dash cams, who here uses them?

[barney91]

With the whole meteorite thing happening in russia I read somewhere that close to 1 million russian drivers using them due to the crazy driving, but how many of you guys here use them and why

[inm]

I use one for that purpose... In case shit goes down.

Less of natural disasters, and more of in case something happens on the road.

[OrionStang]

I've been shopping them for months, just can't decide which to get.

Good idea for insurance/accident reasons. Plus you never know if you'll catch something like that meteor on camera.

[michigancapri92]

always wanted one ... im tired of seeing crazy shit on tv and going i see stuff like that all the time and never have a camera haha !!! i want to be THAT guy who recorded something crazy!

[kingsuv]

I run a 4 ch with 4 cameras. has helped me more then a few times

[barney91]

Now I'm really interested in buying one, what are some good brands?

[OrionStang]

I run a 4 ch with 4 cameras. has helped me more then a few times

Which are good brands, Bill?

[n1ghtsn1p3r]

I'm interested as well.

[inm]

I use a GoPro.

Mount inside when I'm just ding dashcam, then I also have a badass cam for random out-of-car shots.

Plus, it has an Android/iOS app for remote operation.

[kingsuv]

So far,

I haven't found any in the flash CF or SD card type I like. A good number of budget ones are from overseas and have crap features. I've gone through about a dozen different designs. In the HD type, there is a few good ones. made here in the states. They are all very expensive 1000+ to get the features we would want.

Here is the current issue with them from what I see.

Picture quality. Not enough DPI makes for a grainy recording. Up the dpi, and you need to up the storage amounts to collect enough data to be useful.

Recording rates. CIF, H dot, D1 etc, all have their place. So are better then others, but if you can't get a clear image in, it doesn't matter the recording method to data transfer.

FPS/ IPS anything less then 30 FPS per channel is a waste. Anyone who has seen a crap camera system where it looks like you can move 10ft in 2 seconds has seen what a slow record rate looks like. Nothing worse then NOT getting what you want to see because the unit can't record fast enough.

HD vs SD/CF storage. So we can record more on a HD then a flash media, but the issue is start and stops in the unit. HD systems are slow. They are meant to record all day. Like in a bus or police car setting. Sucks for us who start and stop all day. The other issue is amperage draw. HD systems require a lot of it. If you want it to protect your car 24/7, you better have a couple batteries to supply it over night. SD cards are a fast way to record. They also consume very little. thier issue is card types. 1,2,3 etc, right now, none of these DVR guys can tell you what type will work or not. Also none of them really know how big of a card they can take. They will all say 64g, but in testing, it's not the case.

Alarm contacts. So have them, some don't. the ones that do, can tie into the alarm so the system can trigger, or be triggered with an event.

Pre record times. So do this and it's a nice feature as it allows you to record so long before the alarm is tripped with an event.

Motion record. Most lack this feature, others have it and it sucks. it makes life a lot easier to just have recorded data of what happened. most are a on off, so you can record 12 hours of nothing. Then you get to watch that 12 hours to see if something did happen or when.

GPS wifi. Most offer it. Sadly, unless you are overseas where the unit is made, and tested, neither work worth a shit here. Some have a decent GPS tracker, but none of them have worked out the bugs to have it work with programs like google maps

Software and viewers. None of them are anywhere close to a production ready setup. You better know the ins and outs of a dvr system in general. They aren't user friendly at all. Plus most of the instructions are broken English at best.

Lastly, they have added features no one in the 12v market will ever use. They don't understand why we don't need a Delco protocol C or D. Doubt many people would put the work in to add a commercial size PTZ camera into their system. I've thought about it, and even I said fuck it, it's too much work.

Camera wise, this market has a shit ton of choices. Most are very inexpensive. 2 of the eye hole cameras I use are about 15 bucks each. I do also have a ton of crap ones and others that work great during the day and fall on their ass at night.

I've been in talks with a few local manufactures of DVR systems on the CCTV side. None of them see a market for this, but would entertain OEM work. Sadly my capital isn't anywhere near getting something like this going.