Recording a 12 hour holiday journey.

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sandiego69

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I am having a F770 installed this week but I have a query about recording times. I know what they are in theory however........

I want to record a complete journey all the way down France to the Riviera which will be approx. a 12 hour drive.

I will be using the Autoroute, so, for that part ( about 90% ) I see no need of the rear camera. Correct me if I am wrong.

What do people recommend here? What size of SD card etc. One thing though, I cannot back up the recordings onto a laptop until we arrive at our destination.
 
If I remember F770 has about 10Mbps bit-rate at 1080p/30Fps per channel.

You can use THIS Calculator

If you record to front camera only, then you can get around 14h on 64GB memory card.
 
sandiego69 said:
Strange. According to Thinkware's own chart a 64gb card will give approx. 496 mins or 8.27 hours.
No way near your figure.

http://thinkwaredashcam.uk/product/thinkware-dash-cam-f770/
Click to expand...

It's all depens on the bit-rate. If it's around 10Mbps, then you will get 14h.
F770 has been around for few month, but still I have not seen any raw / original footage to download and analyse ( front, front + rear ).
There is a short introduction by @Sir Loin HERE, but unfortunately not much in depth data there.

If taking info from Thinkware website ( 32GB = about 248min / 4h of recording), it means about 18Mbps bit-rate per channel at 1080p 30Fps, which is quite good result and you going to need 128GB memory card which will give you about 16h of recording before it starts overwriting, or 2pcs 64GB.

Can you record and share via dropbox or mega.nz front and front + rear recording, then we can analyse video data ?
 
Appreciate your help.

Firstly, my system will be installed at the end of this week so any tests will have to wait.

Secondly, Thinkware state the maximum size card for the F770 is 64gb. but do not give the Mbps ( or is that variable? )

Thirdly, you mentioned two cards ( 2 x 64gb ). If I use that method, how will I know exactly when to change to the second SD card without losing any recordings?
 
Just do some recordings and calculate it out

Swap the cards halfway through the day and you should be fine
 
sandiego69 said:
Appreciate your help.

Firstly, my system will be installed at the end of this week so any tests will have to wait.

Secondly, Thinkware state the maximum size card for the F770 is 64gb. but do not give the Mbps ( or is that variable? )

Thirdly, you mentioned two cards ( 2 x 64gb ). If I use that method, how will I know exactly when to change to the second SD card without losing any recordings?
Click to expand...

In your case best is to go with 128GB. I think I have seen people mentioned using 128GB in Thinkware sub-forum. Best is to double-check with forum members who has F770 ( add sign"@" in front of member name, so they will get notified about tagging ), like @sandiego69.
 
You could swap the cards in the middle of the drive, probably after four hours to keep it strictly safe.
 
By the way, you´d be welcome to transform that video in a timelapse video and post it on Youtube, so that everyone here could watch it.
 
When you format card, it partitions the card for different recordings: continuous recording, incident recording, parking recording, parking incident recording, manual recording, etc, so you don't get the full sd card size for just continuous recording.

I would recommend unplugging the rear camera if you don't need rear recording. The easiest would be to disconnect the usb cable at the rear camera, since it is much harder to disconnect at the main camera.

In blackboxmycar.com's YouTube video, Alex mentioned that 128GB card is supported, even though the manual says 64GB. I emailed them, and Justin recommends Lexar 633x or Samsung Evo+ cards. I looked on Amazon and Lexar 633x has a faster write speed. It should be better for dual camera recording.
 
I unplug the rear camera when I plan to use the recording for a timelapse video or something like that. But I don´t like doing that, in part because the rear camera is very useful when you are driving surrounded by bad drivers.
 
Justin

https://www.blackboxmycar.com/blogs/news/sd-card-memory-partitioning-thinkware

This is really good stuff. Thank you.

What I don't understand is Thinkware specifically going away from recommending a 128Gb card with the F770. By sticking to 64Gb it implies that there could/might be problems with using a 128Gb.
I'm no expert but manufacturers don't make recommendations lightly. I hope you are right about using the 128Gb SD because to get the whole journey on one card without trying juggle when to swap a 64Gb would be great. As I have already mentioned, I will not be able to copy across to my laptop until journeys end.
 
sandiego69 said:
Justin

https://www.blackboxmycar.com/blogs/news/sd-card-memory-partitioning-thinkware

This is really good stuff. Thank you.

What I don't understand is Thinkware specifically going away from recommending a 128Gb card with the F770. By sticking to 64Gb it implies that there could/might be problems with using a 128Gb.
I'm no expert but manufacturers don't make recommendations lightly. I hope you are right about using the 128Gb SD because to get the whole journey on one card without trying juggle when to swap a 64Gb would be great. As I have already mentioned, I will not be able to copy across to my laptop until journeys end.
Click to expand...

From my experience we tested a lot of different 128GB cards and a lot of them didn't work. With ADATA for example, 64GB card works no problem but 128GB doesn't work.
I believe my colleague had a similar experience with Silicon Power cards.
When an incompatible SD card is plugged in the camera will just keep rebooting and telling you the card is no good
The ones that worked did so reliably though and is what we personally run on our personal F750/F770 units (certain models of Transcend, Lexar, and Samsung)
Part of the reason I don't recommend 128GB is that I can't guarantee any off the shelf card will work (e.g., haven't tested Sandisk, PNY, Patriot)

I think when Thinkware releases their own 128GB is when we'll see the literature change to reflect a rating up to 128GB,
Blackvue did a similar move with 128GB, when DR650GW-2CH was first released it was only rated up to 64GB but in 2015 when Blackvue released their own 128GB they retroactively stated that all DR650GW-2CH supports 128GB
 
You can easily record for four and a half hours with a 64 GB SD card(I´ve managed to record for five and a half hours, but I´ve also had problems with overrecording around this timeframe). Driving for more than four and a half hours without resting is dangerous.

I did not test with any 128 gb card on my X500, I don´t think that´s worth the cost for me.
 
Andre Kenji de Sousa said:
Driving for more than four and a half hours without resting is dangerous.
Click to expand...

I was going to write the same comment.

Normally truck drivers in Germany have to make a rest every 2 hours with a duration of 15 minutes. Well that at least was what I heard last ime in Germany. I do not know what is Law now in Europe.
 
I don´t know the regulations for resting for professional drivers in the EU, but driving for more than 4:30 hours without resting is not safe. Besides that, one of the problems of dashcam recording is dirt on the windshield. Stopping for every two or three hours to check if everything is OK, maybe even stop to wash the windshield, that´s not a bad idea.
 
I never said I would be driving for that length of time 'non-stop' so why have we drifted off the subject?
 
sandiego69 said:
I never said I would be driving for that length of time 'non-stop' so why have we drifted off the subject?
Click to expand...

OK, Sorry then for my comment and on the other side then the easiest way to record 12 hours of Journey is to exchange memory cards at each stop.

What is so difficult then to record 12 hours of Journey ?

I would then even recommend to record on as many as cards as you can, to be on the safe side in case on card fails. One never knows what electronics can do nowadays :eek:

Have a safe and nice trip ...
 
Thanks for the good wishes. I am off the whole of September so I will let the Forum know how I got on.

I think I will be unplugging the rear camera, as all the journey will be on the Autoroute. I will use two x 64 gb cards and swap after about 6 hours of total driving. Hopefully I have got it right.
 
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