Updating memory card collection.

[kamkar]

I have just added 2 more memory cards to my suite of memory cards to test with.
Both very cheap and both 256GB cards.

First the SILICON POWER Superior Pro, it is a A1 / V30 card, read 100 MB/s and write 80 MB/s

Second the Trancend Ultra performance, it is a A2 / V30 card, read 160 MB/s and write 125 MB/s

Total price + shipping 67 USD

 

[kamkar]

Just added 2 more cards.

Buying SD cards every 30 days,,,,,, maybe i should go see a doctor.

 

[2000rpm]

Over the years I kept all my dead memory cards and it's notable that very few of the dead ones are Samsung.

I've also found Samsung cards are trouble-free in every cam I've used them in, unlike other cards which claim equal or higher speeds at lower prices, but can't maintain those speeds under constant write/delete/rewrite/fragmented conditions, causing some dash cameras to crash or occasionally stop recording for a short while until the card catches up.

Other brands that I've been satisfied with are Sandisk and Toshiba (now Kioxia).
Transcend are OK.
I've been disappointed with Kingston, PNY and Integral.

Most of the dashcams in our household's cars therefore have Samsung, Sandisk or Toshiba/Kioxia cards.

 

[runtohell121]

I can tell you my Viofo A229 killed the Samsung Pro Plus 512gb ... RMA'ed and not going to ever use it in the dash cam anymore.

Viofo A229 KO'ed Samsung Pro Endurance 256gb, Samsung Pro Plus 512gb... and I don't remember which other ones lol

 

[2000rpm]

I can tell you my Viofo A229 killed the Samsung Pro Plus 512gb ... RMA'ed and not going to ever use it in the dash cam anymore.

Viofo A229 KO'ed Samsung Pro Endurance 256gb, Samsung Pro Plus 512gb... and I don't remember which other ones lol

I have used many brands of dashcam but oddly never a Viofo.
I have found that an under-spec or failing power supply, or a loose cable, causes cams to kill memory cards. I always make sure my power supply is generously above spec and secure in the sockets. Some cams are fussier than others.

 

[kamkar]

Samsung are a pretty new brand in my card connection.

I have a collection of dead memory cards too, the plan are to use them as targets when i shoot 75 - 100 M with my air rifle, this are long range for .177 caliber and the fact there always are some wind to deal with, mean that i will probably need a handful of shots to "kill" each card.
At 100 M i can hit a tennis ball in every shot - a golf ball very often - but a 10 X 10 mm ( or so ) memory card are a lot smaller.

BTW just added my old 16 GB kingston SDHC card to that collection, seem like last camera update worked but then sendt card in read only mode.

I have a 128 GB Viofo card i got from them with the A139 system, work like a charm so far.

My big cards that are not currently in use in any of the 3 systems in the car.

 

[DesertBike]

@kamkar how are you measuring read/write speeds?

SanDisk High Endurance 256 GB is what's been in both of my dashcams for the past couple years. I will upgrade to 512 GB cards once the price comes down a little, or a couple of years go by. I like to replace my dashcam cards every 2 years or so, as a precaution.

I stopped using Samsung SD in my dashcams, as I have had 2 of them fail. One died in my Innovv K2 a few years ago. The second one failed in a Nintendo Switch, a few months ago. It stopped allowing itself to be written to. We didn't lose any data, but had to RMA the card.

In both cases, Samsung did replace the cards, but I'd rather not have card failures happen with a dashcam.

256 GB size seems to be the best price-per-GB right now. Around $30 per card, or sometimes less.

Good to know about the Transcend Ultra Performance card. The extra read & write speed is worthwhile, but I suppose that's also why it's not the cheapest.

 

[kamkar]

The Trancend ultra performance card, keep giving me boot issues, so i will premature yank that out of the A229 tomorrow and replace it with another card.
It is just the first boot of the day thats a issue, all other stop / starts of the day it handle just fine. ( maybe due to it never really stop as i have a 3 hour parking guard timer going on the A229 )
BUT ! changing to and from parking guard, after the first boot of the day and my yank power / plug in power fix for that, well then it work fine.
But it seem the more that is written to the card the more often this issue are, and now it is every first boot every day, and thats unsustainable.

The only memory card related tools i use are H2testW and CrystalDiskMark, and the SDformatter 5.0, use those with the memory card in my Kingston USB 3.0 reader on a Similar fast USB port.
I will have to update that reader CUZ the micro SD slot do not work anymore so use a SD adapter card to be able to use that slot.

The Adata high endurance card in the picture above, well so far i have just found 1 camera it work in, the vantrue E2 in Viofo cameras it just will not work, same go for the Samsung evo plus ( white card ) that also work in the Vantrue E2 CUZ that is where it is right now.
And both os these cards have excellent write speeds.

The dirt cheap kingston select plus, that card just work in every camera i have had it in.

I really want to buy a 256GB Adata premier pro ( the turquoise / light green model ) i have it in 128 GB and it have also worked fine for me in that size.
And as a big + it is certified ( warranty ) for dashcam use.

Only problem, compared to other 256 GB cards it is very expensive still.

 

[DesertBike]

h2testw - thanks, I was trying to remember that one. We're using the same tools, cool.

I forget which is which, but I think one of my dashcams can't even handle a 512 GB card.

256 GB gives me about 14 hours of video (2-camera systems) which is generally enough. It would be more with "default" recording bitrates, but I use boosted ones (20 Mbit/s per camera) to wring every bit of detail out of the video.

I was bracing myself for having to upgrade to larger cards for a 4k dashcam system. But, with h.265 HEVC, file sizes shouldn't be too bad. However, first I would have to get a dual-4k dashcam that handles h.265, which does not exist yet as far as I know.

 

[kamkar]

At the bottom of the memory card barrel i have these few cards.

 

[kamkar]

I would like to pick up a 512 GB card or two, and really the cheaper ones are not that bad.
But i think that will have to wait to next year, or maybe a panic buy if prices start to go up again, i am monitoring memory card prices about once a week.

This year is high pressure, i am buying a expensive compressor to fill my 300 BAR bottles that power / fill my air rifles, and even if i am going cheap here for something i will only use 1-2 times a month, then the 1600 USD are still something i have saved up to for months on end.

Next year, well i might build a new computer, even if the old one do fine aside for the GFX card, but not gaming ATM and only edit small videos.
But the geek in me are throwing a tantrum and i have been on this PC for 3 years now, also just idling on the desktop the Threadripper CPU gobble up 180 Watts, a similar 12 / 24 core CPU today only use half as much power.
But also like to buy a new rifle, as there are just a boatload of nice PCP stuff coming out these days.

 

[kamkar]

Cheapest 512GB card here ( the kingston select plus ) are 300 DKkr / 43 USD

 

[kamkar]

Well - Well - Well wouldn't you know.
The Transcend Ultra performance card seem to have suffered the same as the Adata High endurance card did back then, meaning very slow write speed out of the box ( 25 MB/s )
This detected using H2testW.
So i ran it over with Sdformatter 5.0 and presto i have something that more look like the claimed write speed from the factory.

Anywho. Of course forgot a replacement card for the A229 camera for my drive today, but tomorrow i will throw in the Sandisk extreme PRO

 

[kamkar]

Well.

So much from staying clean of my memory card addiction.
The 256GB Adata premiere pro dropped in price to 25.50 USD ( 59 USD before ) in under a week, so had to pick up another 256 GB card for the test suite of memory cards.

Now i just need someone to send me a camera i can test all these large cards on.

Worst part of all, have just ordered a NAS, able to host 8 Nvme / M2 drives,,,,,, looking for 2 TB drives, not as cheap as little memory cards. more like 10 X the price.
Thankfully i have no immediate plans to populating all ports and Raid the SOB, or populate the 2 U2 slots or the 2 slots for regular spinning drives, CUZ i have looked at +10 TB hard drives,,,,, not cheap.

But my por,,,,,,, collection of dashcam footage, will be accessible like ( / me snap fingers ) with +6GB/s drives ( not raid thats just the speed of the drive )

 

[kamkar]

The card have arrived, highlighted the important part ( IMHO )



Now i just hope this bigger card will be good too, have been running the 128 GB version for a few years in various dashcams, and i cant recall it not having worked a single time.

 

[DesertBike]

The last week or so was eventful!

Not strictly dashcam, but around a year ago (early March 2022) I bought two Samsung Evo 128 GB SD cards for use in our Nintendo Switch consoles.

One of them failed by November. Samsung replaced it under warranty.

About a week ago, the other one in the other Switch failed in exactly the same way. I think it's out of warranty by now, so probably won't bother trying to get a replacement.

That's two Samsungs that failed in the same way, in a year or less. Enough. I ordered two SanDisk Ultra 128 GB cards.

I still have the replacement Samsung Evo 128 GB in its packaging. I never opened it when I got it near the end of last year.

Decided to test all three.

Been trying for a couple days. Tried to run full scans with h2testw. They kept failing. Tried again with different card readers/adapters and even re-tested one of my older SD cards. Still failed.

It seemed pretty unlikely that I had 3 new, but defective, cards, one Samsung and the two SanDisks.

Eventually, I figured out that Windows Defender was getting a false positive "malware" reading based on the .h2w files that h2testw writes. Defender was interrupting the scans, causing them to look as if they failed due to defective cards.

Turned off Defender real-time scanning. Hope that lets h2testw complete. Sheesh.

 

[DesertBike]

FWIW, the mode of failure was this: The cards started showing as "write locked." Which is weird since micro SD's don't have a hardware write-prevention switch.

The Switch (Nintendo console) reacted by seeing the card storage as not present, and having laggy/freezing behavior in the system menu when attempting to browse storage.

Both Samsung cards failed in the same way.

I'm running h2testw full write + verify tests on the warranty-replacement Samsung 128 GB card and new SanDisk Ultra 128 GB card as I type this. It takes hours.

 

[DesertBike]

Good news! Successfully completed two scans (of the new SanDisk cards) with Windows Defender in not so aggressive mode.

I guess there must be some actual malware somewhere out there that leaves behind files with the .h2w extension. Defender mistakes h2testw test files for them. A very annoying false positive.

 

[kamkar]

Memory cards going into read only mode i think is a safety procedure in the controller, that feature are also still there on the even larger SD cards that do also have a little mechanical locking tab on the side.
It have been a while since i last experienced, or that is not long ago, but it was the first time in years.
I have had cards die regularly on me in cameras i test static in my living room window, that is often my smaller and oldest cards that i use there, and i have not bothered to look why the cards failed, just looked at the card some day and found the last recorded file was long ago, and then just throw it in my little plastic bottle, CUZ i am going to use the little memory cards for 100 M targets for my .177 air rifle this summer.

My PC ( fully updated windows 10 ) never coughed any warnings out for H2testW some have reported, could probably be a matter of the setting i use for Defender.

 

[kamkar]

Well i restored the write speed on the Trancend ultra performance card, but it still will not work in the A229 system but i also did not expect that, so i pulled it out and threw in the blue Samsung PRO plus, and it seem to like that.
The Trancend card well i put it in the Vantrue E2 system as it seem to be able to deal with these " problem " cards like the Adata high endurance and the White Samsung EVO plus, and sure enough it seem to like it there.

So Vantrue must have some secret sauce, CUZ it of course also work with the cards that work in my A 229 system BUT ! also these " problematic " cards seemingly fast enough on specs ASO, so hat off to Vantrue for being able to make a system that work with more cards than my Viofo can.
In the Vantrue E2 system i had the white Samsung EVO plus, card, i am about to inspect its content, but i am fairly sure its good, at least the system have not put out any warnings.

I am now looking forward to see memory card compatibility in a system based on the Alwinner 536 chipset.

So YES ! You should still show due diligence shopping for a memory card for your new dashcam, even if my testing and card collection indicate that the chance of buying a less fortunate model are fairly small.