEpYkyZ9 жыл бұрын
The camera makes the world look 90's again.
@CraigTube9 жыл бұрын
Man, I'd love to see the inside of that video cart. ! :)
@vwestlife9 жыл бұрын
www.totalrewind.org/misc/photos/ruvi_int.jpg
@alessandrog.1068 Жыл бұрын
Please, where Is located the backup battery to replace It? Many thanks.
@filthylucreonyoutube2 жыл бұрын
0:22 noting the Godmode-combo electric pencil sharpener and tape dispenser in the upper right of the frame. Boss level if that label on the upper right of the right flank of that acme of desk accessories is a stationery house service tag. Color me Gobsmacked.
@vwestlife2 жыл бұрын
No need to wonder, I have a video about it: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/ldChhaiptprUnp8.html
@georgemarinescu63059 жыл бұрын
Strangest camera ever meet. The one that I have found have a blocked cartrige that cause a C32:40 error. The good part: It seems that the IR blocking filter is missing by strange design. I did not find the way to setup the date / time. :-( . Passive LCD screen made by SHARP. In the place of backlight is a piece of rubber :-)
@fionakelly78704 жыл бұрын
What camera were you using to film this?
@vwestlife4 жыл бұрын
A JVC Everio GZ-MS120.
@fmoros9 жыл бұрын
I bought this camera as soon as I saw it (Spain), it was the smallest in those times, and used a lot. I still keep it in my parents home and it works. The viewer was very poor because it uses retro illumination so it did not eat much battery on the display.
@NotATube8 жыл бұрын
+fmoros Did the fact that the tape was built-in (and hence constantly reused and subject to wear) cause any problems for you?
@fmoros8 жыл бұрын
hi, well, not only the tape is in the cartridge, I believe that also the machinery (such as reading/recording heads) is inside the cartridge. First thing I did was to order an extra cartridge. That was very handy so I did not have to transfer immediately after the cartridge was full. Also the cartridge suffered half the wearing. Replying to your initial question, I did not notice any problems due to the reusable nature of the system... but when I said that I used it a lot, I don't mean on a daily basis, I mean that I took several videos and it was my only camera for 2 or 3 years. regards
@NotATube8 жыл бұрын
fmoros Thanks for the reply- yes, that was my point. From what I'd read, the head/tape cart wasn't meant to be swapped in and out. It was meant as a "service part", i.e. effectively built-in but still able to be replaced when it did break down. My thought was that it *would* break down because video tape wears out and gets damaged and this design effectively forces the use of the same single piece of tape over and over again! I bet I couldn't have got 3 VHS cassettes for £5 from my local Superdrug store if they'd each had a recording head built in!! :-) It's a clever design in its way, but it also seems horrible to me in its wastefulness...
@neilfilms2 жыл бұрын
More content like this im so hype on camcorder this days hehe
@robert19750319 жыл бұрын
I take it, the "Backlight" button was used to activate a mode for filming dark locations? Oddly enough the cartridge reminds me of some old MFM hard drives I used to have. they were shaped like that, but larger
thanks for the info, I thought it might have been something like that, you likely described it in the video and I missed it, still a shame, it would have been truly something if it had a backlit display
@WaybackTECH9 жыл бұрын
Here is a camera I need to find. I have that exact computer I did a video on already. Would be nice to find a period correct camera to go with it. Cool!
@1980sGamer9 жыл бұрын
Gruvi!
@Appleboy781658 жыл бұрын
Love the pun in the title, Kevin. :)
@Caroline_Tyler2 жыл бұрын
I really loved my little Ruvi - went all over with me
@8bitter6968 жыл бұрын
That warranty card looks like the same one from my Sony MDR zx110 headphones from 2015
@IntoTheMindlessAbyss8 жыл бұрын
I don't suppose you have any Video 8 camcorders you're looking to part with, right? I found a bunch of unused video 8 cassettes that I would love to experiment with. They are excruciatingly hard to find where I'm from.
@Jallge9 жыл бұрын
There's a special place in hell reserved for LCDs without screen lighting. Was that a CCD-TRV87 on the desk next to the CDs? The video was about what I expected, but the audio really wasn't. I was expecting it to be much clearer than what it was.
@vwestlife9 жыл бұрын
MrMaguire Yes, that's my TRV87. The Ruvi's audio is comparable to most Video8 or Hi8 camcorders with mono audio. The "Hi-Fi Stereo" models like the TRV87 sounded much better.
@EastAngliaUK9 жыл бұрын
Quality actually looks ok on this for the time note computers did not have massive screens back then like 24 to 27 inch ones. But in the youtube window it looks OK.
@horrortimeproductions55049 жыл бұрын
Can't find a single model for sale. Must be a very rare camera.
@horrortimeproductions55046 жыл бұрын
A few days ago, I found a PAL unit at some flea market for 5 bucks. I didn't know if it worked, but it did come with a video cartridge. Unfortunately the film is worn out and you can only watch the video on the LCD. It seems to work though, I just need to find a new cartridge and a PAL to NTSC converter. I do have the AV cable but since it's PAL, it will not display on any US TV. Oddly with PAL Hi8, you get less time for recording than NTSC, which VHS is the opposite. :P
@hareshsanichara83523 ай бұрын
Can u buy still
@networkgames10009 жыл бұрын
30min is kinda less for video recording but doesn't the Ruvi have recording speeds in the ruvi's menu? that way the tape can hold longer footage.
@vwestlife9 жыл бұрын
Network Games 1000 Only one speed. It's probably already running at LP speed.
@networkgames10009 жыл бұрын
oh ok i get it so it only has one speed on the camera
@StevenSmyth9 жыл бұрын
It's almost... almost... acceptable in outdoor lighting, it's a disaster indoors. This just shows what a mess Sony's become. Too many divisions releasing too many products. Did the Cybershot line have video recording back then?
@vwestlife9 жыл бұрын
Steven Smyth The older Cybershot cameras could record video, but most were limited to 15-second clips and/or had no audio, to avoid competing with Sony's camcorders.
@WillOnSomething9 жыл бұрын
Nice pun.
@punishedexistence9 жыл бұрын
Wow, that thing has really good quality, especially for the time. I must say that the proprietary stuff though is kind of a turn off to buy it. But I wouldn't have minded having one back in the day. I always love your videos, but especially your camcorder reviews, they're so thorough and easy on the eyes to watch. This *is* a pretty cool little piece of electronics though. Too bad it didn't take off better, but sony is known for having non-compatible proprietary hardware. Nonetheless, totally enjoyed, thank you!!
@EmmettRaccoon9 жыл бұрын
I found a different camcorder that appears to have came out at around the same time: Sharp VLE630U 8mm Viewcam Camcorder It uses 8mm tape and appears to be the same size as the Ruvi.
@vwestlife9 жыл бұрын
SCK The Kai-Ken The Sharp Viewcams are much larger. The Ruvi is about the same height as an 8mm tape just by itself, and an inch wider.
@EmmettRaccoon9 жыл бұрын
I guess the picture I saw made it look smaller than it really was.
@YS_Production6 жыл бұрын
Anybody knows how many seconds of audio do we get with a still photo?
@5476Himself4 жыл бұрын
He says 5 seconds.
@theresamadden28767 жыл бұрын
"Ruview"?
@vwestlife7 жыл бұрын
It's a pun.
@deoloryssantos18404 жыл бұрын
Im here because of Dan Brown's Angels and Demons Novel😁
@HobertMcFarlandtechandcargeek9 жыл бұрын
***** So, where'd you get the JVC camera?
@vwestlife9 жыл бұрын
Hobert McFarland I made it from two broken ones. I got one JVC with a bad lens and another with a broken LCD, and I put together the good parts of both.
@NJRoadfan9 жыл бұрын
Creepy Bob makes a cameo appearance! The quality isn't as good as a real Hi-8 camcorder. With that limited feature set, I'm surprised it wasn't marketed as a "My First Sony" kiddie toy. Sony did offer a way to use AA batteries with regular Handycams, I have an InfoLithium L adapter that takes 6 AAs. I'm sure the run time is just as deplorable as with the Ruvi.
@jamiemarchant9 жыл бұрын
Nice review, is it just me or was there a faint buzzing sound in all of the Ruvi clips?
@vwestlife9 жыл бұрын
That's the tape motor.
@jamiemarchant9 жыл бұрын
vwestlife Is that problem common to most Hi8 camras or is that a flaw of this cammra?
@vwestlife9 жыл бұрын
jamie marchant Most tape camcorders, regardless of format, have some audible tape motor noise... they were almost all like that, and people just accepted it.
@jamiemarchant9 жыл бұрын
vwestlife Uh I see.
@raymondleggs55089 жыл бұрын
i still have 4 sony disc mans they all work. one says refurbished on the bottom. never heard of ruvi though. good reason i guess
@steaker-gi9uw7 жыл бұрын
That 5 seconds of audio thing is kinda like Apple's live photo, or whatever the MS version was called. Although even more useless since it's just a still photo.
@CrazyRoadblockisbae9 жыл бұрын
I love your car!
@QuaaludeCharlie9 жыл бұрын
Sweetness :) QC
@camerxn_09476 жыл бұрын
how do you playback videos and photos on the camera screen?
@vwestlife6 жыл бұрын
I showed how to do it in the video!
@camerxn_09476 жыл бұрын
OOOH! Stupid me, I could of just used my ears to listen to what you were saying :)
@voltare2amstereo9 жыл бұрын
can you tear down one of those carts? be an interesting experience
@vwestlife9 жыл бұрын
Here's a photo of one with a clear cover, so you can see what's inside: www.totalrewind.org/misc/photos/ruvi_int.jpg
@voltare2amstereo9 жыл бұрын
wow, the tape head takes up most of the space. since head cleaning is not an option, these would have to rely on the Cue/review method of cleaning, lookes like the tape never unloads from the head either
@yaboimaxwell90319 жыл бұрын
Is hi8 the same as digital 8? If not, are they compatible with eachother?
@vwestlife9 жыл бұрын
dalekman tardis Hi8 is analog and Digital8 is, as the name suggests, digital. Most Digital8 camcorders can play Hi8 tapes, but Hi8 camcorders cannot play Digital8 tapes.
@vwestlife9 жыл бұрын
Esrin Caad On purpose. :-)
@mac37889 жыл бұрын
Cool video
@armanelgtron45338 жыл бұрын
I'm noticing some tearing in the video. Is this your camera or is that my computer?
@vwestlife8 жыл бұрын
It's KZfaq's fault. It is impossible to have frame tearing on an analog camcorder.
@armanelgtron45338 жыл бұрын
Have you noticed tearing in youtube on other videos?
@vwestlife8 жыл бұрын
It depends on your graphics driver. Try watching full-screen, as that usually causes KZfaq to use hardware acceleration instead of software rendering.
@Bobbythefanman8 жыл бұрын
love the video
@clemstevenson9 жыл бұрын
Yes, I guess 1998 was an awkward time in technological terms. I've been looking at that camcorder model myself, and thinking "too early for compact digital storage of sufficient, practical, capacity. They were forced to use tape. It's like the Sony digital cameras that used mini CDs for storage."
@NotATube8 жыл бұрын
+Stephen Clementson It's great on one level, yet having to design it around that repeatedly-reused and hence wear-and-damage-prone tape as a semi-permanent part (that couldn't be replaced separate from the expensive head assembly) was the horrible result.
@clemstevenson8 жыл бұрын
NotATube One thing's for sure...I didn't have anything that could shoot video, prior to the advent of solid state memory with a capacity sufficiently large to supplant mechanical devices. And that is in spite of the fact that I was already in my mid twenties when the first ever camcorder was produced. Then unconvinced of its advantages, I'd simply purchased a point-and-shoot camera that could double as a mediocre camcorder. The results were as bizarre as they were unexpected, and resulted in a completely unpredicted, and somewhat unorthodox, use for video.
@NotATube8 жыл бұрын
Stephen Clementson Yeah; my mid-2000s digital camera can "do" video for values of low-res and/or framerate. :-/ Could have got one with better video to be fair, but the higher-up model didn't get as good reviews as a still camera. Camcorders came out when I was about 8 or 9 and I always wanted one growing up. Now that I could get something dirt-cheap that'd smoke those mid-80s camcorders, I'm indifferent. :-/
@clemstevenson8 жыл бұрын
+NotATube The strange thing is that the camcorder I like the best isn't actually a camcorder. It's a Fujifilm Bridge camera. It is a good physical shape for steady hand-held shots, has an electronic view finder, good zoom, and runs on three different types of AA cell. But it also has disadvantages, such as not having a cooling fan. It can't take HD videos longer than 29 minutes at a time, because the chips will overheat. It also shoots 1080i, rather than 1080p. Fortunately, that is backwards compatible with 1080p, but I have to convert it with Windows Movie Maker. My Canon camcorder has internal cooling, but it suffers from chromatic abberations at high zoom levels and has no viewfinder, just an LCD screen (which is awful in bright daylight). My Panasonic pistol camcorder has a limited battery capacity, and is difficult to hold steady.
@NotATube8 жыл бұрын
Stephen Clementson My Nikon D5100 DSLR has the same issue with overheating limiting HD video times. In bright light it can also produce "stuttery" video, ironically because the shutter speed (for each individual frame) is set too short and thus doesn't give the motion blurring that's- ironically- required to give the impression of smooth movement. (This is normally recommended to be half the frame rate, i.e. for 25fps, shutter speed should be 1/50s, etc.) It'd be okay if it either chose intelligent defaults itself or offered the user proper control over the video shutter speed settings, but while there are tricks to coerce it in the right direction, that's still a half-baked, not entirely reliable solution. Not to mention that 25fps or 30fps, while okay for film, is less satisfactory for everyday video use that would be better with 50 or 60 fps anyway. Apparently some of the later Nikons offer this.
@DaPajamas9 жыл бұрын
Is the title a bad pun?
@vwestlife9 жыл бұрын
DaPajamas Yes.
@ethan0436 жыл бұрын
tbh this sucks and I see why it was a failure, the video quality isn't nearly as good as what Sony's other cameras could do at the time and it was way more expensive, but it's still cool to see the technology
@zeel2885 жыл бұрын
can this take photos?
@vwestlife5 жыл бұрын
Yes, onto tape.
@lucazade67879 жыл бұрын
That's a punny title!
@simonhangan25717 жыл бұрын
Where I can find it?
@vwestlife7 жыл бұрын
At the same places where you can find any other used electronics from the 1990s.
@simonhangan25717 жыл бұрын
VWestlife At the thrift store?
@pxlfighter54006 жыл бұрын
Simon Han at your local dumpster
@themrenerd73849 жыл бұрын
Am I the only one that notices that it says "ruview" in the title?
@vwestlife9 жыл бұрын
the compaq nerd No.
@themrenerd73849 жыл бұрын
+vwestlife Cool
@themrenerd73848 жыл бұрын
+vwestlife It says "ruview" in the title, is it supposed to do that?
@vwestlife8 жыл бұрын
the mre nerd Yes, it's a pun on the Sony Ruvi name.
@themrenerd73848 жыл бұрын
vwestlife Ok, thought so but I wasn't sure.
@SexycuteStudios6 жыл бұрын
Rururu!
@Odessia-ij5ys2 жыл бұрын
I have Sony handycam which uses Mini DVD Disc unboxed item
@smileyranger7 жыл бұрын
That's the Mozart Sinfonia concertante for Violin & Viola in the background!
@stvpls6 жыл бұрын
you wrote ruview
@vwestlife6 жыл бұрын
I know. That was a pun.
@Erdie59 жыл бұрын
Gruvi :)
@ruvimoreno30718 жыл бұрын
that me
@Bobbythefanman8 жыл бұрын
the ruvi does not even look like a camcorder it looks like a camra
@fibersilkington8 жыл бұрын
ha
@forestsandman9 жыл бұрын
"Ruview" womp womp womp
@jeepguy959 жыл бұрын
As cool as it seemed back on the day, I can see why it flopped.