Just installed my new camera. I have questions

[Jc0187]

hello all. My wife got me the M6+ for Christmas and I installed it and formatted the sd card. I have some questions I'm hoping someone here can answer.

Ok. So I bought a 64 gb sd card. How long will this last me? Also, when it fills up, will I need to format it again?

How does the remote work? What does it do?

Oh, anyway to change the voice to English? Lol. I went into settings on the app and it is already checked English, which I'm guessing is the text language in the app itself.

Also, any tips or hints anyone can share? Oh, how does parking mode work (not sure if that's the right terminology here)?

And thanks!

 

[Billaboard]

Here is my limited understanding.

Not sure how long the 64GB card will last because it will depend on the quality you record at. I have been pulling the card out to look at it on a Windows PC. In Windows I use either SMPlayer, VLC (both fine at highest resolution) or DashcamViewer. For some reason DashcamViewer doesn't like my normal Windows PC (a Lenovo X201, Windows 10) and doesn't cope with the highest camera resolution, so I've had to come down to the 1080 setting.

I alternate one 64GB and one 128GB card. It seems to be OK to take the card out of the camera, read it and put it back, and recording seems to carry on.
I understand it is advisable with all dashcams to format the card in the camera from time to time. Not sure why. I format the card about every other time I change it, just to be sure.

Push the remote, the camera makes a camera noise and records a still picture. With a phone or tablet you can access pictures like this and download short videos from the camera of 5 secs before and after. This is what I think can be set to automatic in the phone app.

You have to be connected to the camera to access the camera settings. I'm not connected at the moment but believe the language is in there somewhere.

Parking mode: After a few minutes with no movement and permanent power to the camera, it drops into taking one picture per second and storing them in a video.

The camera firmware keeps being updated. Hopefully it will soon settle down.

I'm very much a beginner, but feel it's seriously let down by the lack of a decent PC program to pull out and save video and data in a presentable-to-the-cops form.

 

[Jc0187]

Here is my limited understanding.

Not sure how long the 64GB card will last because it will depend on the quality you record at. I have been pulling the card out to look at it on a Windows PC. In Windows I use either SMPlayer, VLC (both fine at highest resolution) or DashcamViewer. For some reason DashcamViewer doesn't like my normal Windows PC (a Lenovo X201, Windows 10) and doesn't cope with the highest camera resolution, so I've had to come down to the 1080 setting.

I alternate one 64GB and one 128GB card. It seems to be OK to take the card out of the camera, read it and put it back, and recording seems to carry on.
I understand it is advisable with all dashcams to format the card in the camera from time to time. Not sure why. I format the card about every other time I change it, just to be sure.

Push the remote, the camera makes a camera noise and records a still picture. With a phone or tablet you can access pictures like this and download short videos from the camera of 5 secs before and after. This is what I think can be set to automatic in the phone app.

You have to be connected to the camera to access the camera settings. I'm not connected at the moment but believe the language is in there somewhere.

Parking mode: After a few minutes with no movement and permanent power to the camera, it drops into taking one picture per second and storing them in a video.

The camera firmware keeps being updated. Hopefully it will soon settle down.

I'm very much a beginner, but feel it's seriously let down by the lack of a decent PC program to pull out and save video and data in a presentable-to-the-cops form.

Hello. Thanks for the reply and answering my questions. I was wondering. Will syncing my camera up with my iPhone use data? Also, when I set it up, I was asked if I wanted to save files to the cloud. I'm not sure what cloud this is referring to.
Also, to view my last trip id need to take out the sd card and plug it into my pc right?

Sorry for all the questions. Today is my first time using the camera.

 

[Billaboard]

Bear in mind I'm a beginner too! The main sync between camera and phone is wifi (the camera acts as a wifi server). I'm not quite sure if all the camera firmware updates are totally wifi or whether some element of phone data is involved.

I have no idea about the cloud. One one phone I said yes to cloud, another no. Not noticed any difference yet. Both phones here are Android.

Yes, you need to take the sd card and put it in the pc. I take the whole camera off its magmount and into the house to swap sd cards. There seems to be no way of stopping it recording on battery while unplugging and carrying it. You just have to wait till the battery runs down. Once you get used to seeing the files, Dashcam Viewer is well worth a look. It's free to try the restricted edition, although see the report elswhere here about the latest version having stopped working with this camera.

Hope this helps. Also hopefully someone else will come along who is more of an expert.

 

[Jc0187]

Bear in mind I'm a beginner too! The main sync between camera and phone is wifi (the camera acts as a wifi server). I'm not quite sure if all the camera firmware updates are totally wifi or whether some element of phone data is involved.

I have no idea about the cloud. One one phone I said yes to cloud, another no. Not noticed any difference yet. Both phones here are Android.

Yes, you need to take the sd card and put it in the pc. I take the whole camera off its magmount and into the house to swap sd cards. There seems to be no way of stopping it recording on battery while unplugging and carrying it. You just have to wait till the battery runs down. Once you get used to seeing the files, Dashcam Viewer is well worth a look. It's free to try the restricted edition, although see the report elswhere here about the latest version having stopped working with this camera.

Hope this helps. Also hopefully someone else will come along who is more of an expert.

Awesome! Thanks for the info. Is Dashcam Viewer an app for pc? I'll check it out. Also, I believe it is using mobile data when my phone is connected to the camera. I noticed how it drops my home wifi when connected.

 

[Billaboard]

Dashcam Viewer is PC and Mac at https://dashcamviewer.com/
The writer of the software has posted elsewhere here about his software and frustrations with ddPai.

I am on v2.5.1. Pottsy has reported that V2.5.3 stopped working with the M6+, but I notice the current version is 2.5.4

Read the things here from Pottsy. His script is essential at the moment for PC's.

The camera hardware is brilliant, but I get the impression that the firmware upgrades and related software upgrades mean that the learning curve is steep and constantly changing.

 

[Jc0187]

Dashcam Viewer is PC and Mac at https://dashcamviewer.com/
The writer of the software has posted elsewhere here about his software and frustrations with ddPai.

I am on v2.5.1. Pottsy has reported that V2.5.3 stopped working with the M6+, but I notice the current version is 2.5.4

Read the things here from Pottsy. His script is essential at the moment for PC's.

The camera hardware is brilliant, but I get the impression that the firmware upgrades and related software upgrades mean that the learning curve is steep and constantly changing.

Ok thank you.

 

[Hawkeye]

I have had mine for about 3 weeks now and I think it's a great camera. The main issue is that it's got lot's of features, but poor instructions.

Your 64GB card will not need formatting when it fills up, the cam will overwrite the oldest files when the card is full. (Again, the instructions dont state this, but this behavior is normal for most dashcams)

The cloud is their cloud, DDpai have their own cloud/social platform for sharing videos... I don't bother with it. On Android, it's the default tab when you open the app.

The video files are stored on the SD card, so it's best to transfer to your PC to view them in full. On the app these (3min) files all appear as one long file and you can select/cut a portion using the app and download this to your phone.

This is not to be confused with the 'SnapShot' function, which is different and slightly confusing.... This is when you press the remote button, you get a photo snapshot AND an 11 second clip... these DO automatically download to your phone (and are also saved on the SD card)

Your data will not be affected with these 'Downloads' as the app connects to the camera directly (Peer 2 Peer wifi). So when you press 'connect to camera in the app, it turns off your phones current data connection (3g/4g/ home wifi etc) and connects to the camera. This enables the 'live view' and will download theses 11 sec clips/photos to your phone..well at least thats how it works on Android. After you close the app will aslo switch you back to you previous data connection when you disconnect the camera, close live view or update etc. Android normally struggles with this (iPhones are generally good at this) , but the app developers have done a good job in this app

Hope this makes sense

 

[Jc0187]

I have had mine for about 3 weeks now and I think it's a great camera. The main issue is that it's got lot's of features, but poor instructions.

Your 64GB card will not need formatting when it fills up, the cam will overwrite the oldest files when the card is full. (Again, the instructions dont state this, but this behavior is normal for most dashcams)

The cloud is their cloud, DDpai have their own cloud/social platform for sharing videos... I don't bother with it. On Android, it's the default tab when you open the app.

The video files are stored on the SD card, so it's best to transfer to your PC to view them in full. On the app these (3min) files all appear as one long file and you can select/cut a portion using the app and download this to your phone.

This is not to be confused with the 'SnapShot' function, which is different and slightly confusing.... This is when you press the remote button, you get a photo snapshot AND an 11 second clip... these DO automatically download to your phone (and are also saved on the SD card)

Your data will not be affected with these 'Downloads' as the app connects to the camera directly (Peer 2 Peer wifi). So when you press 'connect to camera in the app, it turns off your phones current data connection (3g/4g/ home wifi etc) and connects to the camera. This enables the 'live view' and will download theses 11 sec clips/photos to your phone..well at least thats how it works on Android. After you close the app will aslo switch you back to you previous data connection when you disconnect the camera, close live view or update etc. Android normally struggles with this (iPhones are generally good at this) , but the app developers have done a good job in this app

Hope this makes sense

Well thanks! I feel so lost as to what the functions and features are. One example is, when I enter the app, I go to "Me" section and then to settings, and finally to App storage management, which lists 113 gb capacity, 500mb is reserve space which says "insufficient space available , delete files to free up storage ". But yet I have 113 gb free, which I'm also assuming is the available storage space on my iPhone. Also, how do I view those short video clips in the app you talked about? The 3min clips? When I go into the app, I click on the large + button and then it takes me to the stats of my driving but when I click on it, it shows the route I took, sudden stops and accelerations but no video clips and, I need to log into the app in order for these stats to be recorded. Am I using the wrong app? I did notice there is two apps in the AppStore. One is all Chinese and the other is the one I'm using