My hacked CVS video camera

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My hacked CVS video camera
25 answers - 209 bytes -
I made a cable and have successfully downloaded videos off my CVS
"disposable" camcorder. 8-)
Pictures of the cable construction:
Sample videos:
http://www.mrbill.net/video/
Bill
No.1 | | 402 bytes | |
Thu, Aug 04, 2005 at 10:56:00PM -0500, Bill Bradford wrote:
I made a cable and have successfully downloaded videos off my CVS
"disposable" camcorder. 8-)

Pictures of the cable construction:

Sample videos:

http://www.mrbill.net/video/

I like how siffy blinks at you in cats.divx.avi.

BTW, are these files in the cameras native resolution, or did you scale them?
No.2 | | 225 bytes | |
Bill Bradford wrote:
I made a cable and have successfully downloaded videos off my CVS
"disposable" camcorder. 8-)
Pictures of the cable construction:
That's pretty damn cool
GEEKS:
No.3 | | 218 bytes | |
Fri, Aug 05, 2005 at 10:00:02AM -0400, Joshua Boyd wrote:
I like how siffy blinks at you in cats.divx.avi.
BTW, are these files in the cameras native resolution, or did you scale them?
Native.
Bill
No.4 | | 637 bytes | |
Someone generated the quantum flux that came across as Bill Bradford
Fri, Aug 05, 2005 at 10:00:02AM -0400, Joshua Boyd wrote:
>I like how siffy blinks at you in cats.divx.avi.
>BTW, are these files in the cameras native resolution, or did you scale
>them?
>
Native.

Won't play in Quicktime 7 Standard for me. :-(

Also, I missed what you paid for this. It's going for $50 BIN on E-Bay
right now.

Mike

"Without balance and consistent growth the only option is to degrade.
There is no other solution." - Anonymous

GEEKS:
No.5 | | 146 bytes | |
Aug 5, 2005, at 10:21, Bill Bradford wrote:
Native.
Awwww, max really looks like he wants to come inside.
GEEKS:
No.6 | | 397 bytes | |
Fri, Aug 05, 2005 at 09:29:00AM -0500, Mike Hebel wrote:
Won't play in Quicktime 7 Standard for me. :-(

You'll need the DivX plugin(s)/codec, or use VLC.

Also, I missed what you paid for this. It's going for $50 BIN on E-Bay
right now.

Bought it for $29.95 about a month ago, made the cable out of a $5 palm
serial cable I bought off eBay.

Bill
No.7 | | 703 bytes | |
Fri, Aug 05, 2005 at 09:29:00AM -0500, Mike Hebel wrote:
Someone generated the quantum flux that came across as Bill Bradford
Fri, Aug 05, 2005 at 10:00:02AM -0400, Joshua Boyd wrote:
>I like how siffy blinks at you in cats.divx.avi.
>BTW, are these files in the cameras native resolution, or did you scale
>them?
>
Native.

Won't play in Quicktime 7 Standard for me. :-(

It plays fine in mplayer on my linux laptop, and based on the file info
dumped, it looks like it should work fine on mplayer/osx or mplayer/irix
(though anything less than 250mhz w/ 2M L2 might not be satisfactory there).

GEEKS:
No.8 | | 981 bytes | |
Someone generated the quantum flux that came across as Bill Bradford
Fri, Aug 05, 2005 at 09:29:00AM -0500, Mike Hebel wrote:
>Won't play in Quicktime 7 Standard for me. :-(
>
You'll need the DivX plugin(s)/codec, or use VLC.

Did that. The 5.x codec doesn't work with QT 7 it seems - they even say
that on the DivX website. :-(

I suppose VLC will be fine - is there a VLC plugin for Mozilla?

>Also, I missed what you paid for this. It's going for $50 BIN on E-Bay
>right now.
>
Bought it for $29.95 about a month ago, made the cable out of a $5 palm
serial cable I bought off eBay.

Seeing as I have probably the same Palm cable $50 off E-Bay isn't that bad
then.

Mike Hebel

"Without balance and consistent growth the only option is to degrade.
There is no other solution." - Anonymous

GEEKS:
No.9 | | 275 bytes | |
Fri, Aug 05, 2005 at 09:38:42AM -0500, Mike Hebel wrote:
Did that. The 5.x codec doesn't work with QT 7 it seems - they even say
that on the DivX website. :-(
I've got the 5.x codec as well as the 3ivX codec loaded without any
problems.
Bill
No.10 | | 679 bytes | |
Someone generated the quantum flux that came across as Bill Bradford
Fri, Aug 05, 2005 at 09:38:42AM -0500, Mike Hebel wrote:
>Did that. The 5.x codec doesn't work with QT 7 it seems - they even say
>that on the DivX website. :-(
>
I've got the 5.x codec as well as the 3ivX codec loaded without any
problems.

*shrug* Didn't give me an error but played blank in Quicktime.

Played fine though in VLC so whatever

Nice cats! ;-)

Mike Hebel

"Without balance and consistent growth the only option is to degrade.
There is no other solution." - Anonymous

GEEKS:
No.11 | | 410 bytes | |
8/4/05, Bill Bradford <mrbill (AT) mrbill (DOT) netwrote:
I made a cable and have successfully downloaded videos off my CVS
"disposable" camcorder. 8-)

Pictures of the cable construction:

Sample videos:

http://www.mrbill.net/video/

The packaging says 20 min. of video's that show up as in MB's
when it's mounted?

=Nadine=

GEEKS:
No.12 | | 398 bytes | |
Fri, Aug 05, 2005 at 02:39:07PM -0400, velociraptor wrote:
The packaging says 20 min. of video's that show up as in MB's
when it's mounted?

You dont actually mount the camera as a storage device but a coworker
said that he recorded 25 minutes of video until the "space ran out" -
and it was around 80M (DivX/MPEG-4). The camera has a 128M flash AFAIK.

Bill
No.13 | | 859 bytes | |
8/5/05, Bill Bradford <mrbill (AT) mrbill (DOT) netwrote:
Fri, Aug 05, 2005 at 02:39:07PM -0400, velociraptor wrote:
The packaging says 20 min. of video's that show up as in MB's
when it's mounted?

You dont actually mount the camera as a storage device but a coworker
said that he recorded 25 minutes of video until the "space ran out" -
and it was around 80M (DivX/MPEG-4). The camera has a 128M flash AFAIK.

I take it that it's some sort of file (iMovie) import, then? I have
done zippo with video (other than watch), so forgive the neophyte
questions.

And I drag and drop my pics from the storage media in my digital
camera rather than using the USB cable.

25min is not bad for $50 bucks. Is it possible to replace the
batteries in it?

=Nadine=

GEEKS:
No.14 | | 682 bytes | |
Fri, Aug 05, 2005 at 02:04:42PM -0500, Bill Bradford wrote:
Fri, Aug 05, 2005 at 02:39:07PM -0400, velociraptor wrote:
>The packaging says 20 min. of video's that show up as in MB's
>when it's mounted?
>
You dont actually mount the camera as a storage device but a coworker
said that he recorded 25 minutes of video until the "space ran out" -
and it was around 80M (DivX/MPEG-4). The camera has a 128M flash AFAIK.

So, how do you get the video off? Does it show up as a camera device or
something? I bought one of these a few weeks ago, but I haven't built
the cable yet. Maybe this weekend.
No.15 | | 656 bytes | |
Bill Bradford wrote:
Fri, Aug 05, 2005 at 02:39:07PM -0400, velociraptor wrote:

>>The packaging says 20 min. of video's that show up as in MB's
>>when it's mounted?

You dont actually mount the camera as a storage device but a coworker
said that he recorded 25 minutes of video until the "space ran out" -
and it was around 80M (DivX/MPEG-4). The camera has a 128M flash AFAIK.

I dunno about anyone else, but the idea of use-once-and-throw-away
disposable cameras bugged me enough the idea of a disposable
digital camcorder is just wrong.
No.16 | | 899 bytes | |
8/5/05, Phil Stracchino <phil.stracchino (AT) speakeasy (DOT) netwrote:
Bill Bradford wrote:
Fri, Aug 05, 2005 at 02:39:07PM -0400, velociraptor wrote:
>
>>The packaging says 20 min. of video's that show up as in MB's
>>when it's mounted?
>
>
You dont actually mount the camera as a storage device but a coworker
said that he recorded 25 minutes of video until the "space ran out" -
and it was around 80M (DivX/MPEG-4). The camera has a 128M flash AFAIK.

I dunno about anyone else, but the idea of use-once-and-throw-away
disposable cameras bugged me enough the idea of a disposable
digital camcorder is just wrong.

I think that with the cable it's actually reusable, why waste
the time building the cable?

=Nadine=

GEEKS:
No.17 | | 604 bytes | |
velociraptor wrote:
8/5/05, Phil Stracchino <phil.stracchino (AT) speakeasy (DOT) netwrote:
>>I dunno about anyone else, but the idea of use-once-and-throw-away
>>disposable cameras bugged me enough the idea of a disposable
>>digital camcorder is just wrong.

I think that with the cable it's actually reusable, why waste
the time building the cable?

Well, yeah, there is that option among the geek set. :) If you can
build the cable, it's no longer a single-use throwaway device, I guess.
No.18 | | 517 bytes | |
Fri, Aug 05, 2005 at 03:09:16PM -0400, velociraptor wrote:
I take it that it's some sort of file (iMovie) import, then? I have
done zippo with video (other than watch), so forgive the neophyte
questions.

3rd party program on the WIndows box (Mac stuff is coming) that
opens, "unlocks" the camera, then downloads the videos to a location
of your choosing.

25min is not bad for $50 bucks. Is it possible to replace the
batteries in it?

Yep, its two standard AAs.

Bill
No.19 | | 422 bytes | |
Fri, Aug 05, 2005 at 02:22:13PM -0500, Michael Parson wrote:
So, how do you get the video off? Does it show up as a camera device or
something? I bought one of these a few weeks ago, but I haven't built
the cable yet. Maybe this weekend.

I use the "" program; latest version is up at
http://www.mrbill.net/cvscam/

For all the information you'd ever want to know about them:

Bill
No.20 | | 502 bytes | |
Fri, Aug 05, 2005 at 03:28:48PM -0400, velociraptor wrote:
I think that with the cable it's actually reusable, why waste
the time building the cable?

Exactly. Instead of paying $30 for the camera and another $20 for CVS
to put the footage on DVD (and not return the camera), I paid $30 for the
camera and $7 for cable supplies and its infinitely reusable.

The cable also works with the CVS digital *still* cameras, but you use
different software for that.

Bill
No.21 | | 987 bytes | |
Fri, Aug 05, 2005 at 02:45:35PM -0500, Bill Bradford wrote:
Fri, Aug 05, 2005 at 02:22:13PM -0500, Michael Parson wrote:
>So, how do you get the video off? Does it show up as a camera device or
>something? I bought one of these a few weeks ago, but I haven't built
>the cable yet. Maybe this weekend.
>
I use the "" program; latest version is up at
http://www.mrbill.net/cvscam/

For all the information you'd ever want to know about them:

Cable built, used an old PalmIII->serial adapter I had for using my
Earthmate GPS on the PalmIII. First few tries with it haven't given me
much yet, but if I slide the connector back and forth slowly, windows
will pop up the "You've got a new USB Device 'Saturn'" stuff, and the
camera shuts off. The program can't open the camera yet.

I'll mess with it more tomorrow, but I'd say that's some progress.
No.22 | | 741 bytes | |
Fri, Aug 05, 2005 at 09:48:43PM -0500, Michael Parson wrote:
Cable built, used an old PalmIII->serial adapter I had for using my
Earthmate GPS on the PalmIII. First few tries with it haven't given me
much yet, but if I slide the connector back and forth slowly, windows
will pop up the "You've got a new USB Device 'Saturn'" stuff, and the
camera shuts off. The program can't open the camera yet.

That's just a loose connector.

You need to download libusb (see www.mrbill.net/cvscam), and use its
wizard to create an .inf file for the camera. Then, point WIndows at
that .inf file, then the libusb0.sys file.

After that, will be able to open the camera.

Bill
No.23 | | 174 bytes | |
We don't have CVS here. If someone is picking one up, would you consider
picking me up an extra? I'll cover a few bucks for your trouble.
Thanks!
-DanD
No.24 | | 1026 bytes | |
Fri, Aug 05, 2005 at 10:21:57PM -0500, Bill Bradford wrote:
Fri, Aug 05, 2005 at 09:48:43PM -0500, Michael Parson wrote:
>Cable built, used an old PalmIII->serial adapter I had for using my
>Earthmate GPS on the PalmIII. First few tries with it haven't given me
>much yet, but if I slide the connector back and forth slowly, windows
>will pop up the "You've got a new USB Device 'Saturn'" stuff, and the
>camera shuts off. The program can't open the camera yet.
>
That's just a loose connector.

You need to download libusb (see www.mrbill.net/cvscam), and use its
wizard to create an .inf file for the camera. Then, point WIndows at
that .inf file, then the libusb0.sys file.

After that, will be able to open the camera.

Woo!

I was missing the part on creating the .inf file.

Need to make the connector fit better, got a hand cramp holding it in
just the right spot. But it works!
No.25 | | 290 bytes | |
Sat, Aug 06, 2005 at 06:58:21PM -0500, Michael Parson wrote:
Woo!
I was missing the part on creating the .inf file.
Need to make the connector fit better, got a hand cramp holding it in
just the right spot. But it works!
I just wrote up the process for MAKE:
Bill

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