GoPro Hero2 HD: LCD BacPac Review

After using the GoPro Hero2 HD for a few weeks I decided that I needed (as much as anyone ‘needs’ a gadget) the LCD BacPac. I shopped around online and found that I could get hold of it for 73.99 GBP from Amazon.

Unboxing new toys is always fun and the BacPac didn’t disapoint. I was very impressed by all the housings that came with it.

Having it attached to the Hero2 adds a little weight but the mounting widgets are able to keep it in place when they’re tightened up properly. Although I did find that the camera moves a little when off-road on my trike (KMX Karts Cobra) with the camera mounted on top of a monopod that’s attached directly to the trike.

The one major drawback that I found was that the LCD is not capable of playing back long videos (large files). Whilst on my commute to work, which takes just over an hour, two video files are created. I believe the Hero2 stops filming when the file size gets to about 3.5GB – it then starts recording to a new file. This may be due to the file system limitation of the SD card (I’m not actually sure what file system it uses but I assume it must limit the file size).

So, with any video file that’s large (I’ve not done enough tests to know exactly where the problem starts) the LCD won’t recognise them. With no photo’s (still shots) on the camera I get the ‘no photo’ error message. When there are photo’s I just get a blank screen.

I raised this issue with GoPro and after a few days got the following response:

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Update for Case #349218 – “LCD BacPac not finding large video files”

Hi Nigel,

We unfortunately have come across this bug.

We have notified our engineers.

Right now the best way to view the larger files is to play them back on your computer or TV.

We apologize for the inconvenience.

Many Thanks,

Austin
GoPro Support
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Hopefully they’ll be able to patch the software and get a fix out soon.

The LCD still has it’s uses – I’ve not actually used it for playing back vides much – but it’s great for lining up shots for framing etc.



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