Dashcam Viewer for Mac and Windows

[JAz909]

@Kremmen is right about the Free version only being able to load two Front videos (or two F/R pairs of videos) at a time.

If the "1" in the toolbar is grey, that means Dashcam Viewer couldn't find (or didn't recognize) the 2nd channel video. Which dashcam model are you using? Can you send me a file listing from your SD card showing filenames of matched pairs of videos? Sometimes dashcam manufacturers like to put different channel videos in different folders, which makes life a bit more difficult.

@LateralNW Dashcam Viewer does work with Vantrue N5 but only currently supports two of its channels: Front and Interior. GPS data is processed correctly.

John

Vantrue N4

Will add filenames in a minute

 

[JAz909]

A is front facing
B is interior
C is rear facing

 

[JAz909]

The 2 file limit in the top window normally means you're not running the paid for version

Ok at least that part makes sense. ty.

 

[LateralNW]

If the "1" in the toolbar is grey, that means Dashcam Viewer couldn't find (or didn't recognize) the 2nd channel video. Which dashcam model are you using? Can you send me a file listing from your SD card showing filenames of matched pairs of videos? Sometimes dashcam manufacturers like to put different channel videos in different folders, which makes life a bit more difficult.

@LateralNW Dashcam Viewer does work with Vantrue N5 but only currently supports two of its channels: Front and Interior. GPS data is processed correctly.

Thanks for the reply John.

In regards to latest version 3.9.4 November 10, 2023

I started with one thing but it looks like it has turned into a list

1. With the Vantrue N5 Dashcam Viewer is showing a "1" on the toolbar. The Dashcam is running 4x cameras'.
1a. No GPS information is being displayed. When zoomed out it shows the dashcam is in the sea near Nigeria! Changed after a reboot

2. Google maps doesn't work at all. MapQuest seems to work. Regardless of Dashcam brand.
When you click on Google it does nothing. If you click on the what I thought was the return button it opens google up in a webpage but only places you near the site?
If needed I can supply a simple video showing the problem.

3. I am working on a 3x screen desktop and have Dashcam Viewer on one screen and this forum post on another eg 2nd Screen. The third screen has a picture editor opened.
Everytime I go from the Dashcam Viewer screen to the forum screen eg 2nd screen the Dashcam Viewer file information, Maps and the bottom section of the Dashcam program vanishes.
Clicking on "Reset all Window positions" and then coming back to the 2nd screen dashcam viewer drops all the windows I mentioned.
This also happens exactly the same when clicking on the 3rd screen.

4. Are you able to make your program "Stick" to one screen? That would help make it more user friendly. And then add the feature of Dock and Undock.

5. If you have the program open and the filename, gps info etc scattered around the screen and you click on the open video folder all the other screen lock in position and prevent access to the screens that are underneath them.


6. The processing screen window has three dots after the number of files it is loading this usually means that there is many more files to come.
At first it appears as if it has more than 40 to process. Are they necessary?

7. Do you have any intentions of adding the ability of viewing 4 cameras?

New Feature request. ONce the above is fixed
A. Allow the ability to capture the name of the file using the mouse drag and copy option. This will help to pinpoint the video I want rather than trying to remember its name which does my head in when I haven't had a morning coffee.
B. Or be able to click on the filename and be able to copy the details into the clipboard.
C. Get your help file signed or open it in your own reader.
D. Make the download site for updates a secure site. I don't usually download from non secure sites and have to implement extra checking.


Cheers.

 

[markus]

2. Google maps doesn't work at all. MapQuest seems to work. Regardless of Dashcam brand.
When you click on Google it does nothing. If you click on the what I thought was the return button it opens google up in a webpage but only places you near the site?
If needed I can supply a simple video showing the problem.View attachment 69220

Ahha! I knew that popping into this thread would be helpful. I too can confirm that on 3.9.4 (macOS) I'm not seeing the Google map appearing. Video source is A229 Pro 2ch (rear cam).

 

[traveler]

@markus and @LateralNW - this update should address the "blank Google Maps" issue you reported

Dashcam Viewer v3.95 Released

Dashcam Viewer v3.9.5 was released today for both Mac and Windows. This was a hot fix to address the Google Maps API issue a number of users have reported.

Bug Fixes:

• Fixed issue with Google Maps suddenly failing to load. The symptom was the Map window would come up blank. (Mapquest and OSM maps still worked). This affected all previous versions of Dashcam Viewer. The issue was due to Google pushing out an update of the Maps API which was incompatible with the 3rd party web engine used by Dashcam Viewer.

Dashcam Viewer and Dashcam Viewer PRO are PC/Mac applications that allow you to play your dashcam’s videos while simultaneously viewing your vehicle’s location on a map. There are many other features in the software which are detailed on our website (http://dashcamviewer.com). The free version is fully-functional and allows the loading of up to 2 videos at a time.

 

[LateralNW]

@markus and @LateralNW - this update should address the "blank Google Maps" issue you reported

Dashcam Viewer v3.95 Released

Dashcam Viewer v3.9.5 was released today for both Mac and Windows. This was a hot fix to address the Google Maps API issue a number of users have reported.

Bug Fixes:

• Fixed issue with Google Maps suddenly failing to load. The symptom was the Map window would come up blank. (Mapquest and OSM maps still worked). This affected all previous versions of Dashcam Viewer. The issue was due to Google pushing out an update of the Maps API which was incompatible with the 3rd party web engine used by Dashcam Viewer.

Dashcam Viewer and Dashcam Viewer PRO are PC/Mac applications that allow you to play your dashcam’s videos while simultaneously viewing your vehicle’s location on a map. There are many other features in the software which are detailed on our website (http://dashcamviewer.com). The free version is fully-functional and allows the loading of up to 2 videos at a time.

did you post twice? I went to reply and the forum went into the 'oops' mode .... just curious

Thanks for fixing the google problem.

 

[LateralNW]

@traveler
While I have your attention
The speedo and calendar "Dashboard Window" can't be expanded to prevent the arrows overlapping the Month Year details

 

[suji_modern]

ドライブレコーダービューア 3.95
vantrue E1 のデータでGPS データが読めません。
vantrue playerでは問題なく読み込めます。

 

[markus]

I can confirm the Google Maps issue is fixed for me in v3.95 on macOS. Thank you!

 

[JAz909]

(snipped)

If the "1" in the toolbar is grey, that means Dashcam Viewer couldn't find (or didn't recognize) the 2nd channel video. Which dashcam model are you using? Can you send me a file listing from your SD card showing filenames of matched pairs of videos? Sometimes dashcam manufacturers like to put different channel videos in different folders, which makes life a bit more difficult.

(snipped)

John

View attachment 69156
A is front facing
B is interior
C is rear facing

@traveler Any developments on this please?

It's a Vantrue N4 w/ 3 cams and iirc, I may have sent you files prior (and if not I can easily do so, please lmk if you need)

 

[Privateer]

@traveler

The RoadHawk HD was my first dashcam; I then had a RoadHawk HD-2, and I'm currently using a Viofo A119 v3.

I have dashcam footage of road trips from 2016, which the RoadHawk HD took. Whilst Dashcam Viewer will play the video files, it doesn't show the GPS data, so speed and location on the map aren't shown. I believe that my RoadHawk HD always had the GPS switched on. I've tried some later footage taken by a RoadHawk HD-2, which has GPS data, so Dashcam Viewer shows the speed and location on the map.

If I were to send you some files from the RoadHawk HD, can you analyse them to see whether they contain GPS data and, if possible, get Dashcam Viewer to use the GPS data?

I appreciate that the RoadHawk HD is a legacy dashcam, and I'm probably the only person to need this, so it's a low priority, but the road trip has a great sentimental value to me, and I would like to be able to export the GPS data.

I'm running the Mac Dashcam Viewer, Version 3.9.5

Thanks,

 

[Michael23]

A quick comment to John...
Many thank you's for updating v3.9.5 to work my AZDOME GS63H dashcam.

Google Maps are fully functional as are all of the features.

I only struck one minor glitch, in that the Shortcut icon took 3 tries to get it to display the correct icon.

All in all, a great program.

Thanks again, John.

 

[traveler]

@traveler

The RoadHawk HD was my first dashcam; I then had a RoadHawk HD-2, and I'm currently using a Viofo A119 v3.

I have dashcam footage of road trips from 2016, which the RoadHawk HD took. Whilst Dashcam Viewer will play the video files, it doesn't show the GPS data, so speed and location on the map aren't shown. I believe that my RoadHawk HD always had the GPS switched on. I've tried some later footage taken by a RoadHawk HD-2, which has GPS data, so Dashcam Viewer shows the speed and location on the map.

If I were to send you some files from the RoadHawk HD, can you analyse them to see whether they contain GPS data and, if possible, get Dashcam Viewer to use the GPS data?

I appreciate that the RoadHawk HD is a legacy dashcam, and I'm probably the only person to need this, so it's a low priority, but the road trip has a great sentimental value to me, and I would like to be able to export the GPS data.

I'm running the Mac Dashcam Viewer, Version 3.9.5

Thanks,

@Privateer I revisited my old (2019) RoadHawk HD video sample in v3.9.5 and indeed the GPS data doesn't show up.

I did a deeper dive into the video and found that the GPS data is there but it is encrypted (and embedded in the video subtitle track). Dashcam Viewer is able to recognize this and decrypt the data into NMEA sentences. However, the real problem is that the RoadHawk HD's clock was set to 1999 instead of 2019 and this date is considered "bogus" by DCV because it predates dashcams. I made a change to DCV to accept datestamps going back as far as 1999 and this fixed the problem for my sample. Now the fix may or may not solve your problem. It will solve it if two conditions exist: (1) Your problem is that the internal clock of the RoadHawk HD was not set correctly resulting in 1999 datestamps and (2) The encryption scheme I cracked for the sample is the same scheme used for your videos. The only way to find out is to test your videos. If you could send me a raw RoadHawk HD video (using https://wetransfer.com), I'll take a look.

FWIW, here is a screenshot from the sample RoadHawk HD video I have in my archive using v3.9.6b1:

 

[traveler]

@traveler Any developments on this please?

It's a Vantrue N4 w/ 3 cams and iirc, I may have sent you files prior (and if not I can easily do so, please lmk if you need)

@JAz909 Sorry no new progress to report other than I'm still thinking about 3-channel support possibilities.

 

[Vortex Radar]

I'm trying to load in about 100 videos right now and it's pretty slow to do since it has to speed a second or so processing each one instead of just playing immediately the way something like VLC would do. Additionally it keeps trying to grab my input controls each time it loads another video so I could try backgrounding the app, but it keeps popping back up and taking away my mouse and keyboard from other apps while I try to work. I had to force quit the app since I didn't want to wait for it to finish things so I could use my computer again. Is there a way to have it load faster and especially work properly in the background so I could do other things while it loads? This is with 3.9.5.

 

[traveler]

I'm trying to load in about 100 videos right now and it's pretty slow to do since it has to speed a second or so processing each one instead of just playing immediately the way something like VLC would do. Additionally it keeps trying to grab my input controls each time it loads another video so I could try backgrounding the app, but it keeps popping back up and taking away my mouse and keyboard from other apps while I try to work. I had to force quit the app since I didn't want to wait for it to finish things so I could use my computer again. Is there a way to have it load faster and especially work properly in the background so I could do other things while it loads? This is with 3.9.5.

@Vortex Radar First-time data reads from 100 dashcam videos can take a few seconds to several minutes, depending on the method of GPS data encoding (varies from manufacturer to manufacturer) and the speed of the hard drive or SD card reader. The slowest reads occur when the method of data encoding can not be determined upon initial scan, and DCV has to 'brute force' the file. Fortunately, this isn't the case for most dashcam models.

One thing you can try is to enable the data cache (under Advanced Preferences), if it isn't already, and load you set of 100 video before bedtime. This won't speed up the initial read of videos, but subsequent loads will be very fast as you can see in the video. (The Plus version can cache GPS data of up to 1,000 videos and the PRO version up to 10,000).

 

[JAz909]

@JAz909 Sorry no new progress to report other than I'm still thinking about 3-channel support possibilities.

Is there any info or new tips you can suggest so I can at least use it for two channels at a time?

Renaming the files as prev suggested did not work for me.
So far I've only ever been able to view video from one camera/channel at a time.

Thx.

 

[Privateer]

@traveler

If you could send me a raw RoadHawk HD video (using https://wetransfer.com), I'll take a look.

Many thanks for looking into this.

I've sent you nine test files. Several of them audibly announce that the GPS of the unit is working, so hopefully, your modification to DCV to accept datestamps going back as far as 1999 will work for my test files and the whole journey's footage.

Regards,

 

[LateralNW]

@traveler

How do you stop this message when using the "Clean Up" menu option.

Regardless what I do with the main window ( I assume is the one the video's play in) the following message is displayed.



OK, I played with it a bit more and found the window needs to be smaller than 793 x 554
When it works it creates a new size for the entire program of 1275 x 784

What's the point of the Clean up window option?
excerpt from manual
"Sometimes it’s useful to gather the ancillary windows around the Main window, without
the Main window changing position. To do this, select Clean Up from the “Windows”
menu."
Doesn't' really do this.
My screens are 1920 x 1200