MD80 Clone

[hipo1024]

Haya peeps!

Ive just ordered two MD80 clones from china off ebay for about £7 each... the vids on youtube seem pritty good! Has anyone on here got one, and what are they like?

I cant wait to get mine (the other is for my bro) so I can use it for offroading and stuff, and because its so cheap I dont mind mounting it on the underside to get some cool angles, and if it gets buggered then oh well, just get another

[James Bass]

Apologies for my blatant ignorance, but.....WHAT'S AND MD80

[BoxCleva]

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/New-Mini-DV-DVR-S ... 847wt_1139

[john (smifffy)]

Apologies for my blatant ignorance, but.....WHAT'S AND MD80

its a small camcorder


looks a bit like this

[James Bass]

[James Bass]

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/New-Mini-DV-DVR-Sports-Video-Camera-Spy-Cam-MD80-DC-/220741710774?pt=UK_AudioTVElectronics_Video_Camcorders&hash=item33653b33b6#ht_3847wt_1139

I just bought that one Si. "12.10 inc p+p.

[stretch]

Aiiii i've got one, pretty good little cameras. The setting of the date can be a bit hit and miss but the way I found to do it is to plug in the camera via usb create a txt document in the root directory and name it TAG, in this file enter the date in format

[date]
2011/02/19
21:06:00

and save it. Then do a test recording and it should be correct. It is displayed as MM/DD/YYYY on mine.

The timestamp is the most annoying feature on these as officially there isn't a simple way to turn it off. I've found a couple of ways of getting rid of it though if your interested.

Sometimes the video can be jerky which is normally down to a crappy micro sd card, mine was supplied with a class 4 but i've found at least a class 6 is best.

Oh and bear in mind if you buy something like a 16gb card it's formatted to FAT so will only allow single recordings of 4gb so once it's finished you have to re-start it to make a new one.

Funnily enough i'm taking mine out tomorrow when I go bashing with my RC car so will post up a video when done.

[hipo1024]

Yes please do! My bro wants to put his on the front of his nitro truck, should be fun!

Ive read about hacking the firmware to remove the time stamp...but thats a little beyond me atm. or you can edit/crop it out....but to be honest, as long as its right, I dont mind.

How long will 2gig last? do you think its worth getting somthing bigger, or will the battery die before you can fill it up?

[stretch]

No worries, indeed flashing the firmare isn't for the faint hearted and you could end up nuking your cam. I have found a filter and it works quite well, I will post up a vid with and without tomorrow. Battery apparently lasts about 2 hours depending which one it has installed (it'll tell you in the instructions). You should get about 10 minutes per GB. I'll give you more info tomorrow as haven't done a full days testing with it yet. Mine came with a neck strap and rubber case along with a few mounts.

[stretch]

Hi mate sorry couldn't do it yesterday I took the camera out and it died after about 10 seconds even though I had been charging it for an age. It seems like the battery had to be run completely flat before it would accept a charge.

As you can see in the first bit of the video the camera was all over the place either due to the mounting or the terrain i'm thinking more the mounting so will try a different way next time. Unfortunately it was very overcast but you get the general idea.

Oh and having this camera and trying to do arty farty shots may cause you to damage things (you'll know what I mean when you watch the clip)

[BoxCleva]

LOL....and it was going so well up until the last two seconds

[hipo1024]

lol it looks good! seems good quality to say it costs less than a tenna delivered . I hope you had fun out there!! looks like you did! lol

[stretch]

Yeah had a good 'bash' hopefully will get some better video when it brightens up a bit. Here's some video with the timestamp removed. On other tests It seems to work better on fast moving video.

[hipo1024]

wow...you really wouldnt notice that unless you know what to look for! how have you done that? just blured it out or somthing a little more clever?

[stretch]

1, Download and extract latest version of virtualdub http://www.virtualdub.org/
2, Download filter http://www.aircommandrockets.com/timestamp.vdf
3, Copy timestamp.vdf to virtualdub \plugins directory
4, Run virtualdub and open a video file
5, From the Filters menu select "Timestamp Remover"
6, From the file menu select "Save as AVI"

Job done

[hipo1024]

wow, as easy as that eh! Cant wait for it to arrive!

[stretch]

let us know how you get on when you get it. Also the battery on these can be bit of a weak point ie poor charging etc so i'm experimenting with external batteries.

[James Bass]

I got mine the other day off ebay. I plugged my TomTom power lead into it to provide power.

[stretch]

HI sorry to jump on this tread, I have just got one from Maplin. done a couple of tests, do you know what the output of the battery is? I am thinking of trying to power it from my USB adapter in the fronti, any thoughts would be great.....


Rob

Normally the instructions say what battery its got in it, Usb spec is 4.75 - 5.25V @ 100mA, most car usb adapters output around 5V.

I'm working on an external battery setup as if you have a large micro sd card 8gb+ the battery will die before you've filled it, and by default the MD80 doesn't allow you to record while charging.

[hipo1024]

1, Download and extract latest version of virtualdub http://www.virtualdub.org/
2, Download filter http://www.aircommandrockets.com/timestamp.vdf
3, Copy timestamp.vdf to virtualdub \plugins directory
4, Run virtualdub and open a video file
5, From the Filters menu select "Timestamp Remover"
6, From the file menu select "Save as AVI"

Job done

Hello mate, what compression settings you use? Because the smallest I can get a short 11min clip to be is about 9gig....and uncompressed its about 21gig! the original file is about 1.4 gig.