Voice Prompts and other advice

GlennB

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Hi, Looking to buy a dashcam in Australia. My budget is around $500 can go less or more than that though for the right one. I want a dual camera set up hardwired. Other than the reasons most people want a dashcam I want mine to be easy to use - I don't have much patience for complicated set ups or fiddling around in menus. I want to be able to use a voice prompt that will mean the camera will record and not loop record over a segment if I see something I want to keep. Presumably when you use the voice prompt it keeps video from a few minutes from before you use the prompt. Parking functionality is not a huge thing for me but would be nice. I would also like one that has an app that's reliable and easy to use. I'd like it to be easy to send recordings to people on social media. Part of the reason I want a dashcam is to record me on 4x4 tracks and share them. Also I have a Ford Ranger so the back window is vertical. Interested to hear people's recommendations.
 
I am not aware of any dashcam, you can say "save this to" or something similar, personally i prefer to push the event button on the camera and some times a remote BT button.
If the camera was to listen for a command all the time, then you cant play the radio or at least not very loud.
Seem like a lot of the things you want are not there in dashcams, as far as i know most cameras don't have the same streaming to or instantly share to social media you will have in some action cameras.
And you also say 4X4 i assume off roading, in that case i would prefer a camera on a gimbal, or with really good build in electronic image stabilization.

Mind you some dashcams do talk, but they dont listen, so all you will get are in voice what most cameras do with dings and beeps.
Things like the camera have started to record - event detected ASO.

you cant prompt a camera not even a smart action camera to save a time frame of footage, and surely not subsequently tell it to upload it to your social media account, to me there seem to be some fiddling with a app on a phone and the phone to act as access point to do that.
Some newer action cameras you can control with voise, but only simple things like start / stop recording - take a picture and so on. and there are no pre buffer for this, so either you have to record all the time, or start a recording before you enter a section you want to cave.
Most dashcams have buffered event saving, but some you just get seconds 20 - 50 or so, others like my street guardian cameras save in accordance to loop segment size, and as i use 3 minute segments this mean i get 2 of those ( 6 minutes saved / locked ) when i press the event button.
And you can view those on the APP if it is a wifi model, but there are no options to upload to social media in the APP, and no editing and i assume you would need that too if you don't want to upload a whole 3 minute segment, which is around 3-400 MB in size.
Also in a SG camera and others you will first have to DL the file to the phone, and wifi in dashcams are horrible slow,,,,, its like stone-age wifi and sending the message on bongo drums might be faster.
And slow wifi you get on pretty much all dashcams.

you will have to use a proper sized memory card, and then find your moments to share at home on the PC, and if you are one of the " i don't have a PC cuz i use my phone for everything" then i am sorry but then you have more "problems" than you need to have.

You can turn off looping on some dashcams, but that's not really how they should be used, and the smaller segments made up of X minutes, are easy to mix into one large file on the computer using just about any editing software.

If i had say 10 of the 3 minute files i use on my dashcams was on my PC and i had to make them into one 30 minute long video, it would take me around 3 minutes to boot my editing software, import the files, and start exporting them as one big file. ( export take a little while depending on the kind of footage and how you want it saved ( encoding )
but you can have a cold one while the computer finish that, or browse the internet or something.

If i had to import the 10 files first from the memory card in my SD card reader it would maybe add 3 minutes more, doing the same with the camera wifi to the phone would add something like 20 minutes due to the slow wifi.

Also the "smart" dashcams, well to be honest it are often those that are plagued with the most issues, a simple dashcam that just record when you drive, well if its a good brand / model it is much safer.
 
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I am not aware of any dashcam, you can say "save this to" or something similar, personally i prefer to push the event button on the camera and some times a remote BT button.
I was thinking the same, Viofo A129 Duo with optional Bluetooth lock button. Not too sure about the social media bit, the Viofo app will easily download a video into phone memory, but it won't edit out the 10 seconds you want and post it to facebook, you need another app for that.
 
Yeah but how much time before the press of the button do the A129 have ?
If i assume correct you will have to be fast on the event button, or just at home use the saved events as beacons for what you might want to share in a larger size.
IF ! your regular recordings have not been overwritten of course.

OP say he want something simple, but really what he ask for are some of the most complicated stuff, a huge or maybe even user defined pre-buffer - voice control - and access to those damn social media no one should have.
I am fearing he might be one of those people so used to the smarts in phones, that he see it as dead simple and easy, but the majority of dasshcams are not at that level of smartness, and wont be anytime soon.
Mind you there are some that have the cloud thing, and i also seem to recall some kickstarter dashcams that can upload a segment to social media, but having a long time before you "trigger" and figure out this i have just done i want to share with my stalkers, well that can probably only be don with good old editing at home on the PC, or also on a phone if you can be bothered with doing such work on such a small screen.
No doubt a good mid or higher end phone will have the powers to edit a video, i just cant be bothered with that as i have my monster PC and a nice big screen my old tired eyes can read.
But young folks do a lot on their phone today, and i probably would too if i was young and dident have my dislike for those devises.
 
Yeah but how much time before the press of the button do the A129 have ?
Assuming you set the loop to the default 3 minutes then you always get the current file locked, plus the previous file if you press the lock button early on in the current file, don't remember what the minimum is, but it is adequate most of the time. Of course sometimes you want half an hour saved if it takes that long to sort out the mess, in which case you should swap to your spare memory card rather than press the lock button.
No doubt a good mid or higher end phone will have the powers to edit a video, i just cant be bothered with that as i have my monster PC and a nice big screen my old tired eyes can read.
Same here, although my phone actually edits video much faster than my PC does, and would probably display it's video on a monster TV screen without difficulty if I had a suitably equipped one!
 
Aaaa so they do like the SG cameras, i wasent quite sure, so using 3 minute segments you will have at least 1.5 minute buffer before you press the button, and up to as much as 4.5 minutes before you press the button.
The difference in how much " pre- buffer" you have is that it depend where you are in the current 3 minute video segment when you press the event button.

If you are less than 1.5 min ( 50 % ) into the current 3 minute file, then the current one will be saved and the previous 3 minute file, and so you can be upwards of 4.5 minutes from before button press, and 1.5 minute after.
VS if you are over 1.5 minuted into the current 3 minute file, then the current and following file will be saved, and so you just have 1.5 minutes from before you press the button, and around 4.5 minutes after.

Anyone should use a lerge memory card, so you will have to drive a whole lot before the time outside of your locked events are in danger of getting overwritten, and as Nigel say having a spare memory card are no bad idea at all.
Stalkers on social media can wait till you are good and ready to share your moments, i don't understand this urge to share right here and now many people have,,,,,, your experience will be just as glorious tomorrow.
 
If you are less than 1.5 min ( 50 % ) into the current 3 minute file,
I think on the Viofo cameras it is less than 50%, but it does work in the same way.

You are probably a bit confused with the buffered parking mode which works differently, that has 15 seconds before and 30 seconds after the event trigger, which is a bit on the short side but more than all other cameras with buffered parking mode. However that isn't writing files to the card most of the time, so there are no files to lock, it creates the file when the event occurs and keeps it short because on a busy road there may be a lot of event triggers from visual motion detection. It still locks the file on a g-sensor event after writing it.

Does the SG have a Bluetooth button? Would make it a good alternative, especially for an Aussie.
 
No SG have passed on the BT button, not even a option.

Yes it do confuse me that event button and parking events are not handled the same, but really it is simple cuz when using event button the camera are already recording, but when parked the camera are not recording only buffering and so it cant do the same.
I wonder ? if using low bitrate 30 FPS for parking mode, then surely the same handling as pressing event button should be possible, cuz then the camera are also recording all the time.
 
Stalkers on social media can wait till you are good and ready to share your moments, i don't understand this urge to share right here and now many people have,,,,,, your experience will be just as glorious tomorrow.
On facebook, by tomorrow, yesterday has scrolled off the bottom and nobody is interested any more. People who use facebook are not interested in the past.
Personally, I will happily pull up something from 10 years ago, but I have a memory, so I don't use facebook!
 
I wonder ? if using low bitrate 30 FPS for parking mode, then surely the same handling as pressing event button should be possible, cuz then the camera are also recording all the time.
Correct, should be identical, although I'm not sure if the remote lock button works in parking mode? Something to test...
 
Or just G-sensor as the trigger, i do plan to use low bitrate for parking when i get to try that, so for events to be made here would be nice instead of having to troll thru a hour of footage to find a event.

I would assume the BT button would still work while it is in parking, dont think there are much power savings in turning off a low power technology, but yeah would be interesting to see if it do.
Not that there are any range on the button, so you cant really use it for any "fun"
 
Does the SG have a Bluetooth button? Would make it a good alternative,...
Not on their current products. My understanding is a remote lock button will be available on the upcoming DR camera and assume it will be Bluetooth.
 
DR / similar remote systems will indeed need a remote button, at least if you hide the main unit as intended.
But i am not sure SG will go with a BT button, i cant recall but i think we talked about somewhere.
 
I knew there was something, just did not latch onto my grey goo as it is / was after all a thing of the future.
We will see soon enough.
 
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