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Posts: 4053
Location: Land of the Musky | How long can you record with your Gen4 Archos DVRs? Do you ahve a good way of recharging them out on the water? I see some battery life extenders/quick chargers but I don't trust that these actaully charge the main battery.
Also, do you have a carry case? Any good suggestions or just go to Target and fine somethign that it fits into?
Thanks,
James |
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Posts: 1316
Location: Madison, WI | I have an expandable battery pack that runs the unit off of 4 AAA's. I'm not sure where Steve got it from but maybe he'll chime in. I'm pretty sure if you run a search you can find some of the answers you're looking for. |
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Posts: 32944
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | http://www.newmp3technology.com.
I use the one that hooks up to the DC in on the helmet camera dock, this one:
http://www.newmp3technology.com/aabox700.htm
I just bought a camera case for mine for a few bucks. |
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Posts: 4053
Location: Land of the Musky | Thanks! I bought the wrong one I think. $8 oh well... I got the one that hooks into the bottom. I was unable to find one as in your link. BUyin gthat one now. That shodul do the trick!
Thanks a lot! Can't wait to get all this together and try it out. Iw ill post eveything once I get it all hooked up. |
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Posts: 32944
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | The one I linked you to allows me to record from the AA E Cell powered adapter. The other requires the removal of the camera dock, I have a couple of those, too. |
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Posts: 4053
Location: Land of the Musky | Steve, Do the ones that hook into the camera dock do a quick charge for your unit? Sounds like that is what those do for phones. *See picture.
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Posts: 1316
Location: Madison, WI | Those don't work. Don't get it! I have one, it's not powerful enough to charge an archos. Stick to what Steve uses, it doesn't charge it, it's an external battery pack. |
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Posts: 4053
Location: Land of the Musky | Magruter
Thanks. I did not think it would do much for charging. THe main thing I need (thanks Steve) is taht other external power taht you can use while taping with the head camera or Aqua Vu. That shoudl work like a dream Wish they had somethign you could allegator clip onto a 12v battery.
Thanks!
James |
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Posts: 32944
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | The AA units work great and the E Cells seem to power the unit as long as the standard battery. |
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Posts: 2037
Location: lansing, il | glad this post is up, i have talked to steve about these back in the winter and forgotten half of what he told me. not to change the subject but is the 40 gig unit going to give me adequate space for recording or do i need to jump up to 80gig. is the 80 gig overkill? |
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Posts: 1316
Location: Madison, WI | 40 gig is plenty i would think, recording under the ice I never touched being full with 3 full days on my 30gig 404.
If youre looking to save some coin, go with a refurb
http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=206650172
or
http://www.buy.com/prod/archos-404-30gb-portable-digital-media-play...
If you're not in too much of a hurry to purchase one, they go on sale about once a month. I saw the 404's on sale for under $100 last month!
Edited by Magruter 5/8/2008 2:36 PM
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Posts: 2037
Location: lansing, il | i am looking at going with a 504 with 40 gig. |
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Posts: 4053
Location: Land of the Musky | I think if you tape in 15-20 minute segments adn tehn delete the dull ones you will never fill a 404 witha 30gb hard drive. Mine says I can load 40 full length movies, 15,000 songs, or 300,000 pictures. I woudl like one that can do high resolution. 500gb size so you cna tape 2-4 hours of TV quality stuff. Coming I am sure or it is here and I am not seeing it. This little Archos is really neat! Already taped soem stuff direct from my DishTV DVR. Can take it on the road and plug it inot my Van TV for the kids to watch crap. This will be nice. |
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Posts: 2037
Location: lansing, il | thanks i think the 40gig will work just fine. i will probablly go that route. |
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| i'm ordering mine tonight...there should be lots of cool video getting uploaded to MuskieFirst this summer!
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Posts: 4053
Location: Land of the Musky | Michael-Can I ask what you decided to get?
Thanks |
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Posts: 223
Location: Minn. | Is the auxiliary battery pack for the camera or the Archos 404/504? I will get my camera and dvr in about a week. Will I need this battery pack to run the camera? There a so many models it is hard to sift through. Thanks for the help. Ramond |
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Posts: 32944
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | You will use about a gig an hour at a bitrate of 2500. 30 Gigs is WAY more than you'd ever use. The helmet cam powers from the Archos, and the battery pack powers the Archos when the onboard battery is low to dead.
The microphone has a stop-record function with a touch of a button that stops the recording, then another touch begins recording again, saved to another file. So all you have to do is stop the recording directly after an 'event' and it's easy to find and edit.
The Archos shows up on your PC as a hard Drive, so it's easy to browse and delete or select videos. You CAN'T play the videos from the Archos directly through the computer, though. Watch the clips on the Archos, write down the ones you want to save, then save 'em and clean out the Archos when you have them strored on your computer or a stand alone HD. |
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| I ask what you decided to get?
i went with an Archos 605 (80GB), Gen5 camera and docking adapter. got them all direct from the Archos website store.
i'll order the additional battery pack once i'm sure of exactly which one to get...the one Steve linked to is listed for 700-series, will this work with any of the units?
i'm also ordering a large external hard-drive. i need one anyway to back up computer files and pictures, plus Steve said that it really helps to download video direct from the Archos/dock to an external hd, then to your computer from the hd. apparently there's some potential issues with how the files get saved if you go direct to your computer and it can make accessing them really slow. he said it's much more efficient to use the external hd first since when it goes to your computer from there it's saved in a format/location that's easier for the computer software to access.
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Posts: 32944
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | That battery pack plugs into the camera dock with the DC in on the right side. It's easier all the way around to store the video on an external hard drive, just make sure it's a USB2 if your computer accepts that speed. With each video a gig or more, if you store a bunch of them it'll eat up a goodly portion of your hard drive space pretty quick. |
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Posts: 2037
Location: lansing, il | looks like the main differance in the 404 vs the 504 is the battery. the 504 looks to have the removable battery which would make one less thing to hook up. by going with a 504 i can get an extra batt to run all day and not have an extra wire or plug in? yes or no? |
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Posts: 2378
| yep, Bette. I got the 504 and a couple extra batteries. I should be able to go all day |
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Posts: 32944
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | If you get the 'double life' battery, yes. otherwise, you will have about 5.5 to 6 hours of continuous recording time on two standard Archos batteries. The external pack is small, plugs into the camera dock, and isn't an issue. I also carry extra batteries for my 504s. |
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Posts: 1316
Location: Madison, WI | Here's a nice price for a refurbed 30 gig 604.
Use the 5% off coupon
http://www.buy.com/retail/coupon.asp?prid=84773074
then search archos you should find this:
http://www.buy.com/prod/archos-604-30-gb-ultraslim-portable-digital...
Then use google checkout to save another $10,
Bringing it down to $103.
And Lambeau be sure you get a 7200RPM hard drive if you're going to be transferring data from your archos to computer to harddrive, 5400 rpm's you'll be sitting around a little longer.
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Posts: 4053
Location: Land of the Musky | That 604 looks like a 404. Is it the same but a bigger screen? Nice price!!! |
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Posts: 1316
Location: Madison, WI | Here's a nice price for an external
http://shop2.frys.com/product/5382898
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Posts: 4053
Location: Land of the Musky | That hard drive woudl be nice! Looks like it woudl save you in case of a major failure and might rebuild your current computer back or a new one.
--
Maxtor SafetyDrill Prepares, reboots, and recovers your PC's entire internal drive contents in case of system failure or virus/spyware infection. |
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Posts: 2037
Location: lansing, il | what have you guys found to be the best way to attach the camera to your hat? |
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Posts: 4053
Location: Land of the Musky | I got an elastic band/strap with my Archos camera. Has a little elastic tube/strap for the lipstick camera. Only tried it once so far but it seemed to work well. I need to find a cap I can just stich the strap onto. Then I can get it right and just leave it on the cap. |
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Posts: 32944
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | I use elastic stitched to the bill of the cap now, easier to keep the FOV where it should be. |
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| I use elastic stitched to the bill of the cap now, easier to keep the FOV where it should be.
could you post a picture of how you have that Steve?
elastic on the bill would help solve the bill-in-the-way issue i assume as well as centering it more on what you're looking at?
where does the camera itself end up? top center of the hat's bill?
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Posts: 619
Location: Verona, WI | There's a guy on a popular auction site that will remain unnamed that sells a pretty nice holder that you mount on your hat. You drill a hole in the bill of the hat, mount the camera, and it holds well.
Shane |
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Posts: 2037
Location: lansing, il | shane, just saw your video clip. just curious whch camera you bought? |
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Posts: 4053
Location: Land of the Musky | LOL Shane! Good video. What resolution/video capture kb/sec (sorry not sure the tech term) do you run? I see I can run 500kb/sec up to 2500kb/sec. Did a little testing and it seems I can run at 1500kb/sec and get a good video for the small video playback. Anyone else? |
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Posts: 619
Location: Verona, WI | Yeah, that was a very angry turtle. I am convinced that I am going to catch a fish on a jig this year and thought I got one but ended up with that.
I have an Archos 605 WIFI with 160 gig HD which is overkill but I got a raging deal on Amazon on Xmas time. I use the Gen 5 camera that you can buy from Archos. As far as resolution I don't know - I just plugged it in and used default settings. I haven't advanced to where I feel comfortable playing with settings yet. I did buy an aftermarket polarized filter which I will try sometime - it will be interesting to see if that will take enough glare that you can see follows in the water.
My only disappointment so far is battery life. I charged up the Archos and ran the camera to see how long I could record on one charge and I got about 1 hr 50 minutes of constant recording. I will have to play around and see how much changing settings will impact that. The 605 does not have the auxiliary battery pack like Steve has.
Shane
Edited by ShaneW 5/19/2008 10:33 AM
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Posts: 726
Location: Eau Claire, WI | I like my 504 a lot, will need to buy the external battery pack though. I've got an extended life batt right now in addition to the regular archos batt. the regular one does not last thats for sure. Just started w/ the extended life version so not sure how long I'll get w/ that one.
here is my "wish list" unit. pretty sweet but spendy. maybe some of you have seen this before but if you haven't here ya go.
http://www.vio-pov.com/
Jono
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Posts: 32944
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | I used a couple tie straps after drilling holes in the cap brim on this set-up. Works great.
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| nice work Steve.
i'm putting my "seamstress" wife to work on mine...
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Posts: 4053
Location: Land of the Musky | Steve,
So you did not like the Archos camera strap? I tried mine and it seemed ot work well. I did not have it on for 6 hours of taping though. |
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| when testing it with the camera strap holding the camera on the side, i had a hard time keeping my hat brim out of the image. Steve's setup solves this issue nicely.
i'd like to be able to wear the camera with different hats so i'm going to experiment with sewing the camera holder onto the strap in a way that would allow me to take it on and off...possibly running the strap around the brim instead of around the head. failing that...i'll have a designated "boat hat" with some zip ties holding the camera onto the brim!
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Posts: 32944
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | I found the band position on the side of the head to be a problem with the hat brim too. That's why I moved the camera to the hat bill. |
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Posts: 32944
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | Another item:
Set your Archos to record, camera attached. Then choose settings. Set the bitrate to the highest setting. Some units will have low, medium, and high, some will have a high bitrate at 2500. Set it to the highest bitrate.
When you edit and save your video, if you are using MovieMaker, use 'high quality video, large' setting to save the file. Then upload to upload.outdoorsfirst.com at the 400X300 setting. |
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| now that i've got my external HD, i was able to get out and play with the camera this afternoon. a fish was kind enough to cooperate, so i was able to get some worthy footage on the trial run.
a couple of lessons learned:
- set the archos/camera bit rate high like Steve mentioned. mine was a bit pixelated, not bad, but a bit.
- zip-tying the camera to the hat brim works great; you never even notice it's there.
- make sure the microphone is attached to your front, not your back; it doesn't record real loudly
- downsize still pictures before embedding them into the video!
- make sure you've got DivX downloaded/updated on your computer: you need the codecs for Windows Movie Maker to properly read the .avi files from the Archos unit.
- when selecting the video quality, i didn't get a "high quality large" option; instead i selected one of the "Windows Media HD" choices, (dvd, i think) i picked the one with 3Mps speed and 4:3 aspect ratio (not in 16:9 widescreen).
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Posts: 32944
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | Other Settings:
High Quality Video Large
All Movie Maker programs.
Nice stuff, lambeau! |
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