Ancient Web: Sharp's 1999 Internet ViewCam Sold Video by Email

Part of the Ancient Web Collection.

In 1999, the idea of emailing a home video still needed an explanation. Sharp's Internet ViewCam promotional pages promised to make that unfamiliar activity as ordinary as attaching a photograph.

Visit Sharp's VN-EZ1 Internet ViewCam pages.

The original product site introduces the VN-EZ1 MPEG-4 Digital Recorder, with availability planned from June or August 1999, depending on market. Sharp called it a world-first MPEG-4 recorder. That superlative is the manufacturer's advertising claim, not independently established here.

A whole camera designed around the web

The features page emphasizes small video files that could travel as email attachments or be included on websites. The camera recorded to SmartMedia cards instead of videotape, and its clips used Microsoft's Advanced Streaming Format, or ASF, with MPEG-4 compression.

The specification sheet makes the early internet constraints tangible. The included memory card held 4 MB. Larger cards of up to 32 MB were advertised, with recording time dependent on quality and data rate. Low-quality video could be just 160×120 pixels at roughly 28.8 kilobits per second, a rate chosen for modem-era communication.

At higher quality, a 32 MB card could hold only minutes of video. Still images were 640×480 JPEGs, captured by a 350,000-pixel CCD. The camera used four AA batteries, had a small 1.8-inch LCD screen, and weighed about 148 grams without its batteries and card.

Sharp also supplied PixLab media software for Windows 95 and 98. Its tools included a browser for stored clips, an ASF extractor, a bitrate adapter, and an HTML creator for preparing material to place online. The specifications refer to Internet Explorer 4 or 5, DirectX 6.1, and a Pentium-class processor.

These are not contemporary purchasing instructions; the camera, software, formats, and operating systems belong to a particular transition in consumer media. The pages have endured with their introductory pitch and requirements intact.

Most phones now record and send high-definition video without a user thinking about file formats. Sharp's surviving product site shows how much engineering and explanation were once required to move a tiny moving picture onto the internet.

Read the original features and specifications.

Part of the Ancient Web Collection.