Kenwood DRV-A601W

[Velvetfoot]

You were in a parking garage, so overheating was not a factor, lol. Plus Support acknowledged.

From the manual:
When connecting the hardwire kit CA-DR1030(optional accessory) to the permanentpower fuse for constant recording and the device is placed under the sun withoutair circulation, it may cause the device to overheat. When the device temperature istoo high, (4K resolution or WQHD Duo Lens recording) will automatically switch to(WQHD Single Lens recording or FHD Duo Lens recording) to cool down the device. Once the device temperature is normal, it will automatically switch back to (4K resolution or WQHD Duo Lens recording)

 

[JoePGM]

magnet is strong enough for it to not fall off, but also strong enough that getting it on and off without changing the camera aim becomes a challenge

yes very true. As the magnet mount is not a pure magnet design but also with two plastic clips on each side.

 

[SawMaster]

You were in a parking garage, so overheating was not a factor, lol. Plus Support acknowledged.

From the manual:
When connecting the hardwire kit CA-DR1030(optional accessory) to the permanentpower fuse for constant recording and the device is placed under the sun withoutair circulation, it may cause the device to overheat. When the device temperature istoo high, (4K resolution or WQHD Duo Lens recording) will automatically switch to(WQHD Single Lens recording or FHD Duo Lens recording) to cool down the device. Once the device temperature is normal, it will automatically switch back to (4K resolution or WQHD Duo Lens recording)

Now THAT is a good approach to the overheating issue I despise cams which simply shut down or fail to record when overheat happens because I buy things expecting them to work all the time, not just sometimes or when they want to. Will be interesting to learn how well this works with this cam
Phil

 

[Velvetfoot]

Dash cam manager app working. Not bad. Could be useful.

Can't get the windows video player working. Won't run program because vcruntime140.dll not found. Whatever that means. Not sure if there's a phone number to call at Kenwood.

 

[Velvetfoot]

Error message included: "the code execution cannot proceed because VCRUNTIME140.dll was not found."

Talked to Kenwood customer service re: video player. Elevated to tier two, whatever that is, and should get a call tomorrow.

Meanwhile, I was able to fix it myself. It involved removing installed c++ distributables, or something like that, and installing the latest, which I found at VC_redist.x86.exe .

Things move very slowly with the video player. I figure it's the large files and my crappy laptop. Maybe there are other programs.
More stuff to research.

On its maiden voyage in my MINI with all the windows open, and the g-sensor on 'medium', there were a s-load of protected files. I removed the protection in the camera, and tried to edit 20 minutes of the trip into a single file, but as I said, the laptop seems to be choking. I'm not sure the g-sensor for normal driving makes sense. More experimentation required.

 

[Leonauto]

I'm not sure the g-sensor for normal driving makes sense. More experimentation required.

Yes, it is, most users turn off the G-sensor, because there is no sense in protecting files activated by pits on the road.
There are very few dashcams in which the sensitivity of the G-sensor is adequate to its purpose. At my Blueskysea B1W, the transition to the parking mode and the exit from it is activated at the Medium sensitivity of the G-sensor. And during the trip, an activation to protect the file is activated only on very sensitive irregularities, that is, you need to try to shake the car very hard. But this is rather the exception, and in B1W some special G-sensor is used

 

[Velvetfoot]

Probably will turn off G-sensor and buy a 256 card. Just checked, and the Parking mode still works with G-sensor turned "off".
At some point I'll try it out, but finding an "always on" fuse is not easy on the MINI.
Might try with sensor on "low", but with all the protected files yesterday on "med", doesn't look good.

Also, I was able to get an edited file together of 19 minutes of yesterday's drive: 9.3 gig! Edited it to remove audio. Kenwood Video Player recognized it, but not Windows (no codec).

The image was quite clear. Unit held it's point of aim.

The polarizing filter seems robust, like a real camera: screws on.

 

[Velvetfoot]

I had the Parking Mode on for quite a while on the tabletop, and, although I don't have my usb multimeter yet, the unit didn't get warm at all.
Downside is that it took 5 seconds to wake up and start filming (by my counting aloud after jiggling the unit).

 

[SawMaster]

There are very few dashcams in which the sensitivity of the G-sensor is adequate to its purpose.

With the nearly ten different cams I've had, only one had a G-sensor usable for normal driving without getting tons of false alarms But even that one didn't work very well when I swapped it into my work van with it's stiff suspension At best G-sensor is useful only for parking modes and is still equally questionable in that usage. The one cam I mentioned is perfect doing this, but no other owners of this cam have reported equally good results, only a few have come close to my experiences with it.

It will be only when a very wide range of adjustment is offered for G-sensors that it will become truly useful, and if that were possible someone would certainly have done it by now, so turning it off is the only sensible choice to make.

Phil

 

[Velvetfoot]

I just hardwired to an always on circuit on my '17 MINI Cooper-maybe the only one. Used a door lock fuse, #42)
Turned off G-sensor and turned on Parking mode. We'll see how it goes.

 

[Velvetfoot]

It went great.

 

[Velvetfoot]

4k really chews up the memory. Was wondering why a bunch of yesterday's 3 hr. trip wasn't recorded, lol. Have to figure out some estimates. A 256g sd card is on the way to replace the included 64k card. On the plus side, it does successfully loop, and with the g-sensor off, there's a minimum of unwanted protected files.

Here is a quick screen grab of what the Kenwood video player looks like:

 

[Velvetfoot]

Have to figure out some estimates.

There were 125 mostly one minute clips. 8.6 gigs still shown as free on card, but that's probably just the unit doing its thing. So, maybe two hours of recording on a 64g card. Throw in the accumulating, albeit slowly, protected files, and it'd be less. 256 might be 8 hours. Makes a difference. Still huge files going around.

Now I have to figure out how YouTube works, although I'm not sure I want to get into that.

 

[kamkar]

Yeah 64 GB are fine for one channel of 1080p, though if you ramp 1080p bitrate up to say 30 mbit, then you also get 1000 MB file size ( 3 minute segments )
So for 4K 128 GB are the bare minimum, so you have done right by going for a 256GB card

And yes you dont need G-sensor when driving, a little thing and you can press the event button, anything larger and you still have to crash way off the road and be stuck there unconscious for hours with a running camera before it get around to looping over the accident itself.

 

[kamkar]

And i do encourage to use the event button for things you want to share.
Dont know how it works in the kenwood, some cameras just have a small buffer so you have to be fast in pressing the button, but with a large enough card and not on a cross country trip even if you was too slow on the button to have the actual thing locked in the event file, then the event file can always be used as sort of a beacon to find the event in and among the regular footage.

 

[SawMaster]

H265 offers better compression and so will allow more recording time per GB, but even with that 4K is going to have more data than lesser resolutions, so large cards are a necessity. And with the extra data the cards will wear out sooner and run hotter too. Always a trade-off involved somewhere.

Posting on YT is rather easy. First DL the vid to your PC, then from your personal YT page you'll see a camera icon on the upper right. Click it and it takes you through the process from there. It takes several minutes for your vid to appear on YT, so don't redo the DL thinking something went wrong

Phil

 

[Velvetfoot]

And yes you dont need G-sensor when driving, a little thing and you can press the event button, anything larger and you still have to crash way off the road and be stuck there unconscious for hours with a running camera before it get around to looping over the accident itself.

Well, I'll have parking mode on, so if there no vibrations, it will go to sleep just like me.
Or, maybe I'll drive off into the water and they'll find my camera in a while, like the one in the tsunami in Thailand.

 

[kamkar]

Yeah G-sensor are of use for parking mode, though also not ideal / flawless it is much better than motion detect that in most cases are way too sensitive.
On my first proper 1080p dashcam the lukas LK-7500 i tried to use G-sensor while driving, but even on low it triggered all the time, so as it was possible on that camera i had to set up custom trigger values for the X - Y and Z axis.
And after a few days of trail and error i also got it down to here it would only trigger 1 or 2 times on a 40 minute drive, but then i said WTH and just forgot all about using that feature.
So since then ( 2012 ) i have not used the G-sensor in ant camera at all, but mainly cuz i have never used parking mode either as i have CCTV from my apartment covering my car where it is parked.
And i dont park for long out on the town, 30 minutes and my shopping are done, plus my stupid little car while extremely expensive like all cars are in Denmark, then i am not really attached to it much, though of course people dinging other peoples cars should fess up to it and be a man about it, and most often they are not.
I will however get to try using parking guard soon, when i recieve the next batch of new cameras to test from Street Guardian with whom i am affiliated as a tester, I intend to use always recording ( low bitrate ) for the parking mode as that mode unlike time lapse also record sound.

 

[Velvetfoot]

Now that I have the device always powered, the parking mode is the way it shuts down. It would be a pain to remember to turn the thing off so as not to run down the battery. I am hopeful that the parking mode does not consume much power-it feels quite cool. Of course, as I said, it takes about 5 seconds before it starts recording, so I don't have any unrealistic expectations, but who knows. I guess if I was really paranoid where I was parked, I could turn parking mode off and it would record continually, recognizing that battery draw (and heat?) could be a problem. No low bitrate option for the Kenwood, I believe.

With mine, turning g-sensor off only affects normal recording and not Parking Mode.

Just checked, and it will go to sleep if standing still, idling.

 

[kamkar]

I think in most cameras you can always long press some button to have the camera power down and not go into parking mode, say if you park at home in your garage.

Yeah a proper camera have 2 levels of G sensor, one for driving ( if you want to use that ) and then one for parking, which you probably do want to use if you dont use always record low bitrate, cuz then the camera record all the time, and so missing a trigger you will still get everything.
For instance while parked i would imagine someone keying your car, the G-sensor might not actually pick that up, but always recording ( low bitrate ) will as it always record.
The problem with low bitrate however is that is is okay for a fairly static picture, so say you are parked curbside, and someone tear your mirror off at speed, as it is using low bitrate parking mode you might not get a good plate capture ( 2 X important in the US as you guys often just have 1 plate VS us EU boys that must have 2 plates and much larger easy to read plates )

You can see bitrate as sort of a multiplier factor for image quality and detail, so if a lot happen in the video you want to have a high bitrate, but say you just film a sidewalk where your car is parked, well then you can make do with a much lower bitrate.
My CCTV cameras for instance most often hover around 4 mbit, that's wayyyyy too little for dashcam use where you want 16 - 20 mbit at least when you are driving ( 1080p resolution )

In any event a dashcam are not a sure thing, but it is much - much better than having nothing but your word, which in today's world seem to carry little weight.