Registered: Sep 2000
Location: Raleigh, NC
Posts: 832

quote:

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Originally posted by LeaDxPainT
Thanks...computers4sure hasn't confirmed my cancelation yet, so i dont want 2 handcams showing up at my house.

Does the handcam store pictures seperatly so you cna pick and choose which to save on a memplug?

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Registered: Dec 2001
Location: DFW
Posts: 82

pretty good list of features/comparison

http://home.attbi.com/~maxwell.house/handcam.htm

Registered: Sep 2000
Location:
Posts: 107

Some dark clouds with that silver lining

Okay, so I've had a coupla days to play with this HandCam. Overall, I do sorta like it. But I've ran into a few snags.

--It's crashed my Prism. Whenver I do a soft reset, I get an "Error in DataManager.c line blah blah blah" and my Prism hangs. Every time I reset, it does this. A warm reset solves it, so it's a system file thingie, and a hard reset fixes this completely (although, not the ultimate solution).

I DO have hacks installed, so I assume it was a conflict with some of these, but my Prism did work fine before my HandCam was ever inserted, and now, even with all hacks uninstalled and deleted, I STILL get this error. I'm doing a "seek and destroy" on any potentially offending files on my Prism now, hoping to find the one that's causing the problem upon "boot".

--The manual states that it takes roughly around 150K for a full sized JPG and a smaller amount for a Palm sized image. Yet with 2MB free internally (and apparently externally on the HandCam) I cannot take a full sized JPG. It gives me a "Not enough memory for JPG2" error. I can take Palm sized images, just not big ones. After a hard reset, it works fine, but that's with 7.5MB free. Also Hack related? Perhaps, still looking into this.

--When I do get the above error, the pictures goes all wiggy. What's "wiggy" you say? Well, it . . . shifts. It will "wrap" to the right and top. In other words, I'll see the far right side of the image on the left side of my screen and the top of the image on the bottom. Images taken like this will show up like this when saved. Dunno why this happens. Internal software problems? Funky sensor issues? I dunno. It's easily fixed (just switch to the video section and back to the still section and it's resolved), but still a pain to put up with.

--The lens swivel is a really nice feature, but I would have preferred it to be the other way around (personal opinion here). Instead of having the lens swivel all the way around to face me, I would have like it to face 180 degrees AWAY from me, that way one could use it similarly to a PalmPix camera. As it is, if you want to take a picture of what's in front of you, you have to treat it as an Eyemodule 2 and point the top of your Visor in that direction.

I'm not sure if these issues are inherent in all the HandCams, or if it's just my funky setup that's causing some of them. When this things works, I like it. But getting it to work with my configuration seems to be a problem.

For further reference, here are the hacks I have installed:

X-Master: Afterburner 3.1, ClockPop, MiddleCaps, SnapCalc.
TrapWeaver: BackdropGC beta 2.0

I'm thinking maybe Afterburner or Backdrop may be the offending hacks ('specially since Backdrop GC 2.0 is still beta), but I'm having a Hell of a time getting my Prism to work again correctly without resulting to a Hard Reset.

__________________
-Richard Powell

"Nice guys may finish last, but you know, the company's much better back here."

Registered: Sep 1999
Location: Rio Rancho, NM, USA
Posts: 129

When I've run into the Error in DataManager.c message, it's been AIM that's to blame for the error. I simply remove it and things start to work again. I have a visorphone normally in the springboard slot and I seem to get the error when an online session isn't closed properly.

The other culprit had been Wordsmith, but that hasn't been a problem with the new version.

I've been using my cam for the past week or so. Truthfully, I'm using it more as a webcam then I am as a palmcam. It works great and the size is something everyone has commened on.

Registered: Sep 2001
Location: Massachusetts
Posts: 229

Thanks for all the input guys, still waiting for the official vc.com review on it b4 i make my final decision. So far it seems promising.

__________________
Don't Worry It's Human Nature To Point Out The Obvious

Registered: Dec 2000
Location:
Posts: 175

Ordered mine yesterday from Buy.com, opted for next day air, and UPS tracking showed that it's already out for delivery today! Sometimes I just love being in Southern California (okay, 99% of the time).

I'll let you all know how it works with my VPL.

Registered: Sep 2000
Location: Raleigh, NC
Posts: 832

My wife tells me mine is at home - too bad I'm not

Registered: Sep 2000
Location:
Posts: 107

Problems resolved . . . sort of.

I got most of my problems resolved, it would seem. Somehow, somewhere, my Saved preferences file got corrupted, and that's what kept crashing upon reset. I had to delete this file and essentially re-"register" everything, resetup all my categories, etc etc. Not too bad considering the relative lack of data loss.

I disabled Afterburner and the HandCam works fine. It takes big and small pictures with no probs. NOW I'm beginning to like this thing a bit more. I'll be able to put it through its paces over the next coupla days.

Just a bit of warning, though. If you use Afterburner, you'll probably wanna disable it when using the HandCam. It's the only thing I can think of that could have caused the aforementioned problems.

__________________
-Richard Powell

"Nice guys may finish last, but you know, the company's much better back here."

Registered: Sep 2001
Location: Massachusetts
Posts: 229

raptor i have two questions for you.
1) Are the images saved as single filed jpegs on the visor or in a bundle?

2) what is your avatar is pick of...i can see pikachu, but whats that pink thing on it?

__________________
Don't Worry It's Human Nature To Point Out The Obvious

Registered: Nov 2001
Location:
Posts: 33

The Pink thing... lol

quote:

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2) what is your avatar is pick of...I can see pikachu, but whats that pink thing on it?

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Hey LeaDxPainT,
That pink thing looks like the creatures from the Alien movies. You know the one's that grab and stick to your face (I think to implant the creature inside you ???. ??? ) I guess raptor is trying to impregnate pikachu with an Alien

__________________
Great Success always comes at the Risk of Great Failure.

Registered: Dec 2000
Location:
Posts: 24

Do they sell these in Staples (the store, not online) yet? I might go buy one.. I'm holding out to see what you guys say about the 'shutter speed' capture time and image quality.
-Fagan

Registered: Jul 2001
Location: Tucson, AZ
Posts: 366

quote:

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Originally posted by Fagan
Do they sell these in Staples (the store, not online) yet? I might go buy one.. I'm holding out to see what you guys say about the 'shutter speed' capture time and image quality.
-Fagan

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I went to a Staples in Kansas City yesterday to pickup a mouse for a friend and I didn't see any there. However, Staples.com does have it available. So, I would presume that I went to the wrong store because it is available somewhere in my area. But where?

Jason

__________________
Did you just go near a burning hot river of lava or are you just happy to see me?

Registered: Sep 2001
Location: Massachusetts
Posts: 229

In Living Color - Ha, thanks makes a lot more sense now.. i think

__________________
Don't Worry It's Human Nature To Point Out The Obvious

Registered: Sep 2000
Location:
Posts: 107

quote:

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Originally posted by LeaDxPainT
raptor i have two questions for you.
1) Are the images saved as single filed jpegs on the visor or in a bundle?

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From exploring the "file system" with PiMover (the app that comes with the Memplugs), it would seem to be kept in 'bundled' databases (seems to be one for vids, one for big pics, and one for small pics).

However, I haven't yet gotten the desktop conduit to work yet, so I'm still playing around with it. Once I get 'em on my 'puter, I'll post pics for evaluation.

quote:

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2) what is your avatar is pick of...i can see pikachu, but whats that pink thing on it?

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Yes, it's a stuffed Pikachu being attacked by an Alien "facehugger". I used to work for a local Electronics Boutique, and the beanie facehugger was a gift that the manager at that time gave to me. Since we all hated Pokemon (back when it was in full swing), the "facehuggered Pikachu" became the store mascot, and was actually on display on our counter (where the pic was taken). You'd be surprised at how many parents would come in, see it, and smile. Now I have the thing in my room. Sort of as a last artifact of good days past (I enjoyed both the job, and the people with whom I worked. I DIDN'T enjoy the Pokemon craze).

On another note: After further messing around, it would seem that Afterburner was NOT the cause of my HandCam problems, but the Backdrop GC beta seems to be the problem. I ran into the "not enough memory" error again, and after a series of hack enable/disables it was finally narrowed down to TrapWeaver, and then even further to Backdrop GC. I've almost certain now, as I have it to the point of "Backdrop GC on, HandCam doesn't work 90% of the time" and "Backdrop GC off, HandCam works with no problems at all".

Anyone else having similar troubles? Or is it just me? Anyone else gotten the conduit to work correctly?

__________________
-Richard Powell

"Nice guys may finish last, but you know, the company's much better back here."

Registered: Jan 2000
Location: New York City
Posts: 158

I did get the conduit to work. Though it has put my visor through more than one reset, one a looping reset.

I'm not happy with the product at all, though.

The software is very crude. No configurable options, you can't install the conduit without the webcam software, which disabled my exisiting webcam s/w.

The camera options are only configurable via the pc software, not on the module where they would be helpful.

And the ultimate test - the pictures? Fuggedaboutit. I had the EyeModule2, and I know how steady you had to hold it, but this is much more sensitive. I barely have gotten a shakeless picture out of it. And when you do, the color blanace goes totally wacky.

This one is clearly not ready for prime time. Although as a webcam, it seems superior to my current bottom-of the-line Ligitech QuicKCam, I didn't buy it for that.