In-Car Video System...On a Budget

[bmwpowere36m3]

Hey guys, looking for some advice on setting up a budget in-car video system for recording my DE events. From what I've seen, either you run a seperate camera & recording system or just run a camcorder. I'm trying to keep the budget on total: UNDER $400. This is what I've come up with so far:

Camera (lipstick):

• Hoyt Technologies EconoSport HelmetCam Kit 480-Line $ 189.99
• or Higher Quality - Hoyt Sony ExView HAD Camera 580-Line $ 205.99
• Action Video Cams HelmetCam 580-Line $ 159.99

Recording Device:

• Aiptek MPVR Digital Solid State Camcorder $ 99.99 (www.aiptek.com)
• Aiptek A-HD High Def Solid State Camcorder $ 129.99 (www.aiptek.com)
• Aiptek A-HD+ 1080P HD SS Camcorder $ ~150.00 (bestbuy.com)
• [ame="http://www.amazon.com/Mustek-PVRA1-Personal-Media-Center/dp/tech-data/B0002MGZPA/ref=de_a_smtd"]Mustek PVRA1 Personal Media Center[/ame] $ 69.99 Read about this one here: [ame]http://www.corner-carvers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=26173&highlight=digital+camera[/ame]

OR

• GoPro Motorsports Hero $ 179.99
• Archos 405 2GB Multimedia Player & Gen5 Helmet Camcorder $ 239.99 (downside short cable for camera & lower quality)
• I could just use a camcorder...

Accersories:

• 4-8GB SDHC Card $ 20-30
• Hi-Gain Stereo Microphone $ 28.99 (http://hoyttech.com/index.cfm?fuseac...Product_ID=308)
• 12V Adapter $ 12.99 (http://hoyttech.com/index.cfm?fuseac...Product_ID=304)
• Some sort of cam mount...

*EDIT* I've added some things to the list and updated it... I'm seems like the cheapest budget setup right now is the Aiptek A-HD+

My Recording Setup (thus far)

• Cam - Aiptek A-HD+ $ ~150.00 (bestbuy.com)
• Memory - Transcend SDHC 4GB Card $ ~20.00 (amazon.com)
• Wide-Angle Lens: Sunpak CAM-2110 MagMount 0.5x Wide-Angle Conversion Lens (Large) $ ~35.00
• Custom Headrest Mount (Rear headrests, alum square stock 1", and old camera ball-mount)
• Converted USB plug to car charger (in-car charging & recording at the same time)
• External Powered/Filtered Mic setup

[Zack]

I ended up going with a Panasonic DMC-TZ1 Camera after reading this guys write up. http://www.wurthmotorsports.com/In_C..._for_video.asp I've got it mounted with a chase cam mount to my roll bar. Quality is very good, sound isn't bad with tape over the microphone, and it's easy to transfer to computer unlike some camcorders I've used.

You should be able to find it for a decent price as it's reasonably old. There's probably an even better model now.

-Zack

[Stuntman]

Might check out the Motorsports Hero from Go-Pro:

http://www.goprocamera.com/

[Cobra Vic]

I have GoPro Motorsports Hero I spot tie it to the grill of the CV, works fairly well I can get about an hour of video with sound on a 2 gb flash card

[bmwpowere36m3]

Might check out the Motorsports Hero from Go-Pro:

http://www.goprocamera.com/

Yea I was looking at that one, the quality seems excellent for the price. However its battery powered and I'm not sure if it takes an external mic...

[bmwpowere36m3]

I have GoPro Motorsports Hero I spot tie it to the grill of the CV, works fairly well I can get about an hour of video with sound on a 2 gb flash card

Any video clips to show? Can it take an external mic?

[Cobra Vic]

Not on my PC here at work, it has a built in mic I don't think it will take an external one,
the only video I can get at from here is mounted inside the car on the roll cage and not very well lots of shake rattle and roll

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4zMTHlrJpM

this was firebird in PHX on the main track

[ApexPerf]

We have a link on our website to GoPro's website. They have a bunch of video downloads available. For the money, it's a neat little system.

After you click on the link below, Click on "see it in action" to view the clips.

http://www.apexperformance.net/cartg...id=1562&cid=15

[ppg4]

www.archos.com

Archos 404 - $179.95
Helmet Cam - $99.95
5v Cigarette Lighter Adapter - $29.95

You'll need to do a little custom work to mount the helmet cam as the provided strap is basically useless. I mounted mine by cutting up the provided strap and putting some velcro on it. A couple of guys I know have used mounts from other providers.

[thenobot]

Archos 404 - $179.95

Anything with moving parts (particularly delicate ones like a hard drive) will not last long in a race car.

I've got the 580-line bullet cam, Aiptek A-HD (though the MPVR is a better choice for this application), remote mics, and a power adapter. Works like a charm (2+ hours of video on a 2GB card), and well under your $400 budget.

I've considered getting one of these as a fail-safe backup. All you need is a couple AA batteries...
http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.aspx?Prodid=11221005&whse=BC&Ne=4000000&eC at=BC|79|83&N=4001482&Mo=6&No=5&Nr=P_CatalogName:B C&cat=4471&Ns=P_Price|1||P_SignDesc1&lang=en-US&Sp=C&topnav=

[ppg4]

Anything with moving parts (particularly delicate ones like a hard drive) will not last long in a race car.

I've got the 580-line bullet cam, Aiptek A-HD (though the MPVR is a better choice for this application), remote mics, and a power adapter. Works like a charm, and well under your $400 budget.

I know it's not ideal, but it really depends how you have it mounted in the car. These things are pretty robust. Mine lasted some 25+ track days last season (until I lost it) after taking some pretty nasty drops. I know others who have at least that much time on theirs and are still going strong.

[thenobot]

The Archos 405 2GB looks like a good choice too:
http://www.circuitcity.com/ccd/produ...T&cm_keycode=4

[JClark]

How long do the batteries last in the GoPro Motorsport Hero? The sound is pretty good considering its strapped to the front of the car in most of the videos.

[Fair]

The Archos 405 2GB looks like a good choice too:
http://www.circuitcity.com/ccd/produ...T&cm_keycode=4

Hmm.... maybe. 2 GB internal flash memory (+ SD slot), 3.5 screen, not bad for $129. Read some reviews and it doesn't seem to work with Vista yet, which is a bummer. The external camera is a pricey option, of course, and you have to pay $20 each to download the codecs for many formats.

Another solid state Archos recording unit worth comparing to is Archos 605. It has double the internal flash memory (4GB + SD slot) and a larger screen (4.3" color touch screen) for only $199.

There's larger and/or higher capacity 5th generation Archos units but they all seem to have on-board harddrives, which I wouldn't want to use in a high NVH environment like a race car.

I found the helmet camcorder option for the gen 4 Archos products cost another $114-149, depending on where you buy it. Specs: Resolution H x V (pixels): - Model NTSC: 512 x 492. Seems like a pretty clunky deal - its like a plug-in base for the entire Archos video unit. And the wire looks too short... would be a problem with mounting the camera remotely. But this is for the older Gen 4 stuff...

...I then futzed around for another 30 minutes trying to find the right external camera for a Gen 5 Archos unit. This is why I think the ChaseCam stuff costs what it does - it works better as an in-car video recording package and they have everything right there that works, no mysteries.

edit: finally found it on the Archos site...

• Helmet Camcorder - Gen 5
• Only compatible with ARCHOS 405 and 605 models
• Light Sensitivity: 1.0 Lux / F 1.2
• Resolution: 420 TV Lines
• CCD: 1/4-inch SONY Super HAD colour LCD
• Lens: fixed Pinhole 3.6mm
• Part no. Ref. 500986, product specs
• Cost: $149 (and $110-149 elsewhere)

The newer bullet camera from ChaseCam are 580 line rez

[osborni]

Ran across this on Fleabay:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...MEWA:IT&ih=022


MOTOCOMM DIGITAL RECORDER CAMERA HELMET CAM MP3 DSR-100

Looks promising.

Lower resolution, but who needs high end stuff if your uploading to the web?

[bmwpowere36m3]

Updated my list to include the archos 405 & cam, but still listening to more options. I guess are there any other sources of "lipstick cams" and is there a significant difference between 480-line and 520,580-line?

[GMS]

why not bump your budget up to 650 and get a POV1.

[Eric1H]

So, the A-HD has a video input? I look at that one, but I ended up buying something else, didnt think it had video inputs

Anything with moving parts (particularly delicate ones like a hard drive) will not last long in a race car.

I've got the 580-line bullet cam, Aiptek A-HD (though the MPVR is a better choice for this application), remote mics, and a power adapter. Works like a charm (2+ hours of video on a 2GB card), and well under your $400 budget.

I've considered getting one of these as a fail-safe backup. All you need is a couple AA batteries...
http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.aspx?Prodid=11221005&whse=BC&Ne=4000000&eC at=BC|79|83&N=4001482&Mo=6&No=5&Nr=P_CatalogName:B C&cat=4471&Ns=P_Price|1||P_SignDesc1&lang=en-US&Sp=C&topnav=

[thenobot]

yes, it has an a/v input and component output.

[Fair]

Another solid state Archos recording unit worth comparing to is Archos 605. It has double the internal flash memory (4GB + SD slot) and a larger screen (4.3" color touch screen) for only $199.

I went to Circuit City last night and got to play with an Archos 605 "PMP" unit in the store. Damn nice. They only had the 30GB hdd equipped version, and not the solid state flash memory one that would work better in a race car (I found 16 GB SD cards for $79, so an Archos 605 could easily have 20 GB of storage for under $280 total).



The 605 is way more than a video recorder, of course, what they call a "Portable Media Player", but for $199 its a steal. The screen resolution on the 605 and smoothness of stills and videos obliterated the other units they had on display from Creative, the Zune, even my iPhone (none of these have an external video camera, of course). It had a nice touch screen menu that was pretty intuitive (not iPhone good, but that's to be expected) and a lot of capability. I wouldn't mind having one of these for just watching movies when traveling.

I knew more about it than the Circuit City folks, after 15 minutes of reading online reviews, shocking. Its fairly light and looks like it would make for a nice in-car video recording/playback unit. I really want to get my hands on the camera, to see the cord length - this could be a deal breaker if the cord it too short to use the lipstick camera mounted outside the car. If there was a spec on the cable... 1 meter? 3 meters? No idea. The Archos site has jack squat about cable length and I have not found a single web review or youtube review of the Archos 605 where they used the optional video camera.

To whoever said "why not use a low def video camera" for in-car video? Because I've done that in the past with 8mm and "Digital" tape video cameras, and a Hero3 solid state unit, and the resolution just isn't very good. We have data acquisition units that can incorporate in-car video and data logging for a better post-race diagnosis... and I want to up the quality of the video to match the data. I would really prefer a Hi-Def 720P resolution, 16:9 aspect video recording unit that can use a remote camera and mic, but I'm having trouble finding that at all - only thing close is the $1000+ tape recording or hdd based video cameras. Having instant playback capability on a screen bigger than a postage stamp would be helpful, too.



Sure, the low def videos don't matter for the tiny resized youtube hosted videos, but I can host unlimited numbers of videos on my photo/video hosting site up to 720P rez... and I wouldn't mind shooting videos in something better than low resolution. There's just not a lot of solid state recorders/cameras that can exceed 320x240 rez for under $500. Or even under $1000. This Archos 605 + optional camera might be pretty slick... if I could only see some sample videos on something other than "youtube resized".



Hmm.... here's a video I finally found on this site: http://www.actioncameras.co.uk/ArchosKit.wmv

Not that great. Hmm. But it could be a Archos 405 that recorded it - they didn't say. That's a bit too jittery and low def. I'll keep looking.

[ppg4]

I know the WSIR video on this link was recorded using the Archos (605 WiFi Enabled, I believe) and the helmet cam I referenced above. As I recall, he mounted it on the windhsield of the car using a suction cup mount from another system.

http://myracingdays.blogspot.com/

I've got some video from my system somewhere... I'll try to post if I find it. It looked pretty good... I think the Chase Cam stuff looks a bit better, but for what it costs, it should.

There are a couple of things to be aware of with the Archos. Battery life is horrible while recording... don't expect to get more than about 30 minutes of recording time using a standard battery. The cigarette lighter power adapter is a must... if you run out of battery mid-session, you loose the whole thing because the file isn't formatted properly for playback. It's quite frustrating coming in from a fast session and realizing there's no video.

The cord isn't that long and while the integrated remote control is useful, it makes the prospect of splicing it a little daunting. As I recall (my system mysteriously disappeared a few months ago), the cord is about 4ft, 6 at most. I stored my Archos in the center storage bin of my Z4M Coupe using a tab of velcro on the case. I modified the supplied (but useless) helmet cam strap by cutting of the part that holds the camera, putting velcro loop on it and the hooks on my helmet. It actually worked pretty well once I got it set up and aimed properly. Having the camera on my helmet made it really easy to figure out where I was looking when watching video later and definitely gave it a first person feel.

Anyway, if you plan on using the system, mounting the camera outside will require some creative wiring.

[bmwpowere36m3]

why not bump your budget up to 650 and get a POV1.

Because thats too much right now for a collage student on a budget. I'm looking at the best compromise for low-price and decent quality.

[thenobot]

I finally got around to taking some photos of my homemade rollbar mount. Here are some photos with annotations:
http://flickr.com/photos/thenobot/23...7604127192277/
http://flickr.com/photos/thenobot/23...7604127192277/
There are some more (crappy cameraphone) pictures in the set.
http://flickr.com/photos/thenobot/se...7604127192277/

[bmwpowere36m3]

added another bullet cam option, action cams 580-line: https://www.actionvideocams.com/Helm...elmet_Cam_580x

[M3Chef]

$50.00 http://www.filmtools.com/cruisecam.html


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6-LqMVAZ-U (2 min mark)


ez-done