GS900 sound and picture quality

[vyper1]

Hi,

First time posting and can I just say thanks for such an informative site. After reading some threads on here and being swayed by Techmoans review on Youtube, I decided to purchase the GS900 and today I received my unit but it seems to have an issue with the frame growing and shrinking in height so you get a kind of wavy distortion, also the sound is terrible. At first it was barely audible with some distortion and after upgrading firmware (20130718) it sounds very distorted, the music you can hear wasn't event being played that loud in car. But apart from these 2 issues everything else seems to be fine, GPS locks on in around 20secs after power up, video in low light is very acceptable.
If you look at the vid I uploaded http://youtu.be/X02kdizO2Uc at around 2:06 and pay attention to the clouds, trees, lamp posts etc you will see the vertical distortion even after youtubes compression. The audio seems to distort the low frequencies and that is throughout the entire video. What I want to know is, should I return this unit as faulty? has any one else had similar issues and if you did how did you rectify them?

Regards,
James

 

[robertthegreat]

Drop the cam down a bit you have alot of sky only need about 40%.Your sound is alot better than mine.As for settings i left them on auto the video is clear.

 

[jokiin]

it seems to have an issue with the frame growing and shrinking in height so you get a kind of wavy distortion

the jelly effect is normally a result of a mount bracket that is not solid enough

 

[vyper1]

Thanks for replies guys,

Drop the cam down a bit you have alot of sky only need about 40%.Your sound is alot better than mine.As for settings i left them on auto the video is clear.

Wow I can't believe your sound is worse than this, I knew they had low sound but I didn't count on the distortion. I suppose I can live with it as it's not like I'll be watching the vids unless it catches something interesting.

it seems to have an issue with the frame growing and shrinking in height so you get a kind of wavy distortion

the jelly effect is normally a result of a mount bracket that is not solid enough

Ah jelly effect they were the words I was looking for. I pushed it as hard as I could against the windscreen before engaging the suction lock and the ball joint and pivot screws are locked tightly so there is no movement. Also I get this jelly effect whilst the vehicle is stationary as you can see in this vid when I pull up to the lights http://youtu.be/POywMiU54Mk

I will take on board both your suggestions and lower the cam a bit and try remounting it and see if that helps.

Thanks,
James

 

[jokiin]

Some brackets regardless of how tight you do them up have too much flex in the plastic, hard to avoid if yours is like this

 

[vyper1]

Hi Jokiin,

I understand what you are saying about the mounts but if you look at my latest vid http://youtu.be/Y9emSmbtvjU my car is perfectly stationary and the jelly effect is terrible. Surely this isn't normal?? Any ideas as what is causing this? Seems to be better when the vehicle is moving but when I come to a stop it's like the camera is compensating for movement that isn't there. Also I have noticed that when I get a GPS lock my car radio signal gets messed up, to the point where the radio starts searching for channels.

Regards,
James

 

[vyper1]

I've noticed that under low light and at night that I don't get the jelly effect, see here http://youtu.be/Z5ttMqMGzJc Any ideas as to what is causing the effect during good light vids?

Regards,
James

 

[jokiin]

I've noticed that under low light and at night that I don't get the jelly effect, see here http://youtu.be/Z5ttMqMGzJc Any ideas as to what is causing the effect during good light vids?

Regards,
James

not sure, some kind of image stabilization that's not working as intended perhaps, can't say I've seen this before

 

[vyper1]

Hi Jokiin,

Yes it's strange it only seems to do it on well lit vids. I have tried the original and the latest firmware and it hasn't solved it so I will contact the vendor I purchased it off and see what they say. Apart from this jelly effect it is good camera and produces clear day vids and perfectly acceptable ones at night. Maybe the interference it is causing with my radio has something to do with the jelly effect but who knows :roll:

I see that you are a manufacturer do you have a website? I'm interested in getting a smaller form factor one for the wifes car.

Regards,
James

 

[vyper1]

Well after a bit more testing I have figured out what is knocking out the radio signal in my car and it is the power cable that comes with the camera. So if I have the this plugged in I lose my radio reception and as soon as I unplug it my radio reception comes back. Not good as I don't think the camera lasts that long when running on battery so I will see if I can source another 3-4m power lead, I'm just going to test to see if the lead that causes my radio issues is also what is causing the jelly effect in my vids.
I'll try on the 3 available Firmware versions I have 20130509, 20130718 & 20130725

 

[CanadianHermit]

Hello vyper1,

Just saw your 'jelly thread' and sample vids. Went back into my file history to see if I could find anything similar in my own videos. Bright light, sitting still at a traffic light, medium light, slow movement, fast movement. Nothing from my cam is like what your samples show. I'm on FW 20130725 as that's what shipped on my cam. It makes me wonder about your specific unit. Have you, just for kicks, tried taking it out of the car and making a 'walking video' just as a diagnostic? I know you won't get much because the battery won't last long but maybe it would eliminate some in-car interference issues? Maybe a totally different car just to test? And out of curiosity, did you get it from FoxOffer or someone else?

Keep us posted. Good luck!

- CH

 

[reenari]

The 'jelly' picture is caused by vibrations of the camera. I have used GS900 on two different cars in one it has the 'jelly' effect an on an another not. The first one is a diesel and has notable vibration when standing idle, the other doesn't vibrate. The 'jelly' effect comes from the fact that there is no real shutter, but the picture is read row by row. So there is not much that can be done except to try to mount the camera as solidly as possibly. Even that wont help if it is like in my case that whole car is vibrating,

There is also difference in audio between the two cars, the buttons on the GS900 are bad of quality and make noise when there is vibration.

 

[vyper1]

Hi CH,

What I have figured out is that the supplied power cable is what knocks out my cars radio reception, if I unplug camera power then the radio works fine, so I need a replacement. I am pretty much convinced now that it is my car causing the jelly effect either through some unseen vibration that the mount can't dampen or some sort of electrical interference, as when the engine is off the camera video seems perfect. I'm also guessing that the jelly effect not being present in the low light or night time videos is because the camera uses a different mode for recording in these situations. Good idea, I will test it tomorrow morning in the wife's car as it's too late now and it will be in low light mode if I try it now.
I too got mine from Foxoffer and it was shipped on FW 20130725 but I tried the older versions just to see if there was any difference.

Don't suppose you know how we use plate stamp as it say's it is supported but I can't see how I would add my plate to the vids?

Regards,
James

 

[vyper1]

Hi Reenari,

That is what I am suspecting now, that the camera is picking up some vibration from my car. I have to say though that my car is smooth as silk at idle and I would only expect the jelly effect whilst driving. I am going to see how the camera behaves in the wife's car and also see if I can try to eliminate the minuscule vibration it must be picking up in my car. TBH I am very happy with the camera as it has been proven it is not a fault of the hardware/software and for its intended purpose of capturing who was at fault videos then it is perfectly acceptable.

If you can suggest of better mounts for these cameras then please feel free to point me in the right direction.

Regards,
James

 

[CanadianHermit]

Don't suppose you know how we use plate stamp as it say's it is supported but I can't see how I would add my plate to the vids?

Sorry James. No clue there. I didn't even know what plate stamp was until you mentioned it. There's not enough funky little red cars in my neighbourhood that it would be confused with anyone else so the hunk of the bonnet in frame is enough identification for me.

The 'jelly' picture is caused by vibrations of the camera. I have used GS900 on two different cars in one it has the 'jelly' effect an on an another not. The first one is a diesel and has notable vibration when standing idle, the other doesn't vibrate. The 'jelly' effect comes from the fact that there is no real shutter, but the picture is read row by row. So there is not much that can be done except to try to mount the camera as solidly as possibly. Even that wont help if it is like in my case that whole car is vibrating,

The explanation makes sense RE: the sympathetic vibration somewhere in the car causing the jelly effect. I know it's weird that it seems perfectly silent and smooth at idle and that there's some odd "only whales can hear it" frequency at play but I've seen stranger things in the lab. Vibrations from a fridge three rooms away translating through the floor to effect a scale for example.

If you can suggest of better mounts for these cameras then please feel free to point me in the right direction.

There is something, however, that I got with my dedicated GPS unit that might help. It's a plastic disc just large enough to accommodate the suction mount with a sticky-back foam pad on the bottom. It's for mounting the GPS on an uneven dash but I wonder if that thin layer of foam underneath would dampen the vibrations enough to insulate your camera? Here's a link to them on amazon for a visual but I suspect any plastic disc you could improvise with a foam base would help.

http://www.amazon.com/Garmin-Dashboard- ... B000AKX15G

As noted on the reviews, the adhesive isn't the greatest. I tried several to no avail, primarily because of the wide temperature swings we get around here especially inside autos. Then I discovered this stuff which is a sort of super-sticky gel pressed into thin sheets. It works a treat and stays stuck from 35C down to -20C (winters here are fun). Not sure if it would work on a windscreen though so you may have to engineer a different solution depending on a few field tests.

http://www.amazon.com/UGlu-MTR200-Adhes ... words=uglu

Good luck!

- CH

 

[vyper1]

Thanks for the links CH, I will look into some sort of dampening. I tried the camera in the wife's car and by walking around the garden and the video is perfect, so this proves it's my car causing the issue. I should point out that I drive a convertible so this is probably why there is this minuscule vibration on the windshield that I can't see but the camera picks up on. Overall I'm 99% happy with this camera, I just need to find a new power lead and how the plate stamp works and hope the next firmware gives me the ability to have MPH instead of KMH

James

 

[vyper1]

Ok, after much testing and finally understanding what is causing my jelly effect videos, I can say I am 95% happy with this camera. Apart from an erratic G Sensor which registers gear changes as 7.8G (so I have switched it off) my only true concern now seems to be that when my SD card gets full the camera starts to behave weird, as in it will start recording for a minute or two and then stop recording. I don't get any errors on screen and the only way to get it to start recording properly is to either keep pressing the record button and wait till it works correctly or switch it off/on and again wait to see if it works correctly or remove the card and reinsert and again wait to see if it works correctly. I have tried both a 32GB Sandisk Ultra class10 and 32GB Samsung Plus class 10 cards and both show the same behaviour, when the cards get full or nearly full then the camera doesn't record properly without me having to mess about. None of the files are locked so it is not like it can't overwrite the files. Anyone got any ideas as to what is the issue or how to rectify it? I don't want to have to keep switching off/on or reformatting the card as that defeats the purpose of the camera automatically writing over old files when full. Wow! sorry for long post

Regards,
James

Additionally:
I also seem to get these strange periods where when viewed in Datakam Player it says I have done a trip that was excessively long but it shows as grey empty space and there is nothing to view. If you look at the image attached it says trip time was in excess of 2 hrs but most of that time my car was parked up at work and the camera was definitely switched off.

 

[mariomart]

Hi vyper1,

I had the same issue with the G sensor giving odd results and I fixed it by reinstalling the firmware. Might be worth a shot.

Cheers

 

[jokiin]

Additionally:
I also seem to get these strange periods where when viewed in Datakam Player it says I have done a trip that was excessively long but it shows as grey empty space and there is nothing to view. If you look at the image attached it says trip time was in excess of 2 hrs but most of that time my car was parked up at work and the camera was definitely switched off.

you can ungroup the files and you can see that it has but a few trips together into what it thinks is part of the same journey, when you stop and start at the same location this can happen, the grey sections are periods of inactivity within a journey, this is normal, not a camera problem

 

[vancouverizer]

This is an inherent symptom of CMOS design that can only be reduced and usually never completely eliminated. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolling_shutter