GS900 (VF960S)

mariomart said:
Hi Eric,

Are you sure it is a genuine GS900? Did you buy it from Foxoffer? It could also be that they gave you the wrong manual, however the firmware version you have is a lot newer than the current 20130718 that is on the support page. It gets even more confusing as you are talking about "8. LED: used to select the fill light to open / off / auto " which the GS900 was never fitted with. The "20. PLA. STAMP license plate No.: On / Off" is also another option not available on the GS900. as is the ability to turn off the GPS "21. GPS: Yes / No". I've never bothered trying the zoom function so I cant help you there.

I have a feeling that you may either have a fake GS900, the wrong firmware installed or you may have the wrong model number (is it a GS900 (VF960S) from Viofo or Foxoffer?).

Hope some of this helps.

Cheers :) Mario

Hi Mario,

yes I did buy the GS900 from FoxOffer who confirmed that 20130725 is the latest firmware.
Don´t you have the same remarks in your Manual?
Have you tried to make the Microphone hole bigger?

Cheers Eric
 
erkhu said:
Hi Mario,

yes I did buy the GS900 from FoxOffer who confirmed that 20130725 is the latest firmware.
Don´t you have the same remarks in your Manual?
Have you tried to make the Microphone hole bigger?

Cheers Eric

Hi Eric,

My manual has absolutely no reference to firmware settings. The volume of the microphone has never been the best, but it was improved in recent firmware. I'm hesitant in drilling into the casing as I don't know how to open the casing so I can see if I drill too far. I'm hoping that the manual that you received is a preview of what we are to expect in upcoming firmware. Apart from everything you have mentioned, how well does your GS900 operate?

Cheers :) Mario
 
mariomart said:
Hi Eric,

My manual has absolutely no reference to firmware settings. The volume of the microphone has never been the best, but it was improved in recent firmware. I'm hesitant in drilling into the casing as I don't know how to open the casing so I can see if I drill too far. I'm hoping that the manual that you received is a preview of what we are to expect in upcoming firmware. Apart from everything you have mentioned, how well does your GS900 operate?

Cheers :) Mario

Hi Mario and thanks for your answer,

I have just tested it once in my garden by walking around and that was OK with GPS readings but when I took it for a ride in my car I did not get any GPS-.txt-file at all just the camera -.mov-files.
I think I saw the green ikon for GPS when driving but I am not sure. Will test again.

Cheers Eric
 
Hi Mario again,

just went for a longer trip in my auto and found that it takes 10-12 min. before the GPS is working.
Is this normal?

Cheers Eric
 
erkhu said:
Hi Mario again,

just went for a longer trip in my auto and found that it takes 10-12 min. before the GPS is working.
Is this normal?

Cheers Eric

Hi Eric,

For the first few weeks it did take quite a while to pick up satellites, however it improved over time, and now it only takes between 20 seconds and 2 minutes. It is very dependent on weather conditions (on stormy/rainy days it takes longer than on a sunny cloudless day). I read somewhere that a new GPS unit takes a while to download some sort of satellite log from the GPS network before it speeds up.

Cheers :)
 
Re: AW: GS900 (VF960S)

For the time setting (zone) issue whwn using the model with integrated gpsr: for me in western europe the time gets set automatcally 2 hours too early.
Some what like UTC-1 instead of UTC+1.
 
Hi Mario again,

you said on FoxOffer blog July 1, that "Feedback on new firmware. ..... Sound is a lot louder as well"
Was this the 0509 firmware?
Do you find the sound the same with the 20130718 firmware?
My firmware 20130725 is the latest firmware (as per FoxOffer) but it has almost no sound even with computer volume set to 100%.
The SETUP Volume 0-13 only sets the BEEP sound volyme on dvr.

Cheers Eric
 
erkhu said:
The SETUP Volume 0-13 only sets the BEEP sound volyme on dvr.

the user menu option for volume control is only for the beep sound, it's not for adjusting mic gain
 
erkhu said:
Hi Mario again,

you said on FoxOffer blog July 1, that "Feedback on new firmware. ..... Sound is a lot louder as well"
Was this the 0509 firmware?
Do you find the sound the same with the 20130718 firmware?
My firmware 20130725 is the latest firmware (as per FoxOffer) but it has almost no sound even with computer volume set to 100%.
The SETUP Volume 0-13 only sets the BEEP sound volyme on dvr.

Cheers Eric

The 20130718 firmware doesn't seem as loud as the previous iteration.

I'm sure they are still tweaking the firmware so hopefully a new release should help fix (or break) things.
 
mariomart said:
(or break)

yeah that can happen sometimes, reality of doing updates, we've released an average of a version a month this year, there's been maybe 5 or 6 versions in between most release versions though, sometimes stuff breaks and you need to do it over or change the way you do it, frustrating at times
 
jokiin said:
erkhu said:
The SETUP Volume 0-13 only sets the BEEP sound volyme on dvr.

the user menu option for volume control is only for the beep sound, it's not for adjusting mic gain

Why then have in SETUP: BEEP SOUND: on / off when you can set the VOLUME to 0 (zero)?
WHY NO way to set audio mic gain ???
 
jokiin,

Oh, I thought you were manufacturer of the GS900 but here are some remarks:

4x digital zoom does not work with the Up / Down buttons during recording (as per GS9000).
TIME SETUP must NOT be resetted to UTC by GPS (as per GS9000).
Why have 2 settings for BEEP - beep sound: on / off AND Volume 0-13 (0 = off)?

Missing items as in User Manual:
8. LED: used to select the fill light to open / off / auto
13. TV output: NTCS / PAL
20. PLA. STAMP license plate No.: On / Off
21. GPS: Yes / No

Cheers Eric
 
erkhu said:
Oh, I thought you were manufacturer of the GS900 but here are some remarks:

no sorry, nothing to do with me, was just offering some more detail on the volume setting
 
To chime in with positive reports from the field for others thinking about buying one of these beasts, I just received my GS900 (VF960S) ordered from FoxOffer on 29 July. For transit time from Asia to Eastern Canada I'd say 21 days was almost perfectly average. As I noted in an earlier post, it came via Singapore Post which was a bit unexpected (rather than HKG Post or China Post) but it got here all the same. For any Canucks in the same boat, I suspect a larger or west coast Canadian city would probably have seen it a few days earlier.

A note about 'tracking' the package so future buyers know what to expect. I got only two status updates via the SingPost site. First that the information of the shipment had been received (two days after ordering) and that it had been dispatched to my country (Canada - five days later). This didn't bother me as I'm used to Asia-North America shipping of this sort but anyone expecting a 'stop by stop' tracking (ala DHL, FedEx, or UPS) would be disappointed. This method of shipping/tracking was free and that suited me just fine. Exercise patience or pay extra.

The cam was properly boxed and arrived in fine shape. Everything seems included as described at this point. The box was *ahem* "helpfully" labelled for customs so no additional charges to me on arrival here in Canada.

I'll get some test vids and first drive impressions up as soon as I can find a corner of the web I like that's not part of the Google juggernaut to put them. At this point however, I can note that the unit was shipped with Firmware version 20130725 as noted in earlier posts so that seems to be the latest and greatest. A quick test in my living room revealed that the sound levels seemed 'ok' but I'll focus on that in some initial drives to see if I can help clear that question up a bit. Stay tuned fellow CamGeeks.
 
Today I tested the 20130718 firmware to see if the sound/audio volume was lauder than the 20130725 firmware.
In both cases I screamed right in to the microphone on the camera when recording and I am sorry to say that both firmware gave the same result. Is it just my GS900 thats faulty?
I could here the screame when playd at 100% volume on my computer but talking normal can almost not be heard.
When playback in the camera the sound volume is much better than on computer 100%.
Please let me know if you can hear normal taking when recording and playback on computer and what firmware you have.

Cheers Eric
 
mariomart said:
I drilled my GS900 mic hole out a little. Definitely picks up more now. I'm very happy with my unit, just waiting for new firmware and software to fix the GPS issues and once that happens should be a highly recommended unit.

Hi Mario,

how big is the mic hole after drilling? 2mm, 3mm or 4mm.
Is the sound better with 20130725 firmware?

Cheers Eric
 
erkhu said:
mariomart said:
I drilled my GS900 mic hole out a little. Definitely picks up more now. I'm very happy with my unit, just waiting for new firmware and software to fix the GPS issues and once that happens should be a highly recommended unit.

Hi Mario,

how big is the mic hole after drilling? 2mm, 3mm or 4mm.
Is the sound better with 20130725 firmware?

Cheers Eric

Hi Eric,

I think in hindsight that it really didn't have much of an effect. I only drilled in a few mm and stopped because I didn't want to damage the mic. The firmware upgrade did more to increase the volume than my attempt.

Cheers :) Mario
 
mariomart said:
Hi Eric,

I think in hindsight that it really didn't have much of an effect. I only drilled in a few mm and stopped because I didn't want to damage the mic. The firmware upgrade did more to increase the volume than my attempt.

Cheers :) Mario

Hi mario,

how is the sound when you playback on RegistratorViewer compared with playback on the GS900?

Cheers Eric
 
erkhu said:
mariomart said:
Hi Eric,

I think in hindsight that it really didn't have much of an effect. I only drilled in a few mm and stopped because I didn't want to damage the mic. The firmware upgrade did more to increase the volume than my attempt.

Cheers :) Mario

Hi mario,

how is the sound when you playback on RegistratorViewer compared with playback on the GS900?

Cheers Eric


To be honest with you I've never used the GS900 for video or audio playback. I always remove the sd card and use a USB 3.0 reader on my PC through RegistratorViewer. The sound is quite audible, but no where near as good as on my previous GS9000 which had a great microphone.
 
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