Archos AV 500 DVR Digital Mini Cam Helmet Cam System
Archos enters the Helmet Cam marketplace with a nicely integrated video helmet cam system, the AV 500 Digital Mini Cam. It appears they have taken the standard AV DVR units and packaged it with a somewhat integrated external helmet cam camera. I’m going to focus on the helmet cam aspect of this package, so I won’t get into all of the other fun stuff the AV 500 is capable of. There are some nice features, but in the end the MPEG-4 SP recording format robs the user of the DVD quality video fidelity. Read on for the full scoop.
The first integration point appears to be that it draws power from the AV 500’s rechargeable battery system. This is always a big win from my perspective as one battery simplifies the system. Looking at the picture more closely, the controller on the external helmet cam wire has a microphone, power switch, and what appears to be a start/stop record button. Integrated start/stop record control? - this would be good. Perusing through the AV 500 download page, I read the manual and looked at some high-res pictures. The manual does not mention the external helmet cam at all - or the “Wire camera” as it is referred to in a few spots on the Archos site. So, I was not able to confirm if there is a record start/stop button on the helmet cam. If there is not it means to start recording the user would need to press some buttons on the AV 500 unit - which would affect usability in extreme sports.
Another point of discussion are the connectors from the helmet cam to the AV 500. A positive point is that they are very low profile, as seen in the picture above. Low profile is crucial to reduce overall strain on connections and reduce unwanted/accidental “pull-outs” during action.
Let’s talk about the actual camera. The specifications state 1/4″ Sony Super HAD CCD, 420 TV Lines of resolution, and a 72.5 degree angle of view lens. The 1/4″ CCD is not top of the line, hence the lower 420 TV lines of resolution. The 3.6mm lens provides a good angle of view for helmet caming. Archos probably decided to go with the lower end helmet camera due to the fact that the final recording format is MPEG-4 SP, which comes in at a better-than-VHS resolution of 512 x 492, but almost 30% shy of DVD quality video.
A few more misc items: Not sure how long the battery would last with recording and powering the helmet cam, Not sure how it would do in high g-force situations, and Not sure how long the helmet cam wire is. Lastly, let’s look at price: AV 500 w/30GB + Digital MiniCam = $500 + $180 = $680. It’s up there, but very competitive if you consider a standard helmet cam system consists of a camcorder($400)+helmet cam configuration($250).
In Summary, great first round entry, nicely integrated, straight to digital format, fast USB transfer to computer, lacks DVD quality video, only one wire (kick ass!), and lots of extra features outside of the helmet cam realm. I’d like to see the Archos AV DVR series get to DVD quality recording, a 520 TV Line helmet camera and have a one-touch “power on everything and record” button for the helmet cam integration. The HCC.com recommendation: This could be a really killer setup and if you don’t mind the below DVD quality resolution - I’d say “go for it”. If you do, please let me know how it works out.
February 21st, 2006 at 8:50 pm
hi there, I’ve been playing around with my Apple iSight webcam. Wondering if you guys know of a DVR device I could attach it to to make a helmet cam. Maybe one day there will be an iPod with a firewire port. Seth
April 19th, 2006 at 3:01 pm
Hello Al,
I am a Paraglider Pilot based in the UK and have been using an AV500 with a DogCamPro bulet cammera for my flights. I agree with the review above that the actual quality of the MPEG4 video is slightly less than DVD quality. However, if you take a MPEG4 video file and encode it to a DVD format with say Adobe Encore the quality is superb. Check out http://www.wingover.co.uk and click on the Chamonix Videos, these two videos were taken in March in the French Alps, Europe. Both were taken with the AV500 and edited in Adobe Premier 2.
I am still trying to find out if the Archos Digital Camera does have a start/stop feature built in to the wire? If it does, I am getting one real quick before Archos get a delivery problem again!
Keep up the good work.
April 20th, 2006 at 2:27 pm
Just a quick update, I ordered the Archos Mini Digital Camera today and asked the seller if the camera had an single start / Stop record feature? The answer is yes, you simply plug in the camera, switch it on, go to the Video Corder Icon and thats it, when you press the record button the camera records! when you are finished just press the button again. How simple is that.
Once I have tried it out for ease of use and lens quality I will post an update.
May 8th, 2006 at 5:30 pm
I had the Archos AV 500 for about a week. I just sent it back because of the following issues:
1) I became totally frustrated with the fact that you need to use a dedicated archos plug adapter to use this with any typical helmet cam… then you have to either do some custom splicing or use the RCA plugs through female/female RCA plugs from your source camera. You cannot simply go from your say 1/8″ a/v jack on your camera device to there 1/8″ a/v input… the polarity is incorrect! BOGUS!
2) File format. Totally sucks, even with the most current version of adobe premier the software will not recognize these files unless you convert them.
3) You will not be able to play many (if ANY) of your AVI files that you already have on your computer… unless you happen to have been doing all your editing in MPEG4.
3) It’s pretty pricy. $600 US for the 100GB
Do I sould a little tweeked, YES because this COULD be a nice unit but in my opinion have missed the mark BIG TIME. Yes, this unit has much promise, but I for one will not support a company that uses non-standard A/V plugs and difficult file formats.
I wanted to go to DVR to eliminate steps in editing, not add to them. I am now looking at the Sony DCR-SR100 camcorder as my recording unit… yes pricy, yes bigger but it can also double as, well… a camcorder!
If you ARE going to go the Archos route, I’d just buck up and get the Viosport system with the Archos dedicated cable…
My 2 cents worth.
CJS
May 20th, 2006 at 11:39 pm
I ordered the Archos AV500. A day later I ordered the mini cam only to find out that it had just been recalled. The guy at the online store where I ordered it from said they recieved a bad batch. It had something to do with the camera itself. I contacted Archos and I recieved an email saying they are not going to be selling the mini cams anymore! If anyone knows what is exactly going on, please post a reply. I really liked the simplicity of only having one wire and powered by the Archos AV500 unit, not to mention the remote. Viosport has great bullet cams and I guess having an extra power source for the camera itself is good, but looking at all of the wires I have to hook up is daunting. Beware of online stores continuing to sell these units. You are buying at your own risk. I will post another reply when I call the representative at Archos on Monday to get a more detailed explanation.
May 21st, 2006 at 4:39 pm
I now have the Archos Mini DV Digital Camera and it sucks! The lens quality is very poor indeed with most movies looking blurred. I thought it might be my camera so had it swapped out and that one did the same. Compared to my standard bullet camera there is no comparison. I have the Archos at maximum bitrate and it does not record sharp images. It’s a shame really as having button to record and stop recording is a real bonus over my standard camera setup. I still like the Archos as I can convert all the movies to DIVX and play them back on the unit and the TV.
On a different note, not sure why CJS is having problems with the files the Archos makes (MPEG4/AVI), I use Adobe Premier 2 and it will import, edit and play all the Archos files?
Andrew
May 21st, 2006 at 5:56 pm
What’s the deal with availability on the mini cam? It wasn’t that long ago that the thing was finally released, but since I’ve come back from Europe, I can’t find anywhere in North America that can sell me one. Many North American sites are saying that the item is discontinued. Most others simply say out of stock. Meanwhile, European sites abound that are happily continuing to sell the PAL version - including Archos’ own online store.
Does anyone know if the NTSC version is still available and who might be selling it? Is this just an availability problem, or has the item actually been discontinued?
B.
May 24th, 2006 at 11:40 pm
I found a way to fix the focus on the archos camera.
http://utahguy.blogspot.com/2006/05/got-av500.html
May 28th, 2006 at 8:35 am
Hi Adonni,
i wana ask u some questions as im also looking to buy archos av500 digital minicam.First of all as u said that the lens quality isnt good so most of ur movies look blurred.So cud u plz tell me that does the blur part comes in movie made in daytime or in night only.also i reqest u to plz send me some sample videos made with ur av500 minicam at my email id terminator6@gmail.com to check exactly the quality of videos.i checked the videos posted on http://www.wingover.co.uk/Video-Gallery.html but i think the quality looks prety nice if not excellent so werent those videos made with av500 minicam and yes one more thing the standard bullet camera u were talking about,i would like to know its make/brand and can u use it with av500 too.thanks in advance.Kind Regards,Michael
July 11th, 2006 at 1:38 am
Hey cactusjackslade, First of all when transfering files from your computer to your av500, it is best to use windows media player 10 sync program.. it will automaticly encode your files to play on the av500. Also its easier to keep your mp3 list orginized. and if for some reason windows media player 10 cant encode the file… there are several programs that should be able to encode the file in the mpeg-4 format that it needs to play, depending on file format. As for not being able to record video.. out of the box you can only record video with the tv-pod. You will need the av500 Travel cable for a helmet cam setup.I wouldnt recommend the viosport cable because it has its mic built in and has no audio inputs for ripping video off of a camcorder. I think your main problem is that you dont realize that not all cameras have the same a/v inputs, some come with male jacks, some come with female jacks. If you want to phase out the lil male/male female/female adapters i suggest you research what kind of cables you need before you purchase your cam. On a Personal note, I wouldnt recommend using the av500 minicam, purely because it draws its power from the av500, If they come out with a cam that has the same features with its own power supply, that would be awesome.I will be purchasing a 580 line ex-view camera soon to be used with my av500. One question i do have is what is the diffrence between the av400 travel cable and the av500 besides a huge price diffrence?
September 10th, 2006 at 6:40 pm
Hi im new to the helmet camera world. Im looking for a system similar to this system but dont know if i would be interested in buying something that has so many problems! Does anybody know anything about these guys? http://www.RaceOptics.com . Their system looks pretty good but ive cant seem to find any reviews. Any help would be appreciated.
September 10th, 2006 at 11:17 pm
anyone know anything about this company http://www.raceoptics.com ?
September 30th, 2006 at 4:41 pm
I originally bought an Archos A2 to do helemt camera recording. It is a very excellent player/recorder with one fatal flaw, it records video in Microsloth’s .asf format which is essentially unsusable because most video editors choke on that format (i.e. Premire Pro 2 and others). You can convert them to wmv files with the windows media converter, but that takes a really long time and then premiere takes forever to convert te wmv file to something else more usable so it is not really a timesaving solution over recording straight onto your DV camera.
I recently bought the AV500. Buyers beware… you have to buy the extra $24 “travel accessory” kit if you want to record from your helmet camera directly onto the recorder. I jsut figured this nout after 2 hours of trying to figure out why my av500 wouldn’t record video directly (it will record through the plug-in tv adapter but that’s not too helpful for sports).
I’ve had the best luck with the lipstick surveillance cameras from . Supercircuits also sells a $12 mike which works great when stuck in yout helmet. Get a AA-battery pack and a power splitter while you are ordering. The whole setup is way cheaper than any of the commercial helmet camera places are offering.
Here are some videos shot from the supercircuits camera onto a DVcamera and then converted to realmedia format.
http://www.infiniteworld.org/multimedia/image_helmet.shtml
I’ll post more on the av500 when I get the video adapter and I can actually record some video.
Cheers,
Tim
time-science.com Play with Time
November 9th, 2006 at 2:29 pm
I have used this one on my helmet when i was motor crossing, i have to sat that the quality is not all that, specially on high speeds the take is a bit wuzzy
November 19th, 2006 at 10:08 pm
Anyone tryed some of the new Archos 4 series (404, 504, 604) with the lipstick cam?
Seems it’s the same from AV500 series.
I’d like to know it’s performance on high speed situations. Does it get all blurred out, or delivers?
Dunno if this is a matter of cam quality or graphic processing speed from the device though.
http://www.archos.com/products/video_recording/camcorder.html?country=global&lang=en
December 3rd, 2006 at 1:42 am
[...] Read Full Review Here [...]
December 5th, 2006 at 8:49 pm
We looked at the archos 420 nice looking but it did not perform when the guys used it fro filming mountain bikes on a course with jumps the hard drive skipped every time so we did not stock them. Instead we used the iubi Blue and the mini recorders using solid state recorders and video cams with av in and got much better results.
We do sell helmet cameras at http://www.cameras4sports.co.uk and you can always ring for info on any helmet camera issues the mini recorders we sell have all been tested by us and you you wont send these ones back because we only sell the right gear for the right application.
regards
mark
December 19th, 2006 at 1:35 pm
now I am confused, I have a viosport adv 3 cam and I really want an archos system to keep things small and tidy not to mention 4hrs of recording instead of 30min on dvd. should I stick with viosport and get archos av 500 and the viosport adapter or get the newer 604 with archos’integrated cam?
thanks for your time
December 20th, 2006 at 2:10 pm
The quality of the Viosport is much better, but the cord and microphone layout sucks, read my review above on the Viosport sysyem.
I had the Archos system for a while too, In returned it for the reasons I mentioned above, and the reasons of others, namely the file format when trying to pull it into an editing program…
Hope this helps.
December 22nd, 2006 at 8:04 pm
Hi, I bought archos 604 and helmet cam as a present for my sister for xmas. The cam is not working I only hear the mic. I updated 604 to newest firmware still no success. In the main menu I have the camcorder icon, but when I click it no picture is present. I searched google, read all FAQ but no luck :-(. Did anyone come accros the same problem? sorry for my english
December 30th, 2006 at 4:48 pm
I have the AV500 and the Archos camera. i am very happy with them. The prices have seem to come down a bit. I paid around $500 for my setup. The video quality could be better. But with an all in one unit that requires no external batteries, I could not ask for more. Granted I dont have any good editing software, I have been using MS movie maker to edit and upload to you tube due to file size requirments. I ride motor cycles, dirtbikes, and quads. The camera setup I have serves it purpose and I totally LOVE IT!
Here is my link to you tube. leave comments if you like the vids. nothing special just yet, just starting to play with it all. Am looking to get VEGAS for my video editing.
http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=fixittt
January 11th, 2007 at 12:35 pm
Hi I have been looking at getting either the Archos or a camcorder setup. I want to use it for offroad motorcycling. Is a camcorder robust enough if put in a rucksack?
February 13th, 2007 at 8:24 am
Hi Phil Reeve, I bought the Archos 504 80Gb with the Archos helmet cam about a week or so ago. I have tested it on my XR250 offroad, with the recorder in a rucksack and the helmet cam on my lid. The recorder fared just fine, however the cam cord pulled out of the recorder 3 minutes into a 60 minute ride as I performed a tricky rut exit. Argh!
So, the helmet cam cord is too short for my setup, and I am searching for a way of extending it, both between the cam and inline switch, and between the inline switch and the cable termination. Does anyone have any ideas how this mgiht be done?
February 13th, 2007 at 11:55 am
Aplord,
Not sure how to fix your cable length problem. Perhaps a seperate pouch that could mount on the shoulder strap about chest pocket high?? There are several palm pilot style pouches that might work.
Could you please post some RAW video from the Archos?
I am really trying to get some video, recorded at the highest bit rate, that has not been compressed after offloading from the Archos. Preferably shot outside while moving. If you are going through trees or shadows that would be awesome.
I only need about 20-30 seconds (that should be about 15MB).
February 24th, 2007 at 8:41 pm
hey guys check out my My helmet camera setup
I found a really interesting bug in the AV500,
When closing down a recording via the Remote, if you are to press the record again while it is writing the close file, it will attempt to open a video recording. Fail and get stuck on the file manager menu.
To resume recording turn off the AV500 and turn it back on.
When you get stuck on the file manager, pressing record will do a phantom record, the red light will go on, however if you hold the button it will turn off after about 5 seconds. and no record anything on the unit itself.
February 24th, 2007 at 8:49 pm
I was ran over ice racing last race, that case was cut in 1/3 by an ice tire, my back was saved because of it.
The AV500 was JUST knicked by the tire
March 8th, 2007 at 2:44 am
Gentlemen, pay attention. Archos support is 0.
I have the same issue explained above by javik (no picture on 604 through Archos helmet camcorder) and all my calls, emails to Archos are still unattended.
BE CAREFULL !
Javik, did you solve the issue ? Please write me to cutciaktemp-butta@yahoo.it thanks
March 23rd, 2007 at 7:53 pm
FWI!!! I use my HelmetCam for Skiing & Paintball!!!
I have had bought a HelmetCam last year from helmetcamera.com there full lipstick/mic/xteme housing.. I had it all running out to my sony 3ccd camera in a pelican case… The system worked but was a total pain in my ass!! I broke the cord out of the back.. So I deciced to buy a new system…
After find the archos helmetcam system I was stoked… I wasn’t sure how it was gonna work with all of the Negativity on the forum… Also if it fits in the xtreme housing
I bought a 504 with the helmetcam & it did indeed fit in the xtreme housing!! THis is a must if you gonna play paintball with it.. Anyways I tested it sking and play 2 games of paintball. It worked good. But the helmet camera programing was fucked… All the button did was turn the camera on and off not the record button….
I than loaned the system to a buddy and it died on him.. Just stopped working.. I than called Archos and sent it back… After 3 wks after not getting it back.. I called and told them that I need it soon. I had a paintball scenario coming up in a week.. I kept calling for a few days told them I needed it by this date. The lady on the phone said they would overnight it to me.. if it came to it.. I said good..Sure enough come Wednesday when i leave on Thursday morning a package came.. My Archos 504 just in time…. I then used it for that weekend…
It worked & the programing on the remote got fixed.. Now, once the device is on simply hit the record button and it turns the cam on and record on and locks all buttons… than u can hold the stats for 10 secs and the whole unit will turn off…
Long story short.. I love my 504 now that it is fixed and the remote works right now… Archos repair took about a month.. but they overnighted me my fixed unit so I would have it in time 4 my event…
My HelmetCam Setup: 504 80gb, archos helmetcam, xtreme housing for the lipstickcam (helmetcamera.com) A MUST for paintball, 2x bats., Pelican 1040 Mic case - fit perfectly
Srry at this time i have no sample video, but I will post some soon….
April 17th, 2007 at 4:30 am
I bought the Archos 504 40Gb with the Archos Helmet Cam as my first helmet camera for motorbiking.
Only had it a week, but am impressed with the video footage from it so far.
Spent about 35 mins out and about in Nottingham, UK on it and it produced a 500Mb .avi file on the device (so should get close to 40hours of video from the 40Gb if my maths is correct).
Had to download a codec for the DivX from wmplugis.com to allow Windows Movie Maker to import it (need recommendations for a decent movie creation package).
I compressed it right down to 35Mb from the original 500Mb (and even added some music to it).
The results can be found here.
A 32second sample of almost raw video (did convert it to wma) can be found here.
No roblems so far. The funs just starting.