@fuzzmanmatt
I was super excited until I hit the bookmarked page entitled “Meh”. So sort of like solidarity then?

@fuzzmanmatt Hoping for wireless power?

@spitfire6006006 hoping for micro usb. I don’t expect usb-c at this price. I don’t expect a Panasonic Arbitrator to ever show up here, but dang. I guess not everybody pulled down their headliner to install USB ports above their mirror while they were installing a rear view camera and emergency lights, huh?

@fuzzmanmatt @spitfire6006006 Maybe hoping for an internal battery to provide reasonable usefulness without hardwired power?
/giphy reasonable usefulness battery

@fuzzmanmatt Is that really a mini USB plug on it?

@fuzzmanmatt @Kerig3 Par for the course for dash cams for some reason.

@fuzzmanmatt @Kerig3 Yup. I think it’s more for sturdiness. I think a lot of gps’s and stuff like this still use mini

@fuzzmanmatt @spitfire6006006 You run a usb cable up there. It’s really easy to tuck it in where it’s out of the way and out of sight. You go along the pillar the along the headliner.

@eonfifty @fuzzmanmatt @spitfire6006006 It has an internal battery. Only 320 mAh and it will record only a 30 second clip when it detects a shock when running on battery, but a battery nonetheless

@fuzzmanmatt @Kerig3 @spitfire6006006 I think so too.

@fuzzmanmatt @GLaDOS @spitfire6006006

@eonfifty @fuzzmanmatt @GLaDOS @spitfire6006006 The battery is only designed to allow the files to properly close out when the power is disconnected. I wouldn’t even count on 30 seconds of recording by battery power alone.

Dash cams typically need constant 12v power if you want parking protection.

@eonfifty @fuzzmanmatt @GLaDOS @narfcake idk, it seems to record when the car’s off. though i had to lower the sensitivity, don’t need to record every time the wind blows

@fuzzmanmatt @Kerig3 @spitfire6006006 This! Micro USB is flimsier and less reliable. It’s fine for phones and things where the connector is unlikely to experience stress, but Mini is a much stronger connector.
I have a pair of portable DVD players that just sit in a cabinet. They used Micro USB for power and they connectors lost all retention after my kids used them for about four hours.

@fuzzmanmatt, the charging cable is an auto charger cable because the device is hopefully in one’s auto!! The only other way to charge this cheap device is with a cheap battery charger, but why waste the juice in a charger when you can use the auto battery to charge it, plus, there’s no reason it needs charging That often, less, one has alot of wrecks!! I don’t like the cheap namebrand!! Wait!! …I thought it was a Viva product, My Bad!! I humbly admit I was wrong, unless the Vava brand’s no better than a Viva brand!!..what-fn-ever!!

@fuzzmanmatt, Okay, please, disregard my comment! I couldn’t delete it & I needs my morning coffee & pain meds!! My Bad, again!! Damn… I could use a blunt¡!¡

@fuzzmanmatt cameras like this cannot have a battery, it will explode in the hot sun. There is a capacitor that gives it the power to keep date and stay on briefly, but no dash cam has a battery.

@fuzzmanmatt @the_inevitable

No, capacitors are a rarity for dash cams. They sound great in principle, but personal experience with a capacitor-based camera (this one) soured me on the idea.

Eventually the capacitor degraded to the point that there wasn’t enough juice to survive a split-second power interruption caused by a bump in the road. Needless to say, that happened a lot, so I went back to batteries. (Even a camera with a dwindling battery won’t be that hypersensitive.)

I’ve owned five or six different models, which makes me kind of a dash cam enthusiast, I guess? All but one used a battery. Haven’t had any explosions here in the Northeast, but maybe in Arizona it would be more of a risk. (Heat does shorten the battery’s life, but it’s usually something else that dooms the cameras I’ve owned.)

My latest dash cam (this one) has a magnetic mount that the USB cable plugs into, so it’s easy enough to rip the camera off my windshield (“rip” is the word — it’s a ridiculously strong magnet) and bring it inside. Not because of temperature extremes, but because I haven’t been driving enough to keep the battery from running down. (Thanks pandemic!) So I charge it in the house before I go out.

@xterraguy, because¡!

@xterraguy that’s the spirit!

@username probably went down your defroster vents

@username, if you have kids then they coulda aped it!! Buy another SD card & see if it pops out again! Maybe it’ll record the culpret if there Is one! Surely your spouse… well, nevermind!!

@djslack Can’t get there from here. Anymore.

@djslack @pmarin Canada is serious about US folks not coming in: “Northern Kentucky man faces $750,000 fine, possible jail, for violating Canada’s Quarantine Act”.

@djslack @Kyser_Soze @pmarin Well a fine that big would be enough to keep him from returning to Canada. Ever.

@BGreider What state?

@msayler
Fine! I’ll buy one.

@muzztime only 30 fps though…

@jayman007 better than nothing. Using a phone as a webcam is locked at 30fps as well

@muzztime I don’t think so. I think it just came up as a storage device when I plugged mine into the pc

@Kyser_Soze Actually, by your anecdote, you don’t need GPS, just the threat- which’ll work whether your dash cam actually has it or not.
IIRC, at least one site recommended not to have GPS, because it can also be used against you in court.

@Kyser_Soze WOW!!! way to interject race where it wasnt necessary

@Kyser_Soze @wp23n It is necessary for Americans to talk about race. There are some Americans who don’t understand racism, so they don’t see racism when it happens.

Those that don’t see racism may believe it doesn’t exist. They often do things that are cluelessly racist.

@hamjudo @Kyser_Soze @wp23n, OR they don’t like talking about racism because it makes their racist fuckin ass un-fn-comfortable!! They don’t mind whinning about how it was really unneccessary to bring it fuckin up though!

@decoratedwarvet @hamjudo @Kyser_Soze @wp23n Not sure how saying “Driver was white, otherwise the cop probably would’ve shot him.” is really construed as a discussion about race or racism. Unless you are referring to that statement itself as ambiguous racist rhetoric. Because to really round out the statement, and make it fit the current politicized race debate, you would have to add that the cop is white. If a police officer of color shot a black man, this statement would not apply in current race debate. So far in 2020, 242 white people have been shot to death by police versus 123 Blacks.
“Sadly, the trend of fatal police shootings in the United States seems to only be increasing, with a total 661 civilians having been shot, 123 of whom were Black, as of August 30, 2020.” Source: https://www.statista.com/statistics/585152/people-shot-to-death-by-us-police-by-race/

@accelerator @decoratedwarvet @hamjudo @Kyser_Soze @wp23n

Since the white population is 60% of the entire population and the black population is 14% it doesn’t make sense to say ‘more white people got shot, look at that?’.

Black people get killed by the police at a higher rate per-capita. It’s a thing.

https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/US/IPE120218

@accelerator @hamjudo @Kyser_Soze @wp23n, what if the cop was black, Then how would the debate play out¿ By the way, the commentor who said ‘if he were black he would’ve shot him’ [not verbatum] said he saw a video on YouTube, so logically speaking, debate wise, one could conclude had the officer not been white, he would’ve said so, AND OR would Not have even brought that scenario up at all!! I do have to wonder why all those white people being killed by the police are never mentioned in the damn media!! I hope this is not just a statement Mr tRumpty Dumpty made!! I don’t form my debates by any rhetoric Cheeto tweets!! I will have to research those stats & log on to the link that you provided & I wanna see if they provide stats of how many Hispanics are killed by the cops, or are they included [& counted as white] in with the whites just to bring thosefucking numbers up!! BTW, usually a race debate is between an anri-racist & a racist, otherwise it would just be catagorized as a discussion, not as a debate!! JSYK!!

@accelerator @hamjudo @Kyser_Soze @redshift @wp23n, Well Said,…debate wise, of fukn course!!

@decoratedwarvet @hamjudo @Kyser_Soze @wp23n These are interesting and compelling thoughts. The meh community is very diverse! I have to add a disclaimer to my link. I really didn’t research at all as to whether or not those numbers are accurate or how they were derived. Also, as was said, statistics derived by dividing numerator by denominator would equal a higher percentage of killings in the Black population. The ambiguity surrounding skin color as a definer of race is tricky. The denominator is blurry. I’m not really even sure what race I am! I haven’t done the DNA search thing. I’m a mutt and they probably wouldn’t figure out what race I am until I got shot.
Anyway, I’m really not good at this race defining thing. I believe we are all brothers and sisters and I view the world this way from a somewhat “Polly Anna” lens. On that note, I wish all my human family peace and love.

@accelerator @hamjudo @Kyser_Soze @wp23n, I here you, brother!! The reason I mentioned the Hispanic situation is cause I’m Hispanic, but on my license it had always classified me as being white. I don’t drive now, so don’t know if that has changed!! I do know numbers & stats can get tricky. A great example, odd fact & trivia is that you need a slide rule, or calculator in Algebra & Trig, but need neither for Calculus analysis, and calculations. Who Knew¿? Ergo, I’ve learned to take life with a grain of salt,… maybe two grains!!

@Kyser_Soze absurd you people think you’re doing anything but inciting hate with these types of remarks. No one in America is “probably” going to get shot interacting with police, no matter the race. You’re either a victim of fear mongering or a fear monger yourself.

@mike808 $75-$125 will get you good one on Amazon. $150 will get you one with more features. $200-$300 will get you even better features and/or features, but you’re getting less bang for the buck on the top end of that range.

@GLaDOS @mike808 And at some point you have so much value sitting in full view in your car that it will get stolen before it gets used to record an accident.

@mellowirishgent

@mellowirishgent Depends on the size of the SD card. I turned off the Audio and record the highest resolution, and a I estimate the 16GB card I have in it will store about 2 hours. I don’t need more than that, but still might bump up to 32.

Also depends on how many events it “locked”. Locked videos don’t get overridden, so they just take up space. I turned off the impact sensor, it was always locking video if the road isn’t newly paved and perfectly smooth. It will remind you periodically to format the card, which clears all the locked footage.

They sell adapters for everything, but you shouldn’t need one. The included cable is long enough to run from the cig lighter for my back seat, up the side of my car, to the windshield, and to the camera in the middle. And then some. All tucked in along the way, and it comes with sticky clips to hold it in place.

I got one last time, and it’s been great, overall. I had to replace the suction cup mount, but that was cheap. Recording at night, or in direct light, with glare, isn’t great. But it’s worth this price. And I, for one, am glad it doesn’t specify the speed of travel. I just wish there was an online manual that more thoroughly explained all the options.

Luckily I haven’t had to use it for an accident or road rage incident, yet. But it did nicely capture when we turned a corner and a 10-point buck was standing in the middle of the road. It’s very easy to pop the card into a laptop add copy the video over.

@mellowirishgent You can get any kind of direct adapter between any two of USB/miniUSB/microUSB on ebay. You can also get any kind of cable with any two of those three connections. It will never be a problem to get a correct cable between any of these. Hint: check “US Only” on the ebay page to get it from US in less than a week, paying an extra dollar or two, instead of direct from china in 4-6 weeks.

@GeckoD thank you for that breakdown. I bought one last time it was here, or maybe one of the sister sites, and it seems decent enough for the price. But the settings are not all real obvious and one thing that has bothered me was a yellow pop-up randomly saying it wouldn’t save, or something like that. I think I was running out of space in the included 8gb and it is likely because of the “auto lock feature” you mentioned from random street bumps. So I’ll just need to adjust that to stop that annoying issue. I had to idea that it was lol. So thanks!

@shahnm And what is Glen doing in Russia?!!!
Oh, ГЛЭН!!!

@GLaDOS Indeed. FWIW, micro SD cards are one of the most counterfeited items out there. It’s easy to rewrite the header to make it appear to be, say, 256GB when in reality it’s only 16GB. It will write like normal until it runs out of space. These things are all over Amazon and other outlets. Whenever I buy flash memory or SSD I just go straight to the manufacturer. The price difference is really minimal and the peace of mind is worth it.
https://shop.westerndigital.com/c/memory-cards.security-camera.microsd_cards

@GLaDOS @tweezak Or you can just run a memory card test after purchase. Takes a few hours but worth it.

@tweezak Maybe I’ll start a YouTube channel of stupid stuff I see on the freeway. Some of it really just makes you shake your head. Maybe I’ll call it “That Guy” because I’m “that guy” that drives the speed limit on the freeway (unless I’m passing…then I wick it up to stay out of the way).

@tweezak Funny timing, I’m in the Portland Oregon area and this morning on the local news, there was a story about a guy that started doing exactly that, partly after being in several incidents with no proof of what “the other guy” did. So now he records all drives and then if anything interesting happened, extracts the video and submits to YouTube. it’s called “Bad Driving in Portland” or something like that.

@tweezak I wish we’d had one the day mom and I were on the interstate and there was a freaking black bear sitting in the middle of the inside lane. Wasn’t close to the mountains or anything, so I still have no idea where it came from.

@tweezak I have a Garmin unit that is a combined GPS/Dashcam that does that. It’s pretty cool having it integrated. I think it’s discontinued, though, and not cheap in any case.

@llennyfar It worked! Your order number is: simplistic-problematic-ant

/image simplistic problematic ant

@llennyfar @mediocrebot that’s too bad - can only see 1 of the 5 tenets of “neliberalis”

@IAMIS I was actually going to mention that because: who would believe that now? When I started working on this type of device in the electronics industry, it was about 20 years ago, the sizes were so small, you could only get maybe 64 or 128 MB (not GB); it was enough to store a music album or two in heavily-compressed MP3, or a few photos from a digital camera (which did not have high megapixel count yet). An engineer I was working with at a company said “someday you will be able to put a whole movie it” – and co-incidentally 8GB is about the size of a typical DVD actual storage. I said “bah, that’s ridiculous!” But it would take several years to get to that point, mid-2000’s, and the cost of the first ones was prohibitive (just like a 512GB or 1TB card is now).

@IAMIS Remember when 8 GB hard drives were a couple hundred bucks? When SD cards started getting high in capacity, I remember thinking that it was a miracle getting that much data into such a small physical volume, and at prices similar to old gigantic drives.

@IAMIS Yes, Grandpa, we remember…

@aevus @IAMIS I better not mention how excited I was to see an 80 megabyte hard drive sell for under $1000 back when I started working on PCs.

(Controller sold separately.)

For my first computer (circa 1993), I paid $500 for 24MB of RAM.

@haydesigner wow, that was a fuckton of RAM for 1993.

I remember working tech support in the nineties and having someone with a high end rig call in. When I asked how much memory they had, they said one gigabyte and my response was “you mean one megabyte, right?” The possibility if a gigabyte of RAM had never occurred to me.

@bushrod awesome!

VAN MURALS! GROUND SQUIRRELS! SPIT CURLS! AWESOME!

BTW, I believe VAVA is part of Chinese Sunvalley, also owner of RAVPower and Taotronics. For what it is worth, I’ve had pretty good luck and support from those brands.

@RedOak May your disappointment be not profound!

@RedOak no business “charges” tax. They’re forced to collect it.

@lyoness splitting short hairs. Fine, “collecting”. However, in order to “collect” it, they must “charge” their customer for it.

@lyoness @RedOak Of the two things that are certain: death and taxes, you should be grateful that Meh is only collecting on the second one. So far, anyway.

@TheFLP 32GB is the FAT32 limit on a SD card.

@narfcake

I would have thought microSDXC and exFAT were commonplace by now, but you’re right, only my most recent (and most expensive) camera has it.

@TheFLP What, the same 32GB limit as in the wonderful and similarly priced “security” camera from Waze isn’t enough?

@narfcake @TheFLP There are programs you can buy that will format cards larger than 32GB or you can use the free program at: http://www.ridgecrop.demon.co.uk/index.htm?guiformat.htm

@CatFriend
This one? (I posted earlier)

If this sells out, this might be a reasonable alternative for $5 more.
https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B07XB78LTH

Also supports 64GB cards, and 170° field.

@CatFriend But 1080 video only requires 2.07 MP. (sometimes mentioned as 2.1MP rounded up). not sure what the 2.0MP means for this, maybe you get a few less pixels. Or maybe just 2.0 sounded better. Why would you put that on the lens anyway – the lens doesn’t care how many MP the sensor is.

Anyway a 12MP sensor in a camera like this doesn’t make sense – possibly the sensor is actually 12MP but the picture is reduced down to 1080 in that Amazon one? Or maybe it can take still photos at higher resolution?

@CatFriend @pmarin Your 2Mpx figure doesn’t account for color depth. An HD image (1920x1080) is 2MP. In black and white, with no dithering or anti-aliasing.

So a 12Mpx “camera” is a better image with more color depth. Likely 6 bits, or perhaps split with the IR CCD.

@mike808 Yep, that one. 8^)

FWIW, before this I had a super-cheap, no-name dash cam which did specifically have auto-rollover, and I did not hate that one.

@Fordham99 Same. Taco?

@bseiber Indeed!