Product Review: Monoprice MHD Action Camera

[Subby]

Excellent review, Shawn. I have the GoPro Hero3 and it works great in conjunction with the K-Edge mount, particularly b/c of the low profile. With the GoPro you have to use an aftermarket mount, because the stock mounts are garbAge (that's french for trash). The other nice feature is the app you can use for remote control of the camera and the GoPro Studio software you can use to make movies (both free). The battery life is pretty bad (2 hours or so of HD) but you can buy reasonably priced aftermarket backup batteries. The biggest con of the camera and the mount is obviously price. That said, I am not leaving my kids any money when I go out in a fireball of crash on Mont Ventoux, so it works for me.

[americancyclo]

Thanks for the review!

Do you have any sense yet for how well it captures license plates (especially in low light situations)?

I don't ride a while lot in low light at least at this time of year, but I'll see if I can capture some footage in the next week or so.

[americancyclo]

The other nice feature is the app you can use for remote control of the camera and the GoPro Studio software you can use to make movies (both free).

Those features are both pretty cool. The monoprice is definitely lacking when it comes to features and software.

[Bill Hole]

I had ordered one of these before seeing this thread. I received it and, after an additional wait for the memory card to come in, installed it on my helmet. Not wanting to spend the $16 or so for their helmet mount, I modified the mount from an old headlight so it could accommodate the larger mounting screw for the camera.

My reactions so far:
1. Resolution is pretty good for such a cheap camera, and it works well in early morning light (I leave the house between 6:10 and 6:20 AM).
2. It has no image stabilization, so the image bounces around a lot. I'm going to do some more work on my mount to see if I can make it a little steadier.
3. It can pick up license numbers if they're fairly close, but not if the camera is getting jostled too much.
4. The battery lasts long enough for my commute both ways, which is about an hour and a half.
5. Video is stored in QuickTime format. If you want to view your video on Windows, Windows Media won't play the sound. You should download QuickTime from Apple (or buy a Mac).
6. The microphone isn't great - mostly you hear the wind rushing by - but it picks up my screams when drivers try to kill me.
7. The initial setup instructions were confusing. The OP's instructions above helped me get going.

I paid less than $60 from rakuten.com. The price has gone back up to $84, but I definitely think it's worth it.

Bill

[n18]

TJ Maxx and Marshall's are/were selling this cheap GoPro alternative for around $40, but it's 720p, has very poor capture at night, and doesn't have image stabilization according to the reviews.

5. Video is stored in QuickTime format. If you want to view your video on Windows, Windows Media won't play the sound. You should download QuickTime from Apple (or buy a Mac).

You can use VLC media player, which is free and open source to view QuickTime and many other videos and DVD's. You can also convert video formats from one type to another(See File-->Convert/Save), but it takes a "long" time. When installing it, make sure that you don't associate all file types to VLC, just the ones that you want. It's somewhat harder to use than Windows Media Player and Apple's QuickTime.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VLC_media_player
http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

[cyclingfool]

A big +1 for VLC. Great program to have on the computer.

[n18]

Sorry about the OT, but I hope this saves some people from sleepless nights:

One of the major problems that I had with VLC is that the monitor doesn't go off afterward, even after closing VLC, which makes it harder to sleep. It took me a long time to find that VLC was the cause. A restart fixes the problem, but if you go to Control Panel-->Display-->Screen Saver tab, then click on "Power", and then just click OK on everything, it fixes the problem without changing anything or having to restart. If you go to Control Panel-->Power Options, it doesn't do anything. You have to use the Power button in Control Panel-->Display. You could also access "Display" by right clicking an empty area of the desktop and choosing "Properties".

To stop VLC from disabling the screensaver altogether, go to Tools-->Preferences, then at the bottom left, look for "Show settings", and click "All". Now on the left, click on "Video", then uncheck "Disable screensaver".