DashCam / SD card questions

One of my family members recently purchased a cheap dashcam device (like a GoPro, but dirt-cheap and built to be mounted behind a car's windshield to capture the action while driving). The device looks suspicious to me, as it does not have a brand-name on the package or on the unit itself. The fold-out flyer "Instruction Manual" English diction is also worth a chuckle in places.

The dashcam offers a USB port, an SD/MMC card slot, a ciggie-lighter power cord, and a round "AV out" port looks like an earphone jack but larger. The unit has a flip-down LCD display and a few buttons.

The unit seems to record up to 1280 x 960 in AVI format. Now, I'm on a late-model iMac running MacOS 10.10.

Here are my immediate questions:
1: if I need to download video from this thing, how do I access the AVI files, and how do I transcode them to something more useful than AVI?
2: What do I need to play back video on a modern TV?
3: What kind of an SD card do I use for this device? All the flyer says is "Supports SD/MMC card (from 1 GB to 32 GB). It looks like a full-size SD card slot, but I'm wondering about the different flavors of SD.

Thanks in advance.

First of all I would use a Class 6 (or higher card) SD card and start a testing phase.

Once I've recorded a clip, connect the dashcam to your PC with a USB cord, then (assuming you are using Windows) go into Device Managaer and see if the device is recognized. If it is you likely can pull across the appropriate files. You should also be able to use a card reader and read directly off the card but at least initially I would do as directed. Device Manager may tell you who actually made the dashcam.

Do a Google search on convert AVI and you will find many converters, some online. Most will make mp4 files. If you do this a lot you may want to get your own converter. Tell us about your hardware (Windows or Mac) and O/S and we might be able to offer better suggestions.

avi under OSX is a royal PITA! This software is the thing to get: https://dashcamviewer.​com/

If his is anything like mine it records 1 minute clips. Those clips overlap by a couple of seconds. It will auto delete the oldest when full. If the dashcam has GPS it will be recorded as a separate file. Again, the dashcam software takes care of that.

The USB port, if like most, is power only. You have to remove the memory card to read the files.

MY HARDWARE:
iMac (late-2013), 2.9 GHz Core i5, 8 GB RAM, 1 TB HD, built-in SDXC card slot, MacOS 10.10, brand-new Adobe Creative Cloud subscription (includes Premier Pro CC, Prelude CC, and Media Encoder CC)

MY FAMILY MEMBER'S HARDWARE:
MacBook Pro, Core i5, 8 GB RAM, 256 GB SSD, built-in SDXC card slot, MacOS 10.9

Here are a couple of images. These are scans of a flyer that passes for an "Instruction Manual". Note that the "company" that thanks you for your business does not divulge its identity or location.

My main concern: what kind of SD card is this thing calling for? Would a full-size SDHC card work?

NOTE: this "Instruction Manual" isn't an accurate representation of the device in the box. The device does not have an HDMI port.

Pretty normal. I think there is one or two companies that make a of these under different names. Kinda like buying strobes

Couple years ago I had to dive into these things for work. Most are marginal and really only work well in daytime. This site gives some good comparisons: http://dashboardcamera​reviews.com/

90% of these cameras use the same memory card as a cell phone.

I have one mounted in my truck. It is this style: http://dashboardcamera​reviews.com/mini-0805/
It's been there a couple of years. Every once in a while I'll pull a video off of it because of something it caught that was stupid or funny. I paid $75 for it and am surprised it is still going strong. When it dies I will replace it with one with a GPS one.

I chose the small one and mounted it between my rear view mirror and the glass. You have to look real close from the outside to even see it. In fact it saved me from a ticket hassle once. Got pulled over for running a light, it was yellow. Showed the cop the dash cam and that I could easily prove the light was yellow. He wasn't happy, but did not write the ticket. Worth the 75 bucks right there.

Rebelious wrote in post #18051739
My main concern: what kind of SD card is this thing calling for? Would a full-size SDHC card work?

The 2nd page states "Supports SD/MMC card (From 1GB up to 32GB). MMCs can be used in a standard SD card slot but an SD card cannot be used an MMC slot. Your best bet is to get or use virtually any SD card designated as Class 6 or higher and less than 32 GB. I see by another one of your threads that you have a T3. You should be able to use the card from that DSLR but I suggest removing all images then doing a format in the dashboard device.

You say "less than 32 GB". Does this mean 32 GB cards would not be a good choice for this device? If I read the specs right, 32 GB is the highest capacity it can handle. I was thinking about telling my family to get a 32 GB SDHC card from Wal Mart and calling it a day...

Rebelious wrote in post #18051946
You say "less than 32 GB". Does this mean 32 GB cards would not be a good choice for this device? If I read the specs right, 32 GB is the highest capacity it can handle. I was thinking about telling my family to get a 32 GB SDHC card from Wal Mart and calling it a day...

I should have said up to 32GB.

OK!

My family ordered a dirt-cheap Wintec 32 GB SDHC card thru the local Wal Mart ("site-to-store", meaning I go to the nearest store for pick-up) for $8 and change. So that should be good.

I have a question about these cards generally.

Let's say this cheap contraption captures some really interesting video that they want to keep and play back on the TV at a later date. Let's say instead of transferring the footage to a hard drive, they just take the card out of the device, replace the card with another one, and set the card containing the footage aside. Whenever they want to see the special footage, they simply pop the "old" card back into the device and connect the device to a TV for playback. In essence, the cards are being used like tiny VHS cassettes. Assuming the cards aren't being banged around alot, and assuming the device and the cards are typically stored in a cool, dry, dirt-free place, how long can the video footage survive on those cards? Do the cards have a measurable lifespan?

Rebelious wrote in post #18053800
My family ordered a dirt-cheap Wintec 32 GB SDHC card thru the local Wal Mart ("site-to-store", meaning I go to the nearest store for pick-up) for $8 and change. So that should be good.

I have a question about these cards generally.

Let's say this cheap contraption captures some really interesting video that they want to keep and play back on the TV at a later date. Let's say instead of transferring the footage to a hard drive, they just take the card out of the device, replace the card with another one, and set the card containing the footage aside. Whenever they want to see the special footage, they simply pop the "old" card back into the device and connect the device to a TV for playback. In essence, the cards are being used like tiny VHS cassettes. Assuming the cards aren't being banged around alot, and assuming the device and the cards are typically stored in a cool, dry, dirt-free place, how long can the video footage survive on those cards? Do the cards have a measurable lifespan?

"Dirt-cheap" cards can be an issue. For one thing there are a vast number of counterfeit cards in the marketplace that may be labeled Class 10 and someone has simply relabeled a cheap class 4 card. See http://petapixel.com …ake-memory-cards-on-ebay/ for more examples. The "Class" has to do with the ability to write to and read from the card. So cheap is not necessarily better. You also have introduced a scenario of if you now have a problem, is it the "dashcam device", the card, or the learning curve in figuring out how to use the dashcam. It would have been better to use a quality card to eliminate a variable.

As far as your scenario of using the card as a storage vault...quality cards do have a long life but like anything they can fail. You get what you pay for. If the dash cam works as expected you would be better to store and backup the files properly.

As far as playback on a Mac go with VLC. It has no issues.
You can even download their new IOS apps so you won't need to convert even on an iPad or Iphone.
Just load them into the VLC app.


Mac- http://www.videolan.or​g/vlc/download-macosx.html

IOS - http://www.videolan.or​g/vlc/download-ios.html

NOTE you cannot import the video to ITUNES you must load them to VLC directly.

Even though it's a uk dash cam site I got some great info at http://cardashcamrevie​ws.com/

I ended up getting the transcend drivepro 200 for my car which comes with a 16GB MLC microSDHC Class 10 memory card, and that is more than fitting for the job!

Like InfiniteDivide said, use VLC it'll play pretty much anything under the sun.