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Flip Video Problems: Copying Errors, I/O Errors, and Cyclic Redundany Errors
Pure Digital's Flip Video camera is a delightfully simple and easy-to-use video camera that has caused me hours of grief due to various errors in copying videos to a computer. I ahve repeatedly encountered the dread "Cyclic Redundancy Error" or other strange behavior associated with I/O errors when trying to save the videos I made onto a computer. Flip Video's technical support had me delete some drivers that only caused more trouble for me (now my screensaver doesn't work!), and that didn't help. They had me delete and reinstall the Flip-related software. That didn't help. Finally they said the only hope was to send the camera back so they could repair it. Unfortunately, just a couple days after I paid to ship it back, I received an email sent to all registered Flip Video owners informing us of a potential copying problem that can be resolved with a firmware update available online. Well, I wish they would have told me that they were working on a firmware update before having me mail my camera back unnecessarily. I think Tech Support is out of the loop - maybe that's the price you pay for having outsourced tech support on the other side of the globe. The Technical Support people don't seem to be in the loop, because I have been corresponding with them regarding my problem using an email account other than the one I registered with. The account where I've been describing my problems to them in details has not received a courtesy email back from them letting me know of the new development. Maybe they don't follow up with customers having problems, I don't know.
Here's the news sent to registered owners:
Dear Flip Video user,
Thank you for purchasing our product and trusting us with your memories.
This message has been sent to you because your version of the Flip Video
camcorder requires a critical firmware update. This update resolves
issues related to copying videos off the camcorder to a PC or Mac and
improves overall camcorder and software performance.
While only a few incidents have been reported to us, we have updated the
firmware to ensure your camcorder works properly. We request that you
perform this simple update by clicking the link below or by visiting
theflip.com website.
To get this simple update, click on this link:
http://www.theflip.com/update
We apologize for this inconvenience and welcome your feedback.
Thank you,
The Flip Video Team
Customer Support available 24 hours; 7 days/week. Visit http://www.theflip.com/support.
I got the e-mail update. The camera worked fine before I installed the
update. Now, they tell me that I have to send it in. The software is
worthless.
I am having I/O error problems but C Skin says the download doesn't work
well. I can't download the Flip Video Program either. I need help with
this!!!!
I would contact their customer support at help@theflip.com, they should be
able to walk you through it. I had no problems downloading the updater and
updating my camera. It had issues before and now it works great.
I have found the same problem, before the update everything was working,
however after the update and few messages from the costumer service my
computer kept reporting "no camera connected".. finally I returned it, I
have bought the flip for the "plug and play" features, all this trouble
with the software makes the Flip worthless.
I bought the FlipVideo for holiday use and to post on YouTube(Software
installed in camera) had all the same I/O errors connecting and saving but
one simple e-mail to support and the critical firmware update message
arrived. Less than 30 minutes later and simple download and reset both the
camera and support to post on YpuTube has been flawless. One hint 1.5 min
or less Videos post really quick to YouTube under 10 the longer the video
eg. 5-7mins can have issues with timeouts but this seems to be at the
YouTube end, as they get thousands of posts hourly.
Their technical support was lousy. My ./trashes directory was full. Who
knew there's was a hidden directory on there. So. Whatever. I just deleted
it and now my camera isn't telling me it's full and can't record.
Does the mytrash directory have the deleted videos? I've looked and can't
find the directory... can you tell me where it is? Thank You
I downloaded the updates and after that i couldn't find any of the 14
videos stored in the camera. I thought that the videos were gone and then i
realized that the updates create a folder in my desktop containing ALL the
videos.