Dash Cams - What Are My Options ?

Grumpy_chap

venomx said:

I went for the Nextbase 322GW Front & Rear Dash Cam Bundle
They will hard-wire and come to me and install for £55

Sounds good - glad you got sorted

venomx

Grumpy_chap said:

venomx said:

I went for the Nextbase 322GW Front & Rear Dash Cam Bundle
They will hard-wire and come to me and install for £55

Sounds good - glad you got sorted

I'm new to dashcams so is this how they work..
They record at all times when driving, then when the storage is nearly full you then authorise it to record over the existing footage and keeps doing this in a loop ?
OR every now and then just format it and start over ?
It comes with a 32GB U3 SD Card. 
Halfords sell 64GB for £35 which is quite expensive. I'd assume it's always best to use the SD cards endorsed from nextbase rather than a third party one?

Apparently the dashcam will detect and jolts to the car and keep the recording which is good to know

Alanp

I had a nextbase 522 installed by halfords and the young chap did a good job, one thing I found with the nextbase is that it ran very hot, I mean REALLY hot, easily solved though, by setting the screen to turn off after a few seconds, it doesn’t need to be on to record footage, 

venomx

Alanp said:

I had a nextbase 522 installed by halfords and the young chap did a good job, one thing I found with the nextbase is that it ran very hot, I mean REALLY hot, easily solved though, by setting the screen to turn off after a few seconds, it doesn’t need to be on to record footage, 

Oh yeah i'll 100% have it turned off at all times when driving.
The front camera is 1080p and the rear is 720p.
I heard that 1x 1080p can get 4 hours of footage with 32GB. So half that, and add a bit more ( as the rear one is 720p ) will give me about 2.5-3 hours right ?

IT says it has a G -Sensor...
https://www.nextbase.com/en-gb/dash-cam-features/g-sensor/

I'd assume shutting and opening the door will not trigger it ?

Grumpy_chap

venomx said:

They record at all times when driving, then when the storage is nearly full you then authorise it to record over the existing footage and keeps doing this in a loop ?
OR every now and then just format it and start over ?
It comes with a 32GB U3 SD Card. 
Halfords sell 64GB for £35 which is quite expensive. I'd assume it's always best to use the SD cards endorsed from nextbase rather than a third party one?

Apparently the dashcam will detect and jolts to the car and keep the recording which is good to know

My dashcam (which is a Nextbase) operates on the continuous loop for recording so that the oldest is automatically over-written once the card is full.  In my case, that is about 4 hours, then the content is over-written.

The card supplied with the Dashcam should be a good one.  Because of the intensive use of the card, it does make sense to go with the type recommended by the dash cam manufacturer.

The cards do deteriorate and I find that the best way is to do a manual format about once a month.

venomx said:

IT says it has a G -Sensor...
https://www.nextbase.com/en-gb/dash-cam-features/g-sensor/

I'd assume shutting and opening the door will not trigger it ?

The G-sensor detects impacts and then saves that bit of recording so it is not automatically over-written on the loop.

Sometimes, a door slam can trigger the sensor.  It is not a problem, but the sensitivity is usually adjustable.

venomx

Went for the 322GW...
Everything works as it should with the cam. However i'm confused with the app because it uses bluetooth AND wifi ? Why is this ? Could someone explain why it doesn't just use bluetooth ?

Is WIFI necessary ? And does it piggyback the phones wifi connection ?
Also does parking mode drain either the dashcam or the car battery ? I have it hardwired to the fusebox ( Halfords )
Thanks

peter3hg

venomx said:

Went for the 322GW...
Everything works as it should with the cam. However i'm confused with the app because it uses bluetooth AND wifi ? Why is this ? Could someone explain why it doesn't just use bluetooth ?

Is WIFI necessary ? And does it piggyback the phones wifi connection ?
Also does parking mode drain either the dashcam or the car battery ? I have it hardwired to the fusebox ( Halfords )
Thanks

The WiFi will be for if you want to transfer a file to your phone or laptop. Bluetooth 4 is limited to about 1 Mbps so would be very very slow for transferring a full file from the camera, whereas WiFi can be much faster.
Usually it is the camera providing the WiFi signal that your phone then connects to.
For most other things however Bluetooth is preferable as it is more power efficient and user friendly.

Parking mode will use your car battery but this shouldn't be an issue if your battery is in good condition. The camera should also have voltage detection built in so the parking mode is disabled if it detects the battery voltage is too low.

venomx

Thanks for the info. Much appreciated.

The "  G-Sensor " seems pretty sensitive. I set it to low, turned the engine off, opened and closed the door and it started recording. Not great but at least if anyone bumps it whilst parked I'll know what caused it

Also when in parking mode, does it use the internal Nextbase battery, or does it run off the car's fusebox ?

neilmcl

Grumpy_chap said:

venomx said:

Just started driving again and want to get a dashcam just in case of any accidents caused by other people.
I know some require to be wired to the fuse-box and need to be installed professionally ( i'd have no idea how to mess with a fuse box )
and some can be plugged into the cigarette lighter socket.

I don't want any wires in the way ( the only cigarette lighter I have is right in the middle by the gear stick ), and i'd like 180degree angles. Ideally 1080p and upwards.

Halfords look good, as I can buy online. Then take it down there and have it fitted

Budget is about £150 max
Best I could find is this... as I can have it delivered to my local Halfords and have it fitted too at a time to suit me. I can also have them come here and fit it. I'll probably go for this one...
https://www.halfords.com/technology/dash-cams/nextbase-222-dash-cam-158982.html
Thanks

Nextbase are often noted as amongst the best dashcams - we have the 312 model and it's great, but there is no reason you can't choose another model if you prefer.

We also found the Halford We Fit service very good for the dashcam install and I'd recommend it.  Competitively priced so why bother faffing around yourself, especially if you are just not that confident with this type of thing, or would simply prefer not to bother.

As far as I am aware, Halfords will only install the dashcam if they supplied it.  They currently have the 222 model that you like at £114 fitted, so well within you budget

By who?

Usually those who couldn't be bothered to shop around and research properly and simply buy off the shelf from the likes of Halfords. IMHO I think there are far better dashcams out there than Nextbase.

venomx

I think it's a brilliant bit of kit.
I also went for it because halfords could come to my house and install it for a decent price ( I personally wouldn't want to mess with a fusebox )