Mirror Dash Cam - Questions

[#1]

Just fitted one of these, after many years of accident free motoring...

Reasonably straight forward .... but the extra red wire had me wondering for a while, until I watched a video on youtube on how  to fit !...( the extra red wire is for those people who need a "reversing camera" to assist them when reversing  !... it can be ignored, if you are competent to reverse without a camera view !... make sure you insulate the end of the wire (just for safety) before tucking it away behind a panel, during the final tidy up of wiring.

OK... so ... it works,.. and works well... however, the instruction booklet is written in size 2.5 font.. and despite photographing it, and enlarging it for printing out on A4.. it still does not actually cover the following questions.

1. does the system require it to be plugged in to the cigarette lighter socket 24/7 to maintain the date and time settings. or can it be unplugged at the end of the journey, and plugged in at start of next journey?

2. will leaving it plugged in drain the car battery over a period of a couple of days, when car not in use.

3. Is it possible to disable the "view" on the mirror, when actually driving along ? as on a test drive around the block, I found it a bit distracting.

4. how long recording time on a  16GB TF card ?

Any tips or advice welcome.

Thanks

[#2]

Hi ... .... ..- - - . .-.

Any idea who makes the device?

1. does the system require it to be plugged in to the cigarette lighter socket 24/7 to maintain the date and time settings. or can it be unplugged at the end of the journey, and plugged in at start of next journey?

If the camera has a built in battery then I would expect the settings to be saved.

2. will leaving it plugged in drain the car battery over a period of a couple of days, when car not in use.

Depends on how it is wired, before or after the ignition key, some lighter plugs are off when the ignition is off.

3. Is it possible to disable the "view" on the mirror, when actually driving along ? as on a test drive around the block, I found it a bit distracting.

Not got one can't answer

4. how long recording time on a  16GB TF card ?

I would say less than an hour

Hope the helps

-.. .-  -.

[#3]

Thanks @Dan_the_Van  for the response.

Chinese... ! !  ( ebay special .... lots for sale ! ) .

Lighter socket is live 24/7  

waiting for the TF card to arrive... max would be 32GB... but just wanted one to see if it worked,... may get larger later!

will have to go through the "menu" when I get the TF card.

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[#4]

Just been out in the car for an hour's run-out to Lake Vyrnwy and back... checking the footage.. on a 16GB card. there are 18 short vids from the forward looking camera... and 18 from the rear looking camera.

The 18 vids are all 3 minute long segments... making the total time  of recording 54 minutes, before it starts to re-write over the earliest vid, I suppose...

Front camera looks like i am a terrible driver... speeding up. slowing down, and some  jerky driving speed bits too.....  ( occasionally, and for only a second or two,.... like those fast forward timelapse sections  used on TV progs, where people are walking around normally, then the do a quick jerky run for a couple of secs and back to normal) .. 

Er.... no... that's not how I drive.... ! !

.. rear camera looks like I am driving on the wrong side of the road... steady speed no jerkiness ... Have checked the cam by having it switched on, and going to the rear of the car... and looking into the rear window, to the screen on the mirror, and it shows my face the right way up.. so the cam seems to be in the right position... ...I wonder if i should try and invert it,  just to check to make sure the cam shows me on the correct side of the road  ????? 

[#5]

Update  ...

The Front Camera......

  been on a couple of runs out, and checking on the videos on return... the "jerky" recording seems to have disappeared from the front camera... That may be due to the fact that the first recordings were made on a 16GB card.... and subsequent recordings on a 32GB card..... but I can't see that the card size would make "that" much difference, or cause jerkiness in the recording.

The rear camera....

is still recording a MIRROR IMAGE...

which shows me driving on the "wrong side" of the road, and vehicles coming up behind, ( following me ) are recorded with their registration plate in "mirror image" also

Is this "normal"  ? ?  

If so... seems a bit daft....  but..... is there any software that can re-record the video in a "mirror image" to produce the correct aspect. i.e. driving on the left side of the road !   ? ? ? ? 

I have contacted the seller, regarding the jerky and mirror image, and they will refund me in full on receipt of the item when i return it..... 

Problem is... do I then order the same type from another supplier.... will it have the same "fault"  ?   seems strange that there are so many suppliers, and all showing a lot of sales, but none seem to be showing this fault in their feedback sections...

[#6]

Really silly question, @shutter , but is the rear camera wired correctly?

[#7]

One thing I can only suggest is check the grade of the card too, not just the size.
I believe that can make a difference.

They'll be a number in a circle by the capacity label on the card. Stupid logo, which probably took someone around a yoctosecond on Microsoft paint to design, but welcome to the world of logo designers and over charging I suppose.

I use a 128Gb SD XC card in my digital SLR camera which is a grade 10. I would see if the number in the (sort of circle) is different.

[#8]

@jab1  Yeh !  kinda silly question, but one i had to double check before answering.... there is a "proper" in-line connector, that the rear camera uses to connect it back along an extended cable back to the front driving mirror location. the two parts of the connector have a "keyway"... so it is impossible to fit them together in the wrong way...  so if it IS wired wrongly, then it is a manufacturing fault... Just having a look inside the connector and there are four contacts in a "square" format..which could be  1 negative 2 positive 3 video 4 sound  ,.... as the recording does have sound on it  ( which is not "mirror image"  )  ( can you have mirror image sound ? he asks jocularly ! ! ) 

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[#9]

OK @shutter In that case, I would suggest the rear camera is faulty somehow, as that was the only reason I asked - some connectors can be inserted either way, which would have explained it, but not so in this case.

[#10]

@Alex   Yeah... according to the sales pitch... the 32GB card which I just bought on ebay, is Class 10...  it's a Kingston card made in Taiwan.. but does not have any "class" number or logo on it.. it works ok... so going to order another one... Can only use max 32GB in the Mirror cam...

[#11]

Yep thanks @shutter my post was a bit of a long shot really. Don't think it is that, but you never know.

Only other thing I can suggest is whether the card itself is a bit dodgy or has gotten corrupted. Worth having a spare you can test to rule that out.

The reason I say that is my SLR was moaning about being able to access my memory card sometimes when I put it in playback mode. So I made sure I got every photo off there ASAP as a matter of priority, which was done.

My spare 64Gb is currently in use for my (real) Commodore 64 and using it for games 😀

I'll get another one, more of a reminder to myself now.

[#12 · Accepted solution]

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@shutter wrote:

The rear camera....

is still recording a MIRROR IMAGE...

which shows me driving on the "wrong side" of the road, and vehicles coming up behind, ( following me ) are recorded with their registration plate in "mirror image" also

Is this "normal"  ? ?  

If so... seems a bit daft....  but..... is there any software that can re-record the video in a "mirror image" to produce the correct aspect. i.e. driving on the left side of the road !   ? ? ? ? 

It seems a bit short sighted that there's no option in the camera settings to flip the image either horizontally or vertically, or even both.

I don't think you've mentioned which software you're viewing the videos with @shutter but if it's proprietary maybe there's a setting in there somewhere?

If not, you can flip both horizontally and vertically using VLC. 

Edit: grammar

[#13]

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@jab1 wrote:

OK @shutter In that case, I would suggest the rear camera is faulty somehow, as that was the only reason I asked - some connectors can be inserted either way, which would have explained it, but not so in this case.

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Yup.... I'm of the same opinion... so i will complete the return when i get back home... and hope the replacement (from another supplier ) works properly. !!

cheers all

 will update....................

[#14]

@RobPN   Yes I know you can flip " images "  horizontally or vertically"   Irfanview does that very well indeed.

but we are not talking about "single" images... we are talking about video... and I have not heard of any software in the video range, that will give a "mirror image" effect on video.  Hence my question regarding other members wider knowledge on the subject.

I am using SMPlayer on my Laptop... which has excellent quality reproduction of video from the front camera and the same from the rear camera..(*except for the mirror image ).

SMPlayer is an excellent Media player, which i have used for a number of years... replacing my old favourite GOM Player.

[#15]

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@shutter wrote:

@RobPN   Yes I know you can flip " images "  horizontally or vertically"   Irfanview does that very well indeed.

but we are not talking about "single" images... we are talking about video... and I have not heard of any software in the video range, that will give a "mirror image" effect on video.  Hence my question regarding other members wider knowledge on the subject.

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Yes, I know you're not talking about single images @shutter , I was referring to video which is also referred to as an image, which is why I mentioned that VLC has the ability to flip the video (i.e. reverse the mirror image).

I just checked and you can do it 'on the fly', and you can probably even re-save it flipped if you really want to.

EDIT:  SMPlayer flip video