Who has a Pivo?

Ambers Echo said:
Just got one for my birthday but it's been a bit hit and miss so far. Loses me when I go.past haylage bales. And how do you use it on your own! I am using AI, fast, horse, centre screen on a small jump. It picked me up when Katie pointed it at me till it got me then she could put it on the block. I wonder if a tripod would be better?
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I have mine on a tripod which works well and means I can control it from on horseback
 
Red-1 said:
How do you download the auto zoom? I am wondering if that will help it to track me?
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It's in the latest app update so just check your phone to make sure there's no updates due. The option is at the bottom of the video settings.

I had a go with it yesterday, definitely an improvement and I found it coped better with light and shade. Not perfect but a good update, and the pivo developers really do seem to be seeing the benefit of sorting out the horse functionality :) I plopped it at x in a 20 x 60 yesterday and rode on the track mainly which was a bit of a push before the auto zoom. it also coped better with riding towards and away from the camera.

AE I have mine on a tripod about 3 or 4 foot high. I set it up before mounting - point it at the horse, get it locked on and recording and then go and mount. sometimes it loses you as you walk away but I have found it fairly easy to get it to pick us up again.
 
I've got an S9 sorry, I think the phone camera quality has a lot to do with how successful the motion tracking is. might be worth asking on the FB group if you're a member, there were a few polls to find out who was using what phone a while back.
 
so apparently they've updated the horse tracking so it can track the front and back of the horse too.
I haven't got any updates available yet - anyone else?
 
milliepops said:
so apparently they've updated the horse tracking so it can track the front and back of the horse too.
I haven't got any updates available yet - anyone else?
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Yes, it’s come through on my updates. I have a IPhone. Not had chance to try it yet but it looks good.
 
Does it cope if there are jumps up in an arena where you are doing flat work or does it lose the horse if you go behind a jump? We always have show jumps up and work around them so just wondered how that works. Thanks
 
I don't school with jumps in the arena but feedback on the FB groups is that it's a bit hit and miss. i think it might be getting better with the new improvements.
 
Ok Pivo people, I am tempted, but was resisting until a sale popped up.

So is this likely to work for me?

I'm not an instagram influencer, I just want to track my schooling between lessons really. I have had limited (no) success with propping my phone on the school fence. I got 7m of ceiling the other day.

I school either in a 20x30 ish indoor or 20 x 40 outdoor that has buildings on one side, a bank with vegetation on the other and open to the yard on the fourth. Horse is bay.

I have a tripod and gorilla pod I could nick from DH.

Phone is a samsung S7 edge, although I will probably upgrade in the next 6 months.

I ride alone (as in nobody else on the yard often) and mount outside the arena.

So is it likely to work for me?

Standard or Silver?

Are any of the accessories or packs worth buying?

Thanks folks
 
i would say yes it will work
I just use it for me, it's not perfect but then the ££££££ pixios etc aren't either so I'm at ease with the idea that it's trying to do a very complicated thing and won't be totally without issues.

the horse tracking beta version has massively improved tracking success in a difficult arena for me, the auto zoom had already improved it but the ability to recognise front and back of the horse means it's much much better tracking as you go on the track away from it and also for lateral work.
it's knocked the auto zoom out for me but I guess that's the nature of a beta version, there's going to be some snagging and I am sure they will sort that.

i really feel that the pivo developers have recognised the huge market in the horse world and they do seem to be working to make it better for us. (bearing in mine it wasn't originally conceived as just a horse tracking gadget, it does loads of other things too)

I would get the silver version. I don't use any other stuff, i have a big tripod that i used for my video camera before. any standard tripod will fit it and i think the pivo one is a bit flimsy for horsey purposes. it comes with a case and a remote.

i think the quality of your phone camera may have an influence on how well the tracking works, i am using an S9 and I have a huge SD card in it so never have any issues with storage that seem to affect some people.
 
Thanks Milliepops that is very helpful (although not so much for my wallet!)

I have joined the Facebook group and have seen a few posts saying that the Samsung S7 is too old but others seem to be managing it. Hopefully the s7 edge will be ok for now until I can justify a new phone.
 
so they've said that the beta version has a bug in it affecting samsung phones (it seems to have knocked the auto-zoom out and pivo also has a funny 5 mins now and then) but the developers seem to be pretty speedy at resolving these things. Despite that i'm pretty impressed with how much better it is already, our arena at home is a really tricky place with light/dark etc and it's much more reliable since the last update, now tracks me from the far end of the school without an issue.
 
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Thanks I decided that it was likely to be usable with my current phone so decided to go for it and will upgrade my phone in due course which will hopefully improve it.

So I ordered a pivo silver, really looking forward to trying it!
 
Thanks for this thread MP. I always school alone and my trainer is doing a lot of helping via video which is really helpful. Except I can only drag someone to video me on the odd occasion, and my attempts of popping my phone on the fence have been hit and miss. Although I did get an excellent time lapse of the sky the other day ?

With a decent sale price this evening I haven’t been able to resist... OH has kindly said I can borrow his tripod. So fingers crossed we have some success....
 
How thick a phone can it handle? Mine (LG G7) is in a very chunky case (because I'm clumsy and constantly send it flying) and I don't really want to take it out!
 
I know i keep saying it but I'm really impressed with the pivo team and the way they respond to deveopment ideas and problems, I'd suggest joining the pivo equestrian group for help and ideas when you get it because there's a growing body of experience now.

Pippity I take my s9 out of the case each time, it is adjustable but within a limit.
I've just tried OHs CAT phone and that only just doesn't fit, its 14mm thick so I'd say 13mm or thinner.
 
milliepops said:
Pippity I take my s9 out of the case each time, it is adjustable but within a limit.
I've just tried OHs CAT phone and that only just doesn't fit, its 14mm thick so I'd say 13mm or thinner.
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Mine's on the very edge of that, so I wasn't going to bother - and then I saw the smart mount, which can hold any type of phone. So, whoops, I appear to have tripped, landed on my keyboard, and accidentally bought one.
 
Thank you for your update.

With life happening, I have still only tried mine the one, where I didn't get it to track me at all as soon as I turned. It would capture me, start to move, then lose me almost instantly.

I will wait for the zoom with front/rear recognition to be fixed than get it out of the box again.

My phone also didn't fit in the holder with the case, yet the case is ridiculously hard to remove. So, I may also get the upgraded holder. I don't want to lose the case as I am clumsy and really love the bit where I drop my phone (again) and someone is aghast, yet I don't even check the phone when I pick it up as I know it will be OK!
 
Red-1 said:
Thank you for your update.

With life happening, I have still only tried mine the one, where I didn't get it to track me at all as soon as I turned. It would capture me, start to move, then lose me almost instantly.

I will wait for the zoom with front/rear recognition to be fixed than get it out of the box again.
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The beta bug for Samsung/Android should be fixed now, they did an update over the weekend.
 
yeah, I think the iphone update came out the day before, my app had no updates yesterday (android) but i can see it's updated overnight. not sure if I'll get a chance to play later but will have a go. If the zoom is now working with the horse beta version I think that's going to be brilliant .
 
Oh dear, this has got me really interested. Only off point, I currently have not got a horse in schooling work (which is a long story). I have a Samsung A50 (personal phone) and an iPhone 7 would either of these work well?
I was looking at tripods during lock down and our school is only 20 x 40 so thought placing it on the fence around the B/E line would would well or in the top corner.
If/When I finally find a new ride then I am very interested in this as I am a solo rider and never have a slave to come and video. I have tried leaving my phone a few times on the area fence with varied results.
There is a sale on and I got a further 7% off but I am holding off as without a horse to try it on it's a bit pointless and I am sure they will have more sales....
 
i think they have sales quite often tbh.
I don't know about which phone model is best, I know the newer ones seem most successful because the camera quality is quite important to the success of the tracking. the website help pages are quite comprehensive, I think there's something on there about which phones are recommended.
 
milliepops said:
i think they have sales quite often tbh.
I don't know about which phone model is best, I know the newer ones seem most successful because the camera quality is quite important to the success of the tracking. the website help pages are quite comprehensive, I think there's something on there about which phones are recommended.
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Thanks, I have joined the group on Facebook. And good that they are constantly trying to improve the usability for riders.
 
Previously it has worked better with iPhone, it seems that there has been bugs with Android-phones with the last 2 major updates (autozoom and then beta).

Re placement I think it works best placed at X, I or C/A.
In a corner didn’t work too well for me, but that was also before autozoom, so might work now?
 
I am looking at buying a Pivo as like others I school on my own and fed up with trying to get decent footage with a camera on a fixed tripod. The info everyone (particularly MP :)) has provided here is really useful, especially as I'm not on Facebook or Instagram so can't access all of the advice etc..

Bit of a niche question, but has anyone tried it with carriage driving (schooling in an arena), and did it work? I do a mix of riding and driving, and I struggle to assess the horse's way of going more when driving than riding (I can't 'feel' it as easily) so being able to check progress via recording would be great. Presumably it should still be able to recognise and track the horse, but I wasn't sure whether it would get confused by the carriage and human, and obviously I want the whole horse in the picture!
 
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