Mini DV MD80 9/9 - Mac OSX - Charging, Setting Date Time, Downloading, Editing Tips

[pixies64]

hi i just got one of these today and after unboxing i turned it on and it work but then i went to charge it using the ac adapter, and both light came on and after about an hour and a half the green light went off so i though it was fully charged however it doesn't turn on :s am i just being stupid at trying to turn it on? the instructions are really badly translated :s

[TheBlueGuy1000]

I need help with mine, after 3 days my MiniDV stop working properly.

I press the power button an it turns on and it turns red right away and I press the mode button or the record button or the power button and it doesn't do anything.

It doesn't even turn off, I need to reset it but when I try an turn it back on it does the samething.

I've had it for a long time but never bother to look for any solution for that.

Do you what can be wrong?

I also connect it to the computer and it turns it off and

[ZerOInKilL]

when i go to turn on mine. a blue light comes on. then as soon as i remove my finger from the power button, the blue light just dies. then when i try to charge it. only the blue light comes on and the flashing red light doesnt come on. does anybody now whats going on. it worked before. im wondering if the battery is low and wont hold a charge anymore, or my camera eye is dead.

[hugoeflorez]

Hi frank wha i realy need is the drivers for windows xp and 7 so if you can help me with that and this is my email hugo_florez30@hotmail.com

[FranksTechHelp]

@hugoeflorez I never used the driver files cause they did nothing for me.

[moonbug71]

my root directory doesn't start with DCIM folder it just says VIDEO, which opens into RECORD and VLT. Have tried re-formatting the card and starting again, just the same. The best I have got is one tiny and jumpy recording with no sound, then no further recordings happen. frustrated now!

[ZerOInKilL]

@moonbug71 dont use crappy no brand micro sd card cause they dont seem to save correctly. Also, if your recording are being cut short. its usually because the battery is low. charge it for like 2hrs to get long recordings.

[moonbug71]

do you have to add the TAG.TXT file to the root directory for the unit to work?

[SnowGuyification]

@moonbug71 No, that is only if you want the date/time to be correct

[jrgenhwn1]

When i put my camera-usb into my mac, and connect it, there are coming a harddrive on the desktop.

But in that hard drive there is nothing. It is just empty...

Any help???

[Latika208]

Could I plug this to a ps3 and view my vids?? Or would I have to take out the micro sd and view like that??

[Jmuduke]

My camera is stuck with the blue LED on and none of the buttons work while the light is on. The only way I can turn it off is to hit the reset button. It worked the first night I had it, left it plugged in overnight and I'm wondering if it fried it or something. I've let the unit drain the battery completely, remove the card, re-format it, then recharge the camera and put in the formatted card. Still a no-go, any ideas? BTW, the right light blinks once on startup then solid blue again.

[johnniewalker77]

how to remove date time stamp on the video ???

can it be disable ?

is there any setting to do this ?

[FranksTechHelp]

@johnniewalker77 Sorry but the date and time stamp are stuck on the camera :(

[newchips]

Great video. If you have a newer MacBook Pro and have problems creating a .txt file because rather, it is saving as .rtf, then click format>Make Plain Text and it should save as .txt

[pppete05]

Thanks for the video! So you know if there is a way to remove the date and time? I am planning to use my MD 80 to create a time lapse video for a promotion so can't really have that displayed.

Thanks in advance!

[FranksTechHelp]

@pppete05 There is no way to remove it as of this time, would be nice though! You could always crop the output when editing.

[willzawsome]

oh tru thanx for that

[willzawsome]

hey what dose the mode button do on it? plz help

[FranksTechHelp]

@willzawsome Mode selects between record video now and record when a noise of 60db is heard, voice activation.

[moudii89]

Hey Frank, when i plug the miniDv cam to my cam Mac nothing happens! The software cd i´ve got is too small (mini Cd) and doesnt work! Can i download the software for this cam from the internett? is there any other software/prog. i need to transfer the data from the cam to my mac??

Thanks alot

[FranksTechHelp]

@moudii89 The disc that comes with it is pretty much garbage. I would try a new cable, the one that comes with the cameras are pretty cheap, also try using the port closer to the back on the Mac, if it's a laptop. It should pop up on the desktop and you can access the files directly.

[blindhelpfultech]

Friank I think I have an isus with my friends computer I've not tryed it on mine. When my friend inserts the cd it's not in ENU. No way change it that I know, Is there a way to change to ENU, this is the only that I could get this cd set in ENU? Every CD is in ENU. Also, he is running windows 7. If you could help that would be great thanks,

great vdieos by the way

[halosavage]

hey, im having trouble charging mine, is it supposed to have a red light and a flashing blue light when its charging? thanks

[troopers8]

Hey Frank, Is there a way to remove the timestamp on mac?

[jamilmereck]

hey frank...i've actually posted this question o your blog as well, not sure if you'll see these comments since the vids are relatively old by now...but my voice activation function...it only seems to stay in voice activation standby for the standard stand by time of 45 seconds, at which point it just powers off...i've tried chargin overnight via ac adapter (my iphone one) and it doesn't seem to be that it powers off because there is not enough power or there is no memory...i

[choppaster]

Hey Frank i can change the time and date on the MD80 camera but it wont stick if i set the time and date for today when if i use the camera tomorrow it will still have todays time and date.ive turned the camera off and back on after the date change.is there any other things i can do so the date will stick?

[rproks1]

87464

[cyberwealth]

The tip for the initial charge of 8 hours bad advice, it bricked both my cams batteries that cannot be sourced. As stated, the cams never show a fully charged state. Stay with the 3 hours max charge. The cams have a flawed battery overcharging design and the charger works on batteries without overcharging design flaws so be careful charging or you'll buy twice. Rather than re-buy flawed cams, I bought 2 x HD720p Mini DV key cam 808 #11 that have a working overcharging design and are real HD720p

[martinizing72]

Thanks so much for your help!

[smashbeans]

cool gadgets.

[tremogeocacher]

txs for the good tipps!

[itube612]

I've bought mine a few days ago. Buyincoins has it for about 10 US bucks. I have pc but that doesn't matter - thanks for explaining how to set date there. I knew it has to be done through file and that I'll have to look for 'how to' somewhere :-). Are you content with the product ? I wonder what encoder it uses and if i my virtualdub will open it without prior conversion.

[FranksTechHelp]

@itube612 Hey man, if you type md80 in my channel search you will find 8 videos on this for pc from last year. I cover a ton of stuff on it. I like the product pretty well but a lot of people complain about bad batteries and other issues, but can't beat it for the price! Not sure what codec it's using but I usually convert it regardless. I like VirtualDub as well but haven't tried it with it yet.

[Jakeiiiiblade]

Well, I plugged mine in, it's fully charged, and none of the capture software I have can recognise it. I've installed all the drivers and stuff from the CD. I open up AMCap, it cannot find the device. I open up Pinnacle Studio, it wants it in a different mode.

I go to computer, and I cannot even access the device. I should also mention that I didn't get a micro SD card so... help please :)

[FranksTechHelp]

@Jakeiiiiblade Hi There, I don't think it's possible to import files directly into editing software because of the recording codec. Did you try using VideoVangelist to convert the files into a format that your editing software uses? Example: I convert the files to DV for Final Cut. Also since your cam didn't come with a memory card what type are you using? When you plug the camera into your usb it should show on desktop as a folder, if not then try using a micro sd to usb adapter. Let me know.

[Jakeiiiiblade]

@FranksTechHelp

Well, I don't have a micro SD currenlty so you'll have to wait for a reply on that. When I plug it in, I cannot access the device from anywhere. The instruction booklet advises you to use AMCap, but it doesn't detect the device, no matter what. I cannot record or anything. All I can do is switch it on/off xD

[FranksTechHelp]

@Jakeiiiiblade Oh there's the problem, you have to have a micro sd card in it for it to do anything on the computer, record, etc. Once you get your card you will be able to follow this video ;) Let me know how it goes.

[Jakeiiiiblade]

@FranksTechHelp

Okay thanks :)

[choppaster]

@Jakeiiiiblade if you havnt got a micro SD Card in the camera the computer wont recognise it.