[fine69]

My sister's coming from the US in another month and I was thinking of asking her to get me a dashcam. I was thinking of a dual-lens dashcam but not sure where to even start, bestbuy, amazon? Any tips?

[Dry Ice]

Originally Posted by Soumyajit9

Buddy, what video editing tool you use to crop the video and retain the quality ? My videos are in the range of 200+ MB for a 2 minute shot.

I use GoPro studio. Mine are similar, ~300 MB for 3 min 1080p footage.

[skpower]

Finally, I decided to purchase a car dash cam. After going through many reviews here and other websites, I zeroed on "Transcend 16 GB Drive Pro 220".

I ordered in Amazon on 23rd Jan and got the delivery on the very next day. I paid an amount of INR 10,425/-. Also eligible to get 15% cashback later on the paid amount as per their republic day offer campaign for Citi bank credit/debit card.

Now coming to the camera, it is very easy to operate and it captures very good night time video. I feel day time video are little exposed. Built-in microphone of this camera is on weaker side as compared to the regular mic on our mobiles/ laptops.

[gypsyFreak]

Originally Posted by samaspire

Why can't we use a smartphone as a dashcam?

I did try this, with some what positive results. Will try to post it as a DIY sometime next week, as I don't have the vehicle with me now...

[narayanang76]

Originally Posted by samaspire

Why can't we use a smartphone as a dashcam?

We can use Smartphone with specific DashCam App and experience it. There are many varieties of Smart Phone Apps available as well. However they can be used to gain some experience on DashCam. On long run or looking for seamless, less interfacing experience, then better move on to a device which meet your requirements.

As mentioned by others already, phones working as dashcams can:
- Overheat in few minutes
- Not use the other features of phone, call, message, directions etc
- Not be having enough, dedicated memory for hours of usage. Memory can be full in no time
- Not starting its dashcam functions automatically when car start, need to activate them manually
- Not having wide angle lens. most dashcam have 120 degree or upto 170 degree wide angle (fish eye) type lens. This is very useful for wide area coverage and lens having infinite focus
- Not having the performance of many of the good quality dashcams. Good quality Dashcam processors (Ambarella etc) are known for high performance and high bit rate for video recording to the memory along with non interfacing other functions. In case of jerk, power interruptions etc, the currently recording video can get corrupted and be unusable, on your phone and also on the lower grade dashcams. This is an important aspect, in situation of accident, if this happens then the clip having that crucial moment may render unusable as it gets corrupted in most cases.

Some of the good quality Dashcams take care of many of the above points, helping us, just fix the cam once and then forget about it, unless you have to retrieve the videos from the memory.

Hope this helps.

Cheers,
narayanang76

[Soumyajit9]

Originally Posted by Dry Ice

I use GoPro studio. Mine are similar, ~300 MB for 3 min 1080p footage.

So you edit the video in GoPro Studio software ? Does it compress the file or you upload the trimmed footage directly ?

I trim the video in some freeware, but it still goes in range of 50 MB for about 20 seconds of footage. If I compress, the quality goes for a toss.
I use a Blaupunkt dashcam.

[sibitg]

I am using Transcend DrivePro 100. I bought this from Amazon. Earlier I ordered HP F800X from Amazon and used it for one day, then I found that its Wifi is not working. So I returned it and bought Transcend DrivePro 100. HP one had GPS and Wifi, while this particular Transcend model does not have GPS or Wifi. Also HP one had a larger lcd screen compared to this Transcend model. The clarity of HP lcd screen was much better than this Transcend. I am yet to download the video to my computer to check the actual video quality of this Transcend model. If video quality is same as that of HP cam, I will not change this cam. I think I does not need Wifi or GPS. GPS models can record speed also in the footage.

[nareshov]

Use something like https://handbrake.fr/features.php and re-encode using x264 codec with 'constant quality' setting (RF). x264 compresses much better while retaining quality.

[Dry Ice]

Originally Posted by Soumyajit9

So you edit the video in GoPro Studio software ? Does it compress the file or you upload the trimmed footage directly ?

I trim the video in some freeware, but it still goes in range of 50 MB for about 20 seconds of footage. If I compress, the quality goes for a toss.
I use a Blaupunkt dashcam.

I don't compress it. Just import the clips into GoPro studio, trim out the portions not required and save as a new 1080p mp4 file. I then upload it to YouTube. The last clip I uploaded was around 70 MB big for ~40 seconds of footage. YouTube takes care of the compression I believe but yes, the quality is reduced compared to the original RAW video.

[sibitg]

Originally Posted by samaspire

Why can't we use a smartphone as a dashcam?

I tried this and I faced the below issues.
1. The main issue I faced was when I place the phone on mobile holder its volume key get pressed. My phone is Moto G3 and its volume key is on the side. So when I open the camera it takes pictures continuously since volume key is a shortcut for taking pictures. I didn't check is there any way I can change the volume key shortcut.
2. The mobile holder is always visible in the footage. In case of Dashcam, the Dashcam holder is on the top, so it won't obstruct camera view. I couldn't find a suitable position for my phone holder so that it won't obstruct the mobile camera view.
3. To get wide angle view we need to keep mobile horizontally. Most of the mobile holders can be rotated 360 degree, but it is designed to support the phone in vertical orientation. Also you can not keep the phone in the center of the holder while in horizontal position, because the holder itself will cover the camera. So you have to move the phone to one side of the holder so that camera have a clear view of the road. So the phone wont be perfectly balanced in the holder in horizontal position. So there is a possibility that the phone may fall down when you deal with potholes.

[goandude]

I placed the order for the GT 300 on 17 Jan through Aliexpress. The website tracking info as follows

2016-01-28 20:05 India, Item Arrived at India
2016-01-28 10:43 MPC PMIH (KLIA), Item Sent to INDIA
2016-01-24 12:43 MPC PMIH (KLIA), Item Posted Over The Counter to India
2016-01-23 09:32 MPC PMIH (KLIA), Dispatch PreAlert to India

Does it take so long to be delivered even after reaching India?

[pedrolourenco]

Originally Posted by goandude

Does it take so long to be delivered even after reaching India?

Apparently it does. I had ordered cycling apparel on Aliexpress and it arrived after 45 days. It reached Kolkatta in 5 days and then was held up at customs for over a month. Eventually the duty charged was zero.

[chinmaybaikar]

Received this today.
Order date: 16/01/2016
Website: Aliexpress
Seller: Shenzen Topbox
Price: $19.99
Shipping company: Sweden Post
Notice the quoted price on the package
Box not in its best shape, but no damage so no worries!


Will install it by this weekend and upload some videos. There's many GT300 reviews so videos aren't really needed.

[anshuman_v]

Guys, I have narrowed down to this dashcam from amazon.com. Costs $110 (including a 32GB SD card). It is a bestseller on amazon and has quite a few positive reviews. Anyone have any experience with this, please share your reviews.


http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...f_rd_i=desktop

[shetty_rohan]

Originally Posted by anshuman_v

Guys, I have narrowed down to this dashcam from amazon.com. Costs $110 (including a 32GB SD card). It is a bestseller on amazon and has quite a few positive reviews.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...f_rd_i=desktop

Hi Ansuman,
Even, I was looking at following(under $100) dashcams which have similar specifications and good reviews
- Spy Tec A118-C Capacitor Edition
link : http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...h_gw_g422_i4_r
cost : $87
- Rexing V1 2.7"(mentioned by you)
link : http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...h_gw_g422_i3_r
cost : $100
- Black Box B40-C Capacitor + GPS Stealth Dash Cam
link : http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...h_gw_g422_i1_r
cost : $87
This has the GPS and capacitor(instead of battery), so I guess this is better than Rexing.