Dash cams without 'proprietary' video formats

A while back, after reading a thread or two regarding dash cams in trucks, i bought a relatively inexpensive dash cam to try out. It came with GPS and motion sensors, and though not perfect, it recorded adequately. The problem was in the way it recorded; to view any file, you needed to use the preloaded 'proprietary video player' included with the dash cam. Not convertable or transferable with any software i tried.

Anyone know of a similar device that records in a more open format? Something that one can play with existing media players instead of some screwy cut rate setup?

 

I do a lot of video in my truck also, mostly for fun but am also looking for a video solution for record keeping and saftey like you. I will do some research and post my results here.

 

Yes, there are hundreds of them on the market now. Just look at the file format in the specs page for the camera before you buy it. Most of them will record in "avi" or "wmv" or "mp4" format. A few record in the Apple "mov" which is workable but you may have to install Apple's "Quicktime" player to view them.

Also, there is an excellent free video player that pays just about any kind of video file imaginable called "VLC Player" and the download site for that is videolan.org.

If your computer is running Windows XP, then the embedded media player may have problems with newer video formats so just install the VLC player to fix that.

 

I second Dieslboss' recommendation of VLC player. I've worked with video for years now, and it is one that I will fall back on when my normal choice of players fail. I'll also through this out there. My camcorder (not dashcam) records in the *.MOD format. It's a few years old now, but when new there were not many that would recognize the *.MOD file. However that file format is nothing more than the common DVD video file, which is MPEG-2. So all a person had to do to get a computer video player to recognize and play the file, is change the extension from *.MOD to *.MPG or *.MPEG.

Just out of curiosity what format does your dashcam record to?

 

Is there a way to set up dash cam so the grand kids at home can watch in real time?

 

Only if you were connected to the internet. A laptop with a webcam can stream live images...don't see any reason why you couldn't set up a dash cam through your laptop in the same manner as a web cam. An air card through your cell phone provider would provide the internet access you'd need to make it work...as long as you were able to get a signal. Wouldn't take long to burn through your monthly data limit, though.

 

I agree, can be done, and yep it can be very expensive. Have you seen any or your local TV stations' weather chasers during a tornado report? They will stream live video back to the station from their cellphones. They're using the cellphone because of ease and cost. The video is almost always very poor, low quality, because it uses the least amount of data transmission. If it's too expensive for a TV station to use a HD (hi-def) or high quality, then I'd say it may be for the average Joe.

The current smartphone's use 3G or if you're lucky and in the right places, 4G, which is extremely fast..... DOWNLOAD. The upload stream will not be anywhere near that fast. Internet is almost always asynchronous, meaning it's not the same upload speed as the download side. The main reason is cost. Back when hi-speed internet first came into play, you could purchase a service that offered synchronous, but it was very, very expensive. About the only buyers of this service were small businesses that offered web-hosting. They would get the synch service and sell an asynch to their customers.