OTR video surveillance system

I'm researching stuff to roll my own. One thing's for sure...cameras and recording systems have gotten worlds better in the past few years. As have the available software...it's trivial to set up a system to record plate numbers if visible .

As far as what's important... Durability (weather, shock and vibration resistant hardware and wiring), camera quality, location and mounting to reduce the amount of glare, night vision capabilities (reasonable quality after dark). Ability to download periodically to either removable media (USB, SD card, etc) or wirelessly via wifi to a nearby computer, for archival purposes. Try to limit the onboard device to recording high quality, and resist the temptation to do too much processing onboard. Keep it simple. One thing that I would definitely insist on (and roll into my own) is an imprint across the bottom of the image with current compass heading, road (from ecm) and GPS-reported speed, and GPS coordinates, stamped on each frame of the video. If you have an incident, it's nice to have that data embedded right in the video log, rather than attempting to scrape it from other sources and aggregate it later.

Ok, I'm starting to ramble, but you get the idea.

 

The stupid _hit that people pull in front of trucks nowadays.
Liability reasons is enough reason for me to have a dash cam.
4-5 years ago i met a school bus on a sharp corner on a snow covered back road. She was in the middle of the road and going to fast. As a result, she slid off the road. Of course she claimed i ran her off the road. Immediatly after the incident i took pictured of the tire tracks in the snow and the vehicles. When everyone saw the pictures, i never heard about the incident again...Keep your cameras close by...

 

I want to get one but have not laid out the cash as of yet , It is hard to argue with a video It will either prove your innocence or hang you by the balls if you are in the wrong .

 

everyone has a cell phone these days with decent cameras

I want a dash cam but short for cash at the moment, loads were slow for a couple weeks so bills are a little behind, this past week was good though, I have 9 hours left on my 70 and finally pick up 3 starting at midnight. Will see how the next couple weeks go and if I can fork out $100

whats the best dash cam to get?

 

I have a 1020 30fps HD dashcam for $100. If I want 3 other sides covered I'll by 3 more for a total price of $400.

Why pay more?