FFV's Outrider used for Supercross racing

Fast Forward Video (FFV), a maker of digital video recorders, announced that Inertia Unlimited, a provider of specialty camera systems, is using its Outrider CF DVR in its Supercross helmet camera system.

Last October, the FFV recorder module was used for on-body recording in the inaugural Jeremy McGrath Invitational in Carson, CA. Weighing less than a pound, Inertia's helmet camera was worn by Ryan Clark and captured uninterrupted, broadcast-quality video of the Supercross invitational aired by NBC.

FFV's Outrider can record up to two hours onto removable CompactFlash cards as computer-viewable QuickTime files. The recorder is tolerant of extreme conditions, including high-vibration environments and intense G-forces and temperatures. It also features video capture and playback at 60 fields per second and offers a resolution greater than 550 lines at 4:1 compression.

At 4.9in x 2.2in x 0.6in, the ultra-compact digital video recorder includes NTSC/PAL compatibility, composite and Y/C inputs and outputs, pre-event record and loop record of PC-viewable QuickTime files or secure video files. The recorder provides 720 x 486 image pixel resolution and uses scalable and user-selectable motion JPEG compression.

The units' use of motion JPEG technology delivers exceptional picture quality for applications such as slow motion, quick-cut editing and spontaneous, or interactive, presentation requests. Unlike MPEG compression, which uses the difference between frames as a compression technique and does not keep each whole frame, motion JPEG is the application of the original JPEG still-file compression technique to every individual frame of a video or film sequence.

Using a pixel block match system that minimizes image degradation, video that is compressed in recorders using motion JPEG retains and provides user access to each and every frame. The result is crisp images and random access to video material.

For more information, visit www.ffv.com.