My In-Depth Video Guides to Choosing a Dash Cam & Picking the Right SD Card

@DT MI you're right. Their website needs a lot of work. Even when it's working properly, it only shows 4 total microSD options. You have to actually use your eyeballs instead to figure out what they offer. Looks like prices on Amazon are essentially identical to Lexar 633x cards, and neither Lexar nor PNY void the warranty when used in a dash cam, so both are valid options if you're OK with TLC instead of MLC and want capacities 128GB or greater.

Their Ultimate 633x/600x cards which are stated to use MLC and their Premium 400x cards have the limited lifetime warranty. Their high endurance cards have the 2 year limited warranty, for which dashcam use is not excluded.
Yes, exactly. If you're going to use a Transcend microSD card in a dash cam and want to be sure it's covered under warranty, your only option is the High Endurance line. Which is fine, really, because while their Ultimate 633x and 600x cards also use MLC NAND, they don't come in any larger capacities, and there's no advantage to them other than speed, which provides zero benefit in dash cams. And on Amazon right now the High Endurance 64GB is a few bucks cheaper at $39.99 than the Ultimate 633x 64GB at $43.99. So there's no reason to go with the Ultimate 633x at all.

By the way, I went ahead and updated my previous post with the latest info.
 
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There is a icon and the text automotive recorder on my Trancend ultimate, so it must be okay for dashcam use then.

trancend633_big_thumb.jpg


Anyway if its sold here in DK there is a 2 year warranty, if you dont have that as a minimum then you cant really sell it here, i even think its the same in the whole of EU ville.

That said my first ultimate card i dident even get to fill up 1 time before it broke, but Amazon swapped it for me in no time flat.

I also get warranty on kingston cards used in dashcams, i had made RMA 3-4 times on those ( SDXC 10 / u1 ) take a few minutes to make RMA form online and 5 minutes at the most in the shop before i have a new card in hand.
 
Haha yeah, the Marketing team and the Warranty team don't always get in sync :)

Note that I edited my post to link directly to their warranty page. Perhaps their warranty is different in Denmark in particular or the EU in general, such as preventing them from voiding the warranty based on dash cam usage. But the Marketing team can put whatever icons they want on the package; it doesn't mean you'll get warrantied without problems.

It doesn't really matter, though, regardless, as the Ultimate 633x offers no advantages over the High Endurance line for dash cam use other than the warranty, which is what's in question here. And if I had to guess, I'd say the Ultimate 633x would be no more or less reliable than the High Endurance cards, unless the controller isn't great, but they do claim ECC for it.
 
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Note that Transcend voids its lifetime warranty for cards used in in-car video recording devices. So if warranty means anything to you, skip the Ultimate line

I was surprised to read about this, but looking at Transcend's warranty policy at https://www.transcend-info.com/Warranty, this is correct. Under the Limited Lifetime Warranty section:

*The Limited Lifetime Warranty will not apply to ANY Transcend memory cards being used in write-intensive applications, including but not limited to (as determined by Transcend): (i) recursive / in-car recording devices, (...)
So, how come Transcend supplies their dashcams with Ultimate 600x cards?
 
Some really good points raised here. I think the Transcend warranty may have been updated, I checked that pretty thoroughly when I did the video. Too bad.

For Lexar, I (or someone) needs to get in contact with someone at Lexar staff who actually knows what's going on.

The Kingston Industrial is an interesting pick. I think Jokin? mentioned elevated temperatures causing a lot of problems in consumer cards especially under parking mode temperatures.

I looked at Delkin cards as well. Their rep confirmed their 660x cards were MLC but there's nothing on ECC. $29 for 64GB on B&H.
 
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I would take anything this guy says with a huge grain of salt. His videos claim Blackvue DR650 is reliable...

That being said, the microSD video was good. But the most important thing is to make sure you don't get a fake card.
 
So, how come Transcend supplies their dashcams with Ultimate 600x cards?
I can't tell if you're asking sincerely or accusingly, but the answers are the same regardless. They're a multinational corporation where one hand doesn't know what the other is doing. And truth be told, the 600x are only produced up to 32GB, they're plenty fast enough for any dash cam, they don't have to meet the same QA standards as their High Endurance line, and warranty or not they are still claimed to be MLC with ECC. So in reality they should be plenty reliable enough to get Transcend through whatever warranty period they offer on the cameras.

@AndrewL I agree, the Transcend warranty is disappointing. I can't tell if they're trying to push people toward the High Endurance or are simply wanting to avoid fulfilling RMA's. Either way it seems they're betting on dash cams and such being hard enough on NAND that they don't want to have to deal with it, which is a shame. That said I still can't find any advantage of Transcend's Ultimate 633x/600x cards over their High Endurance line. I just wish they'd come out with 128GB and 200GB versions for us and maybe extend the warranty to 5 years. I'd pay a premium I realize, but I'd snap one up and forget about it for a while. Still cheaper than a $200 Panasonic card, I imagine :)

As for Lexar, I can find no record of any of their documentation ever claiming any phase of the 633x production (or any other microSD cards of theirs) having used MLC NAND. As near as I can tell, that comes down to either one or maybe two sources on the web that said it was, neither representing Lexar/Micron and neither offering any supporting evidence, simply referring to it offhandedly as MLC on a blog or forum, and it got picked up and regurgitated repeatedly around other blogs and forums. I'm sure they're a fine card, but I can't find anything to support the idea that if you have one it's MLC under the hood.

I've never heard of Delkin, and I tried to keep my investigation mostly within the scope of known/reputable names. And I almost always immediately shy away from any names that appear to be attempting to fool people by being nearly identical to well established brands (like Delkin with Belton), a long running tactic with counterfeiters and cheap-o peddlers of factory seconds.

But temperatures are certainly important, especially in dash cams that can be parked outside in the coldest arctic winters and the hottest desert summers. It would make me feel better if Kingston implemented ECC on their "industrial" MLC cards, but it seems most manufacturers list their upper bounds at 85C (185F) which should be sufficient for even Arizona summers in hot electronics. And on the low end they mostly claim -25C (-13F) for operating temps, which I guess depends on where you are. Panasonic says storage temps for the UE series can be as low as -40C (-40F), which is about the temp at cruising altitude of a cross-Atlantic flight. I'm sure there are some NASA grade options that cost as much as a Pentagon hammer, but of actual viable options available to consumers, that seems about the extent of the range.

It's easy to say screw it no big deal right up until a card fails on you at the most inopportune time. I think reliability and image quality trump all other considerations in a dash cam, and part of reliability is the card you stick in it. As with so many things, what good is a warranty if you have to constantly be exercising it?

I'm hoping Street Guardian and others start coming out with remote units that have a tiny m.2 SSD built in, wifi connectivity, and a USB3 interface for getting video. It would eliminate a lot of this kind of concern, I think, even if it required more of an up-front investment. Tiny lens units with great recording reliability and plenty of speed for any realistic resolution at 60 fps... Sounds good to me :)
 
It's easy to say screw it no big deal right up until a card fails on you at the most inopportune time.
As far as warranties on cards go, I do say that (unless it's DOA). I keep extra cards on hand, and I try to replace cards on a regular basis due to wear. I save the old functioning cards if h2tesw says they're 100% and junk them when they drop below that.

I think reliability and image quality trump all other considerations in a dash cam, and part of reliability is the card you stick in it. As with so many things, what good is a warranty if you have to constantly be exercising it?
Totally agreed.I see warranties as a method mass-production manufacturers use to compensate for the inevitable tiny percentage of defective products which such manufacturing almost guarantees is going to happen. If it is needed for anything further than that then the manufacturer or product falls below my acceptability level. "Does it always work correctly?" is my criteria. If it doesn't, then I want something which does- not a warranty I'll have to hassle with and wait on. If I wear it out in use and I got good service from it, I'll support the manufacturer by purchasing from them again even if a warranty would replace it. If buying a couple cards a year is going to hurt financially I've got bigger problems needing my attention and the cost is unimportant in comparison. If what they sell is unreliable crap, what is the point if RMA'ing to get another unreliable piece of crap? Make a good product and I'll buy it from you for as long as it meets my needs.

Phil
 
I realized I made a dumb mistake and confused one of Panasonic's full size SD lines with one of their microSD lines. Corrected that, added lack of ECC to Sony (somehow forgot before), and also added a reminder to stay away from Sandisk Ultra.
 
Hey, I released two guides I think the community would enjoy. The first is how to choose a dash camera. I wanted to go in-depth and into the hardware and features that are essential and those that are oversold by manufacturers. I also recognize that people may prioritize different features so I hope I was inclusive of all the groups I regularly talk to.


The second is on microSD cards. I started contacting many manufacturers to get more technical details but it's very difficult to quantitatively review cards unless you have large batches to be statistically significant. I wanted to delve mainly into promoting MLC cards as I think it's important for reliability.

Hope you enjoy.

Great videos!
My friend used that kind of Sandisk card and the videos he recorded couldn't be replayed after 8 months.
The card cannot be formatted as well...
But I also have 3 of them on my gopro, they are still working great.
 
FYI here is an update on Transcend's warranty.

Today, I received in writing from them, "Per our warranty policy (available here), the only reason your warranty will be voided is if any physical damage is done to the card."
 
That's awesome! Thanks for sharing. I'm going to update all my guides as well.

Edit: I believe the warranty is still void. See here.
 
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FYI here is an update on Transcend's warranty.

Today, I received in writing from them, "Per our warranty policy (available here), the only reason your warranty will be voided is if any physical damage is done to the card."

Good to know, it's too bad Transcend can't seem to get their prices back down to be competitive with others like Samsung EVO U3 cards.
Transcend has been too expensive for over a year now.
 
@jeffreytp Just wondering if that's confirmed for all cards including their budget 400X line? Was it a customer service rep at Transcend you spoke with?

Good to know, it's too bad Transcend can't seem to get their prices back down to be competitive with others like Samsung EVO U3 cards.
Transcend has been too expensive for over a year now.

What are the cards that have been working well for your customers? Any cards that have been failing more than normal?
 
Applies to everything. From customer Service rep in US.
 
I just bought one of these (128GB MicroSD Premium 400x) from here ($45.49 total):
https://www.ebay.com/itm/122236013945
I will immediately test it with h2testw. Should be 100% true and error free. If so, I will buy more. If not, being disputed and refunded.
 
My team member emailed Transcend as well as we had concerns over one part of the warranty:

"This Warranty Service does not apply to...improper usage (including the use contrary to the product description or instructions, outside the scope of the product's intended use, for tooling or testing purposes, or product modification)"

This was their response

"Transcend's consumer memory cards are not for use with write-intensive applications, including but not limited to:
*recursive / in-car recording devices
*video monitoring and surveillance devices
*continuous data logging devices like servers, or
*other excessive uses that exceed normal use. Depending on Transcend's evaluation of the actual situation, this Limited Lifetime Warranty may not apply to you, or Transcend may not be able to provide Warranty services."


From what is said, looks like only their High Endurance cards are covered and the Transcend Ultimate cards when used in Transcend Dash Cameras (I spoke with Transcend's customer service team previously as the Transcend Ultimate was previously included with the DrivePro 520).
 
From today via email.

Me:
I see the warranty statement:
"This Warranty Service does not apply to...improper usage (including the use contrary to the product description or instructions, outside the scope of the product's intended use, for tooling or testing purposes, or product modification)"
What is considered improper usage, as that is not defined in the warranty statement?

Transcend:
Please refer to the highlighted portion of our warranty policy below, which lists examples of improper usage:
see attachment

Me:
Okay. So if I put the Premium 400x model MicroSD card in a video IP camera (the HikVision DS-2CD2385FWD-I http://www.hikvision.com/us/Products_1_10508_i38859.html) for example, and the camera is continuously recording video files to the card, this would not void my warranty?

Transcend:
No, using your microSD card with any camera will not void the warranty so long as the microSD card remains intact and no physical damage is done to the card in the process.
 

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