1080/60p bitrate, camera click sound, and deleting files

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Dash Cam
SGGCX2PRO & SGGCX2
Okay so I installed my new SGGCX2PRO today after updating it to the latest firmware (20190115) and had a few questions.

I tried the 1080/60p mode and even with the quality set to the highest (18 Mbps) I get a lot of compression artifacts and blocky looking video, so obviously 18 Mbps isn't enough to deliver relatively good looking 60p video. I think my HD camcorder that does 1080/60p runs at 24 or 28 Mbps. Not that I was expecting camcorder level quality, but just wondering if a higher bitrate is possible with this chipset and CPU, and if a firmware update might be coming to allow for higher bitrates and better quality when in 60p mode?

Next question, can you get rid of the camera click sound when you hit the Emergency/OK button? I did turn off "Beeps" in the menu. I kinda like the sound to let me know that I hit the right button, but don't like it getting into the audio of the camera.

Last question, how do you unlock the files in the RO directory on MacOS when the microSD is mounted to the computer? I used to just mount the cameras (previous Street Guardians and A118C's) directly to the computer as a drive, and it'd let you unlock and then manually delete RO folder files that way, but I see you can't do that any more with the SGGCX2PRO due to current demands. So how do you manually unlock and then delete RO folder files when the microSD is mounted directly to MacOS? If there's not a way, I guess I'll just have to format every few weeks, after enough RO folder files start piling up.

Overall really like the camera. :) Quality in 1080/30p mode is top notch, and video quality at night is still pretty good even with the polarizer mounted, which is impressive.

Thanks
 

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1080p60 is 20mbit, the quality settings only work in 1080p30 mode, we may look at making it higher later, firmware updates are an ongoing process

Best to format the card, deleting files ad-hoc is not a good idea
 
It seems to make the camera sound because the emergency button also takes a still image. The manual says that for still images, you should stop recording and then the centre button becomes the shutter button. However it seems you don't need to stop recording - pressing the centre button takes a still and also saves the current video file(s).
 
1080p60 is 20mbit, the quality settings only work in 1080p30 mode, we may look at making it higher later, firmware updates are an ongoing process

Best to format the card, deleting files ad-hoc is not a good idea
OK - that would explain why adjusting quality settings didn't seem to affect the 60p mode quality, if it's fixed at 20 Mbps. This was slow speed driving in my suburban neighborhood with complicated scenery (lots of tree branches without foliage), none of which would favor the compression algorithms, but I wasn't expecting to see blocky looking video. I'm guessing the 60p mode would work much better on the highway, but will just leave it in 30p mode for now.

Roger on just formatting once in awhile.

Thanks for the help!
 
After substantial testing on 30 Vs 60 FPS on 2 similar cameras side by side, the only reason i can see to use 60 FPS would be i could slow the idiots i post on youtube down to half speed, and so give people more time to enjoy their ignorance.
So after a short while of being " 60 FPS must be the best and future of dashcams" i an now down to just give me 30 FPS, and hopefully one day i higher resolution which i think will be much better then FPS.

It is true that a 60 FPS camera give you 2X the chances to getting that crusial capture of a plate or something else illusive, but i never managed to just one time get that capture on the 60 FPS camera and not also on the 30 FPS camera, every time if the 60 camera got it so did the 30 FPS camera.

And trust me at that time i really wanted 30 FPS to loose, but it just dident.
 
30fps gives superior results for most things we use a dashcam for, 60fps is good for something like a track day
It is true that a 60 FPS camera give you 2X the chances to getting that crusial capture of a plate or something else illusive, but i never managed to just one time get that capture on the 60 FPS camera and not also on the 30 FPS camera, every time if the 60 camera got it so did the 30 FPS camera.

And trust me at that time i really wanted 30 FPS to loose, but it just dident.
Thanks for that! I didn't buy the camera based on the 60p capability, but I was thinking that 60p mode might be able to grab the occasional motion blurred license plate once in awhile from the faster shutter speed, when 30p ends up too blurry. Had the same thoughts, so now I won't bother doing my own testing. :)
 
Thanks for that! I didn't buy the camera based on the 60p capability, but I was thinking that 60p mode might be able to grab the occasional motion blurred license plate once in awhile from the faster shutter speed, when 30p ends up too blurry. Had the same thoughts, so now I won't bother doing my own testing. :)

actually in difficult situations it's generally due to lighting and 30fps will have more chance of catching a licence plate
 
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60 FPS just mean that the camera cant use a slower exposure time than 1:60 second, where as with 30 FPS its 1:30 second exposure timing max.
But these low / slow exposure timings are generally only used at night to make footage look brighter by having more time to capture more light, and either way you get loads of motion blur towards the sides of the image.
In the daytime with plenty of light the camera should use much faster exposure timings and so freeze details more clearly.

So at least in the day if your camera record in 60 or 30 FPS don't matter much as the ISO and exposure times used in both scenarios / cameras might be ISO 800 and exposure timing of 1:1200 second, so really then with plenty of light and so fast exposures the camera spend most time of each second waiting for permission to take the next of 30 or 60 frames every second.

Many cameras that could do 60 FPS, well they did also drop to 30 FPS if the light was low enough to demand this, and so overruling the setting you otherwise had selected as 60 FPS.
 
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Many cameras that could do 60 FPS, well they did also drop to 30 FPS if the light was low enough to demand this, and so overruling the setting you otherwise had selected as 60 FPS.
there's three approaches to this problem, they can stay at 60fps and end up with more motion blur, they can drop to 30fps overriding your setting anyway, or they keep 60fps and start frame doubling a 30fps image so every second frame is repeated

in perfect conditions 60fps looks great, we seldom have perfect conditions though so 30fps generally gives a better result over a wider set of conditions
 
I do use 60 or even 120 FPS for other things, but for dashcams i am fine with 30 FPS.
If i was to do like a cinematic journey video i would use something else as dashcams cant really do that well.
Its sort of the bring knife to gunfight, there is a time and a place for anything, my only wish for dashcam footage are higher bitrates and when it can be done right higher resolutions, but 30 FPS are fine for me.

it is a accident recorder, people got to remember this and not mix them up with action cameras- regular camcorders or phone cameras.
 
Oh yeah, thanks for the video refresher @kamkar1. I knew all this, just wasn't thinking. :) I forgot that these are probably all fixed aperture lenses that don't stop down in bright conditions, and probably no switchable ND filter either, so the shutter speed even at "30p" is probably much quicker in bright conditions to maintain proper exposure. Thus the biggest thing 60p mode does is make motion look smoother with more frames per second, but won't help to make that license plate capture a bit sharper if the shutter speed is already up there regardless of 30p or 60p mode. Thanks for jogging my memory that video frame rate and "shutter speed used for each frame" are actually two different things. ;)
 
Yes on smoother video on 60 FPS, and i like that too, just dashcam footage i have a more relaxed approach to in spite of having so many cameras in my car don't really look at much.
And not least spending so much time in here :)

It would be nice if we could get some super image sensor that would do like ISO 60 and exposure timing of 1:30,000 in the daytime, and maybe ISO 1200 and exposure time of 1:500 second in the night, that should do wonders for plate capture in low light.
 
It'd be nice if there were a "big sensor" dash camera, but costs would spiral out of control because everything would need to scale up. I think such a camera would probably end up with few buyers due to cost, and other products being "good enough".
 
It'd be nice if there were a "big sensor" dash camera, but costs would spiral out of control because everything would need to scale up. I think such a camera would probably end up with few buyers due to cost, and other products being "good enough".

something we've been looking at, hardware support is a bigger issue than cost right now
 
Hehe yeah, i like when Jokiin let the cat out of the bag, or maybe slip of his tongue.
But i think it have been up once before another place in here.
 
yeah I've mentioned it before, already been looking at larger format sensors, there's no hardware support at the moment but that can be overcome, bigger issue at the moment is getting a suitable lens
 
Video sample at night in 1080/30p High Quality. Pretty darned good considering the polarizer was fitted, which I'm assuming was at least a stop of light. You could even make out the plate number of the Ford Fusion to my right. I've been having a whole ton of issues with Lexus RX's lately. :rolleyes:

 
Yeah as long as camera and target vehicle are not at a too great difference in speed a plate are doable just fine at night.
 
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