No Monitor screen for camera setup?

[RoadRacer]

The PDR100 has great features. However, I do not understand why you would not incorporate a monitoring preview screen for camera setup!?!? I am not in the habit of carrying an external LCD around and it just adds to the cost of using the system. Also, why would you not have a locking connection for the bullet camera? Seems a little fragile with the standard pin setup and it can disconnect with a good jar. Any way these issues may be resolved in a future upgrade?

[Terry Kennedy]

The PDR100 has great features. However, I do not understand why you would not incorporate a monitoring preview screen for camera setup!?!? I am not in the habit of carrying an external LCD around and it just adds to the cost of using the system. Also, why would you not have a locking connection for the bullet camera? Seems a little fragile with the standard pin setup and it can disconnect with a good jar. Any way these issues may be resolved in a future upgrade?
I'm just another customer, so don't take these answers as definitive...

I have a pair of PDR100's in the stacking bracket, so the screen and controls on the bottom one aren't visible without disassembling the stack. They are also mounted in a rather inconvenient area for viewing. This sort of situation may apply to some percentage of other customers as well.

I'm not sure how functional this feature would be. Unless the size of the display is changed, you're either going to see a cropped picture or have part of the display area unused. In any event, it would be a pretty small display, so you'd probably want zoom and pan controls.

That is going to require a much more complicated interface between the display and the PDR100 circuitry and is going to involve additional CPU overhead to display video on the unit. That may not be a problem during playback, but using it as a monitor (paticularly with pan and zoom) while recording may be more than the CPU can handle.

While I think it is an interesting idea, I think it might be best to implement it as either a new model of recorder or as another stackable module that handles the display functionality. This could either piggyback off the PDR100's AV output connector, and/or have its own CF slot.

I use an EverFocus EN-220 portable monitor, which includes a high-capacity 12V battery in a convenient carrying case. A Hosa YMM-492 splits the AV cable into separate audio and video connectors for the EN-220. The whole setup cost me about $250, and the 5.6" screen means a couple people can view the video without getting too crowded.

Regarding the robustness of the connectors on the PDR100, I'm using the hardwire power and the mini-DIN camera connector. I haven't had anything fall out - the mini-DIN has a pretty good grip, and I have the PDRs solidly mounted, with the cables anchored to the frame right behind the PDRs.

Right now I see the PDR100-R which has a pair of locking connectors for all functions. I remember seeing some other variants in the past as well, but they don't seem to be on the web site now.

[RandallNoll]

RoadRacer,

As Terry mentioned, we have the R version with locking autosport connectors. These are the units the F1 and other pro teams, military jets, and some consumers use.

The screen was a toss up between added feature and added cost to the consumer. Most folks mount the camera once and leave it, but everyone has their own setup and requirements, which is why we put the AV OUT terminal on the back to allow flexibility and expandability.

Thanks.