OT Lidle's offer of a windscreen camera

[Andy Burns]

Useless, or worse than useless? (i.e. does the ir reflect back off the windscreen and cause glare into the camera?)

[dennis]

8<

No, the IR wont go through the screen.

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[Adrian]

Is it a polarised screen?

[Graham.]

I like my camera to run 24/7. Accidents do happen to parked cars, so I am glad the socket is not switched.

It would be nice if the one on the boot was switched, as I have a 240v inverter (actually a modified UPS). The drain on the car battery would significant if I should accidently leave it on.

[Roger Mills]

+1

I mainly use the one in my Volvo V70 to power an electric cool box - but that's got voltage sensing, and turns itself off when the engine's not running.

[Bill]

I don't know because I tried it when new outside the car and it was hopeless. The IPCams I have in the house just show glare when placed facing a window. It is much better than nothing when the headlights are on, but think it would be useless looking backwards at night. I would hope the Lidl instructions would be better than these Chinese ones.

The one I have looks the same as the one someone else here found on ebay for £8.48, but mine came from what I think is a local Chinese importer (as opposed to a local transhipment facilitator) rather than direct from Shenzen. So it took a day rather than 6 weeks to arrive.

[Bob H]

Yes thats the link I used to read up and watch videos on the different ones and I have now gone for the mobius wide angle lense dashcam

[F Murtz]

If they run 24/7, depending on the size of the card (which is limited in some cases)You will probably have some problems as they write over when full and when you get to stop camera you may have lost the bit you want, that is apart from viewing in real time the whole thing,not knowing when anything happened

[Mike Barnes]

AFAIK they usually record only when triggered by the motion sensor.

[dennis]

8<

The good ones record all the time and save bits when triggered.

[Weatherlawyer]

This IS d-i-y, you know!

[Weatherlawyer]

The Chinese plod paid a visit to Microsoft's child labour resources recently, so it could be as soon as the next NSA special.

[whisky-dave]

That doesn;t make much sense why record everything even when nothings happening ?

[dennis]

If you don't record everything how do you get pre trigger footage?

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Not much point starting recording after the crash?

[John Williamson]

Because if you record continuously on a loop, then when the recording stops, you have the previous n seconds already on the chip. You don't need to decide when the incident is about to happen, you just stop the recorder shortly after it happens, and you have evidence about the lead up to it.

That's how all the Russian screencam videos on Youtube are generated. There is no user input needed until after the event.

My Zoom H2 sound recorder will doe something similar with sound. I can set up a 30 second pre-record rolling buffer, which is finally committed to chip when I press the record button.