Is buffered parking must?

[abhi8881]

I am planning to install a 2ch dashcam in my Mazda CX-30.
I plan to hardwire the dash cam to car battery for parking mode. My question is:
- For any good parking mode dashcam, is the buffered parking mode must? I guess its then moat power saver mode.
- Will other modes like timelapse or low bitrate drain out the car battery?

Any suggestions are welcome. I found Vantrue E2 and Viofo A129/229 dash cams fulfilling my requirement but a little over the budget for me. Any better value for money alternatives?

 

[Elbeau]

For me, buffered parking is a must. I have to park on a busy public street. The problem with non- buffered parking mode us that often, by the time the camera is activated, especially if by impact sensing, the license plate or identity of the person cannot be identified. Either the car is too close fir the cam to see the plate, or the person is too close to get the complete features.
Given my parking situation, no buffering is a deal breaker.

 

[Vortex Radar]

Right buffered parking recording is helpful in that situation. Some dashcams don’t offer it, but they offer a continuous recording option at reduced video quality to save on memory card space. Regardless of which parking mode option you choose, if the camera is recording while parked, it’s going to drain your battery. Some parking modes use more power than others, but they all need power for the dashcam to function.

 

[Elbeau]

Yes, they will use battery power. But the sleeping/buffered mode is going to use far less power unless in a high traffic area where motion sensing is frequently triggered. Also, some cams have cut-offs that will power off the cam if the car battery drains to a certain level. And there are battery pack options, too. There's also solar powered car battery chargers, though I don't know if they could keep up with the camera's power drain.

 

[Vortex Radar]

Yes, they will use battery power. But the sleeping/buffered mode is going to use far less power unless in a high traffic area where motion sensing is frequently triggered. Also, some cams have cut-offs that will power off the cam if the car battery drains to a certain level. And there are battery pack options, too. There's also solar powered car battery chargers, though I don't know if they could keep up with the camera's power drain.

Depends on the model. With Blackvues (referencing your other thread) and Viofos, for example, motion detection and impact detection is one combined option. The cameras are always active (which is why buffered parking recording works and let’s you record “before” the event). The fundamental difference between driving and parking mode recording is when and if the dashcam saves the video it’s capturing to the memory card or not.

Some models do let you split the two, motion vs impact detection, but that’s less common.

Any dashcams that do low powered stuff are saving power by NOT recording video until a G sensor detects an impact and the video is therefore non-buffered. There are some tricks like Thinkware uses to use radar to look for motion and it fires up the camera in preparation for an impact. If no impact is detected, the camera stops recording and nothing is saved to the memory card. Doing this does use more power though and will reduce the max recording times available.

There are other things like voltage cutoffs and timers to shut off the dashcam at some point too, that’s true.

You can play around with solar chargers if you want. I’ve tried two different configurations and didn’t find it to be particularly effective, but YMMV.

 

[abhi8881]

Depends on the model. With Blackvues (referencing your other thread) and Viofos, for example, motion detection and impact detection is one combined option. The cameras are always active (which is why buffered parking recording works and let’s you record “before” the event). The fundamental difference between driving and parking mode recording is when and if the dashcam saves the video it’s capturing to the memory card or not.

Some models do let you split the two, motion vs impact detection, but that’s less common.

Any dashcams that do low powered stuff are saving power by NOT recording video until a G sensor detects an impact and the video is therefore non-buffered. There are some tricks like Thinkware uses to use radar to look for motion and it fires up the camera in preparation for an impact. If no impact is detected, the camera stops recording and nothing is saved to the memory card. Doing this does use more power though and will reduce the max recording times available.

There are other things like voltage cutoffs and timers to shut off the dashcam at some point too, that’s true.

You can play around with solar chargers if you want. I’ve tried two different configurations and didn’t find it to be particularly effective, but YMMV.

What about Vantrue, the E2 specifically? I am not sure if the buffered parking mode in that as well is kicked on motion and impact detection combined or just on the impact detection.

Also, I was planning to hardwire the dashcam to car battery for power. I hope with the impact detection and buffered parking ON, it wont drain out the battery.

 

[Vortex Radar]

What about Vantrue, the E2 specifically? I am not sure if the buffered parking mode in that as well is kicked on motion and impact detection combined or just on the impact detection.

I believe the new Vantrue's that offer buffered parking recording are doing buffered motion detection only, not buffered impact detection. @Jeff_Vantrue could help clarify.

Also, I was planning to hardwire the dashcam to car battery for power. I hope with the impact detection and buffered parking ON, it wont drain out the battery.

Of course it will drain the battery so all the different parking mode dashcams use different methods to eventually stop pulling power from your car battery, including shutting off once the battery hits a certain voltage and/or after a preset period of time.

 

[abhi8881]

I believe the new Vantrue's that offer buffered parking recording are doing buffered motion detection only, not buffered impact detection. @Jeff_Vantrue could help clarify.

Of course it will drain the battery so all the different parking mode dashcams use different methods to eventually stop pulling power from your car battery, including shutting off once the battery hits a certain voltage and/or after a preset period of time.

Oh yes, what I meant is it wont completely drain out the battery. Hopefully with the cutoff options, there would be sufficient battery to start up the car.

Also @Vortex Radar , I have been following you on Youtube, curious to know why you don’t review the Vantrue dashcams.

 

[Vortex Radar]

Also @Vortex Radar , I have been following you on Youtube, curious to know why you don’t review the Vantrue dashcams.

I do review Vantrues, just not as frequently as other brands.

The reason is that I generally prefer other brands that offer a more stable and solid mount so there's less vibration in the video footage, more advanced features like buffered parking recording, etc. Historically I've liked Vantrues as a rental car dashcam because they're easy to mount/unmount with the suction cup and because I don't need super fancy parking recording when quickly tossing it into a rental. That's harder to do anyways unless I'm also bringing a dashcam battery pack or something.

That said, some of their newer models have been moving over to smaller and more compact mounts and adding some initial forms of buffered parking recording. For that reason I'd like to take a look at the N4 Pro and the N5. The N5 I have in my closet right now, but it's a few dashcams back in the queue of ones to review. The N4 Pro I've asked them to not send over until I've got the time and I'm ready to review it.

on another note, I also don't like the fact that Vantrue sometimes does post misleading information about 4K recording when their sensors are physically incapable of recording at 4K. On principle I like covering dashcams from manufacturers who are more honest about their product's capabilities. Every dashcam and manufacturer has pros and cons like anything else, but that is a point of consideration too.

 

[abhi8881]

I do review Vantrues, just not as frequently as other brands.

The reason is that I generally prefer other brands that offer a more stable and solid mount so there's less vibration in the video footage, more advanced features like buffered parking recording, etc. Historically I've liked Vantrues as a rental car dashcam because they're easy to mount/unmount with the suction cup and because I don't need super fancy parking recording when quickly tossing it into a rental. That's harder to do anyways unless I'm also bringing a dashcam battery pack or something.

That said, some of their newer models have been moving over to smaller and more compact mounts and adding some initial forms of buffered parking recording. For that reason I'd like to take a look at the N4 Pro and the N5. The N5 I have in my closet right now, but it's a few dashcams back in the queue of ones to review. The N4 Pro I've asked them to not send over until I've got the time and I'm ready to review it.

on another note, I also don't like the fact that Vantrue sometimes does post misleading information about 4K recording when their sensors are physically incapable of recording at 4K. On principle I like covering dashcams from manufacturers who are more honest about their product's capabilities. Every dashcam and manufacturer has pros and cons like anything else, but that is a point of consideration too.

Got it !!
Thanks for your valuable suggestions.