Need some advice

[Mia]

Hi guys,

Do you save dash cam footage and how long do you save it for?

I have deleted all files that don't have Pax in them and transfer the rest to USB drives. I currently have 16+ TB's of saved files going back to Dec of 2018.

I never had to look back more than 1 month in my files, I have had to look back for files for 3 scammers now and provided the files to Uber for review. I've got pretty good at resetting my camera to start a new file just before pax get in and also resetting the camera just after the pax gets out. This considerably saves storage space by eliminating up to 4.5 minutes of unneeded video before the pax gets in and after they get out. Amazing how many files had nearly 5 minutes of dead time at the beginning of end of the ride.

Should I cost another $100 on another USB Drive or do I start deleting old files?

Any suggestions would be awesome.

Thanks

 

[Fabio.he]

IMHO, it is sufficient to only save the most recent month's video files.

Then buy a few big capacity microSD cards to take turns to use them.

 

[Nigel]

One option is to compress the old video considerably and keep the compressed version forever. After it is 6 months old, it is highly unlikely that you are going to need it, but if you can compress it to 10% original size then there is really no problem keeping it!

Assuming that it is originally 2K video, HD video (720) is quarter size and perfectly decent for most incidents, Quarter HD (360) is low resolution, but still perfectly watchable, especially if it is interior video, you just lose plate readability, and it is 1/16th the size of 2K, and that is at original compression quality, just less resolution. You can also get the codec to compress it quite a bit further before it loses its value as evidence, if you compress it by another half then you are down to 3% original storage size which is probably far smaller than required and still decent evidence.

Only problem with this is that it takes a lot of computing time, but it can be done as a batch process on a year's files at a time, just leave it going.

 

[minus4]

To keep the footage, I can see two options.
1. Spend money: Buy more data storage. 16 TB hard drives start from $400 CAD in Canada. Quite expansive.
2. Spend time: Compress files like Nigel mentioned. Not sure how much time/effort you want to put in.

For the purpose of Uber's evidence, if in the past few years you rarely have had to go beyond 1 month of footage, then it's a pretty good indication that you don't need footage further than 1 month (or maybe 2 months) back.

 

[Mia]

IMHO, it is sufficient to only save the most recent month's video files.

Then buy a few big capacity microSD cards to take turns to use them.

Yep, maybe I don't have to save them at all...

 

[Mia]

One option is to compress the old video considerably and keep the compressed version forever. After it is 6 months old, it is highly unlikely that you are going to need it, but if you can compress it to 10% original size then there is really no problem keeping it!

Assuming that it is originally 2K video, HD video (720) is quarter size and perfectly decent for most incidents, Quarter HD (360) is low resolution, but still perfectly watchable, especially if it is interior video, you just lose plate readability, and it is 1/16th the size of 2K, and that is at original compression quality, just less resolution. You can also get the codec to compress it quite a bit further before it loses its value as evidence, if you compress it by another half then you are down to 3% original storage size which is probably far smaller than required and still decent evidence.

Only problem with this is that it takes a lot of computing time, but it can be done as a batch process on a year's files at a time, just leave it going.

OK, I get it. That's a good idea. I might try it, thx

 

[Mia]

To keep the footage, I can see two options.
1. Spend money: Buy more data storage. 16 TB hard drives start from $400 CAD in Canada. Quite expansive.
2. Spend time: Compress files like Nigel mentioned. Not sure how much time/effort you want to put in.

For the purpose of Uber's evidence, if in the past few years you rarely have had to go beyond 1 month of footage, then it's a pretty good indication that you don't need footage further than 1 month (or maybe 2 months) back.

Yean, totally agree with you, absolutely it's a nice solution like Nigel mentioned, thank you!