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

Dirkster · 09-05-2012 11:33PM

I recently bought the smartcam dash cam from ebay that was recommended by a few people here. I find its quite good but I find that every 3 seconds of recording it jumps and so the recording isn't fluid and can in fact miss parts. Has anybody else had this problem or any remedy on fixing it?

Here's the link from ebay.
http://www.ebay.ie/itm/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=200745123135&ssPageName=ADME:L:OU:IE:1123

CiniO · 10-05-2012 12:32AM

Dirkster wrote: »

I recently bought the smartcam dash cam from ebay that was recommended by a few people here. I find its quite good but I find that every 3 seconds of recording it jumps and so the recording isn't fluid and can in fact miss parts. Has anybody else had this problem or any remedy on fixing it?

Here's the link from ebay.
http://www.ebay.ie/itm/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=200745123135&ssPageName=ADME:L:OU:IE:1123

Remedy to your problem is very simple - just buy faster memory card.

carbon nanotube · 10-05-2012 12:41AM

Shane_ef wrote: »

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Roadhawk-DC-1-Car-Black-Box-GPS-CCTV-System-/170835667003?pt=UK_In_Car_Technology&hash=item27c699683b

i bidded up to 135, went over

screw that, can buy new.

franksm · 10-05-2012 08:49AM

CiniO wrote: »

Remedy to your problem is very simple - just buy faster memory card.

Yep - I have learned to be careful buying memory cards off Ebay. Some didn't work (formatted as 32gb but would only accept 2gb; slower s[eed cards rebadged as higher; that type of thing).

Have bought some Transcend cards from Amazon and they've been perfect.

There are some SD low-level formatting tools out there, they're also good for running some benchmarking on the card.

Mr Magners · 10-05-2012 10:39AM

Tallon wrote: »

Attempted suicide clip

Driver reacted like a scumbag, especially with what sounds like a child in the back of the car

Tallon · 10-05-2012 10:52AM

Mr Magners wrote: »

Driver reacted like a scumbag, especially with what sounds like a child in the back of the car

True, although it is Russia, and the guy did try and make the driver kill him...

You're still right though, was scumbag move

Joe10000 · 11-05-2012 06:29AM

Does anyone know the difference between the roadhawk DC 1 and the RH 1 ?

Nissan doctor · 12-05-2012 03:16PM

One from the M50 yesterday. The Mondeo in front of me joined the motorway in front of me at the Ballymun on ramp and didn't merge into the main M50 lanes so was obviously heading for the N2......you'd think.:rolleyes:

Count how many times 'N2' is painted on the ground of the lane we are in and how many enormous blue over head gantry signs they pass, not to mention the fact that the lane has thick closely spaced white lines meaning it is clearly an exit/separate carriageway lane:mad:

CiniO · 12-05-2012 07:35PM

Nissan doctor wrote: »

One from the M50 yesterday. The Mondeo in front of me joined the motorway in front of me at the Ballymun on ramp and didn't merge into the main M50 lanes so was obviously heading for the N2......you'd think.:rolleyes:

Count how many times 'N2' is painted on the ground of the lane we are in and how many enormous blue over head gantry signs they pass, not to mention the fact that the lane has thick closely spaced white lines meaning it is clearly an exit/separate carriageway lane:mad:

Yes, it definitely wasn't wise what he did, but take account that he might have not been familiar with area, and maybe had no clue what N2, Ballymun, etc means.

I consider myself quite experienced driver, but I've done something similar once near Paris, when my satvan was telling me to turn right, road signs were telling me to go straight, and my passenger looking at map told me to go left.

Mycroft H · 12-05-2012 07:53PM

Nissan doctor wrote: »

One from the M50 yesterday. The Mondeo in front of me joined the motorway in front of me at the Ballymun on ramp and didn't merge into the main M50 lanes so was obviously heading for the N2......you'd think.:rolleyes:

Count how many times 'N2' is painted on the ground of the lane we are in and how many enormous blue over head gantry signs they pass, not to mention the fact that the lane has thick closely spaced white lines meaning it is clearly an exit/separate carriageway lane:mad:

Its a regular occurrence on the M50. Especially between Belgard road and the Naas road exit with the short slip road.

ShadowHearth · 12-05-2012 08:00PM

Tallon wrote: »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKRpdN6ZOMU

Omfg it's bad, but I really loled. It's in Russian.

When fella started to kick the living shiet out of that man the girl says:

- he is an idiot or what?
-who?!
- why is he beating him?
- so he would not jump in front of the car...

Nissan doctor · 12-05-2012 11:04PM

CiniO wrote: »

Yes, it definitely wasn't wise what he did, but take account that he might have not been familiar with area, and maybe had no clue what N2, Ballymun, etc means.

I consider myself quite experienced driver, but I've done something similar once near Paris, when my satvan was telling me to turn right, road signs were telling me to go straight, and my passenger looking at map told me to go left.

He wanted to continue on the M50, every sign, road, and lane marking was telling him that the lane he was in did not do this so, IMO, this means he paid no attention to his surroundings on a busy motorway for at least close to 2kms!

CiniO · 12-05-2012 11:15PM

Nissan doctor wrote: »

He wanted to continue on the M50, every sign, road, and lane marking was telling him that the lane he was in did not do this so, IMO, this means he paid no attention to his surroundings on a busy motorway for at least close to 2kms!

I agree with you, but are you 100% certain, he really knew he wanted to go on M50?
Maybe he just wasn't sure if he needed to exit on n2 or continue over m50.
For you and me it's obvious what m50 is, but for someone else m50 might mean nothing (especialy for foreigners in rented cars).

Nissan doctor · 12-05-2012 11:22PM

CiniO wrote: »

I agree with you, but are you 100% certain, he really knew he wanted to go on M50?
Maybe he just wasn't sure if he needed to exit on n2 or continue over m50.
For you and me it's obvious what m50 is, but for someone else m50 might mean nothing (especialy for foreigners in rented cars).

I agree with the rented cars/tourist comment, I've made errors myself when abroad, but this wasn't a rental car, it was just another Irish driver paying no attention to actually driving.

I mean making an error is one thing, we can all do that, but he then causes the Golf in lane one of the M50 to brake and almost swerve and as Iwent passed the driver and passenger were laughing to each other:mad:

ardmacha · 12-05-2012 11:23PM

For you and me it's obvious what m50 is, but for someone else m50 might mean nothing (especialy for foreigners in rented cars).

Someone should check their map before going on to the M50. And it doesn't matter who they are, they should not be driving like that. If you are in the wrong lane stay there, you don't have a right to endanger other motorists because you are a bollix.

Pottler · 13-05-2012 12:13AM

CiniO wrote: »

Most likely it won't be any help to most of you here, but I'll put it here just in case someone needs it.
Over last year I collected few most interesting recordings from my dashcams on my harddrive (interesting road situation, places i've been to, etc). I just realised it's nearly 100GB data, which is quite a lot.
It's so much mostly due to cheap dashcams don't use any advanced compression methods - they just use most basic and very little hardware demanding codecs and unfortunately their result files are big. I've been writing some time ago, that Smartcam which I bought uses about 16kbit/s bitrate for it's 720p video which is unneceserily way too much. My other older camera is not much better.
So generally I decided I'll convert them all to H264 codec with 3600 kbit/s bitrate which after few tries I tested that it's enough without really any quality loss.
Unfortunately it was over 300 files spread in nice tidy way into directory tree, so it would be hell lot's of work to convert each separately.
That's why I wrote a little bash script for linux which using mencoder did all the job for me. It took long (nearly 2 days for all files) but was full automatic.
This script finds all files in all subdirectories of directory it was run, and converts all files with AVI extension, writing result file with additional S on begining of filename, with option to erase original file.
It can be very easily adjusted with few options in script file on top.
If anyone wants to make use of it, I attached it below, but I don't take any responsibility if it's going to work correctly for everyone.
It's just something I wrote anyway to solve my own problem, so I decided maybe someone here might need the same.

As a result I shrinked size of those recording from about 100GB to less than 25GB so I could fit all of them into single BD-R.

Thanks for this ^ Cinio. I now feel more stupid than I did yesterday.

:)

cormie · 14-05-2012 08:09PM

Folks, anyone have a link to the latest firmware version for the DRS-1100 X-Driven, Roadhawk RH-1, Ub1 (all the same product, just different names). Been googling for the last 15 minutes with no luck

vibe666 · 15-05-2012 07:23PM

ouch.

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

doesn't appear to have saved anyone's ass tho.

Kenny Logins · 15-05-2012 07:45PM

vibe666 wrote: »

ouch.

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

doesn't appear to have saved anyone's ass tho.

Jesus! What was the story there? That Ferrari didn't even appear to brake.

ottostreet · 15-05-2012 07:46PM

FFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU

Kenny Logins · 15-05-2012 07:49PM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIcWn-hNrvg

TheBazman · 15-05-2012 07:49PM

Jesus Chrriiisttt!!

ScrubsfanChris · 16-05-2012 05:21PM

Real shame about the woman in the taxi, but I have to sympathies for the Ferrari driver..

16-05-2012 05:29PM

Not entirely a dash cam video, but thought someone might get a chuckle from it like me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pgm8I0B8bY

Edit:Skip to around 50 seconds in for the show off and crash.

Max Power1 · 16-05-2012 05:50PM

ShadowHearth wrote: »

Omfg it's bad, but I really loled. It's in Russian.

When fella started to kick the living shiet out of that man the girl says:

- he is an idiot or what?
-who?!
- why is he beating him?
- so he would not jump in front of the car...

Best thing for that idiot (the guy tryiong to commit suicide)

What a completely sh!tty thing to do. The driver (if there was no dashcam) would be hauled through the courts for dangerous driving and manslaughter. Because of one muppet? Id like to think id have done the same

Shane732 · 16-05-2012 08:16PM

Wow I didn't think there would be this much on dash cams.

I'm currently looking at getting one of these. My options are either go for a proper cam or use an iphone app.

I assume the proper cams are far superior than the iphone app?

Is the roadhawk generally recognized as the best option?

16-05-2012 08:43PM

Shane732 wrote: »

Wow I didn't think there would be this much on dash cams.

I'm currently looking at getting one of these. My options are either go for a proper cam or use an iphone app.

I assume the proper cams are far superior than the iphone app?

Is the roadhawk generally recognized as the best option?

Spend an hour or so and have a read through the thread, lot of discussion earlier about mobile apps.

I use an app, and have no problems with it. Only problem is 30 seconds to set it up when I get into the car, a standalone camera will start/stop when the car starts/stops.

But most high end phones will have better video capability the a lot of the dash cams (unless you get a HD one).

Shane732 · 16-05-2012 08:54PM

Deleted User wrote: »

Spend an hour or so and have a read through the thread, lot of discussion earlier about mobile apps.

I use an app, and have no problems with it. Only problem is 30 seconds to set it up when I get into the car, a standalone camera will start/stop when the car starts/stops.

But most high end phones will have better video capability the a lot of the dash cams (unless you get a HD one).

Cheers.

A 2 hour loop uses 2 GB though!!

What loop are you using on yours?

Bohrio · 16-05-2012 08:58PM

The main problem with phone cameras is the field of view, also most people use the phone in a vertical position so for optimal perfomance horizontal is the way to go.

phones have their good bits too... but i rather keep the phone is my pocket and use the dash camera instead.

16-05-2012 09:24PM

Shane732 wrote: »

Cheers.

A 2 hour loop uses 2 GB though!!

What loop are you using on yours?

I'm on android and use an app called DailyRoads Voyager.

I have it set to loop every 5 minutes, and only use 800MB memory. As soon as it hits 800MB, it deletes files which I have chosen not to save. Most of the apps/dash cams allow this. So mine is on a constant 5 min loop, and videos will only be saved, if I touch the screen, or it detects more than 3Gs (gravitational force, not mobile network

, such as an accident). So memory isn't an issue

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

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