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Recently bought one of these, and tried it out for the first time yesterday. When I got home and uploaded the movie files and view them through Quickplayer, they were absolutely PANTS! Obviously things like camera angle need fine tuning, but they were jerky and unwatchable.
Now that jerkiness might be something to do with my ancient laptop about to give up the ghost, but when I attempted to stick them on Youtube(thinking they'd somehow improve once on there) it estimated that one 7 min file would take 340 minutes! Nearly 6 hours?
Anyway i sacked that, but now am wondering if I've missed something simple? Is it better if i switch the wee quality switch to lo? Should I only use contour software to uploads vids?
Hate thinking I've wasted te best part of £300 on something that works no better than an old crappy Action Cam i had years ago, so anyone with advice or experience , I'd love to hear your wisdom.
I have found that the HD vids need a decent machine, I had a Laptop good processor couple gig of memory, unwatchable vids. Windows 7 is pretty good at playing back HD vids.
They take a massive time to upload on home dsl to you tube that's normal as they can be quite large.
I have one of these and you should use the 'Easy Edit' software (came with camera) to get them uploaded in the first instance - what software you use to edit after is up to you (I just use iMovie, which is good enough!).
When you have the camera plugged in and the 'Easy Edit' software open the 'Tools' menu and then select 'Configure Camera', from this menu I would configure the 'low' setting to 720p @ 60fps - this setting is BY FAR the best setting for MTB - this is because is captures more frames per second than in 1080p (which is 30fps) and therefore smooths the whole experience!
Took me a while to work all this out, but it was worth it....(when you watch this change it to 720HD on the You Tube setting)
PS: Also worth checking you camera mount is VERY secure!
What speed card are you using?
I upgraded to a class 6 and it stopped the jitter and wear my helmet tight
I use the contour software to upload the vids no problem
Thanks for the tips. Will alter settings and try again tomorrow. Not sure of the card speed, any easy way to find out?
It should say on the card?
Ok it'd appear to be a class 2. So a new card is required in all likelihood! Never done spending money on this biking malarkey!
hello again, rejigged the settings to Lo quality and secured the helmet mounting and the videos are excellent now. Now I'd like to try and publish the videos to Youtube. If I use Contours proprietary software it only goes to Contour's site...which is ok but couple of pals have difficulty watching them. Anyone got any ideas?
You have to export the movie from which ever 'editing' software you use. I use iMovie as I use a mac and then when I have finished editing I export video to YouTube etc.
HD footage is notoriously fussy, all the different companies use different codecs in camera so editing suites/ players react differently to the footage. Def. second the use of a Class 6 card, I'm surprised it allowed you to record at all on Class 2.
Use the software that came with the camera to import the files then export to a .mov file or a.n.other and edit in whatever suite you fancy.
HD needs at least a class 4. But these days faster cards aren't much more expensive if at all (I got class 10 16gb cards for the same as the cheapest quality class 4 16gb I could find)
I've found some editing software really struggles with the files, standard Vegas is supposed to be HD compatible but can't smoothly preview the files if you're using them unconverted, which makes it pretty useless. But Vegas Platinum can.
As has been said a class 4 memory card or better will be needed. The class 2 card can be used for SD stuff but not HD. There is a Contour forum that may help as well. Use the "easy edit" software to check / change the setting of the hi/lo switch. You can also check and change metering etc.
Re editing I tried Adobe Elements and binned it as it just kept crashing. I have gone with Cyberlink Power Director and find it very good. A word of warning about HD footage is that any editing and effects etc is very heavy on the PC so you do need a very good spec.
Ah well my laptop is just about to keel over and die so that may explain a few things. Unedited footage is the way forwrd anyway. Cinema verite n'est pas? Though i hate hearing my own voice on soundtrack so may have to do something about that. Thanks again.