My DVR-207 experiences

Compare this to an area with streetlights



I am now fully formatting aforementioned 32GB card in camera, but using my computer to do it. The camera only does a quick format.
 

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Bad news :x

I came back to the formatting process to find it had failed, and now the SD card is unreadable, unformattable, and shows 0 bytes. :shock:

I hope it has not been ruined by this camera.

Perhaps foolishly, I tried another brand of SD disk, a 16Gb one, and the same thing happened! :evil:

Is that 2 SD disks trashed?
 

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Ok, put them in my Sony digicam and they formatted (instantly, so must be a quick format) and are usable in the digicam. Whew!

Anyhoo, I suggest you all download the formatter here, just in case
https://www.sdcard.org/downloads/formatter_3/

Now to buy a SD card reader that allows me to format the 32GB card properly for the DVR.
 
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Ramshackle said:
Ok, put them in my Sony digicam and they formatted (instantly, so must be a quick format) and are usable in the digicam. Whew!

Anyhoo, I suggest you all download the formatter here, just in case
https://www.sdcard.org/downloads/formatter_3/

Now to buy a SD card reader that allows me to format the 32GB card properly for the DVR.
Click to expand...

Panasonic offer a formatting tool also, Windows does not actually follow the proper protocol for formatting memory cards
 
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jokiin said:
any reason why you're using 64kb allocation instead of 32kb?
Click to expand...

I think I read in another thread here that that is the correct size. Please correct me if I'm doing the wrong thing. :oops:
 
Bought this
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 0574004368

!B6h6TZgCGk~$(KGrHqR,!gwEy2IyrNtzBM)pZJWQFg~~_12.JPG
 
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Ramshackle said:
jokiin said:
any reason why you're using 64kb allocation instead of 32kb?
Click to expand...

I think I read in another thread here that that is the correct size. Please correct me if I'm doing the wrong thing. :oops:
Click to expand...

I've seen that suggested as a way to get larger cards than officially supported working, the camera formats them at 32kb so I don't really see a reason to do otherwise
 
Ramshackle said:
Bought this
Click to expand...

should make life easier, I include a USB card reader with my cameras, just saves mucking about for the customer if it can be just plugged into USB
 
shafferb0b1 said:
OK, so got to try mine out today and here are some overall impressions:

The good stuff
5). You can also tell it to just continuously record without chopping the video into 1,2, or 5 minute segments
Click to expand...

I'm curious How you get it to record continuously in one long, uninterrupted file. With motion detection off, mine will record with no gaps, but in files that are 2, 5, or 10 minutes in length. Seeing that you mention 1,2, and 5 minute segments, it seems that you may have a different model that has that choice of recording lengths, including continuous.
 
Lajos said:
My new 207 seems to be unreliable too. A black out on the first day I took it to use. I also removed the battery and put it back in. That helped, but do I have to do so daily? Not very nice.
Click to expand...
It happened again!

Today during driving the screen of the 207 suddenly blackened out and became unresponsive to pushing any button. Later at home it woke up when I took the battery out and back in. The memory card has been SanDisk Ultra 16GB 30MB/s class 10 all the time, formatted in the camera itself.

Probably I should try some other card instead?
 
Do resetting and/or restoring to factory settings help in any way?
 
Just to remind everyone that I used a old (2008?), slow, small capacity (512 megabyte) Sandisk card, and it worked without a glitch (for a couple of hours that I tried it). Just FYI.

All this talk about Class 10, extra fast cards is probably nonsense.

I suspect getting the formatting just right using a card reader and the formatter utility linked above is key.
 
Strange, since I didn't bother reformatting my card. I literally took it out of the packaging and shoved it straight into the cam and it worked. When I do plug it into my computer though, it shows as FAT 32 with the default 64kb allocation.
 
Bottom line:

  • If you format the card in the DVR, using the DVR's "Format" option, it does a Quick Format, and this may or may not work for you. It did not work for me on the abovementioned new 32Gb card, because the problems with shutdowns began thereafter.
  • If you format the card in the DVR, using Windows, it usually fails on larger cards. It worked for me on a 512MB card, but failed on 16Gb and 32Gb cards, making them unusable until reformatted in a Sony digicam.
  • Old, slow cards can work fine, and there is no need for an ultrafast card.

I now think an expert formatter, like the one linked above, should be used with a proper card reader, via Windows.

I will be able to prove that this is right or wrong when I get my card reader and reformat the 32Gb card, and re-try it.
 
Some of these Chinese cameras act strange with SD cards. There have been many cases where a class 4 or class 6 card is recommend instead of a class 10 card (Mouse DVR for example). Worth a try if you are having issues.
 
RSole said:
shafferb0b1 said:
OK, so got to try mine out today and here are some overall impressions:

The good stuff
5). You can also tell it to just continuously record without chopping the video into 1,2, or 5 minute segments
Click to expand...

I'm curious How you get it to record continuously in one long, uninterrupted file. With motion detection off, mine will record with no gaps, but in files that are 2, 5, or 10 minutes in length. Seeing that you mention 1,2, and 5 minute segments, it seems that you may have a different model that has that choice of recording lengths, including continuous.
Click to expand...

Ooops, sorry RSole, my bad. It does indeed have 2, 5, and 10 as you suggested. Mine also has "Off" which is how you go into continuous recording mode. However, as I found today after making a LONG "continuous" recording, it does actually still chop it up. Seems to limit itself to 839.1 MB per file, which equates to 16 minutes and 24 seconds using 720P at 30FPS. Because of this extended test I can also report that with the standard battery alone it did almost 90 minutes of recording. When it ran out of juice it just stopped, no fading out, no gradual hiccups, just quit (but saved the file endpoints fine). That equates to about 45 miles of driving in my Volt, and a bit over an hour in the grocery store while the camera kept watch on my car.

Quality is still just "Good", but more than good enough for the function it's designed for IMHOP. Still no interference on FM, but could be because of the Volt's weird eletrical system and may not be related to my "battery only" useage.

For any electric car geeks out there, so far the Volt has average 111 "miles per gallon". Trips of 40-50 miles are all electric, gas generator doesn't kick in until the batteries are done in. In all for today's trip of about 45 miles, I used 9.1 Kwh of battery power. Electricity here costs 12cents per Kwh, so that 45 miles cost me about $1.08, which if you were to compare to gasoline at around 4 bucks per gallon, equates out to about 170 "miles per gallon" in actual cost. I find that quite acceptable. :D
 
shafferb0b1 said:
OK, so here's a shortish clip from today. 720P at 30FPS, 2,5,10 switch set to off, EV at 0, motion off, etc. 16GB Sandisk Pro class 10. Just driving along, running on battery (camera and the car both).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ciYZvMbijes
Click to expand...

That looks a lot less that 30fps, sure you didn't have it on 15fps? It appears very jumpy compared to other sample videos I have seen, mine included.

Cheers :) Mario
 
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