New 720p Pocket cam $169. Aiptex A-HD

Michael Maier · September 24th, 2007, 07:38 AM

hey guys, would anybody like to take a crack on my question above?

Great clips indeed! Not HV20 quality but for 1/6th of the price it's great. I'm thinking of getting one of those. Just not sure if the GO-HD or this.

Alex Amira · September 24th, 2007, 08:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Michael Maier

hey guys, would anybody like to take a crack on my question above?

Great clips indeed! Not HV20 quality but for 1/6th of the price it's great. I'm thinking of getting one of those. Just not sure if the GO-HD or this.

Michael,

From what I understand it is the same chip.
The main differences are:
Go-Hd has optical zoom and AF
A-HD has digital zoom and fixed focus.
No LED lights on the A-HD
The battery life is better on the A-HD

I've see 2 clips demonstrating the zoom of both. The GO-Hd had a bit more reach when zoomed all the way in.

On the A-HD think they fixed some issues that were really a problem on the GO-HD. By looking at the clips I can see that the AF on the GO-HD is really poor and slow. It hunts too much initially and it gives a blurry look until it locks in. I don't expect instant AF but this one is just too slow.

My money is on the A-HD.

Steve Nunez · September 24th, 2007, 05:46 PM

The clips I've posted are from the Go-HD.

Jeff Zimmerman · October 2nd, 2007, 01:27 PM

I don't know what it is... I bought an A-HD and I seem to bring it everywhere. I own two other HD cameras but I find my self using this thing anywhere and everywhere... basically because I think its just fun and if you happen to drop it you won't be disappointed as much as one of your big cameras.

Here's a link to a video I shot of fall colors using the foootage from the Aiptek A-HD only. I didn't use the audio. To rough. Currently working on doing car mounts and motorcycle mounts with it. Considering buying two more just to get those extreme shots without the worry.

Here's the clip:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=sGXhS6QXQ3g

RAW Video Samples at: www.skyhighsports.com/Aiptek/Aiptek.zip

Julian Maytum · October 2nd, 2007, 03:59 PM

Hmmm those raw samples are actually fairly blocky don't you think? No post processing or conversion at all? It seems to have an awful lot of artifacting.

Steve Nunez · October 2nd, 2007, 04:18 PM

I hope you aren't judging by the YouTube examples as those are converted with heavy compression to SWF/SWV type for quick viewing.
I don't find it blocky at all, for the price it just can't be beat!

Julian Maytum · October 2nd, 2007, 09:59 PM

I was looking at the raw zip files that were posted.. they just looked really blocky to me which was why I was wondering if they were "raw" or had any kind of post processing or encoding?

Jeffrey Brown · October 3rd, 2007, 04:18 PM

yeah, they have a little bit of 'crunch', but i think its pretty manageable considering the versatility of the device.

seems like it might be an interesting project to tap video directly from the sensor (hint hint any soldering gurus out there.)

Jeff Zimmerman · October 4th, 2007, 04:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Julian Maytum

I was looking at the raw zip files that were posted.. they just looked really blocky to me which was why I was wondering if they were "raw" or had any kind of post processing or encoding?

The clips are directly from the camera. I agree that water and heavy detail with movement offer some artifacts. But if you were going to take this down to an SD-DVD it might not look so bad.

Matt Schafer · October 5th, 2007, 11:19 AM

I bought one and returned it the next day. Sound quality was absolutely terrible. Very distorted at even moderate levels. Video quality was OK. I did exchange it once for the same camera in case mine was faulty. Same issue.

Evan Donn · October 5th, 2007, 12:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jeff Zimmerman

Currently working on doing car mounts and motorcycle mounts with it.

I tried out the REI ultraclamp (linked in one of my previous posts) on the handlebars of my motorcycle and it didn't work too well - the problem is the camera body is so light & flexible that the camera vibrates a lot if it's mounted via the tripod screw in the bottom. It doesn't help that I have a twin, and I'll try it again on a four but I'm not optimistic it'll help - the camera needs to be mounted via it's body or something.

The SD video quality is pretty good, and you can hook up an external video source, so this might serve better just as a recorder for a helmet/bullet cam too.

Brian Conrad · October 7th, 2007, 01:40 PM

I have both the GO HD and the A-HD. Both use the Ambarella A1 chipset:
http://www.ambarella.com
You can find a PDF on the A1 chipset here:
http://www.ambarella.com/technology/

Video is AVC1 and audio is AAC.

The GO HD encodes at 30fps flat whereas the A-HD encodes at 29.97 fps. This slight difference seemed to improve playback for many people. There were definite enhancements in encoding with the A-HD over the GO. On the GO panning would often be wavy whereas this is pretty much gone with the A-HD. Here is a clip that demonstrates panning on the A-HD. A similar clip done with the GO HD was very wavy.

On a PC I have been able to edit clips in Sony's Vegas Movie Studio Platinum 8 (a few clips did crash), Ulead's VideoStudio 11 Plus and Pinnacle Studio 11. In all cases to load the video properly and have them render properly I had to change the extension from .mov to .mp4. The only editor that could load the clips and render them properly with the .mov extension was Nero Vision 4.

Here is a short WMV clip that I edited with VS 11+:
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=MMQYX10M

For playback of the raw clips the latest QuickTime player works. By latest I mean the updates they sent out over the last month. Before then it didn't handle the clips very well at all. On Linux MPlayer with the -framedrop switch works.

The clips have a lot of B-Frames in them which is probably why they aren't so compatible with many players but OTOH some many of the other MPEG-4 cameras are just using mpv4 codec instead of AVC1 which may also be the source of the problem. Some people also got results installing the K-Lite codec though it and QT can't coexist.

Rodney Tao · October 7th, 2007, 01:48 PM

Greetings. I bought an A-HD few weeks ago at Circuit City and it's great so far. Can't go wrong only paying $150. It's cool since it's a beat up cam. I have no problem handing this off to kids or friends to mess around with. With no moving parts, I don't have to worry so much about it breaking and if it does break, I'll just get another one. I previously had the Aiptek MPVR I bought for $80 and used it when going fishing. The A-HD is a nice upgrade.
One thing that's cool about it using h.264 files is that I can plug the A-HD directly into a Xbox 360. It thinks the cam is just a USB storage device/camera and will play the raw h.264 files directly in full 720p.

Here are some blog posts I wrote about the A-HD:
http://rodfathermobile.com/2007/09/1...der-unleashed/

http://rodfathermobile.com/2007/09/2...-outdoor-test/
(Disregard the footage. Used Sony Vegas' mainconcept AVC codec and the results ended up bad)

http://rodfathermobile.com/2007/09/2...sposting-test/
(raw clip)

http://rodfathermobile.com/2007/09/2...rd-came-today/
(w/ 4Mbps, can record 4hrs 23min footage on a 8GB card)

http://rodfathermobile.com/2007/10/0...or-video-test/
(just posted this)

Ken Hodson · October 7th, 2007, 03:12 PM

Does anyone know of a retailer that has stock and will ship to Canada?
I want one now!!!
Thanx

Bryan Gilchrist · October 13th, 2007, 08:41 PM

Well, I know what I'm getting my niece and nephew for Christmas...

September 24th, 2007, 05:46 PM	#33
Steve Nunez Trustee Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Pembroke Pines, Florida Posts: 1,418	The clips I've posted are from the Go-HD. __________________ Steve Nunez-New York City www.stevenunez.com

October 2nd, 2007, 01:27 PM	#34
Jeff Zimmerman Major Player Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Brighton, Colorado Posts: 386	Can't get this thing out of my pocket. I don't know what it is... I bought an A-HD and I seem to bring it everywhere. I own two other HD cameras but I find my self using this thing anywhere and everywhere... basically because I think its just fun and if you happen to drop it you won't be disappointed as much as one of your big cameras. Here's a link to a video I shot of fall colors using the foootage from the Aiptek A-HD only. I didn't use the audio. To rough. Currently working on doing car mounts and motorcycle mounts with it. Considering buying two more just to get those extreme shots without the worry. Here's the clip: http://youtube.com/watch?v=sGXhS6QXQ3g RAW Video Samples at: www.skyhighsports.com/Aiptek/Aiptek.zip __________________ Jeff Zimmerman • Love what I do • Colorado + North America www.m3films.com

October 2nd, 2007, 03:59 PM	#35
Julian Maytum Regular Crew Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Mount Pearl, NL, Canada Posts: 69	Hmmm those raw samples are actually fairly blocky don't you think? No post processing or conversion at all? It seems to have an awful lot of artifacting. __________________ Julian Maytum www.MyWebMovie.com

October 2nd, 2007, 04:18 PM	#36
Steve Nunez Trustee Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Pembroke Pines, Florida Posts: 1,418	I hope you aren't judging by the YouTube examples as those are converted with heavy compression to SWF/SWV type for quick viewing. I don't find it blocky at all, for the price it just can't be beat! __________________ Steve Nunez-New York City www.stevenunez.com

October 2nd, 2007, 09:59 PM	#37
Julian Maytum Regular Crew Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Mount Pearl, NL, Canada Posts: 69	I was looking at the raw zip files that were posted.. they just looked really blocky to me which was why I was wondering if they were "raw" or had any kind of post processing or encoding? __________________ Julian Maytum www.MyWebMovie.com

September 24th, 2007, 07:38 AM	#31
Michael Maier Trustee Join Date: Apr 2005 Posts: 1,269	hey guys, would anybody like to take a crack on my question above? Great clips indeed! Not HV20 quality but for 1/6th of the price it's great. I'm thinking of getting one of those. Just not sure if the GO-HD or this.

October 3rd, 2007, 04:18 PM	#38
Jeffrey Brown Regular Crew Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: Longmont, CO Posts: 37	yeah, they have a little bit of 'crunch', but i think its pretty manageable considering the versatility of the device. seems like it might be an interesting project to tap video directly from the sensor (hint hint any soldering gurus out there.)

October 5th, 2007, 11:19 AM	#40
Matt Schafer New Boot Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: New Brighton, MN Posts: 10	I bought one and returned it the next day. Sound quality was absolutely terrible. Very distorted at even moderate levels. Video quality was OK. I did exchange it once for the same camera in case mine was faulty. Same issue.

October 7th, 2007, 01:40 PM	#42
Brian Conrad New Boot Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: Martinez, CA Posts: 7	I have both the GO HD and the A-HD. Both use the Ambarella A1 chipset: http://www.ambarella.com You can find a PDF on the A1 chipset here: http://www.ambarella.com/technology/ Video is AVC1 and audio is AAC. The GO HD encodes at 30fps flat whereas the A-HD encodes at 29.97 fps. This slight difference seemed to improve playback for many people. There were definite enhancements in encoding with the A-HD over the GO. On the GO panning would often be wavy whereas this is pretty much gone with the A-HD. Here is a clip that demonstrates panning on the A-HD. A similar clip done with the GO HD was very wavy. On a PC I have been able to edit clips in Sony's Vegas Movie Studio Platinum 8 (a few clips did crash), Ulead's VideoStudio 11 Plus and Pinnacle Studio 11. In all cases to load the video properly and have them render properly I had to change the extension from .mov to .mp4. The only editor that could load the clips and render them properly with the .mov extension was Nero Vision 4. Here is a short WMV clip that I edited with VS 11+: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=MMQYX10M For playback of the raw clips the latest QuickTime player works. By latest I mean the updates they sent out over the last month. Before then it didn't handle the clips very well at all. On Linux MPlayer with the -framedrop switch works. The clips have a lot of B-Frames in them which is probably why they aren't so compatible with many players but OTOH some many of the other MPEG-4 cameras are just using mpv4 codec instead of AVC1 which may also be the source of the problem. Some people also got results installing the K-Lite codec though it and QT can't coexist.

October 7th, 2007, 01:48 PM	#43
Rodney Tao Tourist Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Watsonville, CA Posts: 4	Greetings. I bought an A-HD few weeks ago at Circuit City and it's great so far. Can't go wrong only paying $150. It's cool since it's a beat up cam. I have no problem handing this off to kids or friends to mess around with. With no moving parts, I don't have to worry so much about it breaking and if it does break, I'll just get another one. I previously had the Aiptek MPVR I bought for $80 and used it when going fishing. The A-HD is a nice upgrade. One thing that's cool about it using h.264 files is that I can plug the A-HD directly into a Xbox 360. It thinks the cam is just a USB storage device/camera and will play the raw h.264 files directly in full 720p. Here are some blog posts I wrote about the A-HD: http://rodfathermobile.com/2007/09/1...der-unleashed/ http://rodfathermobile.com/2007/09/2...-outdoor-test/ (Disregard the footage. Used Sony Vegas' mainconcept AVC codec and the results ended up bad) http://rodfathermobile.com/2007/09/2...sposting-test/ (raw clip) http://rodfathermobile.com/2007/09/2...rd-came-today/ (w/ 4Mbps, can record 4hrs 23min footage on a 8GB card) http://rodfathermobile.com/2007/10/0...or-video-test/ (just posted this)

October 7th, 2007, 03:12 PM	#44
Ken Hodson Trustee Join Date: Aug 2003 Location: Vancouver BC Canada Posts: 1,315	Does anyone know of a retailer that has stock and will ship to Canada? I want one now!!! Thanx __________________ Damnit Jim, I'm a film maker not a sysytems tech.

October 13th, 2007, 08:41 PM	#45
Bryan Gilchrist Major Player Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: Florida Posts: 224	Well, I know what I'm getting my niece and nephew for Christmas...