I do NOT want 'loop' recording! Also...

[Crumble]

- Screenshot capture from Mobius software

Thanks 2000rpm. What exact camera is that from?

- some cameras will stop at the file size limitation,
- some will continue but with a bit of a pause

Thanks Jokiin. Can you be specific as to a make and model that will continue after a bit of a pause?

- you can easily get over 8 hours recording before
- looping begins

Thanks SawMaster, but that's not good enough. I want zero possibility of looping, therefore, it has to be disabled altogether.

- sometimes a work-around is the only way to get what you want

Indeed. I'll hunt pretty far and wide before I give up, though.

Back to "I think he wants an action cam" - Who cares whether I think of it as an 'action' cam, or a 'vacation' cam, or a 'prevent an insurance scam' cam? Who is *anyone* to tell me that, just because it mounts above the dash, I have to use it according to the latter, and if I refuse, well, I just don't deserve a stable mount and a hardwired power supply? Does the fact that a camera is called a "dash" cam really change anything? Say I want to record a long day's tour through the Grand Canyon neighborhood, taken from the view of my windshield. Am I a second class citizen, subject to asinine and senseless restrictions, just because I don't intend to use the video as legal protection? No hardwire and no auto-restart segments, unless you intend to use your video in court. This is absolutely mind boggling.

So am I in the wrong forum, seriously? Maybe I do need to turn my attention toward an 'action' cam. I bought a little handheld cam a few years back that only took its own proprietary battery. I had occasion to go over the Black Bear Road and knew that a half dozen of those slim flat little $30 batteries would not be enough, so I took it back for a different model that takes AA batteries. That's the one I still use today. I pack a couple dozen spare batteries, always kept at a full charge. I can go all day. The only beef I have with this cam is the resolution.

 

[kamkar]

If you want to record Journey videos you are better off with a camcorder, we have a guy @hanstj in here making really cool trip videos and he do not use a dashcam.

Here is one of his videos.

He is using a Sony HDR-CX330

If you just dont want to be bothered with editing all those smaller videos together, then a program like registrator viewer will automatic detect and sort your driving by time / date stamp and you can then output say 247 tree minute files to 1 long file with a few clicks of the mouse button, and registrator viewer will keep the original format / specs of your recordings.

I will estimate from you put the sd card in the card reader to you are underway with outputting to 1 file those 4 houres of many small files is done within a minute and 3-4 clicks of the mouse if you dont have any pause in the footage you want to save to one file.

How long it take to your 1 file is done off course depend on the speed of your SD card and probably also a little on the compute power of your computer, but while it do that you can do something else in the house or even on the computer if you want to.

Registrator viewer will allso take care of that file overlap some dashcams have to make sure you dont miss anything, this is often 1000 ms and once entered into registrator viewer it will automatic remove that overlap between all the files you wish to save to one large file.

 

[jokiin]

- Screenshot capture from Mobius software

Thanks 2000rpm. What exact camera is that from?

.

Mobius as mentioned, the other screenshot was the Joovuu X, unclear if it allows segments without overwrite but these are possibly the only two options that meet your requirements

Thanks Jokiin. Can you be specific as to a make and model that will continue after a bit of a pause?
.

honestly can't remember, sort of thing that has been mentioned at times but it's not really how people use dashcams so never really mentioned as a pro or con in any reviews or feedback as it really is non standard usage for this type of product

we have had previously where someone feels they don't want loop so that they can be sure of not losing footage etc, in practice when turning loop off more people have missed things than people that use loop, the chances of not noticing a full card, forgetting to restart a recording after stopping at a file size limitation or cameras that miss things while restarting the next segment are greater than the odds of overwriting footage you want if you use a large card, we don't have a loop off function but our cameras can support cards far greater in size than would be reasonably filled in one session without having to compromise video quality

not trying to talk you out of your idea but loop is not an issue if you're using large cards, using 200gb cards I get 26 hours of 1080p recording before the camera starts to overwrite, can get longer with a larger card but even the size I have is overkill, I only use a large card for testing so that I can have a lot more footage available for stuff we're testing

 

[Crumble]

Edit to eliminatea duplicate post:

- Screenshot from latest JooVuu PC software:

OK, now I'm lost. If this is PC software, how does it apply to the dashcam?

 

[Crumble]

Good grief, sorry for the dupe post... still getting used to this forum software

 

[jokiin]

Edit to eliminatea duplicate post:

- Screenshot from latest JooVuu PC software:

OK, now I'm lost. If this is PC software, how does it apply to the dashcam?

It's a program for setup of the camera, that model has no screen

 

[2000rpm]

Thanks 2000rpm. What exact camera is that from?

The screenshot was from the Mobius software which I use to change settings on the C model (actually the C2 which is also known as most recent wide-angle version).

 

[2000rpm]

not how I would use it either but if it does do that then it would probably be the only suitable option for the OP

I'll try to test it in a couple of hours and report back in several hours.

 

[2000rpm]

- Screenshot from latest JooVuu PC software:

OK, now I'm lost. If this is PC software, how does it apply to the dashcam?

Yes, it's a screenshot from my desktop computer.

The @JooVuu X can have its settings changed via smartphone wifi, computer wifi, or can be connected to a computer by a USB cable and a text file for setting changes can be saved to the cam's memory card.
In the latter case, when the cam is next used it powers up, takes a few seconds to read the file on its card and change settings accordingly, then powers off. Then you need to power it on again.

Obviously setting changes are only usually done when customising the options for your preferences, after which you may never want or need to change them.

 

[2000rpm]

@JooVuu @jokiin

Test complete.
Card: 16GB Transcend, supplied with DP100 cam, FAT32.
Actual card space reported by computer: 14.9-15.9GB depending which GB multiplier you use.

Text file used to change settings to countinuous, with loop recording off, most other settings were my usual 2.5k etc.

Cam recorded four clips of 29 minutes (3.7~4GB), plus one clip of 1 minute (using up last bit of card space) before the red flashing record light turned to repeating long green pulses and a repeating quiet ping/beep noise which didn't stop until the cam was switched off.
File bitrate: 18mb/s.

I switched the cam off for a couple of minutes, then switched back on to see whether it would start overwriting when restarted. The cam triple-beeped as if about to record but then went to the long green flashes and quiet ping noise.
None of the earlier files were overwritten.

So there you go: 4GB clips (=29mins @ 18mbps) until the card is full, then the cam flashes its green light and pings quietly.

 

[Rajagra]

better than ten minute file breaks... I want a half hour at the very least, with an hour preferred... I'd be willing to lower resolution to get greater file time span.

The Mobius meets all your requirments other than filling the card with a single recording file, I believe.
The only limit is the 4GB restriction (even on exFAT formatted cards.) The tooltip in the setup says this gives "clip lengths as short as 30min." So you will get more than 30 minutes. If you drop video data rate, frames per second, resolution, or disable audio, you will get more. You could get a LOT more than 30 minutes if you drop a combination of those settings.

 

[2000rpm]

Additional observation after further testing of X-cam continuous-recording option (max file size 4GB) : it appears as if the software forbids the cam overwriting any existing files regardless of what the cam settings were when they were written to the card.
I discovered this when I put the X-cam's original card back in (32GB Transcend Premium FAT32) - the card was almost full from previous loop-recording and the X-cam appeared to only use what little space hadn't been already used before it stopped recording.

 

[2000rpm]

The Mobius meets all your requirments other than filling the card with a single recording file, I believe.
The only limit is the 4GB restriction (even on exFAT formatted cards.) The tooltip in the setup says this gives "clip lengths as short as 30min." So you will get more than 30 minutes. If you drop video data rate, frames per second, resolution, or disable audio, you will get more. You could get a LOT more than 30 minutes if you drop a combination of those settings.

With Mobius C2 and JooVuu X appearing to handle 'continuous' files in a similar way (keep writing until ~4GB is reached, then start a new file and repeat until card is full), as an owner of both, I don't think the Mobius has many, if any, superiorities over the JooVuu,
When set to 2.5k/30fps and widest 155' view, JooVuu is a step up at night and two steps up in the day and when capacitor-equipped and settings adjusted accordingly, it's much more reliable in cars where the 12v power flickers during cranking or at other peculiar times.
As an all-round package of size, features and video - especially now Dan has a decent PC program in addition to the App - the JooVuu X is one of the best-balanced cams out there.
The price that Dan is asking for the basic model at the moment makes them a steal in my opinion; I'd say the basic cam is worth much more and I wouldn't be surprised if the price starts trending higher in the near future.

 

[jokiin]

@JooVuu @jokiin

Test complete.
Card: 16GB Transcend, supplied with DP100 cam, FAT32.
Actual card space reported by computer: 14.9-15.9GB depending which GB multiplier you use.

Text file used to change settings to countinuous, with loop recording off, most other settings were my usual 2.5k etc.

Cam recorded four clips of 29 minutes (3.7~4GB), plus one clip of 1 minute (using up last bit of card space) before the red flashing record light turned to repeating long green pulses and a repeating quiet ping/beep noise which didn't stop until the cam was switched off.
File bitrate: 18mb/s.

I switched the cam off for a couple of minutes, then switched back on to see whether it would start overwriting when restarted. The cam triple-beeped as if about to record but then went to the long green flashes and quiet ping noise.
None of the earlier files were overwritten.

So there you go: 4GB clips (=29mins @ 18mbps) until the card is full, then the cam flashes its green light and pings quietly.

even if the Mobius can do the same as far as file handling goes for this particular usage scenario the @JooVuu would still be the better choice with the audible warnings, that's a nice feature to have for this purpose

were there any breaks in between ending a file and starting the next?

 

[2000rpm]

even if the Mobius can do the same as far as file handling goes for this particular usage scenario the @JooVuu would still be the better choice with the audible warnings, that's a nice feature to have for this purpose

were there any breaks in between ending a file and starting the next?

I made a casual check and didn't notice any gaps but everything was slow-moving or stationary so I might not notice a fraction of a second. The same second was stamped at the end of one clip and the start of the next. Unfortunately I've now formatted the memory cards and returned the cam back to its regular settings.

 

[jokiin]

I made a casual check and didn't notice any gaps but everything was slow-moving or stationary so I might not notice a fraction of a second. The same second was stamped at the end of one clip and the start of the next. Unfortunately I've now formatted the memory cards and returned the cam back to its regular settings.

even if a minor skip that would still be pretty good, a lot of cameras fall over at file size limitations or have several seconds before they recover and start the next file

 

[2000rpm]

....a lot of cameras fall over at file size limitations or have several seconds before they recover and start the next file....

Is the falling over due to the cam/card combination?

Earlier I used three different memory cards.
1. 16GB Transcend class 10.
2. 32GB Sandisk Ultra class 10.
3. 32GB Transcend Premium class 10 (the cam's usual, trouble-free card).

Although I didn't notice any problems with the recorded files, I did notice a couple of flashes of the cam's red recording light which weren't quite at the usual time interval when it was running with the Sandisk card - irregular flashing happens frequently when I've deliberately tested an under-spec card in the X which results in intermittent stoppages.
So I wonder if the Sandisk Ultra has the potential for trouble if used in the X.

 

[jokiin]

I wouldn't use Sandisk Ultra cards by choice but unsure if that's an issue, the cams that fail or stutter at the file size limitation are just generally due to firmware limitations more than anything, it's not something that would normally get much attention as it's a feature that really goes against what a dasham is designed to do, I guess in the case of the Joovuu and Mobius though they are more multi purpose in their design and may have a user base that wants this functionality so some attention to the performance of this function is warranted

 

[player1]

You can try GoPro. As it isn't dashcam but "actioncam", it has "no loop" as main recording mode and file size is limited to file system.
I think, any other action cams will do so.

 

[jokiin]

You can try GoPro. As it isn't dashcam but "actioncam", it has "no loop" as main recording mode and file size is limited to file system.
I think, any other action cams will do so.

yeah it's really more of an action cam feature than it is a dashcam feature to not loop video