16GB-Card in A118: possible to "prefill" the card?

[mike-k]

Hi,

Today, I've read about a new Court-Decision for Dashcams in Germany; didn't understand too much of that juristic-Language, but essentially:
it is ok to use DC's in "uncertain situations", which makes the "Black Box-Function" (Loop-Recording) illegal...

Now I had following Idea:
I set the cam for Loop-Recording for max. 10Min recording by prefilling the used 16GB-Card with a Dummyfile (not much of usefull content, but big enough to reduce freespace, so only eg. 3 "Full 2Min-Videos" fit on it... This would allow only to record the "current situation" because everything else would be erased by the loop-function... I don't want to buy a "very small microSD" for this, when there is an alternative)

Q: is this possible, or will the Firmware of the A118 also delete the "dummyfile" (when i have it in a separate directory)?

 

[jokiin]

it is possible to have files on the card that won't erase, I'm not sure it would work the way you want reliably though, there's is room needed for recycling, swap space, protected files etc

 

[mike-k]

Thanks for your reply, jokiin, I think I'll give it a try then (will report the results), but if it won't work:
whats the smallest Card the A118 accepts?

 

[jokiin]

I would suggest 8gb as the minimum, smaller cards are maybe too slow

do you have the wording of this decision, in know in some other places there are similar laws and the issue is what you keep, rather than what you record so there are limitations over how much you can save, the overwriting deletes files as you keep using the camera and they're only interested in the bit that is actually kept as in event files that do not get overwritten

 

[spadcam]

It seems the German courts are concerned with privacy issues.

“They don’t know that they’re recorded and have no way to object,” Peter Meier, a Bavarian state privacy official, told NBC News. He said the ban would also include videos recorded with helmet cams by cyclists and motorcycle riders. “The ban is always applicable if other persons can be identified and the recordings are shared with others.” The largest fines will be dished out to people who upload dashcam videos online or pass it to police or insurance companies. Videos recorded for personal use are still allowed.

NBC News​

 

[mike-k]

There it is:
http://www.rechtsprechung.niedersac...ccase=1&paramfromHL=true&doc.id=KORE210042015

In Switzerland, we have other laws (recording ok, you have to pixelate faces, number-plates and streetnames if you want to publish), too... But I'm often in Germany - so I should comply to their laws... And more and more, they make more stupid decisions... :-/

That's just - sorry - stupid...

8GB is too big - :-/

...

 

[scanny]

I forgot the folder name, but when you want to save a video (pressing big button) it will create a folder in sd card which contain permanent files. I.e. files in that folder won't be deleted. So you can fill this folder up to size you want and leave as less useful space on the card as you want.

 

[mike-k]

@spadcam

Possible - the Germans force the whole continent to minimize privacy and dataprotection (because of their big Problem with TaxEvasion and Terrorism (no Attack ever, but they have a problem with it)), but filming on streets shall be an issue...
What Meier said is the law in all other Countries (except Austria where DCs are completly forbidden)... If you want to publish: people, numbers aso must not be recognized...

 

[mike-k]

@scanny
might be a good way to solve the problem... Do you have an Idea if this folder (I'll find it) could contain any Data or just Videos?

 

[jokiin]

the RO folder contains files that are saved and not to be overwritten

 

[jokiin]

There it is:
http://www.rechtsprechung.niedersac...ccase=1&paramfromHL=true&doc.id=KORE210042015

In Switzerland, we have other laws (recording ok, you have to pixelate faces, number-plates and streetnames if you want to publish), too... But I'm often in Germany - so I should comply to their laws... And more and more, they make more stupid decisions... :-/

That's just - sorry - stupid...

8GB is too big - :-/

...

can't read that (my translator isn't functioning right now), will try it again later

 

[scanny]

mike-k ,

I didn't try non-video files but logically it can be any files. It it doesn't work you can put any files there an rename extension to .mov so dashcam will think it's a video : )

 

[DT MI]

...Q: is this possible, or will the Firmware of the A118 also delete the "dummyfile" (when i have it in a separate directory)?

With my G1W-H cams I put a copy of RV on each card (in the root directory) and they never got overwritten. Haven't tried it with my SG9665GC yet.

 

[mike-k]

@jokiin

don't mind - I'm native to German (well - SwissGerman), I didn't understand it completly neither

@scanny

yeah - logic approach... might work out, haven't thought about that
thanks, I'll try with the "RO-Folder" and report if I have been successful

 

[Nigel]

@jokiin

don't mind - I'm native to German (well - SwissGerman), I didn't understand it completly neither

@scanny

yeah - logic approach... might work out, haven't thought about that
thanks, I'll try with the "RO-Folder" and report if I have been successful

Probably better to create your own folder, it's unlikely to mess with a folder it doesn't own.

Try and fill it with a few very big files, when I put 9990 files on my card the card slowed down quite a bit due to the size of the file tables!

 

[Gibson99]

H2testw makes some very large files to fill the card. As an added bonus it also tests the integrity of the card in the process! I say let h2testw erase then fill the card and do a full test, then just delete one or two of its test files to let the camera have a little space. Done!

 

[FourEyes]

4 Gb is the minimum card capacity that works reliably with A118. Good for ~30 min of video footage before recycling begins.

 

[CB91710]

The problem with "prefilling" the card is, as mentioned above, there is overhead for the system.
A "full" card (one that is actively overwriting video) may have as much as 500mb of free space.

You can probably get away with reducing free space to 500mb, then dropping your loop time to 3 minutes. The camera seems to run about 100mb per minute, so that would only leave enough free space for one session and still have 200mb for overhead, but not enough free space for two complete loops.

 

[Bigmoon]

thx for all the advice !!