SanDisk introduced the V-Mate Video Memory Card Recorder at the IFA Show. The V-Mate is a video memory card recorder, allowing users to record video from video inputs such as over-the-air television as well as cable, satellite, DVD players, personal video recorders (PVRs) like TiVo and video cassette recorders (VCRs) onto their flash memory cards. Consumers can then take their memory card from the V-Mate and insert it into their mobile phone, PDA, handheld game console like the Sony PSP (PlayStation Portable), video music player or notebook computer to play back their videos on the go.

"Today's increasingly mobile consumer wants to be able to watch their favorite shows and videos, whenever and wherever they want," said Wes Brewer, vice president of consumer product marketing at SanDisk. "The V-Mate is an easy-to-use, affordable way for millions of people to use their mobile phones or other mobile devices to watch video content that resides primarily in the living room when they are away from home."

The SanDisk V-Mate lets users record up to 3.5 hours of video, using industry-standard video formats. Memory cards supported include SD, MMCMMCplus MMCmobile, SDHC, MiniSDHC, MicroSDHC, Memory Stick PRO, Memory Stick Duo and Memory Stick PRO Duo.

Matthijs Hutten, SanDisk product marketing manager, said, "The number of mobile devices with a card slot and video playback capability is huge and growing rapidly. The V-Mate will make it easy for consumers to watch video on their devices by doing the analog to digital conversion for them, compressing the video into MPEG-4 in multiple formats and then creating the correct file format for the target mobile device - all features unmatched by any product today in this price range."

With a maximum recording resolution of 640 x 480 pixels, the V-Mate can also generate recording files for playback on larger screen devices such as the TV it is connected to or a notebook PC. Solid state memory (flash cards) consume less power than the hard drives or CD/DVD drives in mobile entertainment devices and therefore offer longer video playback time on a battery charge.