'....Supports cards up to 32GB....'

[2000rpm]

Most of the instruction manuals for our dashcams state something similar to the title of this thread.

I've generally obeyed such statements in the manual to avoid problems with the cam not recording although I read about a number of people successfully running larger-than-supported cards in their cam.
And of course until recently the best price:size balance seemed to be 32GB cards, but now 64GB are coming down in price.

Are there any easy ways to guess whether a larger-than-recommended card is likely to work?
Will it simply not record at all? Or will it have problems with loop recording? Or something else?
Is it something in the cam's firmware that affects its ability to use 64GB?
Is it just a cautious statement from the manufacturer who perhaps only tested with 32GB?

Thanks

 

[reverend]

It's usually just because the camera only supports 32GB SDHC cards which are FAT32 - larger SDXC cards would normally use exFAT and that's what isn't usually supported.

It's also why some cameras work fine with larger than 32GB cards when you format them with FAT32 formatting tools.

 

[DAP]

SD cards are required to be formatted with exFAT when they are larger than 32 GB, even though fat32 supports up to two TB. This is a licensing requirement to us the SD name.
FAT32 is free to use, exFAT requires a license fee to use. This is why most camera don't support more than 32 GB.
Most of the time the software engineer writes generalized code that just works with larger cards. Sometimes they write the code to fail on larger cards, you just have to try your camera with a larger card. (test for a while, sometimes they seem to work, but then fail when more than 32 GB is written).

 

[Kip]

I don't see why cam manufacturers can't just say they support larger cards (providing software and hardware is capable) and just put in the manual a note that explains all cards must be in FAT32 format in order to work, therefore not needing licensing to read exFAT. A quick summary on how to do the formating and what free software to use would wrap it all up nicely for new dash cammers. Or, program the cam itself to format any size card to FAT32 (don't know if that's possible if it can't read the exFAT format?) As said, FAT32 works to 2000GB (or 2048GB?), so we don't really need anything else for a while yet!

I suppose for now, the best we can do is research what others have done with the camera you have or want before putting money down on something. If something hasn't been tested, you could take a chance yourself, then help the community by sharing if it worked or not. Of course not everyone has money to throw at experiments with gadgets.

 

[jokiin]

even when formatted FAT32 a lot of cams can't read cards larger than 32gb

 

[Genki]

If you're going to buy locally, you could try a 64GB card first. Stick it in the camera, use the camera's built in format comand to wipe it and set it to correct format. Then run it for a really long time, to get well over 32GB total files. If you're able to view them all on your computer with no corruption, then 64GB is fine. If some files are corrupted, files are missing, or only 32GB of usable space was formatted, then the camera can't do 64GB,

If it fails, just return it and get 32GB.

 

[reverend]

Or just use h2testw which will test the card for you and give you a confirmation of whether it's good or bad

http://www.mediafire.com/download/t4da2v0v7axs9cz/h2testw_1.4.zip

 

[Kip]

h2testw is good for checking if you have a real or faulty card, but, it doesn't tell you if your dashcam actually supports it. Best thing to do is run h2testw with any new card you buy before you start using it, THEN pop it in your dashcam to see if it supports 64GB or not.

 

[2000rpm]

Update....
I tried a 64GB Samsung Evo 48MB/s in a Mio 538 and the cam put a card symbol on the screen which I've never seen before and it refused to do anything - not even format the card - which is what it usually wants to do when a new card is inserted.
I didn't try formatting in my PC beforehand partly because formatting a card in my PC in the past has sometimes inexplicably caused reliable cards to behave erratically until formatted in their cam.

I then tried the same card in a Cobra 840. It allowed me to format the card inside the cam and has successfully overwritten earlier files without any hiccups - the number of files written and overwritten are now over 600.

 

[kamkar]

H2testw just found me PNY card to be "dying" it can still read and write, but ????

Amazon have a new in route to me, and i am shipping out the old one tomorrow

Warning: Only 61215 of 61216 MByte tested.
The media is likely to be defective.
59.7 GByte OK (125355520 sectors)
6.2 MByte DATA LOST (12800 sectors)
Details:0 KByte overwritten (0 sectors)
0 KByte slightly changed (< 8 bit/sector, 0 sectors)
6.2 MByte corrupted (12800 sectors)
0 KByte aliased memory (0 sectors)
First error at offset: 0x0000000b6df60000
Expected: 0x0000000b6df60000
Found: 0x921e5afc89550c46
H2testw version 1.3
Writing speed: 80.7 MByte/s
Reading speed: 85.1 MByte/s
H2testw v1.4

 

[jokiin]

H2testw just found me PNY card to be "dying" it can still read and write, but ????

Amazon have a new in route to me, and i am shipping out the old one tomorrow

Warning: Only 61215 of 61216 MByte tested.
The media is likely to be defective.
59.7 GByte OK (125355520 sectors)
6.2 MByte DATA LOST (12800 sectors)
Details:0 KByte overwritten (0 sectors)
0 KByte slightly changed (< 8 bit/sector, 0 sectors)
6.2 MByte corrupted (12800 sectors)
0 KByte aliased memory (0 sectors)
First error at offset: 0x0000000b6df60000
Expected: 0x0000000b6df60000
Found: 0x921e5afc89550c46
H2testw version 1.3
Writing speed: 80.7 MByte/s
Reading speed: 85.1 MByte/s
H2testw v1.4

goes to show it's worth checking these things occasionally

 

[kamkar]

Indeed, and i allso found out i have a 64GB SDXC kingston card thats only half the speed ( R & W ) of a older SDHC card allso from kingston both class 10/U1

Got the PNY in febuary, and as you know im not the guy that put the heaviest load on his memory cards, kinda hard to do only driving like 3 - 4 houres every week.

Running H2testw on these fast U3 cards is a pleasure compared to U1 cards

 

[Genki]

Hmmm now I may need to check all of my memory cards. A few of them goes back some years so I may have a ticking bomb that would up and quit working right before I need to record something very important like a careless red light runner hitting me, bank truck with unlocked door dumping cash, an unicorn giving birth on the road, or a flying purple people eater passing by.

Some I use for dash cam, a couple for my digital cameras. Probably got around 30 total of assorted size and types including obsolete SM, xD, MMC, (probably should sell em someday), couple CF, and many SDHC/SDXC