Shadow GT680W

Rectangles, like JPEG image compression. I can't give you now upload of video, so I give you example in image (extracted frame):

Notice them on blue sky especially.

ibsAU1JLmnN0je.jpg
 
Ah I wouldn't worry too much about that - as long as you're getting the details on the road I wouldn't lose too much sleep over that.

The Mobius goes up to 18Mbps but it's not a huge difference in all fairness - I've run one of the cams here up to 50Mbps and again it looks nicer but you lose out on space used so it's a trade off really.
 
I bought my recorder 8 months ago (Foxoffer). Last week DVR began to behave as attached video. :(
It's starts normally. After switching the ignition off - DVR shut down at the same time without last file recording (last file is always broken). After this (few seconds) - automatically starts working and shutdown then normally. It seems to me that this is due to battery failure. Does anyone of you met with this symptom? What's next? In desperation, I ordered a similar battery and I want to change it in my unit. :)


Warranty replacementis a little complicated in my situation, due to the huge cost of shipping and the potential problems with the mentioned (new) unit with an old GPS module (the price new battery is
relatively low...
 
I had this happen last week or at least similar and it was a problem with the SD card in my case needing putting in the computer and checking - might be worth trying that as a last resort before taking it to bits - swapping the battery does make most sense though as it's cheaper than sending it back.

Mine was just turning on and then turning off, but it was in the back window of the car so I never saw if I was getting the low battery message.

Hope you get it working ok!
 
Hello reverend, thanks for the hint. I checked all my used SD cards and there are no any errors.

C:\Users>chkdsk g:
The type of the file system is FAT32.
Volume KINGSTON created 15/08/2014 10:43
Volume Serial Number is 54ED-9F2B
Windows is verifying files and folders...
File and folder verification is complete.
Windows has checked the file system and found no problems.
31 326 208 KB total disk space.
256 KB in 8 folders.
31 025 024 KB in 152 files.
300 896 KB are available.

32 768 bytes in each allocation unit.
978 944 total allocation units on disk.
9 403 allocation units available on disk.
Click to expand...

I think I can only replace a new battery. I hope that after this my DVR will be fully operational. :)
I will let you know after the battery change if it helped.
 
@SP9XWW Can you tell us from where have you ordered the replacement battery and what is its price? Thank you and I am hoping that changing the battery will bring your camera back to operation.
 
After resetting the focus on my G90 today I figured I'd try one of the GT680W's I have and was amazed how simple that was!

Literally follow Niko's video here:


Then all I had to do was turn the lens anticlockwise while holding the base and it freed itself.

I then just turned the camera upside down, loosened the thread, removed the glue with a fingernail, and then hooked the camera up to a screen via HDMI and twisted it until I was happy. I've got to go out and do a test run later but it's looking slightly better out of the window :)

All in all less than a ten minute job!
 
reverend said:
Ah I wouldn't worry too much about that - as long as you're getting the details on the road I wouldn't lose too much sleep over that.

The Mobius goes up to 18Mbps but it's not a huge difference in all fairness - I've run one of the cams here up to 50Mbps and again it looks nicer but you lose out on space used so it's a trade off really.
Click to expand...

Good to know :)

I bought 32 GB card and tested - 2h 50min takes 18.50 GB so it is alot of space to be used :) So far videos are good but always can be better.

I have other "problem".

As far I understand "lock" button to save videos of current events works this way - it will be saved whole 5 mins, so if you press panic button at 2 minutes since it's started recording it will record up to 5 minutes, then saves it. If you pressed save button at 4:58 minute, it will go on up to 5 minutes then saves.

Let's say there is event and video started to recording just in a moment I see it. It will record since then up to 5 minutes but previous movie will be lost, and in this previous movie are important scenes.
Is there way to save one way back movie together with current one? You know this one and 5 minutes earlier (older).
Panic button should save last 2-3 videos also.

Other question - are movies being saved in time or being kept in some kind of buffer and after 5 minutes then saved? What if there is sudden lost of power - file can be broken or not saved at all? If broken there are apps who can recover them (KMPlayer, Potplayer). If not saved at all, then it is a issue.
 
I've got to admit I don't use the panic button on any of the cameras as I have them hidden away, I just like to use a bigger card so I know it's all on there.

These cameras don't have huge amounts of RAM onboard so it's more than likely writing it in small segments, but if you lose power then the file won't be closed off properly which can cause problems. Only the developers could say exactly what the process is. If the car loses power then the camera should use the inbuilt battery to close the file off (and this is what the power down delays are for). I think @Dashmellow has his set to close immediately on loss of power as he has capacitors in there.

The batteries do have a finite lifespan and so would need replacing after a duration as you're seeing with @SP9XWW having problems with the battery.
 
Padwanjoe said:
@SP9XWW Can you tell us from where have you ordered the replacement battery and what is its price? Thank you and I am hoping that changing the battery will bring your camera back to operation.
Click to expand...
.
This product is a classic battery used in the RC modeling. A similar, slightly larger - I found in Polish online shop for modelers. It's price is about 4 euros (delivery cost ~ 2 euros in PL).

http://www.emodel.pl/zippy-lipo-1s-100mah-20c-ogniwo-37v-p-640 in PL
https://www.sparkfun.com/products/731 in US

A difference of 10 mA should not be a problem for DVR electronics.
If swapping the battery does not work - can be combined with connecting the 3 AAA, AA cells or suitably selected capacitor in the outer box mounted to glass.

If a little more new battery casing will not fit in the original location inside DVR, I'll move it to the other side lens, where is more space.
Tests to begin... :D
 
Thank you very much and good luck with the test!
 
Purchased this GT680 w no gps from Foxoffer back in April 2014. Recently I've noticed that I'm getting too grainy/noisy video at night. See raw video from here ---> https://www.sendspace.com/file/xqcfy1

Can someone here help me validate that the footage taken was noisy? Is this something that can be adjusted at the settings or is the unit defective? If the unit is defective then I should still be covered by the warranty and should be able to get it replace. Even the daytime video looks grainy as well.

Need your help....
 
To be honest that looks better than fine here - mine can be much noisier than that when it's pitch black.

From watching that video on my laptop at 1280x800 it looks absolutely fine? You'd only really get less grain with the Sony sensors from what I've seen so far.

What are you using to play it back? Just wondering if a setting has been changed on your computer somewhere?
 
Im using the quicktime viewer on my 27" mac. Does it looks ok with you?
 
It looks fine but I'll try again on my main PC with the same panel you have there - have you tried the video in VLC etc as well on your Mac as that can look slightly different?
 
Ill try VLC on my mac when i get home later. Thanks for your quick responses.
 
Ill try to send another raw file tonight and you can check if there is any difference. the one i have was a split video due to the size of file.
 
Hopefully some more folks will check it out as well in the meantime - I've got to admit it looks fine here though.

I did manually reset focus on mine the other day which improved it a bit.

If you do think something has changed it might be worth trying a reset to default settings just in case :)
 
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