vio-pov POV.HD, User Manual

Page 1: ...POV HD TM User Manual Point of View Video Built for Action ...

Page 2: ... v1 12 Copyright 2010 2011 V I O Inc All rights reserved POV HD V I O and the V I O logo are trademarks of V I O Inc All other product and brand names may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners ...

Page 3: ... clips directly from the recorder to a TV or personal computer 18 Change the remote ID channel on the remote control 19 Change the remote ID channel on the POV HD 19 Update the firmware on the POV HD 20 Settings 24 Tips and guidelines for getting the most out of your POV HD 30 Choosing a video format 30 Understanding the POV HD Video Record Methods 31 Using the built in editing features 35 Choosin...

Page 4: ...ture video just about anywhere you care to go Dust snow water spray shock and vibration pose no threat to the state of the art optics and electronics inside The modular system design allows you to mount the camera head almost anywhere helmet shoulder strap roll cage ski tip power boat windshield firearm you name it and a POV camera has probably been there Before you do anything else View the short...

Page 5: ...arbonate enclosure that protects it from impact and vibration that would prove deadly to other systems Both the recorder and the camera head are rated at IP67 for protection against dust and moisture Wireless Remote Control The wireless remote allows you to control recording or still photo capture without having direct access to the POV HD recorder This lets you get set up for recording and then s...

Page 6: ...hat receiver directly from the recorder Quick Start Guide 4 GB SDHC Card with Preloaded Tutorials The Quick Start Guide is a handy summary reference that fits in the POV HD carrying case so it goes with you anywhere The 4 GB SDHC card is used for storing video you record It comes preloaded with video tutorials which can be viewed on the recorder or uploaded onto a computer for viewing there These ...

Page 7: ...as shown in the next step below then play the tutorials as shown in Previewing Video on the Recorder Set up the POV HD recorder 1 Install the 4 AA batteries included with the POV HD in the recorder Turn the recorder over and unlatch the two battery cover clamps Remove the cover and install the batteries Because of the seal the hatch may stick slightly This is normal Excessive force is not required...

Page 8: ... it is latched push the back edge of the card slightly and it will unlatch and project out a short distance It can then be pulled out There is a small notch on the outer edge of the label side of the SDHC card that allows you to use a finger nail to slide the card out after it is unlatched Replace the Input Output cover and tighten the retaining screw finger tight Note The POV HD comes with a 4 GB...

Page 9: ...will display the word Standby indicating that it is ready to record 3 If you see the preview from the camera head and the recorder displays Standby everything is working as it should Possible issues a The recorder won t power up Are there batteries in the recorder Don t be offended it s happened to all of us IMPORTANT When attaching the cable align the key on the cable connector with the slot on t...

Page 10: ...ther files will be correctly labeled 1 Press the Settings button to go to the settings 2 Navigate to Time and Date using the and soft keys 3 When you reach the Time and Date menu press the Select soft key 4 The time and date are set one digit at a time The soft key increments the current digit colored red and wraps at 9 to begin again at 0 The soft key moves to the next digit to the right and wrap...

Page 11: ... this will return you to Record Standby c Go to the Settings and check that the Remote Control ID is set to 0 zero If it is not reset it to 0 The recorder is shipped with the Remote Control ID set to the default value of 0 to match the channel setting in the wireless remote as shipped However if the Remote Control ID has been changed for any reason it will remain changed even if the recorder is po...

Page 12: ...the left key goes back one setting the center key selects the current setting and the right key goes forward one setting Video control buttons The Play button selects Play mode and starts and stops playback of clips on the recorder The Record button selects Record Mode and starts and stops recording When shooting still photos the record button takes a picture The Settings button selects Settings m...

Page 13: ...lse while recording it s a good idea to turn Keylock on To turn Keylock off Press the left Unlock soft key The right soft key will now be labeled and the message Press to unlock is displayed Press The message Exit Keylock is displayed the right soft key is labeled Yes and the left soft key is labeled No Press Yes to release the locked keys Press No to cancel unlocking Multiple key presses are requ...

Page 14: ...em Tag clips created by Save Tags use the source clip file name with a five digit number added at the end This number is the number of seconds after the start of the file at which the tag was made For Example Highlight clips have the word highlight appended to the source file name For Example 2010 Jun 03 11h 03m 18s_tag_00247 mp4 Date clip was made Time master clip was made This clip is a tag clip...

Page 15: ...e Tag soft key A tag is a time marker on a clip similar to a bookmark in a document Tags are added to a clip by pressing the Tag soft key on the recorder or the REC TAG button on the wireless remote Tags are used by the built in editing software See In field Editing below for more information Record methods The POV HD supports 4 Record Methods A complete discussion of what each Record Method does ...

Page 16: ... is no reason why this needs to be changed If you do need to change the wireless remote communication channel refer to Changing the Remote ID Channel Record still photos 1 In Settings change the Record Method to Still Photo 2 Press the REC button on the recorder As for any other Record Method Standby will be displayed in the upper left and Still Photo will be displayed in the top center of the LCD...

Page 17: ...ips and still photos are displayed in the order in which they are recorded so clips and still photos are mixed together in the sequence you preview them When a still photo is displayed Photo appears in the upper right corner in place of the clip length If there are highlight clips on the SDHC card each highlight clip is displayed immediately before the clip on which it is based Highlight clips are...

Page 18: ...the other half is the footage following the tag When Save Tags runs it creates tag clips for all of the tagged clips on the SDHC card All of the tag clips from all tagged clips are saved in a single subdirectory called Tags The tag clips are associated with their original tagged clips by their file names as described in the previous section Compile Tags When you use Compile Tags on a tagged clip a...

Page 19: ...from 2010 Jun 03 11h 03m 18s mp4 2010 Jun 03 11 03m 18s xml is the XML file that contains the tag information for the clip file 2010 Jun 03 11h 03m 18s_tag_00126 mp4 and the other similarly named files in the tags subdirectory are tag clips made using Save Tags Details about POV HD file naming conventions are given in File Names on the POV HD above Note This illustration shows the file structure T...

Page 20: ... SDHC card Once the video files are on your computer they can be treated like any other video files They can be viewed using any suitable video player that runs on your system They can be edited compiled and or resized into your own custom videos They can be burned onto CD s or DVD s They can be uploaded to YouTube or any other video sharing site on the Internet Delete video clips and still photos...

Page 21: ... Plug the single black 1 8 in mini phono jack into the A V Out port on the recorder Plug the white audio and yellow video RCA connectors on the other end of the cable into the receptacles of corresponding color on the television set See the instructions for your television to determine how to connect a composite video signal input to your set If the television is not on turn it on and set it to th...

Page 22: ...to communicate with the POV recorders so that each POV is using a different channel The remote control and POV recorder it is associated with must be set to the same channel in order to work together but must be different than other POV s in use in the same area The Remote ID channel of the wireless remote is set using a small rotary dial located inside the remote control To adjust the channel you...

Page 23: ...re x yy is the version number for this upgrade You can put the firmware on an SDHC card in one of two ways 1 Put the SDHC card into an SDHC card slot on your computer or into an SDHC card reader attached to your computer OR 2 Connect you computer directly to the recorder with an SDHC card in it using the USB link In either case simply drag the firmware BIN file onto the SDHC card in Windows Explor...

Page 24: ... the Select soft key You will be asked to confirm the firmware upgrade If the new firmware version is the version you intend to upgrade to press the Yes soft key This will start the firmware upgrade If not see 1 or 2 in Troubleshoot firmware upgrade problems below IMPORTANT Do not turn the recorder off or remove the SDHC card while the firmware is being updated The update process takes only a shor...

Page 25: ...em and are unable to contact VIO Customer Care at this time you can continue to use your POV HD with the older version of the firmware until you get help Customer Care Contact information is on the last page of this manual 2 If you set Upgrade Firmware to Yes and the confirmation message indicates that you are upgrading to the wrong version of the firmware Press the No soft key to leave Upgrade Fi...

Page 26: ...ware upgrade file is loaded correctly check to see that no older firmware upgrade files are still on the card If any older firmware upgrade files are present delete them If the correct firmware upgrade file is on the SDHC card and in the correct location and you deleted unwanted firmware upgrade files from the SDHC card try installing the new firmware again starting with Install the firmware upgra...

Page 27: ...t key when that setting is visible The current value of the setting will be shown in red 6 To change the value of a selected setting use the and soft keys to cycle through the possible values When the value you wish to select is shown press the Save soft key to store the new value Note that in the example the Record Method has been changed to Loop Forward and the Select soft key is now Save 7 To e...

Page 28: ... Sets the idle time required before the recorder shuts down Power off Timeout will not occur while you are recording video or during video playback Any use of the soft keys or other buttons on the recorder resets the Power off Timeout timer Options Never 15 sec 1 2 3 5 10 15 or 30 min Default Never 3 Speaker Volume Sets the audio playback volume through the built in speaker Options Off Volume leve...

Page 29: ... Options 1080p30 720p60 1080p25 1080p24 720p50 Firmware version 1 12 or later 720p30 720p25 Firmware version 1 12 or later Default 1080p30 9 Image Quality Adjusts the amount of compression applied to the recorded video Higher quality means less compression but larger file sizes Lower quality means more compression and smaller file sizes Options Very High 16 Mbits sec High 12 Mbits sec Medium 10 Mb...

Page 30: ...number of steps by which the exposure is increased Default Level 0 no compensation applied For more information see Optimizing Video Quality in the next section 13 Noise Filter Reduces or removes random video noise on each frame Video noise may consist of singular tiny picks of contrasting color or general speckling especially of darker areas most often encountered in very low light situations Opt...

Page 31: ...layed Default None This feature is available in firmware version 1 12 or later 16 LCD Brightness Sets the brightness level of the LCD Options Brightness levels 1 10 Default Level 10 17 Video Output Sets the format of analog output through the A V port on the recorder Options NTSC or PAL Default NTSC 18 AV Out Overlay Timeout Specifies a timeout value to remove the normal playback overlay from the ...

Page 32: ...a firmware update from the SDHC card This setting is used as part of the POV HD firmware update process when updates are made available by V I O 23 Save Tags Causes the recorder to create a separate tag clip from each of the tags on a tagged clip The length of these tag clips is based on the current value of the Loop Record Time See Using the Built in Editing Features below 24 Compile Tags Causes ...

Page 33: ...ts such as 1080i In such a case i designates interlaced scanning in which the odd numbered scan lines are captured in in one frame and the even numbered lines in the next This method uses less bandwidth and less file space but in some circumstances such as filming rapid motion the perceived picture may not be as sharp as with progressive scanning Also the frame rate is commonly left off the label ...

Page 34: ...in picture quality between 1080p and 720p may or may not be significant or even detectable It s best to try it and see 2 On the POV HD 720p60 is recorded at 60 fps and 720p50 is recorded at 50 fps for compatibility with European broadcast standards which allows clips recorded this way to be played back in smooth slow motion and for action filming these will often be the format of choice Because on...

Page 35: ...en REC is pressed and runs continuously until REC is pressed again This is exactly the way a standard video recorder works In addition each time the Tag key is pressed a tag is recorded for later possible use with the built in editing features Using the Loop Record Method recording starts when the REC button is pressed but the captured video isn t saved until Tag is pressed When Tag is pressed at ...

Page 36: ...ing the current segment if you hit tag near the end of the current clip you will still get one entire segment following your pressing TAG NOTE Each time you press TAG the POV HD saves four separate clips One for the segment preceding the current segment one for the current segment one for the segment following the current segment and an XML file for the tag which created the clips Each of these is...

Page 37: ...emember to set the Loop Record Time to a large enough interval to make sure you re covered NOTE Loop and forward creates two clip files one for the segment immediately preceding the current segment and one for the current segment plus all of the remaining video The figure below shows the two clip files the XML tag file and the two tag clip files that result from the example in the Loop Forward ill...

Page 38: ...ags you will get 3 new clips one for each tag Clip 1 will run from 2 51 to 2 21 Since the Loop Record Time is 30 seconds the clip starts half that length 15 seconds before the first tag which is at 2 06 and goes for 30 seconds which takes it 15 seconds past the tag which is 2 21 Clip 2 will run from 5 39 to 6 09 Clip 3 will run from 7 03 to 7 33 The tag clips created by Save Tags are placed in a s...

Page 39: ...lip example used earlier All tag clips are in the tags subdirectory and are identified with _tag_xxxxx where xxxxx the number of seconds after the start of the clip at which the tag occurred In this case 00126 2 min 6 sec and so on The Highlight Clip created by Compile Tags is in the DCIM directory and is identified by _highlight General information about file name is given in File Names on the PO...

Page 40: ...e one time and recording will start After that just hit REC TAG each time you want to tag some of the action Loop The results produced by Loop are similar to the results you get by running Save Tags on a tagged clip Every time you press Tag you will end up with a short clip that captures the action near that tag But there are some important differences between Loop recording and applying Save Tags...

Page 41: ...er We can measure and adjust clarity color accuracy color depth white balance contrast and all kinds of other things to make the video you take to look as good as possible to you and your friends The POV HD includes both automatic controls that ensure high quality video under a wide variety of shooting conditions and manually adjustable settings for tweaking video quality One of the most difficult...

Page 42: ... in the range 3 to 3 A setting of 0 makes no adjustment to the automatic exposure setting Negative settings adjust the exposure level down positive settings adjust the exposure settings up Exposure Compensation is most useful under extreme lighting conditions On a very bright day with the sun high in the sky when shooting over snow or open water the recorded scene may be too bright and may look wa...

Page 43: ...ressed the more likely it is that on playback a viewer may notice some loss of fine detail general sharpness or other effects Whether or not higher compression produces any noticeable effects depends upon on number of factors what is being shot lighting conditions rapidity of movement and other things In addition compression effects are much less likely to be noticed if the video is played back in...

Page 44: ...d Alkaline Batteries Standard alkaline AA batteries are widely available and relatively inexpensive However if you do a lot of shooting the cost of disposable batteries can add up and all batteries require special handling for proper disposal The long shelf life makes standard batteries a good choice for that extra set stowed in the bottom of your bag for emergency use some day NiMH Rechargeable B...

Page 45: ...hat extra recording time and if there is no compelling reason to use lithiums rechargeables or rechargeables plus standard batteries for backup are probably the better choice There is another consideration when deciding about lithium batteries Lithium batteries are not as easy to recycle and have more environmental implications than their alkaline and rechargeable battery counterparts Lithium batt...

Page 46: ...t by anyone other than V I O without the written permission of V I O will void this limited warranty V I O s limited warranty is also voided on any Product that is found to have an altered or tampered with serial number Defective items must be shipped by Buyer to V I O prepaid V I O will ship the return or replacement or refurbished Product item to the Buyer using UPS Ground services If the Buyer ...

Page 47: ...u must obtain a new RMA if you are unable to make delivery to our address within two weeks Obtaining Service and Technical Assistance We want to make sure you have the best possible experience with the POV HD if you have any questions or need assistance feel free to contact us Our web site is www vio pov com Contact us by phone at 888 579 CAMS 2267 Our email is customer care vio inc com Visit our ...