Help me decide............

jpohling

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Been doing some research, but there is so much info out there and does not seem to be a consistent consensus.
Glad I found this site and hope to utilize the focused knowledge base.

Here is what I would like, ( I think) ha. WiFi interface because that seems much more user friendly than connecting wires etc to obtain recordings. prefer discrete so not really into a screen that is viewable all the time. flip down to view possibly may be nice option. Single camera I think will be all that I need although the ability to add a rear camera in future would be nice, but not a necessity. Quality image sensor for good night recording. I would rather give up some wide angle for a quality image with not so much fish eye. Accident detection and parking protection. GPS logging also nice to have. Hard wire kit available or easily hard wired. Ideally all for less than $150.00

My search so far has lead me to the DDPai Mini 2, but I live in a relatively hot climate so that may be an issue. but it seems like a great value. I have no problem paying more. Other one that looks interesting is the Rexing V1 3rd gen

Thank you in advance for your suggestions and let me know if there is something I am missing that I should consider. This is my first dash cam.
 
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Welcome to the forum jpohling.

WIFI i guess are fine if you just have a single or two file segments to download, for bulk transfers the speed of the wifi will be 1/10 of what you will get from the memory card in a card reader.
I am not quite sure how convenient browsing your recordings to find what you need are over wifi, but if you have been using event button it can only be in one place and so should be easy to find.
And really bulk transfers are only needed if you have been using the dashcam for a drive / trip recorder, but most people don't do that, and if they are serious about such stuff they should not use a dashcam.

I really should look more into this wifi fab, but i am always mentally blocked by my personal intense dislike for both smartphones and wifi,,,,,, i will have to try and man up one of these days.

Personally i would only consider cameras based on capacitors no matter the climate you live in.
 
Been doing some research, but there is so much info out there and does not seem to be a consistent consensus.
Glad I found this site and hope to utilize the focused knowledge base.

Here is what I would like, ( I think) ha. WiFi interface because that seems much more user friendly than connecting wires etc to obtain recordings. prefer discrete so not really into a screen that is viewable all the time. flip down to view possibly may be nice option. Single camera I think will be all that I need although the ability to add a rear camera in future would be nice, but not a necessity. Quality image sensor for good night recording. I would rather give up some wide angle for a quality image with not so much fish eye. Accident detection and parking protection. GPS logging also nice to have. Hard wire kit available or easily hard wired. Ideally all for less than $150.00

My search so far has lead me to the DDPai Mini 2, but I live in a relatively hot climate so that may be an issue. but it seems like a great value. I have no problem paying more. Other one that looks interesting is the Rexing V1 3rd gen

Thank you in advance for your suggestions and let me know if there is something I am missing that I should consider. This is my first dash cam.

Hello.
I recently joined this forum. I've had an old dashcam for several years -- just installed a Thinkware FA200.
I think that you should check out this model -- it fits your criteria.
I don't know precisely how its night recording compares. I'll get some video posted soon.
It has wifi, no screen (thus very small), can operate as single or dual camera, 140° FOV (so minimal fisheye), G sensor, great parking modes, GPS optional, hard-wire cable (which give auto on/off function), and $reasonable.
 
Agreed about the capacitor, and maybe I should not be married to Wifi? I will look at the Thinkware.
just looked and not keen about the external GPS
 
Agreed about the capacitor, and maybe I should not be married to Wifi? I will look at the Thinkware.
just looked and not keen about the external GPS

Oh, yes -- the FA200 has a super capacitor.

Regarding 'external GPS' ...
Having several criteria, I think that you'll have to compromise somewhere. Perhaps you'll find one with internal GPS, but it'll have NON-buffered parking recording.
Or, check out the F770 -- built-in GPS, but well over $200
 
If I had to give something up it would be the dual camera I guess. Anyone have anything to say about these options? DDPai Mini 2, or the Rexing V1 3rd gen.
Or new suggestions now that dual cameras are not in the mix?
 
Ok, After researching a little more perhaps the Wifi is not something that is a priority. I have a few noobie questions regarding camera use in general. I imagine the typical way these are used is to just let the camera record whenever you are driving and if there is an accident or some thing that happens along the way you would simply download the info from the SD card and have the video that you need.

My scenario that I do not quite understand is say you driving on a trip and something happens in front of you that you capture and you would like to preserve that for providing to the person involved or whatnot. perhaps a plane crashes in front of you or something. But you want to continue on your way for a few more hours and you want to keep recording your trip. How do you download that section of recording so it does not get overwritten if you do not have a SD reader with you or the Wifi? I imagine its a hardwired connection perhaps downloaded to your phone? Sorry for the noob questions I just do not have first hand experience. I assume that is maybe where the built in screen comes in handy to find the section that you want to preserve? what if any are the advantages of Wifi capability? seems like there are many more options if Wifi is not a requirement.

anyone have anything to say about the models I referenced in my post above?
 
My scenario that I do not quite understand is say you driving on a trip and something happens in front of you that you capture and you would like to preserve that for providing to the person involved or whatnot. perhaps a plane crashes in front of you or something. But you want to continue on your way for a few more hours and you want to keep recording your trip. How do you download that section of recording so it does not get overwritten if you do not have a SD reader with you or the Wifi?
Take the memory card out of the camera, put it somewhere very safe, and put the spare card in the camera. Then you can be 100% sure the recording you want will not get overwritten.
 
Ok, After researching a little more perhaps the Wifi is not something that is a priority. I have a few noobie questions regarding camera use in general. I imagine the typical way these are used is to just let the camera record whenever you are driving and if there is an accident or some thing that happens along the way you would simply download the info from the SD card and have the video that you need.

My scenario that I do not quite understand is say you driving on a trip and something happens in front of you that you capture and you would like to preserve that for providing to the person involved or whatnot. perhaps a plane crashes in front of you or something. But you want to continue on your way for a few more hours and you want to keep recording your trip. How do you download that section of recording so it does not get overwritten if you do not have a SD reader with you or the Wifi? I imagine its a hardwired connection perhaps downloaded to your phone? Sorry for the noob questions I just do not have first hand experience. I assume that is maybe where the built in screen comes in handy to find the section that you want to preserve? what if any are the advantages of Wifi capability? seems like there are many more options if Wifi is not a requirement.

anyone have anything to say about the models I referenced in my post above?
Hello friend,

I am the seller of DDPai mini2 on Amazon, welcome your any questions.
Regarding Wi-Fi, my understanding is, most of the time, just let the camera record alone and don't need to connect the camera with your phone via wi-fi at all, we assume that the over majority of the recorded videos are useless, you only need to connect it when you want to control the camera, for example, download 1-2 minutes key evidence, then you could use your phone to do it conveniently and quickly.

BTW, 2 pcs indepedent DDPai mini2 is actually an ideal solution for front & rear recording, thanks.
 
My scenario that I do not quite understand is say you driving on a trip and something happens in front of you that you capture and you would like to preserve that for providing to the person involved or whatnot. perhaps a plane crashes in front of you or something. But you want to continue on your way for a few more hours and you want to keep recording your trip. How do you download that section of recording so it does not get overwritten if you do not have a SD reader with you or the Wifi? I imagine its a hardwired connection perhaps downloaded to your phone? Sorry for the noob questions I just do not have first hand experience. I assume that is maybe where the built in screen comes in handy to find the section that you want to preserve? what if any are the advantages of Wifi capability? seems like there are many more options if Wifi is not a requirement.

The size of the memory card, and how the camera handles the various types of files, will determine how long a given video will 'live' (till it gets deleted by new video).
The smallest card (that I've seen) is 16 GB. For a 2-camera system, that would record about 3 - 6 (see edit below) hours of actual driving time. (Be aware that I'm guessing here!)
Some DVRs have a feature that will save the current video (about 1 minute) such that it will not be deleted; to do this, you push a button. Or, if it doesn't have that feature, you could thump it (flick you finger on the unit), which will make it think that there was a collision (which will invoke the driving incident save feature).
Some systems go a bit further, and segregate videos into certain folders on the card. So, even if you do drive long enough to delete video from the time of that incident, the important video is saved. The system I have (Thinkware FA200) has 5 types of recordings, each in its own folder.

EDIT
I was thinking about my old DVR (a 2-camera system, which has D1 resolution and 2 Mb/s bitrate), which can hold about 2 weeks of video on a 16 GB card (I drive an average of .5 hr / day).
So, with current resolution and bitrate, a 16 GB card will hold about 1 - 2 hours for a 2-camera system.
 
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Welcome to DCT @jpohling :)
I'd be looking at what people have experienced regards after-sales customer support with those two cams. A lot of cam manufacturers just make a product to sell, then seem to not care to do firmware updates, deal with customer-reported problems, or even honor warranties in a timely manner. That last part is also dependent on the seller to a high degree. And not every cam needs firmware updating but it should happen where needed to solve problems discovered in use.

Almost every dashcam will have a button you can press to save the current file so it doesn't get overwritten. Some thought should be given to where that button is and how well you can reach it when the cam is mounted in your car. Especially in darkness if you drive a lot at night. Some now even come with (or have an available option) a remote button for that. Also consider how important audio recording is to you, as there's a lot of variation in that among cams. You mention wanting good images at night. Currently the IMX 291 may be best at that with the IMX323 doing well enough for most of us (it's becoming a very commonly found sensor now). This is where most older cam sensors fall down in comparison, and since it matters to you I'd look at those vids first in trying to narrow down your choices. Be sure to check out no-light vids (headlights only) as most cams can look better than they really are under city-street lighting (but look there too).

Now onto more esoteric matters like form-factor. Most dashcams are intended to mount discreetly, but that varies as to where you'll be mounting them. They should always be where the wipers clear the rain away and a central high-mounted position usually offers best performance and videos, but you might find built-in sensors in your car ot how the cam cable(s) run getting in the way of your preferred mounting. This is where form-factor can be critical, as you want to be able to remove the cam from the mount, access it's controls, and remove the card from the cam where you put it. As has already been said, wifi isn't what you might expect in dashcams. If the app works well with your phone it can be good for making cam settings or DL'ing a couple files max, but better to pull the card and transfer files to your PC, or use an OTG cable if the cam will work with that. Also note that apps can be fickle of what phone they are on and you might not have full functionality of the app with your phone. Accident and parking protection are usually a function of the G-sensor, and for parking motion detection may also be used. All cams will have this but how well it works will range from very well to useless, so again that's something you want to research carefully. Also most parking modes will require using a hardwire kit; look for ones that have selectable low-voltage cutoff so you don't find your battery dead or reduce it's lifetime by overstressing it. This will limit your available parking time, but you can expect to get at least 4 hours and usually more(lots of variables in this). Also you'll need a good SD card in a size that will give you the recording time you want. There are only a handful of cards which work well here, but those have come down in price lately and are readily available online. Cheap cards won't cut it with dashcams, and even some which rate excellently in other applications are no good here. Pick your cam then we'll steer you to the cards which are best for it.

This may seem a bit overwhelming but it needn't be. Just list what matters most to you in descending order of importance, then start looking at the cams you find mentioned on this site. There are some good cams which are scarcely mentioned here but most of the best can be found here on DCT so it's the best pace to look. And this is the best place to find advice and assistance with dashcams as most of what you find here comes from people who actually use the cams themselves and have no motivation other than for you to enjoy your cam.

Phil
 
The smallest card (that I've seen) is 16 GB. For a 2-camera system, that would record about 3 - 6 hours of actual driving time. (Be aware that I'm guessing here!)
Best not to guess when you are giving advice to someone who is new to the subject and has no way of knowing if you are correct!

The time in that scenario would actually be 1 hour - you are out by 6 times!
 
Ok, After researching a little more perhaps the Wifi is not something that is a priority. I have a few noobie questions regarding camera use in general. I imagine the typical way these are used is to just let the camera record whenever you are driving and if there is an accident or some thing that happens along the way you would simply download the info from the SD card and have the video that you need.

My scenario that I do not quite understand is say you driving on a trip and something happens in front of you that you capture and you would like to preserve that for providing to the person involved or whatnot. perhaps a plane crashes in front of you or something. But you want to continue on your way for a few more hours and you want to keep recording your trip. How do you download that section of recording so it does not get overwritten if you do not have a SD reader with you or the Wifi? I imagine its a hardwired connection perhaps downloaded to your phone? Sorry for the noob questions I just do not have first hand experience. I assume that is maybe where the built in screen comes in handy to find the section that you want to preserve? what if any are the advantages of Wifi capability? seems like there are many more options if Wifi is not a requirement.

anyone have anything to say about the models I referenced in my post above?
When on the trip,you can manually to lock the files so that it is not overwrited.
it is so easy! just one key.
i suggest that dash cam also have a rear camera which is facing the interior of car.
if your family on trip, it also can record the happy hours of interior car.
besides,the parking gurad function is also very important for you.
 
Best not to guess when you are giving advice to someone who is new to the subject and has no way of knowing if you are correct!

The time in that scenario would actually be 1 hour - you are out by 6 times!

Wow.
I used the recording time calculator, and got 2.1 hours for my system (front is FHD, 10 Mb/s, rear is HD, 7 Mb/s).
To get 1 hour, I had to set it to at least 35 Mb/s!
 
Lots of variables in calculating recording time'

I have one cam which at one point gave me a whopping 25 minutes of recording time :eek: A 4gb card and .avi forrmat does not make a good combination but at the time it was all I had to work with (and I was happy that it worked at all which was more than I'd expected). Cams like the B1W reserve a percentage of space for locked files so your normal recording time is less than you might expect. Modified firmware in an A129 Duo can run past 27mb/s, eating up card space like the cookie monster and a fresh bag full of Oreos :ROFLMAO:

So until you know which cam, settings, and firmware are being spoken of it's all just guesswork to some degree ;)

Phil
 
Thank you everyone for the educated advice. At first I was concerned about the lack of responses, but I am a member of several different on-line groups and I understand how how frustrating it can be for someone to post a general question "what should i buy" and expect to be spoon fed an answer. I can assure you that I am not that guy and try to do as much research as possible with everything I am interested in. I am super happy I found this site with enthusiast like yourselves that are willing to share their knowledge and experience. It has become clear that in some respects I just need to dive in and make a decision and choose a "DVR" and see what works for me knowing that that my choice may or may not be the best choice possible for my needs, as I really dont know exactly what my needs are or will become.

Initial thinking is it would be amazing to have some video proof as to what just transpired in an accident situation, and to that end I would think it would be very important to have the ability in day or night to identify clearly what happened and to be able to identify those involved. Then obviously to have something that is user friendly and reliable. I plan to hardwire the device because I cannot deal with random cords. it seems like SD cards are really pretty inexpensive relative to the cost of the device so I am not to concerned about that ( I will get as large a card as the device allows) I am sure I will have enough recording time.

The majority of my driving is daytime, but at night is when things seem to happen so night recording quality would be great. Really the whole parking issue isnt to critical as I am in known garages typically but what the heck, cannot hurt. and it seems like the rear camera is more critical for that? If IO am hit from behind usually 9 of10 times they are at fault so that doesn't seem to critical either so for a noob I think a single camera would be just fine.

About this button you press to save the file so that it is not overwritten, does that mean it saves the video to that point, but will continue to record as you continue to drive?

Form factor is a concern as I do not want it to be discrete. lots of car theft unfortunately.

I also find it curious that no one has said anything about the two devices I mentioned? I look forward to learning more about these device's that are more complicated that I had imagined.

Cheers
 
Wow.
I used the recording time calculator, and got 2.1 hours for my system (front is FHD, 10 Mb/s, rear is HD, 7 Mb/s).
To get 1 hour, I had to set it to at least 35 Mb/s!
Most current dual cameras record FHD on both channels, and a good camera will use 16Mb/s per channel, around 33Mb/s for both. Then take into account that after formatting your 16GB memory card, you will not have 16GB of free space available and you are down to around 1 hour.

There are some cameras that record at around 12Mb/s/channel, but your 10+7 is really low for current cameras.
 
I find 64GB for a camera or 128 GB for a dual system are the minimum, but this will ensure you have a 8 hour work day if it is in a work vehicle or you drive longer distances at times.
I assume 8 hours are a long drive, i have tried myself to drive for 11 hours strait, and i do not want to do that again, unless i have won the lottery and have a lux car with massage seats.

It is a very good idea to use the event button to lock and protect events while driving, i have done without this for some years and it can be a pain remembering where the event was and finding it.
And if you just use the event button you can leave use of G sensor, and so you will only have a few events on the card, where as use of G sensor cant quickly take up a large portion of the memory card if not all of the memory card.

In regard to night time, then personally i am satisfied if the camera can just document my place in the lane in relation to road markings or road side, and then color of lights at intersections.
And pretty much any camera can do this just fine.
You can get cameras that will let you see a lot more at night, or maybe i should see make you think you see a lot more, cuz in general all the more you can see it will suffer from motion blur and so arnt really useful, but it are more easy on the eye to watch as your brain compensate from the motion blur and make you think "dude this is awesome" but that will go away if you pause the footage and look closely at it.
In general i still recommend to get the best performing camera in low light, which at the moment mean cameras based on the Sony IMX 291 sensor.

In regard to events on dashcams there are a few ways they do it at the moment.
1: the old way. this mean you have a 10 - 15 second buffer, so from the moment you press the button you will have 10 - 15 seconds from before the button press too, but as you can figure out this mean you have to be pretty fast on the event button if you want to save / lock a event. the camera will then save to some seconds after the event, and then return to regular always recording.

2: the new way. Here instead the cameras deal with video segments ( of what ever size you choose ) so say you use 2 minute segment size for the following example.

So you are driving along and a event happen, you then press the event button, and if then the current video segment recording are less than 1 minute long, then this current segment and the previous 2 minute segment will be saved and you then roughly have 2 minute - 1 minute -event - 1 minute, so in total 4 minutes saved in two 2 minute files, with 3 minutes before the event and 1 minute after.

If you are driving along and press the event button and the current segment are more than 1 minute old, then the current 2 minute file will be saved + the following 2 minute file, and again you have 4 minutes locked away.
And you will roughly have 1 minute - event - 1 minute - 2 minutes in two 2 minute files with 1 minute before the event and 3 minute of video after the event.

So as you can see using 2 minute segment size you pretty much have a minute to react in and still have your event in a locked file, this reaction time of course go up if you would use 3 minute segment size like most do, or 5 minute segment size which all dashcams can also do.
The downside are your event footage are bigger / take up more space.

I have just started to use the event button as i said, but i am pretty casual and chill with this, and i have yet to miss a event due to me being too slow to press the button, so i wholeheartedly support the new way.
PS. The RO folder on new cameras will eventually also be overwritten too when it is full, but you will need to have like 60 event recordings in there before it start to overwrite the older stiff in the Read Only folder.
This is also sensible, older cams can let read only files just pile up and eventually fill the memory cart completely so there are no room for regular recording files,,,, or events for that matter.

In general you should not see so many events unless the dashcam are in your figure 8 demolition race car, for regular road use and in traffic with a high idiot value and you having a low patience value ( and want to put those idiots on youtube )
Even then you should only see like 2-3 events a day, so you will have room in the event folder for quite a few days if you don't empty it regularly.
And you should format the memory card in the camera now and then, every 2-3 months i think will be fine.
And you should also know a dashcam are not really set and forget, so it is wise to spend 5 - 10 minutes looking over footage now and then to make sure the files can play in what ever player you use on your computer.
 
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