Checking dash cam recordings/memory card

[charliecambs]

Having had my front& rear dashcam for sometime and fortunately never needed to download any incidents. I was more than a little disappointed when after a " white van man" decided to plant himself a few feet behind me in a steady 3 lanes of traffic ( no where to safely move out of his way) and flash his lights including two LED lamps on his dashboard at me repeatedly.
He then decided to wildly Lane swap.
Got to destination went to download and "SD card not found" . I've tried in reader and it's died.

I'll remember to do a test download now and then with a new card as I don't recall any warning indicators.

I suggest it's worth checking now and then!

 

[bricol]

I discovered the same some years ago - I have since found a regular use (weekly or so) of the format option on the camera keeps it running smoothly, rather than letting it overwrite.

 

[droopsnoot]

I often find on mine that the videos it won't play are the ones that I want. But mine's a bit rubbish anyway, as anyone who's seen any of my "spotted" photos taken from it will agree.

 

[Turbo]

I discovered the same some years ago - I have since found a regular use (weekly or so) of the format option on the camera keeps it running smoothly, rather than letting it overwrite.

As far as I know you are not supposed to format sd cards too often as it eventually breaks them.

 

[Turbo]

Having had my front& rear dashcam for sometime and fortunately never needed to download any incidents. I was more than a little disappointed when after a " white van man" decided to plant himself a few feet behind me in a steady 3 lanes of traffic ( no where to safely move out of his way) and flash his lights including two LED lamps on his dashboard at me repeatedly.
He then decided to wildly Lane swap.
Got to destination went to download and "SD card not found" . I've tried in reader and it's died.

I'll remember to do a test download now and then with a new card as I don't recall any warning indicators.

I suggest it's worth checking now and then!

Is it a nextbase dashcam? They are notorious for this.

 

[bricol]

As far as I know you are not supposed to format sd cards too often as it eventually breaks them.

Mines a Nextbase, bought a decade ago at least. SD card is getting one a bit now - formatting it every couple of weeks at the latest for all that time. Still working, clear video. Even used it as a standalone video camera for machine operation in low light when on site.

In fact my only complaint about it during all this time, is the random detaching of the suction cup mount from the screen - I have the power cable tied around the mount and looped around the rear-view mirror so it doesn't fall as far now. It'll stay there for weeks, months even, then gets fed up/scared of the view.

 

[sickpup]

Most modern cameras will tell you when they are recording and will take large capacity memory cards.
Older cameras take smaller capacity memory cards and the constant overwriting kills them regardless of formats. Formatting may well extend the life of the cards but not indefinitely. The smaller the card and the higher resolution the camera, the quicker the card wears out

Most modern cameras I've used will tell you when they are recording or have a red flashing light to tell you things are good, if they don't tell you, they aren't working.

I've recommended Vsysto systems for some time, they are good, cheap and reliable and hardy enough to work for years in the harsh environment of a motorcycle. These tell you they are recording with an announcement.
I've just fitted a Botslab G980H in the car which was very cheap for a 4K system which is all fine so far. It tells you it is up and running with the screen switching on for 60 seconds and a red flashing recording light.

Systems have come a long way in just 5 years. I'd recommend anyone with an older camera to replace it. Newer cameras are more reliable, take considerably larger memory cards and the pictures are a lot clearer now with much better low light performance.

 

[BrokenBiker]

Is it a nextbase dashcam? They are notorious for this.

I've had a next base for around 10 years now, seems to work just fine apart from occasionally it will tell me the SD card is full even though it should be on loop, so I have to format and then 'reset' the loop recording settings. That's a fairly recent issue over the last year. I keep meaning to upgrade, but at the same time it still works fine and I can download straight to my phone if needed

 

[Robotstar5]

I've had a next base for around 10 years now.....

We have Nextbase cameras in both cars, they may get formatted once a year if we remember and don't have any problems.

 

[charliecambs]

We have Nextbase cameras in both cars, they may get formatted once a year if we remember and don't have any problems.

I have to say it was a " cheapo" camera with included memory card and I guess continual over writing and heat from sun probably ages the card. It's been in the car 2 years so probably 18 to 20000 miles of recording so I guess not bad.
Better re read the manual and see if there's a warning for the card!

I tried card in card reader on pc and it's not seen so definitely dead.

 

[Dev]

SDcards have a limited amount of times you can write data to each part of memory before they fail, in something like a dashcam which is writing constantly you need to treat the SDCard as consumable and replace it periodically. Some types of SDCard have ‘wear levelling’ which tries to extend the life by making sure all the memory is used instead of the one bit over and over but in a dashcam which is constantly full and overwriting the oldest footage I’m not sure it’s make much difference.

https://documents.westerndigital.com/content/dam/doc-library/en_us/assets/public/western-digital/collateral/brochure/brochure-removable-flash-storage.pdf

You’ll see ‘endurance’ listed - that’s how much data you can write before it starts to fail. So a 1TB card with Up to 512 TBW (terrabyte writes) can be fully filled 512 times before it’ll start to fail.

 

[Jackimus]

This is a big advantage of conventional magnetic recording a la HDDs - theoretically infinite lifespan, discounting wear of the arm and bearings!

HDDs are also shelf stable whereas flash and SSD memory is not - if you leave an SSD unpowered for a long time, voltage slips out of the pockets it is supposed to be in, causing data loss, and eventually it will be dead.