Hi all I am thinking of buying a dashboard camera.
Thing is, I don't want to go down the 'modern route' of having an app on a smartphone to examine/download/post etc any data. I am quite picky about what apps I put on my phone, thank you very much.
I would be more than happy with taking the SDcard out if/when necessary, putting it in my PC (Linux preferably) and taking things from there.
However I don't know if this is possible/easy with current generations of dashcams. I presume they use fat32, but what is the video file format? Is there a standard format for metadata? etc. etc.
This is the sort of information that (understandably) is not shown in the standard lists of advertised features.
Any particular brands good, or to be avoided, in this regard?
I use a Nextbase dashcam, and I just connect it to my PC with a USB cable and watch any of its videos. Front and rear, Low definition and High definition.
There are two ways to get endurance on an SD. One, is to use industrial grade flash (Micron makes some with 6x the write cycles). The other way, is to use SSD techniques of combined static and dynamic wear leveling. That evens out the wear, so that each flash block is written the same number of times.
An easy way to get endurance, is to make SLC chips. Micron used to sell a 32GB SLC, but I guess it was too expensive for any manufacturer to use it. That would make an SD card that was "practically bulletproof".
Now, what's wrong with the Kingston page, is they have the words "high endurance" and there is no numeric spec. Should we trust them? NO. They're Kingston. They contract out manufacturing, and the only part of a Kingston that they created, is the sticky label adhered to the front of the product.
We want these companies to compete on capability, and that takes... specs.
You can transfer an SD card to your PC and dump your video content. A good dashcam, when the media is full, it should LRU and remove the oldest vid first. The dashcam manual (a good dashcam, you should be able to download the PDF before purchase), should describe how best to use the storage.
There is no particular reason, for the file system to be unconventional. A Linux utility like "disktype" can give you some idea, if you run into "mystery meat". I use a Cygwin version of that utility, on Windows.
So really the only question, is can you turn off the wireless for security reasons. The dashcams need storage. If the storage is internal, if it wears out, you might potentially be throwing the dashcam away. If the device is socketed, then the media can be replaced.
Flash memory would last FOREVER... if it could be annealed. But, they haven't figured out a clever way to implement that, yet. Annealing heals defects, and has been tested on flash cells at the individual cell level. It is too hard to get heating elements next to each flash cell, to anneal on demand. But at least they know one way, of extending the life of flash tremendously. The next best thing to annealing, is SLC cells (one bit stored per cell, not four or five bits per cell like inferior flash).
Transcend's dashcams have a rear screen (to act as a viewfinder when setting up the camera) and have a micro-SD card which can be removed and played in a PC - eg in VLC. The file container is .mp4 and the codec is one of the fairly standard ones that VLC, VideoRedo, Adobe Premiere Elements etc can play/edit.
I've played Transcend's videos in VLC on both Windows and Linux (eg Ubuntu, Cinnamon Mint and MX). The card is formatted as FAT32 by the dashcam, which is supported by all OSes.
The Transcend dash cam *can* be linked to / controlled by an app on a phone, if needed, but it's by no means essential, and it does have the problem that even if you can transfer a video to the phone, you then have the problem of getting it from there to a Windows/Linux PC.
FWIW I use the app 'Airdroid' to transfer files between my Android phone and my PC - you just use your browser to navigate to port 8888 (default) on the phone. I use that for copying Audio & photos around without any apps. I guess other similar apps are available.
Something else I didn't mention was curiosity about whether the video the dashcam transfers to the smartphone is of the highest quality available. Thinking about it, that seems like an unnecessary concern...
Thinkware cameras can be driven entirely from the SD card if you want. They include windows and mac software to allow you to control settings and browse videos etc.
The card is formatted in FAT32 and the video files are standard mp4
My recent purchase of a nextbase enables 30 or 60Hz recording, low or high definition (or both) to a SD card. Power is supplied via a 5V USB adapter/cable and the the same type of cable can be used to download to a PC. The camera can be used to display recording.
I was under the impression that most, if not all of these devices need an app at the very least to set the defaults. Its the lack of any control panel that keeps them small and cheap. Brian
My old nextbase had a viewing screen which displayed the setting menu and a combination of up/down/oK buttons allowed all settings to made on the dashcam.
My new(er) nextbase also has a viewing screen and is touch sensitive allowing the various settings menu options to be selected.
Although the dashcam is wi-fi and bluetooth enabled and can connect to an app on a smartphone the latter is not needed for day to day use, nor to view the recorded content.
The app is needed if you want the "emergency" facility where if the dashcam detects you have been in a crash it can automatically use your phone to dial the emergency services. I don't have this enabled as the camera falling from its mount after hitting a pot hole etc. may generate enough G force to trigger the camera thinking you have been in an accident. However, the glued on windscreen mount and magnetic attachment to the camera is a lot more robust on my new(er) nextbase than the suction pad attachment on my old nextbase. The suction pad used to regularly fail to stick to the windscreen when the car was parked in direct sunlight on a summers day.
My Nextbase allows everything to be set onscreen, but it is easier to download the 'app' to the PC, 'smartphone' not required, and do it from there on a real screen.
The "app" does not need to be phone based though... e.g. the thinkware ones come with PC software that can do the same job when you mount the SD card on a computer.
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