In Car SD Video System

[Tom Mihelich]

Hey Chet,

I have compared your Road Atlanta mpeg2 recording to my Mid-Ohio mpeg4 recording and I feel you have a much better picture. Mine has a slightly choppy recording as the car moves down the road and is more washed out than yours. I feel mpeg2 is better and I am going to give that a try at my first time out this year. Do you have the smoked shield on the camera facing forward? I guess I need to do that to get rid of the washed out look. Thanks for posting your video. I guess you never really know how good your stuff is until you can compare it to someone elses.
Stick with the mpeg2.

Tom

[RS Motorsport]

awesome. just awesome. great job chet.

[Chet Zerlin]

One additional tip that I forgot to mention - if you are going to use the same Panasonic video system you will need to perform an upgrade on the firmware in it to allow it to use the latest non-panasonic brand SD cards. You can find all the info you need as well as links to the new firmware itself from the forum on this website: http://www.jackbrown.us/camera/
The forum is only for the Panasonic SV-AV100 camcorder and you can find detailed instructions on how to load the update into the camera (it's very easy).

Without the upgrade it will only work with Panasonic brand SD cards...

[RS Motorsport]

so mpeg 4 is not as good as various mpeg 2 settings? Can anyone post samples of each?

[RS Motorsport]

The link to the update for the sv-av100 camera for non-Panasonic branded SD cards doesn't seem to be working anymore. Does anyone have a working link to the file?


Thanks,

Jeff

[Chet Zerlin]

Jeff, I was able to contact the guy that had that web forum and he sent me this link to get the upgraded firmware:
www.jackbrown.us/camera/utilities.htm

[red_z]

If anyone is interested, we have been working on a new SD system that should be available in May. We've completed several succesful tests with the system and its almost ready for prime-time. Sample video can be seen at: www.uamotorsports.com/DVR-1G.asp

Note: File is large (50MB), so it will take several minutes to download. To download video, right-click on the link and "save target as..."

Dave
Unfair Advantage Motorsports
www.uamotorsports.com

[RS Motorsport]

[size=2]alright... went to radio shack and they have the a/c adapter. BUT I didn't know which connector adapter to buy (the one that goes into the cradle). I have the camera, but no cradle yet. Can someone post the pn for the proper plug?[/size]

[size=2]Thanks-[/size]

[Chet Zerlin]

Jeff, the cradle uses the exact same plug as the one for the camera. Take your camera into your local Radio Shack and just get the one for the adapter that fits the one in the camera.

[dereklola]

re UAMotorsports SD video system - seems great that up to an hour's recording is possible - but that might be boring and/or difficult to find the bit you want.

Is there any 'search' function or 'fast-forward' button?

[red_z]

Of course. :-)

The recorder itself has a built-in player which has the usual play, rewind, fast forward functions. This can all be done within the unit itself viewing it on the 2.5" color LCD.

However, the easiest way to watch the video is from a computer. The system records to an SD memory card, so you can quickly download it to your PC using USB or a built-in memory card reader if you have one. Once its on your PC you can watch, edit and even burn to a DVD. Windows media player will play the file just fine and will let you jump to any point of the video you want instantly. So its even easier than a tape.

Dave
Unfair Advantage Motorsports
www.uamotorsports.com

[RS Motorsport]

Red Z,


Are you a site sponsor? Probably should be if your going to be promoting your product.

Support the board! (everyone)

[dereklola]

Dave
Thx for the info - kind of what I expected, or at least hoped for.
Now if I can just get the car to work I can think about doing some video.

[racer27]

Would you be intrested in selling the Rollbar mount Pictured on your site seperatly?

[red_z]

Yes, I am a site sponsor (currently not running a banner, but will be renewing again very soon).

I didn't mean to take this thread into an "advertising" direction per se. Just wanted to let people see the quality of an MPEG-4 system more than anything else. I think the quality is very good, especially in light of its value.

Racer27 - Check your e-mail for a response.

Dave
Unfair Advantage Motorsports
www.uamotorsports.com

[Chet Zerlin]

There is now another web site that contains the firmware upgrade that allows the Panasonic SV-AV100 to use 1g and higher SD cards. Thanks to Tim W. for finding this one!

http://www.quixium.com/AV100/

[TimW]

I've had to remove the files from my host, and have edited the posts above as such.

[carnut169]

Red Z,


Are you a site sponsor? Probably should be if your going to be promoting your product.

Support the board! (everyone)

Jeff-

For most of our members you can tell who has supported the site by looking under the avatar at the 'title'. "Contributing Member" means just that.
You will find the supporting businesses posting under business & retail classified.

[J Mabee]

Does anybody know where to get a camera housing similar to the one on this champ car. I'd like to mount my bullet camera on my FSCCA roll hoop cover using one. I haven't found any surfing the internet so far

[TimW]

Broadcast Sports Technologies is the vendor who developed the in car camera systems for broadcast. They used to be in Maryland, but know they were acquired. Its not really their business to sell parts/systems to end users, rather their customers are networks, sponsors and sanctioning bodies, but you might be able to talk them out of one.

[Tom Mihelich]

Jason,

Why don't you just mount the camera to the fiberglass cover on the top of the rool hoop?
It works just fine as Chet and I doing. No need for the big tower.

Tom

[J Mabee]

Thanks for the info Tim, Tom - do you have a bracket or some other way you mount it? My samsung system came with a bullet cam but it is bigger than most that are out there. I bought an aluminum surround with plexiglass shield (really cool) from www.helmetcamera.com but my cam doesn't fit.

[Tom Mihelich]

That's a bummer Jason.
The helmetcamera aluminum housing mounts really nice to the top
of the fiberglass roll hoop. I just drilled and tapped 2 holes on the bottom of the housing
and bolted it from the bottom thru the hoop cover.
Is your camera bigger or smaller than the housing? If it is smaller,
maybe you can wrap electrical tape around the camera till you get a nice friction fit.
If it is bigger, hmmm.....bore it out maybe???

Tom

[J Mabee]

Thats what we were going to do with it but the diameter of the camera is almost the same as the whole helmet cam holder. We are probably going to make one like it to fit this camera.

[Tifosi]

Jason where did you mount the camera itself? It's really a sweet little set up don't you think?

[J Mabee]

It's great - used it at MAM last weekend and the video looks really good. Used a tearoff in front of the lens so pic is a little wavy in the straits (won't do that again) Mounted the camera in the supplied case behind the seat secured to the frame. Bullet cam was on the new hook made by Steve Stadel (which worked great getting towed in) . My fat head was in the frame a little but was very cool vid. Have you used yours Dave? what did you think?

[Tifosi]

Haven't tried it in the car yet Jason. Issues, issues, issues. Soon I hope.