Mobile Video Recorders for your ground Station

Since I have started flying with wireless cameras and recording my flights on the ground hasn't worked out so well. First I tried recording video straight to my computer with the Diamond VC500 One-Touch video capture device $35 at Fry's, but when I would replay my video's they were very skippy as well as while trying to fly via the computer screen I noticed that there is a delay in the video witch was causing me to over steer my aircraft making it harder to fly. So I have found 2 mobile stand alone video recorders that are small, easy to use, and fair priced. The first unit is Model MVR1020 by Clover electronics us. $70-$180, 1ch Mobile Digital Video Recorder. Which is what I use.

I like this recorder because it works very well and captures great video. The only 2 bad things about it are that the software that converts the file to AVI is a flop. The other is I called Clover and they say that they know about the problem but most of there customers (The Discovery ch) DUB the video to there own recorder or computer. Witch is what I have done with my Diamond VC500 and it works great. The second video recorder is MDVR25 at http://www.supercircuits.com/Digital-Video-Recorders/Mobile-DVRs/MDVR25.

I haven't used this divice, but looks ok.??

Diamond VC500 MVR1020

MVR1020 spec. sheet

Hope this helps and good luck

Well.....the same SD cards are also used in my GoPro that has no trouble writing at 1080p 30fps. I think its more in how the NTSC signal is encoded rather than the medium being a bottleneck. The codec algorithm is where most of the business takes place or doesn't for that matter. When the MDV25 is in not recording and just passing video through to a monitor the picture quality is much lower than the input which also leaves me suspect there are noise and impedance mismatch issues with it as well. The Dazzle box I tried does a good job of streaming DV to my iBook but had UI issues that are unmanageable while flying. This thing would have been the bomb for recording but mine was one of their first off the production line and had a known error in its ROM that caused it, by default, to startup in PAL, requiring a warm reset (often several) to get it to see and sync with my NTSC feed. I searched for a patch that I could flash/update to no avail. Perhaps the newer versions from Dazzle are easier to manage? I am curious if anyone out there owns one that can comment.

Its almost universal among FPV'ers who record their video downlink expecting quality that they use a good old digital cam corder with a VCR feature /RCA jack, that writes to magnetic tape. There is a list of camcorders that Crash9 put together that chin-the-bar and are easily found used on ebay etc. The list is on either his website or one of the FPV forums.

For now I'm going hang with the MDV25 to get the essentials I need to troubleshoot on-board systems, recover my plane when it gets lost. I'm holding out old out for the days when HDTV gear becomes more cost feasible and NTSC and PAL fade from memory.

Something like this box could do the job and provide a long range data radio. Of course you need of these down converters and a receiver at a minimum. For diversity a second antenna and down converter would be needed. The price of this stuff is way beyond my toy budget. If Kurtzweil is right this stuff will be in reach sooner than I think and flying with a "soda straw" field of view will be something to tell the grandkids about how it used to be.... they probably won't care all that much just as my son is more drawn to his Xbox....

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Anthony Gagliardo April 17, 2011 at 10:31am

Well.....the same SD cards are also used in my GoPro that has no trouble writing at 1080p 30fps. I think its more in how the NTSC signal is encoded rather than the medium being a bottleneck. The codec algorithm is where most of the business takes place or doesn't for that matter. When the MDV25 is in not recording and just passing video through to a monitor the picture quality is much lower than the input which also leaves me suspect there are noise and impedance mismatch issues with it as well. The Dazzle box I tried does a good job of streaming DV to my iBook but had UI issues that are unmanageable while flying. This thing would have been the bomb for recording but mine was one of their first off the production line and had a known error in its ROM that caused it, by default, to startup in PAL, requiring a warm reset (often several) to get it to see and sync with my NTSC feed. I searched for a patch that I could flash/update to no avail. Perhaps the newer versions from Dazzle are easier to manage? I am curious if anyone out there owns one that can comment.

Its almost universal among FPV'ers who record their video downlink expecting quality that they use a good old digital cam corder with a VCR feature /RCA jack, that writes to magnetic tape. There is a list of camcorders that Crash9 put together that chin-the-bar and are easily found used on ebay etc. The list is on either his website or one of the FPV forums.

For now I'm going hang with the MDV25 to get the essentials I need to troubleshoot on-board systems, recover my plane when it gets lost. I'm holding out old out for the days when HDTV gear becomes more cost feasible and NTSC and PAL fade from memory.

Something like this box could do the job and provide a long range data radio. Of course you need of these down converters and a receiver at a minimum. For diversity a second antenna and down converter would be needed. The price of this stuff is way beyond my toy budget. If Kurtzweil is right this stuff will be in reach sooner than I think and flying with a "soda straw" field of view will be something to tell the grandkids about how it used to be.... they probably won't care all that much just as my son is more drawn to his Xbox....
Russell B. Sutton April 16, 2011 at 3:13pm

Dude love the video's. I found Swann™ RedAlert 2™ Digital Video Recorder
Model: SW341-RA2-US045 | Catalog #: 49-114
$149.99 @ RadioShack lastnight.

http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=10999760

After watching ur video's it's clear that the problem with the MDV25 is the SD card. It's can't record fast enough witch is causing poor quality. The MVR1020 from clover uses the CF card witch records at a very high rate and doesn't down grade the video.
Anthony Gagliardo April 16, 2011 at 2:37pm

Hey Russell,

I just had a look at the MDVR25 you asked about and its the exact same box I got from dealextreme.com.
Anthony Gagliardo April 16, 2011 at 2:29pm

I tried to use a Dazzle DV to Analog (NTSC) converter connected to iBook Pro via firewire and found that while it worked it was too much junk to drag out and manage along with all my other gear. When I would get it to record It would stop recording after brief signal drops requiring me to manually reset it.

A friend in Houston found this DVR for me at dealextreme.com. Its description is Single Channel Mini DVR Audio Video Recorder with SD Card Slot, SKU 53835 - be sure to pick up the correct resolution as they sell several types. Its target market is the security industry . It works fine for getting the essence of my flights. One button starts and stops recording. The quality is not all that great after converting the files for Youtube. Perhaps some of the noise can be reduced with some ferrite beads in all the right places and better codec conversion software. For quality video I have a GoPro.

Here is the first recording I made the day I got it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhlq3sKcQ40

Here is a recording of my RQ11's FPV downlink to the same box:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmpojEt5sHM
Stephen Carlson April 14, 2011 at 10:39pm

I've used the VS500 for over a year now. At first, when I got it as a gift in December 2009, it was a joke. My Win7 x64 laptop (An HP dv6-1362NR) was unsupported by the drivers supplied, so video worked, but audio was uncapturable, and so many flights were done with the video from the plane being recorded while having the mic on the laptop sourcing the sound. However, when the official drivers were released by Diamond in February of 2010, the VC500 was transformed into the most perfect, ideal video capture solution I've found. The lag is probably on the order of 100 to 150 milliseconds (Set on DVD record mode, 720x480 at 30fps), the OneTouch Capture program is nice in that it goes full screen, covering completely everything, and thus far it was been very stable to fly with, over 40 flights with no software (or literal) crashes yet.

Getting a faster laptop may solve the glitchy video problem, my older IBM couldn't handle 640x480 30fps recording, and had to be dumbed down to 480x320 to get smooth video. (Done with EasyCap)

-Steve
Russell B. Sutton April 14, 2011 at 6:59pm

Moss it is the computer, thats why I like the MVR1020 because it never has a glitch. Whats wierd is as long as it's not a live video feed it records fine through the VC500.
Moss April 14, 2011 at 6:21pm

I have used diamond VC500 without any problems. It mght be that your computer had had problems with the associated drivers
mquintilian April 14, 2011 at 4:52pm

I just tried out my 6$ easycap for live video and it works PERFECTLY, no noticeable delay at all. i used these http://dekonass.no-ip.biz/?p=462 drivers. for 6$ its a amazing deal
mquintilian April 14, 2011 at 4:01pm

count out the hauppage 250q. when i finnaly got it working the frame rate was about 0.02 fps
Russell B. Sutton April 14, 2011 at 3:30pm

This was my only video i got to make using this setup.

This reply was deleted.