Best Dashcam

UPS came in Wednesday evening and delivered my CDR 840. So far, I am very pleased with it. I did a trial run in my pickup, but have not been back out in the big truck yet. The picture is fantastic. I have yet to try it at night though. There is an exposure control in the menu, so if it's too dark I can adjust it.

First impressions. The user guide is sort of cryptic. It's in decent English, but isn't real clear on some operations. On the other hand, it's not too hard to figure out with a little trial and error. The display on the unit is tiny. In my pickup that's not a big deal. Depending on where I mount it in the big truck, I may need to plan extra power wire length to bring the camera closer to me for viewing the screen. Also to reach the "emergency" button from behind the wheel, in order to lock a video segment. Ordinarily I wouldn't need to see the little screen, so it's not a tremendous problem.

The video is awesome. The DriveHD application is also very cool. Full size video, moving map, speed and GPS coordinates, and shock sensor track is all displayed. You can customize the view by moving or turning off panels if you want to clean up the screen.



If you use the screen grab button, you get a jpeg of the video view only. Time and GPS coordinates are overlaid, but not speed or any of the other data presented in the app. Similar, if you view the raw video files. This is a sort of important detail, as you only get the extended stuff in the DriveHD app, which is Windows only. I use Macs; however, I do have a Windows VM running in Parallels. So I can use the app. I did install the VLC media player in Mac OSX to try it out, and it works great. I did not look for an iPad compatible avi viewer, since I don't have an iPad.

One concern I did have, was not recording too much video. That is, if I am involved in an accident, I don't want 3 days of footage available for an ambulance chaser to use against me. Turns out that is not a problem. With video at the highest setting, the 8GB card it comes with will capture only 55 minutes of video before looping. Video segments are 3 minutes each, so I'd subtract from that 55 minutes any segments saved using the emergency button.

Another thing I plan to experiment with, is the motion detection feature. I'm thinking it might be useful when parked. Depending on how sensitive it is, I may purchase a larger memory card for this use. The 840 will take up to a 32GB card, which would capture a little over 4 1/2 hrs.

I'll come back and update with any interesting discoveries as I begin using this on a regular basis.

 

I'm adding this as a separate post, since it could be important for people using older laptops or less burly mobile devices, who are considering one of these things (not just this Cobra model I bought).

Video processing and playback is very processor and data flow intensive. The laptop I carry is a decently equipped Macbook Air. However, the Windows VM is set up bare-bones with a single processor and minimum RAM and video memory. On that, the DriveHD video is very jittery and hard to watch.

At home, the Windows VM is a much more robust setup, on a well equipped MacPro, and configured with 4 processors, along with plenty of RAM and video memory. The app works perfectly on that one.

Another consideration is watching video over a usb connection. If you have less than ideal video playback, it might help to copy files to your hard drive before viewing. Beware, the highest setting video quality produces a file at 100MB per minute. The files can really consume some space if that's an issue for you.

Now, with all that said, the Cobra CDR 840 does have a mini HDMI port. You can connect it straight to an HD capable TV set (with an appropriate cable, not included) and view videos that way, without a computer.

 

Although I primarily drive my new Freightliner & reefer during the day here is a video I down loaded driving last night on I-70 in Colorado. My windshield is filthy & I'm not sure what night setting I have it on but look to the right of the screen for the deer sign and about 50 yards beyond the sign I start honking my air horn and you'll see a decoy deer. What I saw that you don't see is the decoy did not move, the deer moves it's head left to right.....

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B8CZK5gdrXAXR3hCUkhFbDNieVU&authuser=0

I'm not proud of this video but it shows me driving on Oregon 140 north in late March early April 2015 driving down this mountain top. I was dispatched to take this route. A combination of a strong gust of wind and moving to the right ever so slightly with the right front steer tire to avoid clipping mirrors with an on coming truck and the steer tire goes off the pavement and the rest, well let's just say it was a very expensive experience. 2015 Freightliner Cascadia and 2015 Wabash Dry Van. The date & time are incorrect. Notice the road signs and the cliff to the left with no guardrail. The towing bill, unloading the trailer contents, and removing everything off the roadway was $ 30,000.00 alone. Trailer was a loss, insurance is still to this day bickering over totaling the truck or repairing it....

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B8CZK5gdrXAXWFNzazNRaklBaDg&authuser=0

 

Found out last night that my garmin 10 hasn't new recording steadily. It picks and chooses when it writes to the memory card. I had another truck, that I was passing, kick up some debris and it went into my lane and tore the air lines off both passenger side trailer brake cannisters. I go to check the video file and only several hours our of the last 2 days are recorded. I tried again this morning and nada. Pretty disappointed overall with it

 

Here is the follow up in the news on the incident in the video.
http://www.11alive.com/story/news/nation-now/2015/04/28/camaro-big-crash-passing-shoulder/26515311/

 

I had to disable the automatic save on my 20. It's too sensitive for big trucks, even on low. My 32GB card, which holds something like 12 hours of video, gets filled with road construction and pothole videos in a couple of days. Mine is within reach, and I just hit the button is there's something I want to save.

My only problem is that the four wheelers stopped doing the truly spectacularly stupid stuff in front of me as soon as I got my camera installed...

 

If you have an iphone, there is an app called Car Camera DVR which will record video in a continuous loop. If your iphone has a GPS receiver it will also overlay GPS coordinates and speed.

I had an old iphone 4S that I wasn't using any more. Deleted most of the other apps to free up memory and now it's my dash cam. Works with just about any cell phone mount.

The app is either free (with ads, and unable to export videos) or $3.99 (without ads and able to export videos).

The down side is that you can't use the phone for anything else while the cam app is running. For me that didn't matter since it was an old phone and I have a newer one for doing all the usual phone stuff.

I've been using it for a couple of weeks now. So far so good.

 

I use the DB4 from Dieselboss since 2 years now. It runs 24/7 and I only stop it when I need to download some footage. The quality is only 720p wich is acceptable.
I stopped the sound because there is a rattling noise coming from the plastics holder or somewhere, and I can't stand that while I watch the footage. The loud rattling noise is the only issue I ever had with and it is not from the camera but rather from the windshield holder.
The camera is absolutely reliable and for 80$ is a no brainer.