A Much-Needed DashCam Option

[Street Guardian USA]

You never know you need video from hours ago until a special situation happens you didn't predict might happen as well. I like having a 256GB card.

 

[jokiin]

You never know you need video from hours ago until a special situation happens you didn't predict might happen as well. I like having a 256GB card.

I think 256gb is overkill for the average consumer, I use them also but really only for test purposes, for the average user the bang for buck of a 32gb card is hard to ignore and will still offer 4 or so hours of footage, the idea of constantly buffering and only saving when needed is just taking a simple process and making it more complex, and unnecessarily expensive as well

 

[Zardoz66]

The augment here is really expected running cost on SD cards. and when you run the numbers it's dam low.

right now if you go with samsung evo select cards, and amazon pricing as of today. and giving it 1 year of use.

32GB $13.00/12= $1.08 a month
64GB $38.00/12= 1.58 a month
128GB 99.00/12=2.56 a month

* math is hard edit.

I would say most people dont need more then 64GB. 128GB+ would be for more professional driver use, that need to retain a lot of data. I would also say these cards will last a lot longer in most cases then just 1 year, so the cost is even lower.

who cares of noob status. everyone has to go to school. it's simple, the running cost is not that much and just think if it saves you a ticket or other expense it will even save you more money...

 

[Dashmellow]

The augment here is really expected running cost on SD cards. and when you run the numbers it's dam low.

right now if you go with samsung evo select cards, and amazon pricing as of today. and giving it 1 year of use.

32GB $13.00/12= $2.70 a month (less then 1 starbucks coffee per month.)
64GB $38.00/12= 3.08 a month (less then a big mac combo per month.)
128GB 99.00/12=8.25 a month (less then most 30ml of vape juice per month.)

I would say most people dont need more then 64GB. 128GB+ would be for more professional driver use, that need to retain a lot of data. I would also say these cards will last a lot longer in most cases then just 1 year, so the cost is even lower.

who cares of noob status. everyone has to go to school. it's simple, the running cost is not that much and just think if it saves you a ticket or other expense it will even save you more money...

And memory prices are high right now but they will be coming back down again to more historical norms and so the cost will be even lower.

Buying memory cards is not unlike buying VHS tapes or music cassette tapes used to be. They were "consumables" that you could only record over just so many times before having to replace them. For high end recordings I would be happy to spend more on better quality tapes that performed better and lasted longer. Today the equivalent might be high endurance memory cards that last longer and offer higher read/write speeds.

 

[Nigel]

but there clearly is some basis to expect to replace microSD cards more than once a year, so I stand by my critique.

Yes, but for normal daily use you would need to use a 2GB card in order to wear it out more than once a year, and it is getting very hard to buy such a small card. If you use a 64GB card then it will last 32 times longer and will last a full year even for a taxi driver. Even 64GB is becoming small these days.

 

[Deleted member 46308]

I think you should base your "critique" on experience rather than speculation.

That is always good advice.

 

[dash riposki]

Maybe the underlying reason is the 'I don't want to be carrying around a large record of how I really drive.'
People worry the cops or more likely lawyers in civil suits will be able to use dashcam video from unrelated events to cause problems for you.
Likewise, any GPS data showing speed.
I actually would prefer speed to show up (easily) on the video, as well as turn signal usage.
FWIW, if you are involved in something serious enough, they'll dig up video from any source that exists, and many you don't even know are out there.

 

[Deleted member 46308]

Maybe the underlying reason is the 'I don't want to be carrying around a large record of how I really drive.'
People worry the cops or more likely lawyers in civil suits will be able to use dashcam video from unrelated events to cause problems for you.
Likewise, any GPS data showing speed.
I actually would prefer speed to show up (easily) on the video, as well as turn signal usage.
FWIW, if you are involved in something serious enough, they'll dig up video from any source that exists, and many you don't even know are out there.

+1

 

[DT MI]

The augment here is really expected running cost on SD cards. and when you run the numbers it's dam low.

right now if you go with samsung evo select cards, and amazon pricing as of today. and giving it 1 year of use.

32GB $13.00/12= $2.70 a month (less then 1 starbucks coffee per month.)
64GB $38.00/12= 3.08 a month (less then a big mac combo per month.)
128GB 99.00/12=8.25 a month (less then most 30ml of vape juice per month.)...

To do that comparison correctly you also have to consider that 64GB will last twice as long as 32GB, and 128GB twice as long as 64 GB (assuming the same usage) before 'wearing out' so the actual numbers are:

32GB for 12 months @ $13 = $2.70/month (Edit: $1.08/month)
64GB for 24 months @ $38 = $1.58/month
128GB for 48 months @ $99 = $2.06/month

Myself, I prefer 128GB cards in my vehicle (at least for front/rear) for the simple reason that my wife and I frequently take 'mini vacations' which typically involve less than 16 hours total driving time (out, back, and local while at our destination) so the entire trip can be captured on a single card. I do keep spare card(s) in the car in the event something truly extraordinary happens (bigfoot, UFO, space alien invasion, etc. ) so the in camera card can be swapped out for safekeeping.

 

[jokiin]

not sure I understand the calculations, how does $13 for one year of usage equal $2.70 a month?? I must have missed that math class

 

[Deleted member 46308]

not sure I understand the calculations, how does $13 for one year of usage equal $2.70 a month?? I must have missed that math class

New math

 

[DT MI]

not sure I understand the calculations, how does $13 for one year of usage equal $2.70 a month?? I must have missed that math class

Ha, missed that myself. I just did a cut/paste on the 32GB line and did the math on the other two.

 

[Tobi@s]

To each his own, I suppose. But why not have a driving mode that runs in a manner similar to "parking mode"? Why NOT give the user the option of not filling up the microSD with video that will merely be overwritten and never reviewed? What's the harm in it? I'm sorry if I touched a nerve, but there clearly is some basis to expect to replace microSD cards more than once a year, so I stand by my critique. And if you can't add some RAM to an SOC design, you are a prisoner of the chip vendor.

Two things:
First:
There have been some models with internal memory (they were realized with a secondary internal micro SD card rather than RAM which is very costly (and faster but we dont need that fast memory for our recordings))
Most practical thing would probably be to implement a fast inbuilt emmc storage without a SD adapter. But then again, what happens if the memory is dead due to data being overwritten all the time? Trash the device.. So again we would need something with more endurance.. like RAM.. But thats expensive as stated above.

Second: I still think your idea is good, but for another reason: A legal one:
In Germany dashcams are an issue (not yet forbidden, but might happen one day) because of privacy reasons and theoretically you are putting all the road users under suspicion if you record them to have something in your hands in case of an accident.
The bold part is actually the bigger issue. And a solution for that would be to not store the recorded footage unless something happens. And that could theoretically be solved with your idea

 

[kuoh]

Another thing to consider with using RAM (volatile memory) is that there may not be enough time to write the contents to flash if an emergency event occurs that causes the dashcam to lose power. With a traditional dashcam that's always writing to flash, you may lose the last few seconds of data, but a RAM based dashcam may lose much more than that. Also consider that flash memory can go bad even with low usage, so you might not know that the card is already bad when you press the event button and end up being unable to save any video.

KuoH

 

[Zardoz66]

Sorry guys... you get my point...

 

[DashcamDPR]

this is a non-issue really, memory cards don't break the bank do they

it's like complaining that your pen runs out

 

[jokiin]

this is a non-issue really, memory cards don't break the bank do they

agree

 

[HeWhoMustNotBeNamed]

but there clearly is some basis to expect to replace microSD cards more than once a year,

no.

 

[tabetha]

In the family we have now 7 dash cams, apart from some sandisk extreme going tits up, even a brand new one I have yet to replace a SD card due to fault, one even went through a wash cycle and worked ok afterwards I was surprised some are 5 years old, I have 2 cams that record 24/7 every day of every year still no issues

 

[kamkar]

I think 64Gb for a camera / channel are fine, but i do like 128Gb and its what i have been buying lately, and it is what you will want to be running with the dual channel cameras i am getting into.

I had a few cards die on me and some really quick, but their replacement have then worked flawless.
I am probably one of the people in here that drive the least, so by my account i have just been unlucky with those dead memory cards, and this also fit fine with my general tendencies to bad karma and bad luck.

Only gripe i have with the memory cards is its micro ones the cameras use, and you need to be careful when handling them as they some times "launch" and then you might not find it again.