Accessing Flip settings options
Choosing your language, and setting the date and time
Turning on the Flip recording light and sound tones
Activating the Flip Delete Lock option
Making electronic devices work exactly how you want them to work can be a tedious and aggravating task. You might have to sort through many menus and fiddle with many settings — and even then, you might not achieve the results you want. To adjust the settings on simpler high-tech gizmos — like your Flip camcorder — is an easy task, though. In a matter of seconds, you can access and change the Flip's settings and then be on your merry way to record video or take a run on the beach (or both).
In this chapter, I describe the Flip camcorder settings options and show you how to access and adjust them. I also show you how to turn on (or off) a setting to help prevent you from accidentally deleting videos you capture.
Your Flip camcorder has only a handful of settings that you can change when you access the settings setup feature — simply press and hold the Record button when you turn on your Flip. These settings include
Set Language: Choose the language Flip uses to present textual information on the display.
Set Date: Set the month, day, and year so that videos you record and copy to your computer are automatically organized into folders with names matching the dates when you captures those videos.
Set Time: Set the time so that videos you shoot and copy to your computer are labeled with the time that you shot those videos.
Tones: Toggle on if you want to hear a sound when you turn your Flip on, off, or press any of its buttons, or toggle the Tones setting off if you don't want to hear a single peep (er, beep) from your Flip at all.
Recording Light: Toggle on if you want a red light hidden beneath the front grill to appear. This lets subjects know when you're recording them. Toggle the Recording Light setting off if you're playing spy and you don't want to draw attention to the fact that you're shooting on the sly. "Smile! You're on Candid Camera!"
Save Settings: Save changes you made to any of the preceding settings so your Flip remembers those settings.
Note
Flip offers a Delete Lock option that can help prevent you from deleting videos you captured by requiring you to verify that you actually want to trash the video. This is a great option, but you won't find it with the other settings that I discuss in the next section. I talk about turning the Delete Lock option on or off in the section "Activating the Flip Delete Lock Feature" near the end of this chapter.
Your Flip's settings options automatically appear when you turn on your Flip the first time. After that, to access your Flip's settings options, simply press and hold the Record button when you turn on your Flip. The first settings screen that you see is Set Language, as shown on the right in Figure 2-1. Flip settings options screens are arranged like a stack of flash cards, one after another, in the following order: Set Language, Set Date, Set Time, Tones, Recording Light, and Save Settings.
Tip
If you're the proud owner of a Flip SlideHD camera, adjusting settings on your camcorder doesn't require you to jump through every hoop like the other models, thanks to the SlideHD's touchscreen display. To adjust your SlideHD's settings, slide open the widescreen display, press the Menu button at the far right of the slide strip, and then press Settings to display the Settings pane. Adjust your SlideHD's every setting option to your heart's delight.
So even if you want to change only one settings option — such as the time of day, when daylight saving time rolls around, for instance — you still have to step through those first two settings screens to reach the Set Time screen. The good news is that you'll never have to cruise through more than five settings options screens to adjust and save (or skip changing) your Flip's settings before you're able to get right back to the business of shooting your first blockbuster.
To change your Flip's settings options, follow these steps:
If your Flip is on, press the Power button to turn off your Flip.
Press and hold the Record button. Then press the Power button and continue to hold the Record button.
The Flip Video startup screen appears for a moment, followed by the Set Language screen (refer to Figure 2-1).
Press the Up (+) or Down (–) button to scroll through a list of language choice options to find the one you want. Then press Play to choose that language.
Alternatively, if you'd like to accept the default language and move on to the next setting, press Play.
Adjust the date to match today's date by pressing the following buttons:
Left (<) and Right (>) to move the green highlight to the month, day, and year fields
Up (+) and Down (-) to change the values in the green highlighted field, such as the day field.
Press Play to move to the Set Time screen.
Press the Up, Down, Left, and Right buttons as described in the previous step to move the green highlight and adjust the hour, minute, and AM or PM values to match the current time, and then press Play.
The Tones screen appears. (Tones are the sounds your Flip camera makes when you turn it on or off, start or stop recording, or press buttons to change settings options, just as you are right now.)
Press the Left or Right button to choose On or Off (see Figure 2-2), and then press Play.
The Recording Light screen appears. (The recording light gives others a visual cue that you're capturing their every move on video. If you don't want to make others self-conscious — or you don't want others to even know you're shooting them — you can turn off the recording light.)
Press the Left or Right to choose On or Off (see Figure 2-3), and then press Play.
Press Save to save any setting options you changed, or press Cancel to ignore any changes you made but don't want to keep.
If you choose to save your settings, a Settings Saved screen appears for a moment, and then the live camera view appears. You're ready to start recording new videos, or watching videos you already recorded and saved on your Flip.
Note
Here's the drill if you later access settings to make changes. If the date (or any settings option screen) is already set how you want, press Play to keep that setting and advance to the next setting options screen. When you press Delete to exit the settings, the Save Settings screen appears (as usual), and you can save (Save) or ignore (Cancel) any changes you've made.
One of your Flip's buttons is the Delete button. As its tiny trash can label suggests, pressing the Delete button is how you erase a video file (or files) from your Flip's memory.
You typically delete a video file from your Flip because the shot was a dud and you don't want (or can't stand) to watch the video file anymore, or because you already transferred a copy of the video file to your computer and you want to make room on your Flip's memory storage to capture new video footage by deleting the video file (or files).
As a person who uses a computer, I'm betting you've probably dragged a picture, document, song, or video file to your computer's desktop recycle bin that you didn't really want to get rid of. The next time you wanted to open the file and it wasn't where you expected to find it, you took a big breath, double-clicked the recycle bin, and — hallelujah! — there it was, a mere mouse click away from potential oblivion.
Your Flip doesn't have a recycle bin to root around in to retrieve video files you deleted by accident or on purpose. However, pressing the Delete button does prompt your Flip to ask whether you're sure you want to delete the currently displayed video file (or all the video files stored on your Flip), as shown in Figure 2-4.
A very considerate feature indeed. But there's a second, even more-thoughtful setting you can turn on that packs a sort of one-two are-you-sure-you're-really-really-sure? protection-against-accidental-erasure called the Delete Lock feature.
Unlike your Flip's date, time, and other settings that you change in the settings options screens described in the previous pages, the Delete Lock setting is one you might never stumble upon unless someone tells you about it (insert small bow here).
Simply put, the Delete Lock feature forces you to unlock the Delete button before you can press it again to delete the file you want to delete. The extra second it takes you to unlock the Delete button causes you to think twice before you press the Delete button again, minimizing your chances of deleting a file you didn't really want to get rid of (and minimizing the likelihood of you cursing or hurling your beloved little camcorder against the wall if it had made deleting files quicker and easier).
And now, without further adieu (drumroll, please), by completing the following steps with your powered-on Flip in your hand and your thumb at the ready, you can activate your Flip's Delete Lock feature — which, not so incidentally, may potentially wind up protecting you (and those closest to you from acts of digital destruction or bodily harm to the Flip and/or anyone unfortunate enough to be on the receiving end if the gadget goes flying).
Press and hold the Delete button until the Delete Locked message shown on the left in Figure 2-5 appears.
A moment later, the live camera view reappears.
When you press the Delete button to delete a video file you're viewing, the Delete Locked message appears, preventing you from actually deleting the file (or files) until you unlock the Delete Lock feature.
Press and hold Delete until the
Delete Unlockedmessage appears (shown on the right in Figure 2-5).A moment later, the live camera view reappears.
When you press the Delete button to delete a file you're viewing, the Delete Video? screen appears (refer to Figure 2-4). Press the Left or Right buttons to choose Yes, No, or All, and then press Play to make your choice. You can also press the Delete button again to cancel your choices and return the display to the live camera view.
In Chapter 4, I show you how to delete individual videos — or every video on your Flip camcorder in one fell swoop. Before you delete videos on your Flip, make sure you've copied any videos you want to save to your computer first — which is exactly what I show you how to do in Chapter 5.