I can go to the phone app, SD card on the camera and start recording for 40 minutes.
Is that the only way?
I don’t want to pull the SD card - that’s minute clips anyway isn’t it?
second question - if I record and don’t unmute the speaker - is sound recorded in the phone playback version, or do I have to remember to unmute the mic.
If that’s the case - why does it default to speaker muted in SD playback?
Thanks
Yes it is as long as you have continuous recording selected under Record to MicroSD Card. The other way would be to remove the card and transfer 40 one minute files to your computer and stitch them together.
Muting the speaker has no effect on recordings. It only affects playback on your phone/tablet. However, I think you have to have Record Sound Events enabled in Even Recording section of the app.
It is designed that way for people who don’t want to hear sound when they view them. I personally fall into that category. All my cams are outside and I could care less about sound.
Depending on your need or use case and where/how your camera is mounted, that might actually be the easiest and most efficient way, because otherwise I think you have to leave the app open to the specific screen where you’re recording playback, which seems really tedious to me (and prone to error if you have to rely on your phone being open/unlocked and continuously streaming over Wi-Fi for that long).
If you pull the microSD card and insert it into a PC to copy the footage…
there should be a folder in the root directory called “record”
⤷ filled with dated “YYYYMMDD” folders,
⤷ and inside each of those should be 24 different hour folders, “00”-“23”,
⤷ and inside each of those should be 60 different minute files, “00.mp4”-“59.mp4”.
You can use those dates and times to determine which footage you want to copy.
Note that the camera should have a procedure for safely ejecting the microSD card. I don’t know which camera model you might want to save footage from, but on the cameras I’ve used the procedure is something like this: From the camera’s Live Stream screen, tap Settings ➜ Advanced Settings ➜ Manage MicroSD Card ➜ Eject MicroSD Card. This should allow the camera to complete whatever write operation it might be performing in order to minimize the likelihood of corrupting the card.
Note also that Forum Maven @IEatBeans has created a Web-based tool that makes concatenating the 1-minute video files pretty simple. Other free tools are also available. I’ve used FFmpeg for this.
Try it yourself with a short clip! Do science! 
I’m also in this club. 