Dashcam Viewer for Mac and Windows

[Dashmellow]

If it's that simple then maybe an on/off switch within the program to tell it not to scan the GPS data when first launched would be doable, still not as good as quick loading but better than waiting 30 minutes before anything happens

Yes, "on/off switch"; I guess that's what I meant when I said "toggle".

 

[traveler]

If it's that simple then maybe an on/off switch within the program to tell it not to scan the GPS data when first launched would be doable, still not as good as quick loading but better than waiting 30 minutes before anything happens

Excellent suggestion. I'll add this to my ToDo list.

 

[jokiin]

@jokiin, I appreciate the suggestion. In fact, I've thought about this type of background processing before. The gotcha is that both the foreground process (playback) and background process (loading) would be in contention for the hard drive at the same time. This could lead to playback stuttering until the background process is complete. Also, if the user immediately jumps ahead a few movies, playback would have to pause until all the GPS data is loaded. The bottom line is that something could be done along these lines but it would be complex to implement.

John

Yes I understand that there are limitations and hardware performance would play a big part in how well it would work

 

[Street Guardian USA]

@jokiin, I appreciate the suggestion. In fact, I've thought about this type of background processing before. The gotcha is that both the foreground process (playback) and background process (loading) would be in contention for the hard drive at the same time. This could lead to playback stuttering until the background process is complete. Also, if the user immediately jumps ahead a few movies, playback would have to pause until all the GPS data is loaded. The bottom line is that something could be done along these lines but it would be complex to implement.

John

Someone will have to take a closer look at how registratorviewer does it and see what tricks they use for scanning embedded GPS so quick. 32GB of embedded GPS .mov files only takes a minute or two for example. Once someone learns how it's done hopefully DashCamViewer can be optimized the same. DashCamViewer is closer and closer to being what past registratorviewer viewer users have grown to expect in a dashcam viewer application. This is especially important once new Street Guardian dual channel products come out. (Which is beyond registratorviewer's abilities even)

 

[Ralph2]

If.. you are running things to work on .. I, am still waiting to have a feature where I can access my Wifi enabled camera (Blackview) from my laptop computer in the same way I can access any of my other home computers. I don't own a smart phone.. my tablet works to view video via the built in WiFi.. but it would be so much better if I could do it with my laptop as well.

 

[Street Guardian USA]

If.. you are running things to work on .. I, am still waiting to have a feature where I can access my Wifi enabled camera (Blackview) from my laptop computer in the same way I can access any of my other home computers. I don't own a smart phone.. my tablet works to view video via the built in WiFi.. but it would be so much better if I could do it with my laptop as well.

Easier said than done especially if you don't have access to source code, camera dev SDK/tools, etc. I don't see this happening any time soon.

 

[CRS 123]

If it's that simple then maybe an on/off switch within the program to tell it not to scan the GPS data when first launched would be doable, still not as good as quick loading but better than waiting 30 minutes before anything happens

Would using newer cards with faster read write times help loading time?
CRS

 

[jokiin]

Would using newer cards with faster read write times help loading time?
CRS

no, the issue has nothing to do with data throughput

 

[traveler]

no, the issue has nothing to do with data throughput

If we're talking about scanning movie files for GPS data, then having a fast hard drive (or even better, an SSD) will improve performance. However, if the GPS data is in external files then the load performance will be about the same.

 

[jokiin]

If we're talking about scanning movie files for GPS data, then having a fast hard drive (or even better, an SSD) will improve performance. However, if the GPS data is in external files then the load performance will be about the same.

I have a current model i7, 32GB of RAM, Win10 is installed on a 500gb M.2 SSD drive on a 32gbit/sec interface, it's still very slow to process the files before playback

 

[Street Guardian USA]

There has to be some file loading optimizations and methods that registratorviewer is using that can be used in DashCamViewer. If only we knew what the methods being used were.

 

[jokiin]

There has to be some file loading optimizations and methods that registratorviewer is using that can be used in DashCamViewer. If only we knew what the methods being used were.

no idea but he was able to pull the data from the files very quickly

 

[Street Guardian USA]

Calling all programmers, anyone, anyone? Inquiring minds want to know

 

[CRS 123]

Extremely frustrated with Dashcam viewer for Mac..specially cause it aint cheap. iMac with 3.4 GHz intel core 16GIG of ram, SSD Drive. Crunches large photoshop files like nobody's business. Take FOREVER to load files off the card. I'm using Transcend premium 400X XC1 cards both 32 and 64 Gig. Datacam loads them instantly but without any GPS data. Unlike my Guardian. HuH? Is it just that Dascam is terrible on Macs? It's really not usable folks. I feel cheated with my $$ (this was with only about 13 gigs of files on the card)
CRS

 

[traveler]

Extremely frustrated with Dashcam viewer for Mac..specially cause it aint cheap. Datacam loads them instantly but without any GPS data. Unlike my Guardian. HuH? Is it just that Dascam is terrible on Macs? It's really not usable folks. I feel cheated with my $$ (this was with only about 13 gigs of files on the card)
CRS

CRS, I'm sorry you feel cheated. I actually thought you were happy with Dashcam Viewer based on your earlier post, but I would be happy to refund your money if you contact me via email. Please note that player programs that don't attempt to read the GPS data are going to play the movies instantly! Scanning the files for GPS data, especially in cases where the manufacturer hasn't provided the encoding scheme and I haven't been able to crack it, can be a time-consuming process.

BTW, if you're using an SD card that is connected via a USB2 card reader than this will be the bottleneck. Try copying the files to your SSD first and then loading. Should be faster. Also, the GPS data in some dash cam movies will load faster than others. I discussed this in an earlier post here. One of the next enhancements will be to look into ways to speed things up a bit for the slow-loading dash cams (like Novatek).

John

 

[CRS 123]

CRS, I'm sorry you feel cheated. I actually thought you were happy with Dashcam Viewer based on your earlier post, but I would be happy to refund your money if you contact me via email. Please note that player programs that don't attempt to read the GPS data are going to play the movies instantly! Scanning the files for GPS data, especially in cases where the manufacturer hasn't provided the encoding scheme and I haven't been able to crack it, can be a time-consuming process.

BTW, if you're using an SD card that is connected via a USB2 card reader than this will be the bottleneck. Try copying the files to your SSD first and then loading. Should be faster. Also, the GPS data in some dash cam movies will load faster than others. I discussed this in an earlier post here. One of the next enhancements will be to look into ways to speed things up a bit for the slow-loading dash cams (like Novatek).

John

The software is excellent ...once files are loaded....therein lies the problem . If it were even a matter of walking away for ten minutes...which I did, and having files loaded I could work with that...but after ten minutes it was still crunching. Transferring the files to the hard drive does indeed load the file much faster...but a catch 22 in that copying files off the card is also slow. Maybe until you crack the encoding scheme, you could implement an "ignore GPS data" preference?

 

[jokiin]

Maybe until you crack the encoding scheme, you could implement an "ignore GPS data" preference?

that is something that John has mentioned is coming already

 

[CRS 123]

that is something that John has mentioned is coming already

Sorry....didn't see that. I think I read somewhere that you can create a file with a certain extension that fools the software into not looking at all the video files for GPS info?
CRS

 

[traveler]

Dashcam Viewer v2.6.2 Released for Mac and Windows

Dashcam Viewer v2.6.2 is now available from our website. This version adds a number of new features and optimizations suggested in this forum, including:

• Added user-configurable 'instant replay' button to quickly jump back in time. See image below.
• Added the option to prevent loading of GPS data. This allows you to load and play many movies quickly.
• [Windows version] Added reset buttons for brightness and contrast (thanks to Rick R. for the suggestion)
• 5x-10x faster loading of StreetGuardian SG9665GC and BlackBox B40 movies (thanks to Rick R. and Jon S. for their help).
• [Mac version] Added Picture-in-Picture support for StreetGuardian SG9663DC

New user-configurable Instant Replay button​

Dashcam Viewer is available for Mac OS X and Windows (64-bit and 32-bit). Give it a try!

Download the free version from our website.

- John
Website: http://dashcamviewer.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dashcamviewer

 

[Street Guardian USA]

An Excellent update, Great work as always. [emoji106]