Ring Car Cam
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tonysunshine
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Im really curious to know if it can be powered off a dashcam battery or if it absolutely has to be plugged into the obd2 port
tonysunshine
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ok, looks like from this amazon review, you CAN power the ring car cam off a different 12V source besides the OBD2 port. So dashcam battery should work, just need to get a usb-c pigtail without the hardwiring voltage stepper, since it seems like even though the ring car cam has a usb-c connector, it actuallys runs off 12V and not 5V
kamkar
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I assume.
Seeing as others dont like Ring other products forcing you to get a cloud subskription, and so move to other brands.
I suppose this dashcam do the same if it have smart features.
I am not big on having 2 additional monthly expenses to run a dashcam ( a SIM card and a cloud service )
Seeing as others dont like Ring other products forcing you to get a cloud subskription, and so move to other brands.
I suppose this dashcam do the same if it have smart features.
I am not big on having 2 additional monthly expenses to run a dashcam ( a SIM card and a cloud service )
Vortex Radar
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So I installed mine last night and am starting to work though things. So far this seems very much like a version 1.0 product.
Installation is very easy by sticking it on the bottom of your windshield and running a USB C cable to the OBD port. Way easier than hardwiring to a fuse box or running cables along your headliner and down your headliner.
It's a bit too far away to reach for a manual record trigger so you say "Alexa, record" to trigger a "traffic stop" event. Surprisingly you can't use Alexa for anything else. It's just for triggering an event recording.
Video quality is pretty poor. It's 1080p30 for the front and rear cams. I still gotta pull more video samples (which is an incredible PITA via the app. It's also unavailable via the web browser, unlike their home security cams, which is surprising), but it only records at 7.49 Mb/s for the front cam and a comically low 1.7 Mb/s for the interior cam.
Due to the low placement, installation is easy, but you get more hood in the front cam's footage. The interior cam gets more of the dash in the frame and it also makes it harder to record any rear passengers.
Here's the Ring interior cam vs. the A139 Pro's high mounted interior cam:
The cloud capability is very limited. It's interior motion detection only. No exterior motion detection and no impact detection. Remote notifications are also kinda hit or miss. I tried "breaking in" to my car several times and it didn't always give me an alert. There's also a delay with the recording for when people get inside. It doesn't record the person looking in your side window or entering your car, presumably to cut down on false alerts? However, when you livestream remotely from your phone, it connects quickly and latency is almost nonexistent. It's faster than my Blackvue cams in this regard, though it's way less capable feature-wise.
Update: Impact detection is available if you disable the "interior motion verification" option, but exterior motion detection still isn't.
When you connect via the app, it always defaults to showing you inside your car. It makes me think that it's more of an interior security cam that also happens to double as a dashcam.
I'm still collecting sample footage and putting all my thoughts together, but so far I'm not particularly impressed by this thing. I'm sitting here trying to download footage to my phone and the app is just spinning endlessly telling me to wait while it prepares to download and I'm having a hard time pulling video off of it in the first place. Once I can pull some daytime footage to share, I can post some more still frames. Here's a quick screenshot from the app at least to give you an idea of front camera framing:
This is all just the dashcam itself and not even getting into the privacy implications of how Ring handles their cloud footage.
Installation is very easy by sticking it on the bottom of your windshield and running a USB C cable to the OBD port. Way easier than hardwiring to a fuse box or running cables along your headliner and down your headliner.
It's a bit too far away to reach for a manual record trigger so you say "Alexa, record" to trigger a "traffic stop" event. Surprisingly you can't use Alexa for anything else. It's just for triggering an event recording.
Video quality is pretty poor. It's 1080p30 for the front and rear cams. I still gotta pull more video samples (which is an incredible PITA via the app. It's also unavailable via the web browser, unlike their home security cams, which is surprising), but it only records at 7.49 Mb/s for the front cam and a comically low 1.7 Mb/s for the interior cam.
Due to the low placement, installation is easy, but you get more hood in the front cam's footage. The interior cam gets more of the dash in the frame and it also makes it harder to record any rear passengers.
Here's the Ring interior cam vs. the A139 Pro's high mounted interior cam:
The cloud capability is very limited. It's interior motion detection only. No exterior motion detection and no impact detection. Remote notifications are also kinda hit or miss. I tried "breaking in" to my car several times and it didn't always give me an alert. There's also a delay with the recording for when people get inside. It doesn't record the person looking in your side window or entering your car, presumably to cut down on false alerts? However, when you livestream remotely from your phone, it connects quickly and latency is almost nonexistent. It's faster than my Blackvue cams in this regard, though it's way less capable feature-wise.
Update: Impact detection is available if you disable the "interior motion verification" option, but exterior motion detection still isn't.
When you connect via the app, it always defaults to showing you inside your car. It makes me think that it's more of an interior security cam that also happens to double as a dashcam.
I'm still collecting sample footage and putting all my thoughts together, but so far I'm not particularly impressed by this thing. I'm sitting here trying to download footage to my phone and the app is just spinning endlessly telling me to wait while it prepares to download and I'm having a hard time pulling video off of it in the first place. Once I can pull some daytime footage to share, I can post some more still frames. Here's a quick screenshot from the app at least to give you an idea of front camera framing:
This is all just the dashcam itself and not even getting into the privacy implications of how Ring handles their cloud footage.
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Vortex Radar
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I'm working on the full test & review video this week. It'll be about half an hour long.
In the meantime, here's a quick compilation clip showing the video quality from both the front and interior dashcams, day and night.
In the meantime, here's a quick compilation clip showing the video quality from both the front and interior dashcams, day and night.
kamkar
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In my car you might actually get less hood with the low install, as my little car are " snub nosed " and the hood taper off pretty much from the windscreen / hinges and forward.
Footage dont look impressive, or even standard ?
Footage dont look impressive, or even standard ?
Panzer Platform
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What if Ring, and BlackVue teamed up for a dash cam collaboration?
It would be the best selling, most profitable dash cam ever combining below average image quality with exorbitant monthly subscription fee service.
The camera will be available for lease with an upfront cost of only $499, and a $99 monthly maintenance fee that includes around the clock event monitoring from a team of specialized off-shore surveillance analysts.
Cameras will only be sold as part of a family plan of four units per plan with 2-Year agreement, (monthly maintenance fees are due on uninstalled cameras ).
There is no SD Card, or built-in eMMC memory. All video footage is instantly streamed to a safe, and secure centralized off-shore server and analyzed for reportable events by an authorized agent. All relevant events / incident footage will automatically be reported to pertinent local law enforcement agencies / insurance carriers / social media accounts based on GPS data.
So there’s never a hassle trying to download, or view video footage by the user.
There’s still a smartphone App but it’s only used to pay monthly maintenance fees, and buy cute, and funny filters for interior videos of carpool karaoke.
It just needs a catchy marketable name that people think they can trust.
Let’s call it BlackEye?
It would be the best selling, most profitable dash cam ever combining below average image quality with exorbitant monthly subscription fee service.
The camera will be available for lease with an upfront cost of only $499, and a $99 monthly maintenance fee that includes around the clock event monitoring from a team of specialized off-shore surveillance analysts.
Cameras will only be sold as part of a family plan of four units per plan with 2-Year agreement, (monthly maintenance fees are due on uninstalled cameras ).
There is no SD Card, or built-in eMMC memory. All video footage is instantly streamed to a safe, and secure centralized off-shore server and analyzed for reportable events by an authorized agent. All relevant events / incident footage will automatically be reported to pertinent local law enforcement agencies / insurance carriers / social media accounts based on GPS data.
So there’s never a hassle trying to download, or view video footage by the user.
There’s still a smartphone App but it’s only used to pay monthly maintenance fees, and buy cute, and funny filters for interior videos of carpool karaoke.
It just needs a catchy marketable name that people think they can trust.
Let’s call it BlackEye?
USDashCamera
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its pretty bad. Its like 4mbps really low bitrate. I was comparing it to some of my old g1w footage and although the ring car cam probably has better dynamic range, I could read plates on the g1w easier I think. the fact that its even close shows how low quality the video is though.
You mentioned not wanting to pay for the cloud service and a sim card, I do like that the ring cam doesn't require a sim card, its built in, you just pay for the service and that gets you connected. No 3rd party sim card needed, only one payment a month.
With blackvue I currently use a tmobile sim card, its $10 a month for 2 gb of data. I just use the free version of blackvue cloud.
USDashCamera
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I compared it against my A119 V3:
kamkar
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4 mbit are fine for a stationary camera, or even parking guard, but when things start to move at speed with a 1080p sensor you at least want 20 mbit, ideally 28 - 30 mbit. ( H.264 )
If / when i get the dride 4K system from kickstarter i do plan on getting a SIM with the same specs as i have on my phone, ATM that is free speech / 30 GB data and + 20 GB data in the EU, the price for that are 15 USD/mo
I could go smaller / cheaper, but i doubt the smart will hook me, so will probably cancel the SIM card again, or if i get hooked but dont need that much data downgrade to something cheaper.
If / when i get the dride 4K system from kickstarter i do plan on getting a SIM with the same specs as i have on my phone, ATM that is free speech / 30 GB data and + 20 GB data in the EU, the price for that are 15 USD/mo
I could go smaller / cheaper, but i doubt the smart will hook me, so will probably cancel the SIM card again, or if i get hooked but dont need that much data downgrade to something cheaper.
