From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Mattel Vidster
Mattel Vidster
was used to artistic effect by a previous generation of me-
dia artists.
Film Festivals
The Pixelvision friendly film festival, PXL THIS, inspired
a Vidster film festival, calling it VIDSTER THIS.
Influences On the Web
• November 14, 2007 -- A Vidster user on YouTube
created a community known as where people of all
ages can share their Vidster videos on the internet
with the rest of the world.
The Mattel Vidster Notable Uses of the Vidster in
The Mattel Vidster is a digital tapeless camcorder Popular Culture
that was marketed as a children’s toy. It features a • In 2009 the San Francisco based Indie Rock Band
1.1-inch (28 mm) LCD display, a 2x digital zoom, and Girls released a video for their song Laura which was
records into AVI 320x240 video files encoded with the M- shot in its entirety on four Vidsters.
JPEG codec at 15 frames per second, with 22 kHz monaur- • In 2009 Oakland based video artist Will Erokan
al sound. It also takes still photos with 1.3 megapixel res- TRIPTYCH,
released GiftHorseTV Episode 5: TRIPTYCH on
olution. Peralta TV. The episode consisted of three
The camera is powered by four AA batteries, and simultaneous channels of Video (shot on a Vidster)
records onto SD flash memory cards (512MB maximum documenting his life in Olympia WA, during the year
capacity). The variable-bitrate codec allows a maximum 2006. The format of the video was inspired by the Cut
recording time of approximately 45-50 minutes with a Up experiments William S. Burroughs conducted
512MB card. Other features include a built-in micro- using traditional Newspaper Layout as a form.
phone, a 1/8" jack for an external microphone, a 1/8" Highlights from the piece include Painting Tract
jack that provides NTSC composite video output with au- Housing in Lacey, WA, Scrap Yard Swag’s first
dio, a mini-USB connector for accessing the data on the concert, Saddam Hussein’s execution, and Thomas
SD memory card, and a tripod mount. Cooney/Reed Urban performing music around
The Vidster is appreciated for the unique aesthetic Olympia, WA.
properties of the video footage it records. Since the M-
JPEG video created by the Vidster is so highly com-
pressed, the footage exhibits constantly visible mac-
External links
roblocks, or square blocky artifacts from encoding. The • Makin’ Movies With the Vidster
Vidster only has auto-exposure as a method of exposure • The Vidster Corner
control, and also is constantly automatically white-bal- • Girls - Laura music video
ancing itself. This leads to very accentuated alterations
in the qualities of the image, even from small changes in
a scene. The lens of the Vidster is extremely small, re-
See also
sulting in an image with slight vignetting of image sharp- • PXL-2000
ness. There is also significant color fringing and video • Vcamnow
noise, especially for low-light subjects.
The Vidster is used in media projects by experimental
filmmakers, just as the Fisher-Price Pixelvision camera
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mattel_Vidster&oldid=436312398"
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Mattel Vidster
Categories:
• Camcorders
• Mattel
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