On Sunday 14th January I had my new Nextbase 412GW Dashcam installed at Halfords.
I have since had several issues.
Firstly, my wife noticed that it was only recording for about 25-30 seconds, freezing for a while, then starting a new recording which again lasted only for 25-30 seconds.
I reformatted the card (Sandisk Ultra 32GB Class 10) in the device and tried it again. It seemed to work abolsutely fine on the (short) journey back home and was recording 3 minute segements as per the settings.
Next day I went out in the car again and, once again, it started recording only 25-30 seconds before freezing on record and then starting again with another recording.
Once again a reformat seemed to cure this.
During the week i again ventured out in my car and once again it recorded for 20-30 seconds at a time. I left it running this time and when I returned home I removed it from the car.
I used the app on my phone this morning to view the footage (expecting that maybe for some reason there were a lot of protected files thus reducing the available space) but there were NO videos on the card at all.
I removed the card and inserted it into my laptop and confirmed that the DCIM folder was indeed empty......not what i expected at all.
Having read various posts about SD Card problems I located another card, albeit only 2GB, and fully formatted it on my laptop then inserted it into the Dash Cam and proceeded to test that (with the Dash Cam sitting on my desk and connected to the mains via my iphone usb plug which i can switch on and off to simulate the car's 12v supply).
I turned it on at 09:21 and it recorded for 3 minutes then started the next file, lasted about 2 minutes then suddenly just shut down.
I formatted it again whilst in the device and tested again:
I turned it on at 09:30am
Started recording and did so for 3 minutes
Started recording the next file at 09:33 and again did so for 3 minutes.
Started recording the next file at 09:36 but switched itself off shortly after.
I removed this card and looked at it on the laptop:
It showed there was 642MB of free space left of 1.87GB.
There was 1.24GB in a folder called VIDEOS and 3.16MB in a folder called PROTECTED.
When I looked at the files in the VIDEO folder I could see 6 files - 2 date/time stamped at 09:30, 2 date/time stamped at 09:33 and 2 date/time stamped at 09:36 (these 2 were smaller than the other ones).
Viewing the files I believe that there are 2 files for each segment recorded (one high resolution and one low resolution).
The size of the high resolution files for the 3 minute files was 573MB, the lower res files were 73MB.
As you can see there was still space on the device for another set of files to complete and even if there wasn't I would expect the device to over-write the first recorded pair (not just switch off).
I then carried out a FULL Format on my 32GB card and tested using that:
I turned it on at 11:40
It recorded for 3 minutes
It started to record another file at 11:43 but powered itself off again.
I turned it on again at 11:52
It recorded for 3 minutes
It started recording the next file at 11:55 but powered itself off again after 2 minutes 10 seconds.
I reformatted the card again whilst in the device.
Turned it on at 12:16
It recorded for 3 minutes
It started the next file at 12:19, recorded for 2 minutes 10 seconds and powered itself off again.
To me, this looks like a problem with the device do you think?
I have since had several issues.
Firstly, my wife noticed that it was only recording for about 25-30 seconds, freezing for a while, then starting a new recording which again lasted only for 25-30 seconds.
I reformatted the card (Sandisk Ultra 32GB Class 10) in the device and tried it again. It seemed to work abolsutely fine on the (short) journey back home and was recording 3 minute segements as per the settings.
Next day I went out in the car again and, once again, it started recording only 25-30 seconds before freezing on record and then starting again with another recording.
Once again a reformat seemed to cure this.
During the week i again ventured out in my car and once again it recorded for 20-30 seconds at a time. I left it running this time and when I returned home I removed it from the car.
I used the app on my phone this morning to view the footage (expecting that maybe for some reason there were a lot of protected files thus reducing the available space) but there were NO videos on the card at all.
I removed the card and inserted it into my laptop and confirmed that the DCIM folder was indeed empty......not what i expected at all.
Having read various posts about SD Card problems I located another card, albeit only 2GB, and fully formatted it on my laptop then inserted it into the Dash Cam and proceeded to test that (with the Dash Cam sitting on my desk and connected to the mains via my iphone usb plug which i can switch on and off to simulate the car's 12v supply).
I turned it on at 09:21 and it recorded for 3 minutes then started the next file, lasted about 2 minutes then suddenly just shut down.
I formatted it again whilst in the device and tested again:
I turned it on at 09:30am
Started recording and did so for 3 minutes
Started recording the next file at 09:33 and again did so for 3 minutes.
Started recording the next file at 09:36 but switched itself off shortly after.
I removed this card and looked at it on the laptop:
It showed there was 642MB of free space left of 1.87GB.
There was 1.24GB in a folder called VIDEOS and 3.16MB in a folder called PROTECTED.
When I looked at the files in the VIDEO folder I could see 6 files - 2 date/time stamped at 09:30, 2 date/time stamped at 09:33 and 2 date/time stamped at 09:36 (these 2 were smaller than the other ones).
Viewing the files I believe that there are 2 files for each segment recorded (one high resolution and one low resolution).
The size of the high resolution files for the 3 minute files was 573MB, the lower res files were 73MB.
As you can see there was still space on the device for another set of files to complete and even if there wasn't I would expect the device to over-write the first recorded pair (not just switch off).
I then carried out a FULL Format on my 32GB card and tested using that:
I turned it on at 11:40
It recorded for 3 minutes
It started to record another file at 11:43 but powered itself off again.
I turned it on again at 11:52
It recorded for 3 minutes
It started recording the next file at 11:55 but powered itself off again after 2 minutes 10 seconds.
I reformatted the card again whilst in the device.
Turned it on at 12:16
It recorded for 3 minutes
It started the next file at 12:19, recorded for 2 minutes 10 seconds and powered itself off again.
To me, this looks like a problem with the device do you think?