Swann Sports HD BulletCam User manual

1
Sports HD
BulletCam
MBULLET151210E

222
FCC Verification:
NOTE: This equipment has been tested and found to comply with the
limits for Class B digital device, pursuant to part 15 of the FCC Rules.
These limits are designed to provide reasonable protection against
harmful interference in a residential installation. This equipment
generates, uses and can radiate radio frequency energy and, if not
installed and used in accordance with the instructions, may cause
harmful interference to radio or television reception, which can
be determined by turning the equipment off and on, the user is
encouraged to try to correct the interference by one or more of the
following measures:
• Reorient or relocate the receiving antenna
• Increase the separation between the equipment and the receiver
• Connect the equipment into an outlet on a circuit different from
that to which the receiver is connected
• Consult the dealer or an experienced radio/TV technician for help
IMPORTANT NOTE: Prohibition against eavesdropping
Except for the operations of law enforcement officers conducted
under lawful authority, no person shall use, either directly or indirectly,
a device operated pursuant to the provisions of this Part for the
purpose of overhearing or recording the private conversations of
others unless such use is authorized by all of the parties engaging in
the conversation.
WARNING: Modifications not approved by the party responsible for
compliance could void user’s authority to operate the equipment.
(Important) Legal Mumbo Jumbo
2

3
Contents (stuff you’ll read after this)
(Important) Legal Mumbo Jumbo 2
Contents (stuff you’ll read after this) 3
Stuff you Already Know About 4
Bits (what’s in the pack) 5
Where Stuff is At (the layout of the thing) 6
The Two Caps 7
Preparing the Sports HD BulletCam 8
Charging the Sports HD BulletCam 9
Pushing the Button (an “Operating Guide”) 10
Making it do things with a computer 11
Seeing how cool you are (Playback) 12
Time Travel (Setting the Date & Time) 13
Troubleshooting 14
Technical Specifications 15
Warranty & Technical Support Rear Cover
3

444
Stuff you Already Know About
You’ve gone and done it now. Really taken the cake. You’ve bought
a Sports HD BulletCam - the miniature, waterproof, easy to use,
high definition, personal action video recorder from Swann. Kudos
to you! Can’t say we’re not envious.
You’ve nabbed yourself a camera that’s
perfect for capturing your insane
antics and displays of immense
skill* in glorious high definition.
It’s great for recording biking, skating,
skiing or snowboarding, surfing or
throwing yourself out of a perfectly
good aircraft. Or just about anything
else you can think of!
Strap it to your head, arms, legs, butt, bike, board, gear, rigging
or shoes. Or you can think outside the box.
Use it to capture video to share
with your peeps online (or random
passers by, who’s opinions totally
matter, so you should spend time
impressing them).
Don’t talk big. Show big. Prove you
did it with the Sports HD BulletCam.
* The camera isn’t going to make you any more skilled. Sorry.
It ain’t magic, just miniaturized technology. You’ll have to provide the skill!

5
Bits (what’s in the pack)
1. Sports HD BulletCam
2. Short Hook & Loop Elastic
Mounting Strap
3. Long Hook & Loop Mounting
Strap
4. Adhesive Strip Mount
5. Plastic Camera Clasp
6. Double-sided Mounting Tape
7. Waterproof Cap
8. Water Resistant Cap
9. Bicycle Mount
10. Rubber Seal Rings
11. Adhesive fabric mount
12. Adhesive fabric mount (large)
13.USB Cable
2
1
3
10 5
4
6
7
9
11
12
13
8

6666
Where Stuff is At (the layout of the thing)
The Button
The LEDs
The Lens
MicroSD Card Slot
USB Port
Secret Code of the LEDs: What it’s trying to tell you
Blue Light On The Sports HD BulletCam is
recording video.
Red light flashes, blue light
comes on briefly then goes out
There’s a problem with your SD
card. It’s either full, missing or
broken. One way or another,
you’ll have to swap it out.
Blue light flashes quickly Battery is exhausted. Charge the
BulletCam before continuing.
Red light flashes slowly The BulletCam is charging

77
The Water Resistant Cap
The case with the holes in it - the “water resistant” cap - has holes in
it to improve the sound quality in your recordings.
The cap is, as its name suggests, water resistant. It will provide some
protection against rain, droplets, splashes and so on. It’d work in the
shower, for example, if you wanted to record and then show off your
awesome soaping up skills.
Do not submerge the Sports HD BulletCam while the water resistant
cap is on - it can’t resist that much water!
The Waterproof Cap
The waterproof case will provide waterproofing for the Sports HD
BulletCam at depths up to 65ft/20m. The downside is that, since it’s
waterproof, it’s pretty sound-proof, too: the Sports HD BulletCam
won’t be able to hear much while the waterproof cap is on!
Before using the waterproof case in a wet environment, ensure that
it is completely sealed. It’s always worth taking a moment to inspect
the rubber seal, located at the base of the screw thread on the rear
of the camera barrel. You really don’t want water getting in - so it’s
worth a quick look before heading out.
Don’t press the button whilst the Sports HD BulletCam is underwater,
or particularly wet. Dry it off using a soft towel or similar cloth before
pressing the buttons.
If you’re using the Sports HD BulletCam in a high-wind situation
(such as skydiving, racing or any other 50mph+ activity) then using
the waterproof case will increase the quality of the audio the Sports
HD BulletCam captures by shielding the microphone from the wind.
The Two Caps
MicroSD Card Slot
USB Port

888
Preparing the Sports HD BulletCam
The Sports HD BulletCam is almost good to go right out of the box.
You won’t need to configure anything or fiddle with confusing
settings - that’s all automatic. All you’ll need to do before the Sports
HD BulletCam can start recording is:
• Insert a microSD card.
• Charge the built-in battery.
Choosing a microSD card:
You can use any microSD card, up to 32GB.
You can store approximately 15 ~ 20 minutes worth of video per
gigabyte (GB). We recommend using cards larger than 4GB to
ensure that the Sports HD BulletCam won’t run out of storage space
whilst you’re filming.
Of course, if you only want to record ten minutes at a time, you
could get away with a smaller card. But remember, when it runs out
- that’ll be all she wrote!
For reliable performance, we strongly suggest that you
use a card with a speed rating of “Class 4” or higher.
Look for these symbols:
4 6
Inserting a microSD card:
• The SD card slot is located on the rear of the Sports HD BulletCam
beneath the end cap.
• Orient the microSD card so that the text is facing away from you.
You’ll see the metal contacts on the left hand side of the card
facing you.
• Gently push the microSD card into the slot. Be careful that it goes
in correctly - if it misses the slot or is inserted at an angle, it could
become jammed.
• The card will “click” into place once fully inserted.
• To remove the card, simply push it in. This will release the locking
mechanism, and the card will spring out.

9
Charging the Sports HD BulletCam
Charging the built-in battery:
You can charge the battery via the USB slot on the base of the camera
using a USB cable from a PC or stand-alone USB power supply.
Charging the battery will take approximately 60 ~ 80 minutes.
Only connect the Sports HD BulletCam to a standard USB 1.0, 1.1 or
2.0 port.
Under no circumstances ever connect the Sports HD BulletCam to any
power source supplying anything other than 5V (this is the standard
USB power supply).
Some newer modifications of the USB port (such as USB 3.0 or
eSATAp ports) will accept the USB shaped plug, but supply different
amounts of power. Avoid connecting the Sports HD BulletCam to
these ports, as results will vary, and doing so could damage the
Sports HD BulletCam.
Even if not actively used, you should charge the Sports HD BulletCam
at least once every three months - this keeps the battery “healthy”.
To charge via a
computer’s USB port:
• Insert the micro-USB plug on
the USB cable into the USB
socket on the rear of the Sports
HD BulletCam.
• Connect one end of the USB
adapter or cable to the USB
port on the computer.
Whilst charging, the red LED on the Sports HD BulletCam will flash slowly.
When charging is complete, the red LED will stay on constantly.

101010
Pushing the Button (an “Operating Guide”)
• To turn on the Sports HD BulletCam, press the button on the top.
• The Sports HD BulletCam takes a moment to boot up and perform
a quick memory check. This takes about five seconds.
• Once it has powered on, it will automatically start recording
video. The blue light will stay on while the Sports HD BulletCam
is recording.
• To stop recording, press the button again. The red LED will flash
once, and the blue LED will go out after a moment. The blue LED
stays on while the Sports HD BulletCam is writing data to the
microSD card.
• The Sports HD BulletCam can record for between 90 and 120
minutes per charge (varies by conditions). In this time, it will
record somewhere between 5 and 8GB of video.
The Sports HD BulletCam uses variable bit-rate compression.
What the heck does THAT mean?
It means that the Sports HD BulletCam saves more data when
interesting things are happening. The more the things you’re shooting
move (or the more you move around while shooting) the more data
the Sports HD BulletCam uses.
The upshot of this is that you’ll save some space on the SD card. If
you’re recording something that’s not moving, or is moving slowly
and predictably, it lowers the data rate accordingly.
The downside is we can’t tell you exactly how much video you can
record to a microSD card, other than to say the obvious answer: “it
varies”. However, we’ve done some rule-of-thumb calculations, and
have come up with a pretty safe bet.
We reckon that you should only rely on your microSD cards to record
about 15 minutes per gigabyte. Ergo, you should swap out a 2GB
card every half an hour, or an 8GB card after two hours. They’ll
probably hold a little more than this, but better to be safe, right?

11
Making it do things with a computer
To access and playback the videos and pictures you grab with the
Sports HD BulletCam, you’ll need to connect it to a computer.
Connecting the Sports HD BulletCam to a computer is easy. All you’ll
need is a computer with USB ports and a relatively recent operating
system, and either the USB cable which came with the Sports HD
BulletCam.
To connect the Sports HD
BulletCam to a computer:
• Remove the rear cap of the
Sports HD BulletCam.
• Insert the min-USB plug on the
USB cable into the USB socket
on the rear of the Sports HD
BulletCam.
• Connect the other end of the
USB cable to the USB port on
the computer.
The Sports HD BulletCam will automatically begin charging at the
same time as it will appear in your file browser as a removable USB
flash drive (if a microSD card is inserted).
You can access the data on the microSD card like you would any
other SD card or USB flash drive. It interfaces as a standard USB Mass
Storage device. You’ll be able to access data from almost any PC,
as well as many PC-like devices, such as many tablets or even some
video game consoles.
Note: We can’t guarantee that the Sports HD BulletCam will be
compatible with your specific devices. There are so many different
makes and models out there. (I mean, seriously, have you seen how
many different devices sport USB ports these days? It boggles the
mind. The future, people - we’re living in it! Flying cars any day now.
Watch. It’ll happen.... any day now...)

121212
Seeing how cool you are (Playback)
Either
• Connect the Sports HD BulletCam to your computer, as described
on page 11 (i.e. <-- back there somewhere).
...or...
• Remove the microSD card and pop it into a microSD card reader
on your computer. If you have a regular SD card slot but no
microSD card slot, you can use an SD-to-microSD card converter.
...then:
• Open the drive of the Sports HD BulletCam or the microSD card,
as applicable.
• The recordings on the drive are organized chronologically.
• Simply double-click the file you want to play, or drag and drop it
into your preferred media player.
Problem playing back recordings?
Some media players have trouble playing back the MPEG-based
compression used by the Sports HD BulletCam.
If you have this problem, the easiest solution is probably going to
be a new media player. There are dozens (maybe hundreds) of free
media players available which can playback footage from the Sports
HD BulletCam.
Of all of them, we recommend VLC media player. It’s free for almost all
operating systems. Grab it online at: www.videolan.org/vlc
Copying and Backing Up Recordings
You can drag & drop the files off the Sports HD BulletCam in the
same way as any regular file. Alternately, you can copy & paste, cut
& paste or manage, move or copy the files in any way you choose.

13
Time Travel (Setting the Date & Time)
So, the date stamp on the video you took this morning indicates that
you were skating along sometime in 1987. What’s gone wrong here,
other than the over-the-top hair styles and oversized ear-rings?
The time and date setting on the Sports HD BulletCam is probably
wrong! This can happen from time to time, particularly if you’ve
swapped out the microSD card recently.
To set the time and date:
• Connect the Sports HD BulletCam to your computer as a USB
flash drive (see page 11 for how to do this).
Either:
• Open Notepad (located in the Accessories folder in the Start
Menu in most Windows-based operating system) or a different
plain text editor . Don’t use a word processor, as these usually
don’t create plain text files. Ask a nerd (or Google) what the
difference is.
...or...
• Alternately, open the root directory of the Sports HD BulletCam,
right click and choose “New --> Text File”.
...then:
• In Notepad (or other text editor) type the following:
YYYY MM DD HH MM SS
• So, if it was ten minutes and two seconds past nine in the morning
on the fourteenth of January 2011, the text file would read:
2011 01 14 09 10 02
• Be sure you put one space, and only one space, between each
number.
• Save this file as “TIME.TXT”.
• If it’s not already there, copy and paste this file onto the root
directory of the Sports HD BulletCam.
Of course, we can’t prove that you haven’t travelled in time.
Send us a postcard twenty years ago, if you can.

141414
Troubleshooting
Q: It won’t turn on!
A: Try turning it on and off again. Has the camera been left on/
recording for a while for a while? Is the Sports HD BulletCam charged?
If not, follow the instructions on page 9 to charge the camera.
Q: I can’t play back footage on my computer.
A: Try using a different program, such as VLC Media Player (a favorite
around the Swann office).
It’s available free from www.videolan.org/vlc, and works with a huge
range of operating systems. You may need to drag and drop the file
onto the VLC (or appropriate program) window if the default file
association isn’t right.
Q: The audio sounds muffled.
A: Are you using the waterproof cap? Unfortunately, sound doesn’t
travel so well through solid plastic. That’s the downside about
making it waterproof - it’s pretty sound-proof, too. You can use this
to your advantage - in many high wind situations (anything 65mph
[100km/h] or faster) it can actually make the audio quality better.
Q: The audio sounds distorted/weird/too loud.
A: This can often happen if you attach the Sports HD BulletCam to a
vehicle, skateboard, bicycle or anything else which vibrates when in
use. Try it with and without the water-proof cap (unless you need it to
be waterproof). Try using a different mounting option. Try attaching
the camera to your clothing using the hook & loop patches - cloth
usually muffles vibrations and might improve the audio quality.
Finally, remember that in certain situations you’re just not going to
be able to get any decent audio - for example, when the background
noise level is simply too high. It sucks but sometimes there’s nothing
that can be done: physics is a harsh mistress.

15
Technical Specifications
15
Video
Video Format
Resolution 1280 x 720
Frame Rate 30fps
Video Bit Rate Variable (600KB/s ~ 1MB/s)
Amount of video per GB 15 ~ 20 minutes
Overlays Time & Date Stamp
(always present)
Recording
Recording Mode Automatic
Storage Type microSD card
Storage Capacity Up to 32GB
General
Operating Time per Charge Approx. 90 mins
Battery Type and Size Built-in Lithium Polymer
Recharging Method USB (via computer)
Charging Time 60 ~ 80 minutes (approx)
Dimensions 78mm x 25mm x 22mm
(approx. 3” x 1” x 0.9”)

161616
© Swann Communications 2010
Advanced security made easy™
Warranty Information
Helpdesk / Technical Support Details
Swann Technical Support
All Countries E-mail: [e-mail]
Telephone Helpdesk
See http://www.worldtimeserver.com for information on time zones and the current time in
Melbourne, Australia compared to your local time.
USA toll free
1-800-627-2799
(Su, 2pm-10pm US PT)
(M-Th, 6am-10pm US PT)
(F 6am-2pm US PT)
USA Exchange & Repairs
1-800-627-2799 (Option 1)
(M-F, 9am-5pm US PT)
AUSTRALIA toll free
1300 138 324
(M 9am-5pm AUS ET)
(Tu-F 1am-5pm AUS ET)
(Sa 1am-9am AUS ET)
NEW ZEALAND toll free
0800 479 266
UK
0203 027 0979
Swann Communications warrants this product against defects in workmanship and material for a period of
one (1) year from it’s original purchase date. You must present your receipt as proof of date of purchase for
warranty validation. Any unit which proves defective during the stated period will be repaired without charge
for parts or labour or replaced at the sole discretion of Swann. The end user is responsible for all freight
charges incurred to send the product to Swann’s repair centres. The end user is responsible for all shipping
costs incurred when shipping from and to any country other than the country of origin.
The warranty does not cover any incidental, accidental or consequential damages arising from the use of
or the inability to use this product. Any costs associated with the fitting or removal of this product by a
tradesman or other person or any other costs associated with its use are the responsibility of the end user.
This warranty applies to the original purchaser of the product only and is not transferable to any third party.
Unauthorized end user or third party modifications to any component or evidence of misuse or abuse of the
device will render all warranties void.
By law some countries do not allow limitations on certain exclusions in this warranty. Where applicable by
local laws, regulations and legal rights will take precedence.
Swann Communications USA Inc.
12636 Clark Street
Santa Fe Springs CA 90670
USA
Swann Communications
Unit 13, 331 Ingles Street,
Port Melbourne Vic 3207
Swann Communications LTD.
Stag Gates House
63/64 The Avenue
SO171XS
United Kingdom
FCC Verification
This equipment has been tested and found to comply with the limits for Class B digital device, pursuant to part 15 of
the FCC Rules. These limits are designed to provide reasonable protection against harmful interference in a residential
installation. This equipment generates, uses and can radiate radio frequency energy and, if not installed and used
in accordance with the instructions, may cause harmful interference to radio or television reception, which can be
determined by turning the equipment off and on, the user is encouraged to try to correct the interference by one or
more of the following measures:
• Reorient or relocate the receiving antenna
• Increase the separation between the equipment and the receiver
• Connect the equipment into an outlet on a circuit different from that to which the receiver is connected
• Consult the dealer or an experienced radio/TV technician for help
WARNING: Modifications not approved by the party responsible for compliance could void user’s authority to
operate the equipment.