Dash cam saves your ass (no Roundabout stuff please :)

CiniO · 13-04-2012 11:53AM

cormie wrote: »

Towing with a rope is illegal, with a towing bar it's fine though.

Any links to support it?
I never heard about it, and I actually did tow with a rope few times. (not on motorways

)

Mycroft H · 13-04-2012 12:06PM

CiniO wrote: »

Any links to support it?
I never heard about it, and I actually did tow with a rope few times. (not on motorways )

I've never seen anything concrete about it, although I've heard about it a few times.

CiniO · 13-04-2012 12:10PM

BX 19 wrote: »

I've never seen anything concrete about it, although I've heard about it a few times.

You know... I've heard that you need 4x4 to tow a horsebox...
Things you hear are often opposite to what is in real.

cormie · 13-04-2012 04:18PM

No links I'm afraid, I think I may have read it here actually

eqwjewoiujqorj · 13-04-2012 06:30PM

Another scam caught on a dashcam.

opinion guy · 13-04-2012 07:08PM

Yer man's super bad overacting is kind of hilarious. The samming fecker that he is.

Little Alex · 13-04-2012 08:28PM

I've been thinking of getting a car cam for ages. I like the idea of this one:

picture.php?albumid=1422&pictureid=12519

picture.php?albumid=1422&pictureid=12520

picture.php?albumid=1422&pictureid=12521

It clips on over the rearview mirror so would be really discrete, especially if the cable was hidden and hardwired into the fuse box. It would be pretty much always on and would never have to be dismounted.

Here is a link to it on eBay.

And here is a clip of it in action:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_jVDghft8E

Anyone have any opinions on it?

eqwjewoiujqorj · 13-04-2012 08:42PM

Pros:

Very discreet.
No recording gap between file clips.
Keep recording for 10 more seconds after power stops.

Cons:

The guts of 200 euro though.
Mirror mightn't suit car.

Amalgam · 13-04-2012 08:57PM

Techmoan on YouTube reviews a good few units of this sort. What I like is he actually uses each one in his car, and is picky about night time use, as well as daytime.

http://www.youtube.com/user/Techmoan

---

Little Alex wrote: »

Anyone have any opinions on it?

Little Alex, You can get similar hardware for a much lower price.

Check out the HD version of this camera. A Techmoan review.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JeKUZNDDTSk

ScrubsfanChris · 14-04-2012 02:09AM

eqwjewoiujqorj wrote: »

Another scam caught on a dashcam.

His injury was so bad, he hurt the knee that didn't hit the car

Pkiernan · 14-04-2012 05:39PM

CiniO wrote: »

I liked the review so much, that I just purchased this camera.
I'll let you all know how it works whenever I get it.

Cinio,

can you check please if the screen needs to be flipped down in order for the camera to record?

It seems to me that it would be more discreet if it could be in the closed position and still record.

Thanks!

Tallon · 14-04-2012 06:40PM

It can record with the screen up! It would make no sense to have it down all the time

CiniO · 14-04-2012 07:08PM

Pkiernan wrote: »

Cinio,

can you check please if the screen needs to be flipped down in order for the camera to record?

It seems to me that it would be more discreet if it could be in the closed position and still record.

Thanks!

Oh yes, no problem with recording when screen is closed.
However mount is not 100% great, as it goes quite low, obstructs a view a small bit, especially when screen is folded down. It's also quite close to passenger face, so passenger might bump it with his/her head. If you put mount lower down the window it would be further from passenger, but would obstruct a drivers view even more.
Only what I can think of to fold the camera forward, and then adjust the lens on camera as they are adjustable, but then you can't see the screen the screen then even if you open it.

Jimdagym · 14-04-2012 07:22PM

That's a Shane about the stand CiniO. It really looks in the way.
Which did you go for, VGA or 720p?
Any clips?

CiniO · 14-04-2012 07:41PM

Jimdagym wrote: »

That's a Shane about the stand CiniO. It really looks in the way.
Which did you go for, VGA or 720p?
Any clips?

I went for 720p.
Picture quality is quite good I must say. Great on sunny day, and even during the night where street lighting is present quality is good.
On dark roads, when you have headlights on, you can see some distance in front of the car on the video, but it's less than you really see while driving.
There is only this one mount.
But except from it overall I'm very happy with the camera.
I just thought you could turn the camera 90 degrees, and then it wouldn't obstruct a view neither was close to passenger, but then you would need to use software to rotate movies by 90 degrees if you wanted to watch them on computer or tv.
Or maybe there is some other way to mount it which I haven't thought about yet. Also every car is different so it might obstruct more or less.

Here's sample video quality during the sunny day. Switch it to 720p to get full view.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFRY-ZW5KhY

tuborg_man · 14-04-2012 07:45PM

nothing wrong with that, how much was it delivered to your door, if you don't mind saying, cheers.

cormie · 14-04-2012 07:45PM

Did you take that video Cinio? Where is it, looks nice

CiniO · 14-04-2012 08:00PM

tuborg_man wrote: »

nothing wrong with that, how much was it delivered to your door, if you don't mind saying, cheers.

€62.22

CiniO · 14-04-2012 08:01PM

cormie wrote: »

Did you take that video Cinio? Where is it, looks nice

It was actually my wife driving today.
I won't disclose where it is. Leave it for yous guys to guess

Jimdagym · 14-04-2012 08:49PM

Thats very helpful. Thanks Cinio. I'd pick that up if we can find a better mount!

Nissan doctor · 14-04-2012 08:59PM

CiniO wrote: »

It was actually my wife driving today.
I won't disclose where it is. Leave it for yous guys to guess

Looks like the road coming down the side of Furnace lough?

CiniO · 14-04-2012 09:17PM

Nissan doctor wrote: »

Looks like the road coming down the side of Furnace lough?

Nope, but close as place in question is also in Mayo.

Cocoon · 14-04-2012 09:34PM

CiniO wrote: »

Nope, but close as place in question is also in Mayo.

Looks like Doo Lough heading towards Deplhi Co Mayo?

CiniO · 14-04-2012 09:41PM

Cocoon wrote: »

Looks like Doo Lough heading towards Deplhi Co Mayo?

So it wasn't too difficult I see

LK_Dave · 17-04-2012 12:08PM

CiniO wrote: »

I went for 720p.

How did you change to the 720? Mine appears to revert back to VGA after I restart!

CiniO · 17-04-2012 12:52PM

LK_Dave wrote: »

How did you change to the 720? Mine appears to revert back to VGA after I restart!

Hmm. I didn't have that problem. Mine was factory set-up to 720p. I actually didn't try to change it. I might check today if it works to save the settings

Gumbo · 17-04-2012 03:39PM

Pkiernan wrote: »

Cinio,

can you check please if the screen needs to be flipped down in order for the camera to record?

It seems to me that it would be more discreet if it could be in the closed position and still record.

Thanks!

It records with the screen up. i havent touched mine since i fitted it and it records once power hits it

Also, i didnt actually use the mount that came with it, i had a lower one i bought on ebay for €3 or something that fits more discretely.

CiniO · 17-04-2012 04:09PM

LK_Dave wrote: »

How did you change to the 720? Mine appears to revert back to VGA after I restart!

kceire wrote: »

It records with the screen up. i havent touched mine since i fitted it and it records once power hits it
Also, i didnt actually use the mount that came with it, i had a lower one i bought on ebay for €3 or something that fits more discretely.

That's probably best thing to do - get smaller mount.

LK_Dave I just checked mine, and there isn't any problem with settings saving. Whatever resolution I set camera is using even after powering down and up.

Few words about available resolutions as I just checked all them.

VIDEO

HD:
1280x720, 30fps.
bitrate about 16000 kbit/s :eek:

D1:
720x480, 30fps.
bitrate about 6000 kbit/s

QVGA:
320x240, 30fps.
bitrate about 4000 kbit/s

VGA:
640x480, 30fps.
bitrate about 6000 kbit/s

All video modes use MJPEG codec.

AUDIO:
In all modes audio is recorded 44100Hz, 16bit mono, with bitrate of 705 kbit/s :eek::eek: without any compression (uncompressed PCM).

CONCLUSION:

General storage options are very bad in my opinion.
Quality in all video modes except HD is unacceptable. HD mode quality is good, but it costs nearly 16000 kbit/s bitrate + 705 kbit/s audio, so every minute of recording is over 100megabytes of data. My 4GB microSD card allows for approx 40 minutes of recording.

If someone is planning to keep some of the recordings, it would be way worth converting them to for example x264 codec, which could lower amount of disk space over 5 times while keeping the same quality.

Generally though I'm still happy with the camera, as you get really descent quality in HD mode especially in dark, while camera price is fairly low. And that's all I needed.

robbie_998 · 19-04-2012 02:24AM

Im still trying to shift my dash cam away,

using my iphone in the windscreen to save etc,

do you guys think its a good price to throw it away for ?

i literally only used it about 4 times !

cormie · 19-04-2012 07:23AM

I've a few DRS1100's (the original Road Hawk), one bought for $260 shipped from the states, another for £125 shipped from the UK and another £115 shipped from the UK, all 2nd hand via eBay. I know yours is another model, but I think it's probably a bit overpriced over what can be found elsewhere. I remember the Roadhawk DRS1100 was quite a bit more expensive than what I paid.

Dash cam saves your ass (no Roundabout stuff please :)

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