thejokell

Anyone get one? Mine came in today and I'm having some software issues, just wondering if anyone else is experiencing the same thing.

Other than the software it seems pretty good, though.

Buzzatronic

I can't even find the software. It claims it'll be on the MicroSD card when I turn it on but nothing is ever there.

I did a test ride on it already and the quality seemed ok so far.

thejokell

Mine wouldn't put the software on either. But it did on a second SD card I tried in it. It just seems to be finicky.

I'm hoping tech support comes back with some good news. Or at least something helpful.

thejokell

I also got some pretty bad video issues in what I shot today. I'll post some samples later, but it's not good. Almost like waves passing over the video, very strange.

Shimagnolo

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolling_shutter

Typical of cheap cameras. I tried an ATC2K a couple years ago. Every time I hit a bump, it looked like the terrain was made of jello.

thejokell

Yep that's what's happening to me. Going to do another test run today, but if I get the same thing it's being returned on Monday.

Here's 30 seconds of what I'm talking about:
https://vimeo.com/62526765

himespau 

As an effect, I think that's pretty cool, but I do think it'd make me sick I tried to watch that for a long time. Bummer that it doesn't appear to be working out for you.

Buzzatronic

Yep I'm getting the wave effect as well. Not good.

Shimagnolo

Classic rolling shutter effect. That type of camera works in a stationary mount, but simply is not usable in applications where it is mounted to something that is moving..

Buzzatronic

Putting in a new ad card fixed the software problem for me as well. Thanks for the tip

Buzzatronic

Here are some of my videos from yesterday. (Be gentle, I've only been riding for 6 weeks. )

These were both recorded at the 720p setting since I only had a 4GB card at the time.

8am ride:

8am ride with YouTube stabilization on:

Things I've noticed:

- Audio is bad. It picks up EVERY sound my bike makes but you can barely hear me saying "on your left"
- Rear cover rattles like crazy. The videos above don't have the rear cover on, will post other examples later.
- Rolling shutter is very very obvious in a lot of these shots.

Other than that, this cam seems to do what you'd expect ... Just not extremely well. That's what $99 gets ya tho.

thejokell

I feel like the stabilization makes the video worse. And rolling shutter isn't nearly as bad in your video as it was in mine.

I'm going to give mine another week after seeing your videos (I had decided to return it tomorrow). I really only want it for commutes in case something happens to me, so for what it is it'll probably work fine.

Buzzatronic

Yeah that's my main goal as well. I think for $100 it will likely do fine. I'm not going to be recording any X-Games footage with this camera after all.

Buzzatronic

So on my 4th ride the camera failed 5 minutes into my 50 minute commute, locking up and not recording anything beyond the first 5 minutes (which created an uplayable 600mb file).

The red light stayed on the entire time so there was no indication that something had gone wrong.

I had to use a paperclip to hit the recessed "reset" button on the back.

Failing 1 out of 4 trips is not really acceptable. I need to go read up on Monoprice's return policy. I think I am ok with the image quality (or lack thereof in some situations) but I can't have this thing just failing to work for no apparent reason. If this happens again, it's going back.

Buzzatronic

Also here's the clip where I'm getting tons of rattle from what I think is the rear cover cap and a ridiculous amount of rolling shutter effect:

thejokell

Did more testing last night - it is definitely the cover that causes the rattle. I'm fairly certain it's actually the lock switch, but I haven't narrowed it down that far yet. Ultimately I don't really care about the audio quality, but I think a piece of electrical tape on the back will fix it. I rode a little bit with my thumb against the back and the rattle went away.

thejokell

Brought the MHD out for my first morning commute. I think I am going to end up keeping it, although I know one day I'll want to upgrade to a GoPro or something like that. Anyway, here's the footage from this morning (sped up 8x):

Buzzatronic

Discovered a new issue with this camera that kinda stinks ... if the battery runs out while recording the file you're recording will get corrupted. I rode 45mi on Saturday and the camera broke up files every 50 minutes or so. It was a 3 hour ride and the battery ran out sometime during the last half hour of the trip and left an 800MB .mov file that is corrupted. There is no easy way to fix these types of files, Quicktime can't play them, VLC can't play them, Movie Maker can't import them. The only way I've found to fix it is to run it through one of the pay-per-recovery apps or websites that want $50 or more to recover the file.

So word to the wise, don't run this camera anywhere near the max battery length if you don't want corrupted video files.