Called virgin retentions today on 150 option 5 option 2 as now out of contract and bill gone up over the year to £47 per month. I was offered my existing package for £40 per month and said faster BB would cost an extra £20 per month. Anyway after some banter I finally got

V+

XL TV

L Phone

XL Broadband (upgrade from L) + the new virgin super hub. I also specifically asked for a wireless dongle as my laptop (cough) doesn’t have built in wifi

£43 per month all in

My broadband was upgraded in about 5 minutes!

Before

After

SWEET!

Thought i’d post a quick reference guide to compressing video from the MD80 and 808 spy cameras using virtualdub.

1, Download virtualdub and extract to a folder

2, Download xvid codec and install

Run VirtualDub 1.9.9 (or later)

Open an AVI file.
Menu/Video – Select Full Processing mode.
Menu/Video/Compression
choose XviD MPEG-4 Codec.
Press the configure button.
Profile @ level  home.
Target Quantizer 4.0.  (press Target Quantizer button to see Target Bitrate).
Target Bitrate kbps 1800 (very good quality).  Makes video about 75% smaller.
Menu/Audio – Select Direct Stream Copy.  Audio remains unchanged at 353 kbps PCM.
Press F7 and choose an output filename.  Press Save and encoding begins and ends. 

Now i’ve had one of these for a while before my MD80 in fact so I thought i’d do a bit of a write up on it. Due to their compact size people have used them in things such as model rockets and planes.

I have the #3 version which according to chucklohr is one of the best ones.

Specifications

Video format: AVI

Image dimensions: instructions 1280×960 actual 1280×1024

Video dimensions: instructions 640×480 actual 720×480

Battery: 280mha 3.7V

As you can see they’ve supplied generic instructions so it’s worth checking for yourself what the actual specs are.

Charging

Now I found the USB cable that was supplied to be absolutely c**p so my advice would be to ditch it and use a different one.

When charging the yellow indicator light will be on and will go out once complete.

I’m currently testing different times/methods of charging so will update this section as I go along.

1, Connected to a powered USB hub via my own cable. Charged it for 1 hour and got 10 minutes video out of it.

2, Connected to a powered USB hub via my own cable. Charged for 2 hours and got 35 minutes video out of it.

Size vs recordings time

Here’s a few examples of file sizes and the amount of video recorded.

650mb 07:12

2.61gb 30 mins

1.96gb 30 mins

353mb 5.18

My Instructions

Even though it comes with instructions the Chinese to English translation hasn’t gone too well so after a bit of playing i’ve compiled my own.

How to record video

Hold the on/off button until the yellow indicator light comes on

Hold the record button until the yellow indicator light flashes 3 times, you will now be recording video, note: no lights will be present during operation.

To save the video press the ‘Record’ button and the yellow indicator light will come on.

The camera is now actually in still picture mode so if you press the ‘Record’ button again the yellow indicator light will flash once to indicate a still picture has been taken (This is bit of flaw as I think it should start recording a new video clip but never mind)

While the yellow indicator light is solid if you hold the record button until the yellow indicator light flashes 3 times you will again be recording video.

To switch off simply hold the ‘on/off’ button until the Hold the on/off button until the yellow indicator light goes out.

How to take a picture

Hold the on/off button until the yellow indicator light comes on

Press the ‘record’ button and the yellow indicator light will flash once to show a picture has been taken. To take another one you simply press the ‘record’ button again.

To switch off simply hold the ‘on/off’ button until the Hold the on/off button until the yellow indicator light goes out.

Mods

People have done different hardware mods for this camera and here’s a few good ones I’ve found….

External power using 3xAAA’s
Time lapse video and here

Underwater