Cabin View

[Hopeless]

I'm hopeless when it comes to technology

I have Nextbase 522GW, with add on "cabin view" I'm a PH taxi driver, is it possible to "live stream" recording from the dashcam to my laptop?

The reason I ask, should a disruptive passenger attempt to remove the dashcam, I'll have no evidence of the incident

 

[Hey Hoser]

don’t know about the actual streaming, but you could always lie and TELL disruptive passengers it’s being streamed to the cloud

 

[kamkar]

Welcome to the forum Hopeless.

That scenario you only have a couple of choices.
1: A smart camera that stream events to the cloud, but i am not sure how well such a camera would handle a event like a camera snatching.
2: A system with one or more cameras remote like the SG9663DR - mini K2S and a few others, these have their cameras on wires, so any snatching and they will just get the camera, the main unit with the memory card you can hide.
Main drawback here is none of these systems have a IR aided camera for cabin recording, i think SG planned to make a optional one, but corona and now the boss having had surgery i am not sure about a time frame.
These cameras will most often get a good shot of people entering your car with the cabin light on, maybe change that light to manual so you can keep it on a bit longer, also the cameras are okay low light performers so in the ambient light of a town at night the footage will not be all darkness.

The A139 do have its cabin camera with IR light on a wire too, and you can get a lock bracket for the main camera so as i understand it you cant just slide it off its mount or turn it off, you will have to pull it off the glass, and in strait pull force this actually take quite some muscle to do.
The cabin camera for instance mounted like mine on the mirror stalk, that will probably be what a emotional person would lunge for, so in that case the memory card and recordings are safe in the main camera on the windscreen.

As Hey Hoser say you could always tell a little white lie about your cloud security, most people would not know / have a clue, maybe have some stickers made for the car ( cloud security cameras recording ) just to discourage any smart ass behavior before people get into your car.

3: there is professional systems for taxis and commercial vehicles, but there have some issues not least on price and image quality.

This is daytime cabin footage ( middle 50% in hight of each camera ) the central mounted A139 from viofo, and the somewhat offset viofo T130 we are testing on and is not yet launched, this model have the front and cabin camera in 1 unit, so the T130 i dont feel are best suited of these 2 models in regard to camera theft.

your Nextbase 522GW are probably the most unfortunate design in regard to dashcam snatching, it is right there almost like a handle to just grab and pull, and as i understand it is just a magnet holding it in place to the mount, so would take very little effort, meaning even a drunk " Karen " could do it.

 

[Nextbase Support]

I'm hopeless when it comes to technology

I have Nextbase 522GW, with add on "cabin view" I'm a PH taxi driver, is it possible to "live stream" recording from the dashcam to my laptop?

The reason I ask, should a disruptive passenger attempt to remove the dashcam, I'll have no evidence of the incident

Hello,

Nextbase Dash Cams are not remotely accessible for customer privacy reasons. This means that you can not access the camera, footage or GPS location when away from the camera. You will not be able to stream the 522GW to a remote device if it's not directly connected to the camera or within the close vicinity I'm afraid.

Kind regards,
Millie
Nextbase Technical Support

 

[Hopeless]

Thanks for all the helpful replies so far, another question, I've noticed on the screen, it records at 60 seconds, then 60 seconds, then 60 seconds, is it possible to have 1 full length stream, I've downloaded and saved recent footage, problem with that, I have to go into each 60 second clip, just wondering if it's possible to have one long video recrding say for 8hs without the recording stopping?

 

[Hey Hoser]

You can change to 3 minutes from 1 minute in the setup menu

 

[kamkar]

No dashcams record in segments, so in case of a event / failure, if you loose something you will only loose a little, if the camera just record constantly you might loose hours of footage in a event / failure.
Most do offer the user a choice in between 1-2-3-5-10 minutes segment size, i think i use the most popular 3 minute.

It is easy to make one long file out of XX files, just drop them into a editing program, which should manage them according to the time / date stamp on the files, then drop them onto the time line and export as 1 big file.
This was complicated in the old days as most dashcams had a 1 second overlap in between file segments, but dashcam players back then ( registrator viewer ) was able to automatic take care of that for you.
Most cameras today dont have this "issue" so if fairly simple to deal with.

Of course having to edit is more work than just sharing 1 big file, but for safety concerns the little file segments are preferred.

 

[kamkar]

I think the dashcam viewer software should be able to automatic or fairly easy bundle up a drive session made up of XX files, and output it as one large file, at least i think there was talks about that.
But not sure if it support nextbase cameras, but you can DL the fully functional version, only minus is you can only load a couple of files at the time in the demo.

Dashcam Viewer | Unleash Your Dashcam’s Full Potential

Dashcam Viewer is powerful, state-of-the-art software with unique and functional features that will unleash your dashcam’s full potential.

dashcamviewer.com

 

[Hopeless]

Thanks folks for all the helpful replies

 

[Nextbase Support]

Thanks for all the helpful replies so far, another question, I've noticed on the screen, it records at 60 seconds, then 60 seconds, then 60 seconds, is it possible to have 1 full length stream, I've downloaded and saved recent footage, problem with that, I have to go into each 60 second clip, just wondering if it's possible to have one long video recrding say for 8hs without the recording stopping?

Hello,

Regarding the recording lengths, the camera will record continuously in small segments (1,2, or 3 minutes). It will record these segments consecutively until the SD card is full. Then the oldest piece of footage will be deleted and the newest will be saved in it's place. This will continue looping and is called Continuous Overwriting. The Dash Cam does this automatically to allow for more footage to be recorded and the old, unnecessary footage to be deleted without manual intervention.

However Protected Files are not overwritten in the same way as normal files. If you do not format regularly, these files can build up and reduce the capacity of storage available for normal footage. It is essential to format every two weeks to delete any protected files and clear the card ready for continued usage.

Kind regards,
Millie
Nextbase Technical Support

 

[kamkar]

It is indeed essential to tune your system so it do not generate too many false events that will fill the event space.
This is one reason why i do not have G sensor on for when i drive, even if on low and with the state of the roads i drive a system dont generate many events.
But i prefer to have it off, and then instead get a plenty large memory card so the space for regular files are larger and it will take a longer time for a important but regular file to be recycled.

It is also why i dont use motion detection when parked and advise against using that, even if the low bitrate i prefer are " hammering" the memory card all the time when parked, then it is not event files.

 

[Hopeless]

It is easy to make one long file out of XX files, just drop them into a editing program, which should manage them according to the time / date stamp on the files, then drop them onto the time line and export as 1 big file.

Hello kamkar, as I'm hopeless with technology can you recommend an editing programme that's easy to follow

 

[kamkar]

Most video editing programs have how to tutorials on youtube, i have been using pinnacle studio and now powerdirector 17, these 2 are much alike.
Windows also have a build in editor, but TBH i have not tried to use it even if back in the day i did use the movie maker that was in old windows.

But basis editing like making many smaller clips into one long clip, that is very easy, just have to put the clips in the correct order, and i think this is done automatic if you grab all XX files you have imported and drop them on the time line.

I can also easy whip up a video of how i would do it if you want to, i have the option of being able to record my screen.

 

[Hopeless]

I can also easy whip up a video of how i would do it if you want to, i have the option of being able to record my screen.

Yes please kamkar, if you have the time and don't mind helping, I'd really appreciate it

 

[Hey Hoser]

in addition to kamkar helping you, I use VSDC video editor, works good, lots of youtube videos how to use

 

[kamkar]

I am retired with expensive hobbies, so i have plenty of time.
Just going on a short drive now, but will whip up a demo of splicing many little clips to one when i get home in 1/2 hour or so.
This simple stuff are not that bad, even with the top of the line and free davinchi resolve software, that otherwise do have a steep learning curve for more "advanced" stuff, but gluing stuff together or cutting stuff out is pretty easy in any software.
Also for basic things like this you dont need the latest version of a program, my powerdirector is #17 and i think #20 just launched, so if you could find power director 15 cheap that will be fine, i think the latest version of pinnacle studio is "25, so if you could find pinnacle studio in version 17 or something that will be just fine too.

I cant recall if your camera is 4K, but that is the only thing that you should look for if that is the case, otherwise newer versions of video edit software are just more advanced features - more of them ASO, the basic stuff already exist in older software if the resolution are just 1080p

 

[kamkar]

Okay here is a demo "stacking" 10 or so ( 3 minute files ) into a single 30 minute or so long video, using my powerdirector 17 ultimate software,,,,, the cheaper not ultimate will do the same too.
The layout of the editing software is top left is the import window, to the right of it is the playback window, and the bottom are the video and audio + other tracks, you can add more of those of course, but in general i make do with 2 tracks ( in this program if you put 2 videos right on top of each other the bottom one on the tracks is what you see as it cover all of the video track above it, so say i wanted a picture in picture output with the rear camera as the little picture, then i would put the rear camera footage on the lowest track, and then shrink it down in size and move to to a corner so i can see the video from the front camera below it )

But for just stitching clips together you just use one track as i do in this demo video, picture in picture are a "advanced" feature, so no need to focus on that in this case.

As you can see from the video length ( 10 minutes or so ) it dident take long to whip this longer clip up, of course a slower computer will need more time to do the same, so maybe set it going before dinner or while you watch a little telly.
I am on a 12 / 24 core threadripper CPU with 64GB of RAM, and with a 5700 XT graphics card, so that is quite up there for this kind of work, but a slower computer can do it too, just take longer to process it all.
Mind you today you can get much more potent hardware, 2 years ago my stuff was more the sh.. than it is today, in computer hardware things age fast, at least for harder tasks like gaming or video editing, but it dont mean the old PC are trash, just take a bit longer,,,,, like it now do for me to walk up stairs.

 

[Hopeless]

Hello, it's me again

I've noticed on "Cabin View" when recording at night, the footage is very dark, the only person visable in the footage is me, the driver, is it possible to brighten the footage for the rear, so, passengers in the back can be seen?

 

[kamkar]

Normally the cameras have IR light to aid the cabin camera at night, in that case the camera also change to B&W mode like most CCTV cameras do.
If your camera are still in color at night it might be set to only do color, at least that is how it have worked on the 3 cameras i have tested with a cabin camera, you have 3 choices. A: color / B: auto change between color in the day and B&W at night - C: B&W which it can also be locked to though i can see no reason why anyone would want this.

Here is a demo video of the B2W changing automatic to B&W mode in the daytime as i drive into deep shade.

 

[Hopeless]

Hi kamkar, you've helped me lot, I'm really greatful, so, as per my screen name, in the video recordings I'm in colour, however, in the same recording, all I see in the rear is a shadow of someone

If its possible to show rear passengrs, I've no idea how I do that via settings