First day of use - multiple Virb issues

Hi All

Today was my first chance to try out my Virb Elite on my cycle into and back from work. It's not been a very good first day...

I have a helmet mounted Virb elite that I am attempting to control with my Garmin 810 cycle computer.

On the way in for some reason the 810 stopped being able to find the camera so I was unable to start and stop.
Power save mode, despite being turned on, has no effect. The camera does not turn off itself.
If I Turn the camera on by just starting to record when I stop it from the 810 the camera stops, shuts down, starts up and starts recording again.
On the way home the camera became unresponsive and the viewfinder was frozen. No buttons did anything other than holding down the power button for a long time.
I have set loop mode for 10 minutes. I have many many 2 minute clips on my SD card. Too short and none were deleted.

Those are all bugs IMHO but these are things that I don't like:

Incredibly slow to copy clips into Virb Edit
Very slow to copy clips directly from camera to computer
Hard to remove SD card to get the clips off there quickly
No audible beep to let you know when the camera is no longer recording either from battery issues or SD card space. If it's on my helmet how do I know when I need to put in a new battery or memory card.

I updated the firmware on the camera this morning so it is presumably the latest version.

Has anyone else had similar issues?

And why don't we have a proper forum for it rather than just a software forum?

0 geomonster over 11 years ago

Thanks for the replies (I'm still not getting notified of replies...)

When you're logged in to this forum, go to the top right of the forum screen, select Settings, General Settings and set "Default Thread Subscription Mode:" to your choice, then save the setting at the bottom with "Save Changes".

0 Roaders over 11 years ago

Yeah, I've done that. I have also used the thread tools to subscribe to this thread. Still nothing...
Thanks anyway.

0 Roaders over 11 years ago

But, with regard to your complaint about "Power Save" not working, (Power save mode, despite being turned on, has no effect. The camera does not turn off itself.) "Power Save" doesn't work if you have the camera's "Remote" mode set to "On". I tried that out myself this morning.

Thanks, useful to know. As the remote function seems to stop working mid ride I might turn it off so that the camera turns itself off. Seems a bit odd though and not documented anywhere.

As for loosing the amazing footage - I use my camera most of the time on my commute as a safety camera. Most of my rides will all get deleted without me even looking at the footage. If something happens then I will only be interested in the last few minutes of the ride. I assumed that this is what the loop function was for.
If I am doing a more interesting ride at the weekend I'd turn the loop function off.

BTW - I'm a developer. just because something works a certain way does not in any way mean it's not a bug! They need to fix the loop time thing! :-)

0 geomonster over 11 years ago

If what you wanted was a dash cam, maybe you should have bought this?

Garmin Dash Cam

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Too bad it's not waterproof.

But it would be great if Garmin could give us a Dash Cam mode in the VIRB. Something that behaved like the Dash Cam, but in the VIRB.

0 Roaders over 11 years ago

If what you wanted was a dash cam, maybe you should have bought this?

Garmin Dash Cam

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Too bad it's not waterproof.

But it would be great if Garmin could give us a Dash Cam mode in the VIRB. Something that behaved like the Dash Cam, but in the VIRB.

I think that's for cars isn't it and not helmet mounted. I don't always want a dash cam. The main reason I got the Virb is for easily adding overlays for Power, Speed ect. In theory a lot easier than my contour by so far proving far more complicated...

0 Former Member over 11 years ago

Just for video-loop-mode I use a RoadHawk Ride.
The only thing it can do is record video 1280x720 and save it as .MOV, no GPS no whatever, just video.
The video always has a timestamp on it.
When the battery is really drained, you need to set the time again.
You can start/stop the recording with the only button it has or by switching the external power on/off.
It is waterproof IP-something and is provided with some cables.
Video can be retrieved by connecting the cam to a PC or taking the µSD out and placing that in a card reader. No WiFi, No Bluetooth!
Here's a clip, overlay from VIRB Edit.http://youtu.be/ZsA2n1GXYA4

0 Kave over 11 years ago

And you don't believe that?

Why do you think i sent it in to Garmin?

I got a new replacement in the mail yesterday, I have only been playing with it for 10 minutes and the unit hangs in the same way when taking more than one picture so I guess at least my two examples have the same issues if it is not a bug.

Regarding sleepmode, on my unit it turns off the preview in the display and this is the same wether I have remote activated or not.

0 geomonster over 11 years ago

Some users on these forums claims they have a stable unit.

And you don't believe that?

Why do you think i sent it in to Garmin?

My point was that you seemed to imply that those who "claim they have a stable unit" might have been stretching the truth.

0 dfrides over 11 years ago

I just got my Virb Elite and used it for the first time yesterday and can confirm that I also had similar problems as below while using my Edge 810 as a remote. I am using the latest firmware (3.20):

- On the way in for some reason the 810 stopped being able to find the camera so I was unable to start and stop.
- On the way home the camera became unresponsive and the viewfinder was frozen. No buttons did anything other than holding down the power button for a long time.

In my case, 15 minutes into the ride, the camera became unresponsive and viewfinder was frozen (tried switching the record slider on/off and pressing the other buttons and nothing would do anything; the 810 remote also would not do anything). I had to hold the power button down to get it to turn-off/reboot. The video for those 15 minutes was not saved at all. I then unpaired the 810 from the Virb for the rest of the ride and just operated directly from the Virb with no more problems, so it appears to be a bug with the 810 Virb remote connection.