Originally Posted by ApexAero

My new one does the same thing as my old one before I bricked it. It does it to three files if I leave it on continous until it dies. (4gig class 6 sd) No problems with shorter clips, only the auto made files.

I m trying again with the no timestamp firmware in. Fingers crossed

EDIT: No luck.
Error message is (barely translated ): Error -2002: the sequence contains a bad public atom sequence (PTDC0004.MOV)
Don't know what it really means lol

use vlc for those auto-saved files, you will be able to watch them
http://www.videolan.org/vlc/download-windows.html

Originally Posted by sss111

use vlc for those auto-saved files, you will be able to watch them
http://www.videolan.org/vlc/download-windows.html

Cheers! I'll test that home thanks
Is that a common error tho?

Originally Posted by AleG

If I remember correctly, the IR filter on this cameras is a small square or disc of film/glass on the rear of the lens, it's not part of the lens itself. Or at least that's how I remember the one I opened up (I was checking if there was water inside after a splasdown )

In any case it's possible to get IR blocking filters, the easiest way would be to use one meant for SLR camera lenses, cutting it to size.

On both of my cameras the IR filter is circular and affixed to the lens barrel, so it is part of the lens and comes out as part of the lens. An add-on IR filter could be done, but they come with different cutoff wavelengths, so getting the right one for the CMOS sensor characteristics might still require a trial/error test of 2-3 different ones to get the best color rendition.

Originally Posted by finster

Tom-

My 2 newer cams have the same (C971P) on ribbon cable yet the arrays are different on them too...pic...I also noticed the auto chargers have a red light now where my first one had a green light...seems little things change from month to month...

Your ribbon cable traces look to be identical to mine, so I guess we have the same camera CMOS array. This might account for why some cameras seem to have more color issues than others.

Originally Posted by Teckos

Cheers! I'll test that home thanks
Is that a common error tho?

No, it's not common. My 20 min. clips play just fine. What program are you using that gives that strange "bad public atom" error message?

Finally got mine today after 25 days! Just removed the date stamp using the guide and worked 1st time.. Done a few test recording, so far pretty happy. Cheers guys.

I searched for this but didn't see the answer... this may belong in the FAQ, although I guess after 94 pages if I'm the first person to ask this, it might not actually be "frequent".

What USB class does this thing show up as when it's in webcam mode? The previous (#3) camera came up as "Unspecified" (SPCA 1528), which obviously doesn't have drivers in Linux.

If you didn't need drivers, and it supposedly works in Mac, I'm guessing it might be a UVC device.

Someone want to peek in their device/driver list and let us know?

Also, does the resolution in webcam mode max out at 640x480?

It is max 640x480 in webcam mode. It shows up as a USB video device USB\Class_0e& SubClass03
Cheers,
Jim
Quadrocopter and Tricopter Mega Link Index

Originally Posted by Tom Frank

No, it's not common. My 20 min. clips play just fine. What program are you using that gives that strange "bad public atom" error message?

Quicktime Problem solved with VLC. Still annoying tho.
Thanks again for this usefull thread!

Dunno if it's really relevant but maybe you can add on the front page a checklist for the new owners so they can see if their camera work properly.
Amongst other things: bitrate with comparative values. How to check the focus (might be obvious but I'm totally noob in that field).

Originally Posted by Teckos

Hello, just got mines from Eletoponline. Both have a red lens. Didn't have time to check further yet. They seem to work.
One question tho: is there a special way to format the SD? One of the Micro SD 4Go class 4 (no name) I got simply doesn't work on both camera. Is it just not good enough?

Solved. The cam didn't want to recognizer the SD when it was formatted by Windows but then I formatted it with SDFormatter V2.9.0.5 and ran a couple of tests (H2test and DiskMark) and it now works.

Originally Posted by Teckos

Quicktime Problem solved with VLC. Still annoying tho.
Thanks again for this usefull thread!

Dunno if it's really relevant but maybe you can add on the front page a checklist for the new owners so they can see if their camera work properly.
Amongst other things: bitrate with comparative values. How to check the focus (might be obvious but I'm totally noob in that field).

Thanks for the info. i think there is something about the .MOV file this camera produces that is not fully .MOV compliant. When I try to repackage the video and audio into an .AVI wrapper with no re-encoding, only the audio comes through. None of the Windows tools, or Vdub will load that .AVI file for editing, and only VLC will play them!

I can't add any thing that is consistent across all cameras on the bit rate because some seem to default to, or can be toggled to, 10,000 kbps, and some are locked at 7,000 kbps (which is still plnenty fast enough). I still have not figured out why this is! I already have in the FAQ section some link about focusing issues.

Originally Posted by Tom Frank

I already have in the FAQ section some link about focusing issues.

I've checked them In fact, my request was even more noobish. I took vids and stills with both cameras and checked them on my computer to track any default but didn't manage to see any. I actually think I do not know what to look for LOL.
By the way, I assume all the stills I saw are extracted from videos right? Because the still pics are definitely worse than the videos.

About the bitrate. How do you calculate it? File size*8/(20*60)?

Originally Posted by Teckos

I've checked them In fact, my request was even more noobish. I took vids and stills with both cameras and checked them on my computer to track any default but didn't manage to see any. I actually think I do not know what to look for LOL.
By the way, I assume all the stills I saw are extracted from videos right? Because the still pics are definitely worse than the videos.

About the bitrate. How do you calculate it? File size*8/(20*60)?

The stills are not extracted from video frames. They are actually up-sized from the CMOS sensor native image, which is an approximate 4:3 aspect ratio rather than the video which is 16:9. And the upsizing is done similar to a digital zoom, where pixels are made bigger to create a bigger image. That's why they aren't as sharp as just saving a video frame as a picture. I can get a much sharper and crisper image by saving a single frame from a video, and sharpening it with an editor, along with any color correction that might be needed, such as diminishing the color saturation and the contrast.

The bit rate is most easily determined directly from the file properties. It can't be done with a straight calculation because of the video compression algorithm used to compress frames, and the codec will use a variable bit rate to encode each frame, depending on the complexity of the images. If you had a Windows PC, you can just right click on the file icon, then look in the properties/details tab and it will show the average bit rate for the entire video. Mine averages out to around 7000 kbps for the video data rate... sometimes lower around 6500 kbps and sometimes slightly higher. Again, these are average bit rates. I've seen my bit rates go over 13000 kbps on an instantaneous basis with very detailed video images with lots of motion. Many editors also can display the native file properties, including the average bit rate as well as bit rate histogram for the entire video. If you are using a MAC PC, I can't help you with that, other than to suggest you get the MAC version of AviDemux for your basic editing (trimming out unwanted portions and adding filters to rotate, color correct, and sharpen the images). There are Windows, MAC, and Linux compiled version of this nice open spurce video editor (free download).

Thanks for the details Tom!