Pretty odd design

Here's a video of my cam being turned on without a SD card. I then revert to factory settings and turn off then on again. Then lastly, I turn off loop and power down. While it is turned off I insert the SD card and then power up. You'll notice it isn't recording however I cannot go to menu. If it isn't recording I should be able to open up menu.

I am not concerned with the card running out of space. I have another on the way that can handle more space. I don't take drives longer than forty minutes.

I can get this unit to record continuously without the 1,3 and 5 minute intervals by the method I mentioned earlier in my post #10.
 
camdashuser said:
So you're saying that I can only take videos in 1,3 and 5 minute intervals? That doesn't make sense

What if it cuts off during an integral part of the video. That's bad
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ok, the fact that this doesn't make sense to you tells me you didn't research how these things work, they all work like this

it records continuously, it starts a new file every 1, 3 or 5 minutes depending on the setting, think of it like chapters on a DVD movie, the movie is one long recording but it's broken up into segments for easier navigation, once the card gets full the oldest segment is deleted to make way for the next recording segment so that you will always have the last X hours of recording (X hours depends on how big your memory card is), 32GB is the suggested size as you'll always have the last 4 hours or so of video available and they're pretty cheap these days, ideally you should also be using a Class 10 card

the camera has a process to close the file when power is cut, if something did go wrong and that last file was corrupted the worst you would normally lose is that last 1, 3 or 5 minute file, if it was one continuous recording and a file was corrupted at shutdown you would lose the entire file, there's also no way to recycle files if loop is off so the card would fill up and then recordings would stop, for a dashcam that's useless
 
jokiin said:
ok, the fact that this doesn't make sense to you tells me you didn't research how these things work, they all work like this

it records continuously, it starts a new file every 1, 3 or 5 minutes depending on the setting, think of it like chapters on a DVD movie, the movie is one long recording but it's broken up into segments for easier navigation, once the card gets full the oldest segment is deleted to make way for the next recording segment so that you will always have the last X hours of recording (X hours depends on how big your memory card is), 32GB is the suggested size as you'll always have the last 4 hours or so of video available and they're pretty cheap these days, ideally you should also be using a Class 10 card

the camera has a process to close the file when power is cut, if something did go wrong and that last file was corrupted the worst you would normally lose is that last 1, 3 or 5 minute file, if it was one continuous recording and a file was corrupted at shutdown you would lose the entire file, there's also no way to recycle files if loop is off so the card would fill up and then recordings would stop, for a dashcam that's useless
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I don't know what would bring to research the fact that they "all work like this" given, this is my first dash cam. I've never seen dash cam footage of integral content that stops in the middle of an important shot and the narrator or poster intervene and say "oops, here's the second half of that car crash the loop cut out" or etc. And all the reading and watching I did said NOTHING of this kind of thing on every models I researched. Yes, I did.

The reason for the dash cam purchase was to video a radar detector alerts from my experience to upload on speed enforcement counter measures forums (a whole different subject in its own). To this point I've never seen a video where things were cut off or started at an odd point in an radar encounter.

I guess the only way around this is my HACK that I mentioned in post ten. It does work and I'm not concerned with running out of space since my commutes are short. It still does not answer how that Youtuber was able to get his going without loop as soon as he turned his unit on. If you'll notice again, in his video at 5:05 he does not have the looping icon notifying him that it is in loop mode....Unless he used my same hack, which I highly doubt. If you actually watch this video you'll see where my confusion lies. I'm pretty sure his unit is the real thing.

Once more, mine turns on with the card in and loop off and it isn't recording (my video at 1:55), yet I cannot get into menu. Just doesn't make sense. I guess I'm destined to hack my way using this thing until I find a unit with longer intervals.


Note: I see in his vid his unit is titled A118c and not A118c2 like mine. Also, his unit powers on and says "welcome" and mine just says Viofo. Can anyone confirm this may be firmware or model difference?
 
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forget the longer intervals, let it loop, you can take any number of those individual files and export them as a single file without interruption, dead simple, no re-encoding required
 
jokiin said:
forget the longer intervals, let it loop, you can take any number of those individual files and export them as a single file without interruption, dead simple, no re-encoding required
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Okay, I guess that's a solution. I am going to have to learn how to do that. Hopefully not too difficult and I'm suspecting I have to use a video editor.....
 
camdashuser said:
Okay, I guess that's a solution. I am going to have to learn how to do that. Hopefully not too difficult and I'm suspecting I have to use a video editor.....
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it's dead easy

download the user manual for our camera, it's not the same as what you have but there's a section at the end that explains how to export files, it will join them together as part of the process, there are also instructions on how to remove the 1 second overlap between files so that your recordings are seamless http://www.mediafire.com/view/8wcjfaf8sb19quf/SG9665GC_User_Manual.pdf
 
Okay jokiin, thanks for all your help. I was really confused with the whole process. I'm lucky I found this forum. I would've probably returned the unit being so confused. I give it a try, thanks for all your patience.
 
After watching your video... I think the memory card is the problem. If you turn loop back on, turn the cam off, put the card in and turn the cam back on, does it start recording?

Which new card have you got coming? (Really needs to be class 10 or better)
 
DashcamDPR said:
After watching your video... I think the memory card is the problem. If you turn loop back on, turn the cam off, put the card in and turn the cam back on, does it start recording?

Which new card have you got coming? (Really needs to be class 10 or better)
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I noticed that the memory card can be a problem in a certain instance. I was dabbling with one of the .mov files that was recorded with the A118c2 and saved the altered file on the same SD card. Later when I put it back in I encountered a strange error message that also stated I needed to format the appropriately formatted card that was used to record on.

I am dumbfounded that I was able to get it to record with loop "off" with what I think was a hack. Unless it is supposed to be able to record at power on without loop being loop 1.3 or five being chosen. If this is the case then maybe the card is not appropriate. Are you readily able to record at power on with loop "off"??

The card I chose was due to a online review and cost, the Transcend 400x 16gb. Hopefully this will suffice for my intent and purpose.
 
camdashuser said:
I was dabbling with one of the .mov files that was recorded with the A118c2 and saved the altered file on the same SD card. Later when I put it back in I encountered a strange error message that also stated I needed to format the appropriately formatted card that was used to record on.
.
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that's something you should never do, view your files and copy them off to another device no problem, but any other files on the card can cause problems, for best results if you've had the card in another device and have been doing anything with the files then format the card when you put it back in the camera

Transcend 400x is a good choice
 
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