MD80 video

[S47]

Just bought one of these tiny camcorders, which fits great on the 7 for in car footage, I have one problem though How can I get rid of the date from the footage anyone know??
the instructions are written in a dialect of english [Chinglish] I don't understand

[allen l]

We've bought a couple of these. Absolutely no money for what you get.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Car-Key-DC-Mini-DV-DVR-Camco...

[Gingerbread Man]

S47 said:

Just bought one of these tiny camcorders, which fits great on the 7 for in car footage, I have one problem though How can I get rid of the date from the footage anyone know??
the instructions are written in a dialect of english [Chinglish] I don't understand

I have one and I don't think you can remove the date. I have searched Google, but if you find out how, do post back.

[S47]

It's really a shame that the date comes 'as standard' at times the date is great, but not always.
I understand that the 'Cheap' MD80's [of which mine is one] are chinese copies of the original. Apparantly the originals have the option - 'with or without' the date. What we need is to find someone with an original to photocopy the manual.
I beleiev the date can be removed by a certain combination of button presses, which is explained in the original MD80 manual.
Well at £20 inc P+P & 4GB card I guess I can live with the date

[TommyP]

Trouble is the date on mine is 2008 and the times wrong too. I can't even find out how to adjust to correct data.

[S47]

The date is easy to change:=-
attach md80 to computer and open up the root directory, this contains 3 files [already on the md80], in this folder is a file callled 'tag.txt.'
open this file and change the date & time contained therein to current date/time. close down MD80 in PC and then switch MD80 off.
Hey presto job done.
the md80 somehow recognises the date, and from then on displays the correct time & date during video playback.
Hope this helps
Mal
ps
removing the tag.txt file from the MD80 root directory doesn't remove the time display on hte video playback

[David Long]

I have an older MD80 with the alloy case. No date option and no mention of it in the manual.

[Gingerbread Man]

Just found an answer on how to remove the date/ time stamp on a water powered rocket forum.

It's not a simple thing though, you need to desolder the chip, plug it into the computer and reflash it. Bugger that for cricket!

[S47]

David
I understood all original MD80's had the option to have or not have the date
Meeting a man to-morrow on a 7 Blat with an original MD80 which does have this option. Maybe then I'll know the definitive answer.
>
Gingerbread Man
Where's your sense of adventure

[nicksev172]

Its easier than it sounds to change the date:

Plug in to the usb port
It shows as a removable hard drive
Delete the folder on the removable hard drive
Open up notepad from start menu and enter the following changing the time for the time now and leaving a space before [date]:
[date]
2010/04/16
21:16

Then save this to the removable hard drive and give it the file name "tag.txt"

Eject the camera and turn on, if its worked when you record a video it writes over the txt file that was there and should have the right date.

[S47]

No success removing the date
Saw plenty of 7's with them on [some cars had 2, 1 facing forward&rearward] but all have the same 'date problem'
Oh well I had to ask

[sjmmarsh]

The 'older' alloy body MD80 is the genuine one and doesn't have the date stamp. The plastic bodied ones are copies and there doesn't seem to be any way of getting rid of the date stamp. They are VERY cheap though....

How much recording time are people getting from them - I only seem to get roughly 10min/Gb (i.e. a 4Gb card doesn't quite last 40mins)

Steve

[S47]

SJMARSH
I got about an hour out of mine on Saturday [4gb card] whilst filming in car footage.
When I got the md80 I did some tests filming around the house and I thought I'd be getting about 80mins of footage. 20mins/gb. but ended up with ~15mins/GB
I think it depends on what the camera actually films, a bit like the varience you get with digital photo's. with my 15MP Canon 50d camera, sometimes the jpegs are 4mb in size other times 1.5 mb:confused
Anyway the MD80 is a cracking bit of kit for incar video. I guess I'll have to buy a larger card

[Gingerbread Man]

Got about ~47 minutes out of a full charge which made 3.99gig.

[davidball]

Has anyone else experienced image wobble with this camara?
Take a look at this video, 4.49 minutes into it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGk0vJv4a_c&fea...

[S47]

I get something similar, I think it's because of the writing speed of the micro SD card. Buy yourself a fast card. buy it from a reputable dealer there's plenty of fake cards around, especially on ebay.

[y2blade]

davidball said:

Has anyone else experienced image wobble with this camara?
Take a look at this video, 4.49 minutes into it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGk0vJv4a_c&fea...

have you got a class6 card?...both of mine are faultless

I have two..I use them on my bikes, car, MTB and even on the side of the horse riding hat

I also have a GoPro hero...but tend to use the MD80s so it doesn't really matter if they get wrecked

Edited by y2blade on Wednesday 21st April 10:35

[davidball]

No. Mine are Class 4. Thanks for the info

[Nicodema]

y2blade said:

davidball said:

Has anyone else experienced image wobble with this camara?
Take a look at this video, 4.49 minutes into it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGk0vJv4a_c&fea...

have you got a class6 card?...both of mine are faultless

I have two..I use them on my bikes, car, MTB and even on the side of the horse riding hat

I also have a GoPro hero...but tend to use the MD80s so it doesn't really matter if they get wrecked

Edited by y2blade on Wednesday 21st April 10:35

LOL, It's nothing to do with the card.

These cams use a rolling shutter, i.e. each line is exposed at a different time. This is very sensitive to vibration, giving that WobbleVision artifact. If you get the camera rigidly mounted to the car it is reduced significantly. I took some video with the Muvi (same as the MD80) mounted rigidly to the rollbar and it looks pretty decent with very little wobble.

The effect is rather like moving a document around on the glass during a photocopy. In that case it looks like the original was a rubber sheet that you stretched around, distorting the image. It's also similar to the cover of Rainbow's album, Bent Out of Shape.

Hopefully this weekend I'll get the chance to shoot a sequence with my 2nd hand HiDef camcorder mounted on the bar. That's a CCD device, so it has a global shutter which doesn't get these artifacts. At some point the market may mature and we'll get global shutter mini camcorders, but I'm not holding my breath.

[y2blade]

Nicodema said:

y2blade said:

davidball said:

Has anyone else experienced image wobble with this camara?
Take a look at this video, 4.49 minutes into it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGk0vJv4a_c&fea...

have you got a class6 card?...both of mine are faultless

I have two..I use them on my bikes, car, MTB and even on the side of the horse riding hat

I also have a GoPro hero...but tend to use the MD80s so it doesn't really matter if they get wrecked

Edited by y2blade on Wednesday 21st April 10:35

LOL, It's nothing to do with the card.

These cams use a rolling shutter, i.e. each line is exposed at a different time. This is very sensitive to vibration, giving that WobbleVision artifact. If you get the camera rigidly mounted to the car it is reduced significantly. I took some video with the Muvi (same as the MD80) mounted rigidly to the rollbar and it looks pretty decent with very little wobble.

The effect is rather like moving a document around on the glass during a photocopy. In that case it looks like the original was a rubber sheet that you stretched around, distorting the image. It's also similar to the cover of Rainbow's album, Bent Out of Shape.

Hopefully this weekend I'll get the chance to shoot a sequence with my 2nd hand HiDef camcorder mounted on the bar. That's a CCD device, so it has a global shutter which doesn't get these artifacts. At some point the market may mature and we'll get global shutter mini camcorders, but I'm not holding my breath.

ah ok

I was just speaking from my experience....perhaps I just mounted mine well then as I've not had any wavey videos from mine on any of the things I've used it on

Edited by y2blade on Wednesday 21st April 14:59