Is this acceptable video quality? + memory

[Itchy]

For recording slowish speed rides, etc

31FPS , 640x480 resolution -> 1200-1400kb/s copy to SD card....

would this give say acceptable average youtube quality recording or would it be terrible?.

I think I can make a recording rig for a bike much much cheaper than the £299+VAT jobbie helmet cam thing....

Also what is better carrying a ton of SD cards (I figure 2 or 4gb about 15-20 of them will cost me about £50), or bringing a laptop out with a massive massive 240gb HDD) the SD cards provide redundancy and also you don't put all your eggs into one basket.

While the HDD means less SD cards, price works out about the same.

Or does there exist anywhere something to copy SD cards to HDD without bringing a laptop along with me?.Since laptops are bulky and vulnerable.

Any thoughts?

Ta.
____________________
Spain 2008France 2007Big one 2009 We all die. The goal isn't to live forever, the goal is to create something that will. In the end, your life will flash before your eyes. Make sure it is worth watching.

[Rovman]

You want a device that encodes the video as you take it, straight into mpeg4 format. That'll give you the best quality/filesize ratio your likely to get without much work.

Youtube recently added HD quality to their vids and it makes a huge difference. So get yourself a wide angle camera and record in 1280x720 (youtube supports 720p). YouTube always re-encodes your videos, but your best to mimic its video standards, which means you want to record in 24fps and encode them to H.264/Mpeg4 with a minimum of 2000kbps (4000 would be best)

As for SD vs Laptop HDD. SD is deinfately the way to go. Your laptop harddrive will not like the bumpy ride as its mechanical. This will either constantly causes the HDD to park its drive heads to stop it form damaging itself (if it has an accelerometer) but most likely the bumps will just destroy the HDD.

You can buy 8gb SD cards now too.

EDIT:
HD quality might be a little OTT for what you want though and the filesizes will be huge. Youtube also have "High Quality" mode which is inbetween normal and HD.
For HQ quality encode into mpeg4 at 640x480, 24fps and around 900kbps minimum (obviously you want this as high as you can get it, whilst compromising on filesize/quality.

In both cases, stick with 128kbps stereo sound. 44.1 kHz sample rate.
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Theory Test Passed 01/03/2008 || A2 Test Passed 04/04/08
Kawasaki Ninja 250r 2008

[G]

Quality is sadly much more than stats.
A ATC helmet camera records at that resolutuion and frame rate, but has a terrible picture.

640x480 @ 30fps is fine for standard youtube... it's pretty decent if you get it to work properly with a decent source and recorder.

When selecting such things, other factors such as low-light performance also needs to be considered.

I would go for something that can take SDHC cards; then you've got up to 32gb per card. If you want cheap redudancy, you can get HD caddies that take SD cards and will suck the contents off.

So far, my personal favourite for recording is still an Archos 405, but I think the picture is slightly limted by the camera, so I might try cutting the Archos camera off and putting my own on. Whole solution for around £120... and it's a 'one wire' solution, which does make things easier.

If we're talking on-bike rather than on helmet, something like
this could be interesting, but I'm not sure of the quality.
Would need to find a decent way to damp it from vibrations.

Or possibly one of these:
https://www.lambda-tek.com/componentshop/index.pl?origin=gbase7.3&prodID=B147579

[Rob]

These one's seem pretty good:

https://www.goprocamera.com/
____________________
Love is 1050cc

[G]

Here's a comparison of similar ones:
https://helmetcamreview.wordpress.com/2008/11/04/review-number-two2/

However, not a very good comparison as it's mostly conjecture.
They have done a 'real' review of the ATC vs Tachyon on you tube showing side by side footage, which shows how naff the ATC is however.

The Tachyon looks interesting, but I'm going to hold out for HD bullet cameras, before another purchase, I reckon.

[Flip]

I know this old now G but I stumbled across this.

https://www.actioncameras.co.uk/ContourHD_VholdR

[G]

The first sensibly priced HD helmet-cam - very cool .
(Sony does one, but it costs £2k.)

Footage looks half-decent. I suspect I shall be acquiring one when I can next some how manage to justify it to myself, so that I can record loads of high definition footage that never gets used, in HD!

I used my Panasonic LX3 stills camera to record some 720p footage while on holiday - recording from one boat to another, held in my hand while trying to drive (is that what you do to a dinghy thing) it managed remarkable good pictures with impressive stills from that too. Doesn't weigh too much either, but not really a 'helmet friendly' shape and not waterproof etc.

[Flip]

https://www.vholdr.com/contourhd/videos?vid=4

https://www.youtube.com/user/vholdr