SmarterGeek : Rex Moncrief's Computer Repair and Technology:

Panasonic SV-AV20

By rex on February 2, 2010

*Originally posted on my old message board in Feb 2005. Copied here as it is popular.

Well, this is the story of how a Panasonic SV-AV20u was donated to me by someone with whom I have done a lot of computer work. The device is pretty cool as it will work as an mp3 player (sort of), video recorder (.asf), and audio recorder. It even has some good write-ups. The only real issues seem to stem for the SD Jukebox software and the use of the SD encryption technology.

According to the manual, the camera saves the video as a .asf file, voice recording as .vm1, music as .sa1, and images as jpg. The software actually encrypts the audio using a proprietary format from Panasonic, and it saves the video as .ASF which is a proprietary Microsoft format (see end of article on converting video). It is supposedly in the name of “copyright protection” and DRM, but it is really a pain in the ass. What if I go strictly to Linux? The software does not work on a *nix or even Mac. The worst part is that Panasonic does not even market it with that disclaimer at all. They just assume everyone runs Windows and is willing to pay $32.03 for the software directly from Panasonic. Yep, I called them and asked.

Panasonic Production Information: 800-211-7262

Panasonic Parts & Accessories: 800-833-9626
*You can order SD Jukebox from here with a serial number found on the bottom of the device (under the battery).

Panasonic Dsnap FAQ: Click Here

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Charging System
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The CH-9007 Charging System is compatible with this device even though Panasonic tries to say only their charging unit works. eBay usually has some, but I found one for around $50 here:

http://www.batterysavings.com/site/1/product/5/194/16619/CH- 9007/1/a.aspx

One of the nice things about this unit is that it comes with both the a/c charging plug and the car adapter for the charging unit.

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USB Cable
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The USB cable is a USB 2.0 to MINI USB 2.0 (5 Pin Format). These aren’t hard to find either. As a matter of fact Wal-Mart has them too.

http://www.mycableshop.com/sku/CUSB2-AM506.htm?x=22&y=9

*See below for the Lexar Jumpdrive Trio method of dealing with the files.*

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A/C Power Supply
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One of the issues with using the USB cable is that it will not respond until the SV-AV20 detects the A/C power supply. The until calls for a 4.7v DC input. I went to Radio Shack and purchased the 4.5V/1600mA AC-to-DC Power Adapter (part# 273-1760) which comes with a free “B” type plug. Connecting this unit works perfectly.

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SD-Jukebox, SD-MovieStage, and USB Drivers
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The fact that you cannot download the USB drivers nor the software from the US Panasonic website is crazy. There is nothing very proprietary about this software. It is simply a way for Panasonic to make their products more difficult or rape you of more money for something that should be easily accessible.

Originally, the Russian Panasonic site had the v3 downloads of the software. After I downloaded the software, and published the link, Panasonic yanked it down.

I have copies of the software. Post a comment here and I will reply if you need help.

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Converting the .VM1 files
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I’ve found that using Awave Studio is the best and easiest method to convert the SV-AV20 .vm1 audio files to mp3. No, it’s not cheap to buy the software, but it works very easy. Make sure you copy the Lame encoder DLL to the installed directory for mp3 output.

Just put the SD card in your computer
make sure hidden files are enabled in Windows
copy the files to your computer
start Awave and open the files to convert them

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Another Thread on AV-20
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http://www.petesipple.co.uk/panasonicbook.html

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Other Notes:
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I do have a PDF copy of the manual for the SV-AV20u. If you would like a copy, send me a private message on the board or email at rex (at) rexpage.com with Panasonic SV-AV20u in the subject (or the spam filters will get it).

I also purchased a Lexar Card Reader for SD/MMC/Memory Stick (USB thumb-drive type device) so that I could read the 64MB SanDisk SD Card on any computer. This device is compatible with Win98, 2k, and XP without the need for drivers. Now, I can access the device however I need. Moving the files from the SV-AV20u is now simply a case of pulling out the SD card, inserting it into the Trio, plugging that into my USB port, and doing a little copy/pasting. Then I use my other methods described in this article to deal with the movies and voice recorded audio. In the future I may also purchase a larger SD card although I hate to spend money on DRM-type devices.

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Convert .asf to .mpg
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www.tmpgenc.net

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TMPGEnc converts *.AVI file to MPEG1, the format which is used in VideoCD. Using variety of option in TMPGEnc, you can compress your video file in high quality.

TMPGEnc enables us adjust bitrate, quantize matrix, GOP structure, Interlace and many other parameter so that you can create most appropriate movie file depends on your purpose.

===============

Since the .asf format is proprietary Microsoft and oddly enough it is patented, I highly recommend that you convert your videos out of this format as soon as you are able. Using TMPgenc, you can easily convert the .asf files to non-proprietary MPEG or AVI (non-compressed) which means they should be playable in any player including vCD’s, DVD’s, etc.

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Listen / Convert .vm1 files:
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A reply on [ this site ] gives a method for listening to .vm1 files. You can then record them using Audacity or whatever method.

Note: you will unfortunately need Microsoft Windows Media player for this method.

Download WMP: [ Click here ]

Download WMP Plugin
http://www.wmplugins.com/ItemDetail.aspx?ItemID=524

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Convert .wav to mp3 format:
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Well, there doesn’t seem to be an easy way to do this in JukeBox or MovieStage or Voice Editor. The device saves your voice files in .vm1 format which is proprietary to Panasonic and requires the SD Voice Editor Software. Use Voice Editor to convert to .wav file. Then, simply use Audacity to convert to .mp3 or oog. Problem solved.

Link to Audacity (free and open source sound editor)
http://audacity.sourceforge.net

You can read more by checking [ this article ].

You will also need to install the LAME encoder [ download here ] for mp3’s. This is easy to do. You will download and unzip the file. Then place the lame_enc.dll somewhere in your computer (I usually put mine in the c:\program files\audacity directory) and use the File…Preferences…File Format (tab) to locate the .dll.

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Final Conclusion:
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This is the most idiotic thing I have seen that tries to utilize some sort of DRM. I called Panasonic support, and from what I can research I can either (1) order the software from them or (2) purchase an SD card reader to work with the SanDisk 64MB SD card that I have. The only downside is that audio recordings are saved on the device in a proprietary format, the video is saved as .asf which is owned by Microsoft, and I will not be able to really utilize it as an alleged “mp3″ player.

Since it is really not an mp3 player anyway as it encodes the mp3’s on-the-fly to the device anyway plus I have an iPod, I was going to opt for the card reader until I finally found the software. However, I up buying the SD card reader anyway. Then I can at least access the jpg images and .asf video files. The video files can then be converted to whatever format I wish. It’s a little bit of a pain to convert the voice recorder audio, but not too bad. All in all for a donated piece of technology, it is not too bad.

Would I ever buy one? Hell no.

Posted in Technology | Tagged panasonic, sv-av20 | Leave a response

Infected computers at half

By rex on January 28, 2010

Well this might be considered “encouraging” if it weren’t so discouraging. According to a report, 48% of over 22 million computers scanned were infected with malware used in phishing scams and password stealing apps.

I’ve preached this over and over – your anti-virus is only 1 layer of security. Don’t be lulled into a false sense. You have to stay vigilant and aware of layered security. The first layer is always common sense. Preventing 99% of phishing schemes is easy – read how here.

The main point is that you need to be aware of security even if you are just a casual computer user. I get on my technology soap box all of the time and try to preach about “prevention” since there is not a “cure all” solution except staying off the ‘net – and we can’t do that now can we?

Posted in id theft, phishing, rule #1, security, spyware and malware | Tagged anti virus, backup, malware, spyware | Leave a response

Video Tutorials Help

By rex on January 21, 2010

I’m sure glad I have the ability to create video tuorials for clients. A few years ago, a client in Canada hired me to create a series of software video tutorials that they marketed. Part of the deal was the purchase of the software for me – and it works great.

Anyway, I have a very nice client who uses Quickbooks on her Mac and was struggling with a backup solution. Her budget is a little tight so she just wanted to be able to do manual backups to a USB drive. To make it easier, I created her a quick video tutorial.

http://www.smartergeek.com/tutorials/bonniepharr/QuickbooksBackup/

If you need a quick tutorial (or a long one), just let me know.

Posted in mac, tutorials | Tagged mac, tutorials | Leave a response

Hello World

By rex on January 21, 2010

Hi Class,

Comment on this.

Posted in Uncategorized | 4 Responses

Injured in earthquake – there’s an app for that too.

By rex on January 19, 2010

Ok – this is just insane. This guy was trapped for 65 hours in the Haiti quake rubble – and what did he do? Dan Woolley used the tools and technology at hand to help save himself. You have to read this one:

Buried in Haiti rubble, U.S. dad wrote goodbyes
But with iPhone info, he treated his injuries and was rescued after 65 hours

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/34933053/ns/today-today_people/

Posted in iphone | Tagged dan woolley, earthquake, haiti, iphone | Leave a response

Kindle unDRMed

By rex on January 19, 2010

For those of you not familiar, the Amazon Kindle is a cool device. I don’t own one, but I have several customers that do. You can carry around hundreds of “books” with you in a device smaller than a typical magazine.

It’s also cool since there is an iPhone app and a PC app. They even stay synchronized with your last page position – and that is really cool.

What is not cool is the fact that Amazon locks the ebooks in DRM (digital restrictions management) so that while you paid $30 for a digital book, you can only read it through their app.

Well – to quote Apple: “There’s an app for that too!”

I’m not going to re-post all the instructions, but you can click over to this blog article for a how to.

Posted in kindle | Leave a response

Private Info on Facebook – Huh?

By rex on January 17, 2010

There is a story floating around where a limited number of AT&T users were directed into the Facebook accounts of someone else. Personally, I think the headline is more sensationalistic than anything – “scary web error” – come on now.

This appears to be a misconfiguration for a proxy forwarder on the part of AT&T where the session cookies from Facebook were sent to the wrong browsers. Since Facebook (and most social networking sites) use a non-encrypted session, then it is technically possible for this to happen.

Here is the thing that gets me. What sort of “sensitive private data” does anyone really have stored in Facebook?

You have your name and address? You can get that from whitepages.com or google phonebook or any phonebook.
You have a list of your friends and their names and addresses? see above.
You have your mobile number? Big deal – really. We typically give out our mobile number like our home phones now.
You birthdate and school information? That can be found easily too.
Your inbox of comments from your post about your breakfast? Big deal.
Your FarmTown account? Right.

My point is that how is there a sensitive data breach? I really hope most people are not foolish enough to conduct sensitive business through Facebook’s messaging system.

It would help if Facebook would switch to an SSL session like Gmail – but even then I still ask? What sensitive private data?

Posted in att, facebook, wireless | Tagged att, facebook, private data | 2 Responses

Cloud Backupify

By rex on January 15, 2010

As most of you know, I’m very much into backups. For my local information, I use and recommend JungleDisk. What do you do about “cloud” information though? What if Facebook lost your account? Think that can’t happen? Right.

I put a lot of trust in services such as Google; however, ultimately I’m into personal responsibility. That means that you and you alone are responsible for you data so I like to watch the watchers.

Ok – here is what I do:

For Google email (Gmail, etc) – Gmail Backup. Easy. Simple.
For Google Docs – choose all your docs…more actions…export.
For JungleDisk – I also backup to an encrypted USB drive.
For Picasa Web, I have local copies that are backed up to JungleDisk and USB drives.

For services such as Twitter and Facebook and any others, I don’t put any information in them that I don’t have somewhere else. Simple enough.

However, there are a lot of people that put a ton of information into cloud services and don’t have a copy of that data elsewhere. How do you back it up?

Backupify is a service that connects to your various cloud services, pulls in your data, and stores it securely with Amazon’s S3 cloud service – cloud to cloud backup. Now, they admit that recovering data back to some services (Facebook) is currently impossible. However, at least you would have your raw data should a disaster happen with Facebook.

Posted in amazon s3, backup, google, google apps, jungledisk, Technology | Tagged amazon s3, backupify, cloud, facebook, twitter | Leave a response

Gmail gets SSL by default

By rex on January 14, 2010

I’m sure it was prompted by the recent Chinese situation, but more kudos to Google for making SSL the default setting for Gmail and Google Apps. Most people don’t realize that your email typically flies around the hotel room, Starbucks, or your work in an encrypted form. That’s right – it can be easily sniffed by people like me.

With Gmail you’ve been able to turn on SSL (https) for quite some time, but most people didn’t know about that. Actually, some don’t care, but that’s not the point. Your communications should be protected at least from point A to point B.

Now here is the flip-side. If you send an email with Gmail, then it is encrypted from your browser to Google’s servers. However, from there out to Aunt Sally’s AOHell account – it’s the wild west again!

Posted in gmail, google, google apps, security | Tagged gmail, google, ssl | Leave a response

China Google Evil and Internet Explorer

By rex on January 14, 2010

Several years ago, Google made the decision to move into China and caved in to filtering certain search terms. There were many in the tech community that raised their voices – after all, Google’s corporate motto is “Don’t Be Evil”. Many people decried the censorship as evil.

Personally, I always figured it was a way for Google to get their foot in the door with China, like they stated in their blog. After all, some sort of western presence in China was better than none.

Now things have changed drastically. Apparently, China has been doing a little technical espionage, and targeting Google and other companies. According to Google, they have been targeting specific user accounts.

In something that I think might be unprecedented – Google is firing back at the Chinese government. This obviously presents a financial growth danger to Google, and potentially puts Google’s whole Chinese business in jeopardy. Nice to see a company grow the proverbial “set of nuts”. Go Google.

Oh yeah, did I mention that the exploit is reported to involve a combination of social engineering and a serious flaw in Internet Explorer – imagine that!

Posted in google, internet explorer | Tagged china, flaw internet explorer, google | Leave a response