Cobra Drive HD CDR 825 Dash Cam

On a 16gig card I am able to loop every 5mins but the loop means the clips save every 5 min until the memory card is full then it'll loop over the old clips In my case it would record two days and then start looping over older clips. So I am Kay if something happens p let's say my truck is parked I'll be able to put the sim into my computer and extract the clips I need.

Edit: a lot of cameras don't accept over 16 gig cards so make sure your camera can take anything over that. I'd have a 64gig, but it doesn't record at anything over 16

 

if you have it set for 1080 hd it's about 2hr 17min before it loops...per the manual......the max micro sd card it will take is 32 gb per the manual

if the g-force triggers (get hit) it will auto lock that video file, it will keep recording and loop but will not overwrite THAT video..... it also has a button you can push to lock the video it's recording (handy if you see something but can't stop)

 

same here...I love how it picks up on motion while parked

 

an 8 gig card is fine for the typical looping dash-cam type recorder application.

The only time you might want more is if you want to record an entire, [say 4 hour trip through heavy snowstorm with crashes every 2 miles] for posterity sake and save the movie as one long clip

 

I have the 840. An 8GB card will hold about an hour of video before it loops. You can use up to a 32GB card that will hold 4 hours. 32GB class 10 cards are on sale at Micro Center for $11, so, cheap if you want more storage or want extras.

I have not used the motion detection setting, so cannot comment on it. Honestly, the menus and buttons are so tiny on the 840 that after getting the time/date set and formatting a card, I really don't like doing anything other than running it in the default mode (continuous). I may revisit that sometime and check it out.

I have the impact detection turned off, and use the orange button on the camera if I want to save an event. I've done 2-3 tests with it but did not pay close attention to the actual time span before/after the event. On those occasions, two 3 minute clips were saved (locked to prevent loop over-write). If memory serves, it was the clip containing the event and the one immediately before. But I'm not positive. Before you consider the shock detection setting or get happy with the event button, keep in mind that the locked clips will reduce the amount of memory card available for looping by 6 minutes. That is, until you view them in the Cobra application and unlock them. Or format the card, probably the quickest method.

On most of the camera reviews, people that have been in an accident typically turn the camera off or pull the power cord when the dust settles, in order to retain everything and prevent important old clips from being overwritten with a view of the smoking ruins. Or just pop the memory card out. The only problems that seem to be reported are with people using the shock detection features and learning that after the crash, their memory card was full of locked video of potholes and not enough storage remaining to show what was going on leading to the crash.

 

Whatever you decide on, just remember that as you "play with it" and push save buttons and change settings, you will end up keeping clips in the "permanent folder" and this will reduce the size of your card until you manually go in and delete these to free up room.

 

Just to clarify, Cobra uses a naming convention versus a separate folder to exclude or "lock" files. Regular clips appear in a directory listing as MOV_nnnn.avi (nnnn is just a numerical serial number). When you "lock" a clip, the Cobra renames the file to SOS_nnnn.avi.

Also Cobra-specific, an event or SOS button press will lock two clips. Default setting is a 3 minute clip. So, an event will use up 6 minutes of available storage for looping regular recordings. On an 8GB card, a stored event will consume approximately 10% of available space.

You can unlock clips from the camera controls, something that's too tedious for me. Easier is to do that using the Cobra DriveHD player from a PC. Either connected to the camera or to the memory card directly. Super easy, but most destructive, just format the card.

 

when you plugged it in did the camera screen show "mass storage" if yes then you can download, if not then you will need to take the mirco sc card out and do it that way