Thread: best bets for dash cam recording

Originally Posted by bramlet

So nobody has a dashcam running? The five threads I can find on here all end with no actual help. Kinda sad.

Oh, I wouldn't say "nobody"....

http://forums.fluxmedia.net/plugin-d...3-dashcam.html

Also, a lot of folks use MiniCam.

Cheers

VegasGuy

Originally Posted by bramlet

So nobody has a dashcam running? The five threads I can find on here all end with no actual help. Kinda sad.

Post 5 pretty much covered all your options and succinctly answered your question in post 1. If you're expecting us to give you reviews of all the available cameras, software options, and CPU loads, and demos of our systems - you're probably out of luck. What specific help are you looking for? If you want a purpose-built system you need to do the research, figure out what you want to do, build it, test it, repeat. I could easily tell you what I have and how I integrated it, but as soon as you try to duplicate what I did, you're gonna run into issues I either ignored, unknowingly fixed, forgot what the fix was, or never encountered. And in the end, what satisfies me may not satisfy you.

Originally Posted by bramlet

If I got a usb webcam and minicam I could have a pretty good shot at getting this working? What cam should I get and how tasking will this be for my atom 330?

The answer to the first question is Yes, but. The answer to the second question is up to you to figure out. Finding someone with your exact hardware and the same system expectations as you is an unreasonable question to ask. What cam - whichever one you like. How much will it task your CPU - you tell us when you fire it up.

Originally Posted by bramlet

I also have a scantool usb thingy and I read I could get a mpg overlay and gps overlay with this minicam program right?

Last I checked minicam gets its overlay data from your GPS via a GPS interface, not scantool, so this probably won't work.

Originally Posted by bramlet

I don't currently use any front end. I just run windows 7 and set winamp to play before I get rolling.... I'd like to integrate with my pc because I have it there.

I hate to say it, but your expectations of support from here may be a little too high. When I first saw this thread, checked your post count, and searched the site for webcam/minicam/RRCam threads, I figured most your questions could be answered via SEARCH. Now you tell us you want a PC solution, yet you don't use a front-end tells me your goal of a dashcam with gps overlay is going to require a steep learning curve. And this site is not known for spoon-feeding.

My suggestion to you is step back a minute and ask yourself, "What is the ultimate goal of your CarPC?" Figure out everything you ultimately want to do. Start researching what software options are available to accomplish ALL of your goals. Do more research on what incompatibilities exist, what issues previous users encountered and how they overcame them. At the same time, start researching hardware to achieve your goals - this will probably require you to buy hardware and personally do the experimentation (a lot of hardware specific software tweaking, front-end tweaking, and some OS tweaking will be required to make everything work together well and reduce your CPU load).

I'm a little lazy and not an expert in either software, hardware or OS programming so it took me 4 years to get my system stable. And everytime I add a new functionality, modify existing items, or update my software; I know it could cause new issues to be overcome. The tweaking never ends. Are you ready to take this on?

This thread is now what I find when searching google for Dashcam and/or minicam. Which makes it all the more frustrating. I am working my way through the 61 page thread vegasguy posted. So far I have found many answers atleast to questions I haven't asked but should have. It's just that the info is so spread out. the threads that pop up when I search are, for some reason, the unanswered ones.
The atom 330 platform I thought was pretty popular. I hoped I could get a definite yes/no before I bought in. I guess while I am at it I should try to turn this thread into a place where I can consolidate the info found other places.

My new assumptions are that recording 720p at 30fps on an atom330 is probably not going to work, but perhaps with the right codec I could hope for one camera recording at 15fps at less than 720p while still listening to winamp, but this is only my new hunch based on my initial searches. Still haven't found anybody who has an atom 330 running a dash cam, but one person I think said he had a webcam taking 70% cpu on his atom 330.

The logitech something 9000 is the new camera of choice because it can stand the heat and isn't plagued with autofocus problems.

It's not that expensive to buy in $55 @amazon

Does minicam work without a frontend? Are there any other options I should know about for software? I see vegas guy has dashcam for centrafuse, but I don't have centrafuse.

If my situation doesn't seem workable, which upgrade do I need: Better Processor/motherboard? USB3? a frontend? all of the above? something else entirely?

Originally Posted by bramlet

This thread is now what I find when searching google for Dashcam and/or minicam. Which makes it all the more frustrating. I am working my way through the 61 page thread vegasguy posted. So far I have found many answers atleast to questions I haven't asked but should have. It's just that the info is so spread out. the threads that pop up when I search are, for some reason, the unanswered ones.
The atom 330 platform I thought was pretty popular. I hoped I could get a definite yes/no before I bought in. I guess while I am at it I should try to turn this thread into a place where I can consolidate the info found other places.

Now that sounds like a man on a mission.

Originally Posted by bramlet

Does minicam work without a frontend?

I believe minicam does have a stand alone mode.

Originally Posted by bramlet

Are there any other options I should know about for software? I see vegas guy has dashcam for centrafuse, but I don't have centrafuse.

If you want GPS overlay you need to research "XPort". And if you choose Ride Runner as your front-end, you need to check out RRCam.

Originally Posted by bramlet

If my situation doesn't seem workable, which upgrade do I need: Better Processor/motherboard? USB3? a frontend? all of the above? something else entirely?

More research.

70% is pretty high on a atom board. i was never able to get my audio processing to go above 30% cpu usage without the audio audibly distorting..

i would say that a processor/motherboard upgrade is in your future..

I run xport already, but it does seem like I'll need to upgrade the motherboard. I've been looking for an excuse to do that for a while anyway.

My 2005 MiniDV digital camera records at DVD quality, no 720p, just 480p. It looks absolutely incredible, much better than my Logitech 9000 will ever look at ultra high def. One of the reasons? No bit rate compromises. Logitech is limited by the USB bandwidth, which is not much. My MiniDV camera records at 4.5Mbps, the Logitech's best I believe is 1.5Mbps, which is not enough for static 480p, not even moving objectes @ 480p, now you want to record moving objects at 720p? Be prepared.

My advice. I have a Logitech DV in the car, running Minicam for about a year. It starts by itself, I do not even see it, it just works. Quality is not good, I think it's set for 960x720 or 800x600, @30fps, ffdshow (shark 007 codec pack) encoder, in a core 2 duo.

I also have a standard definition security cam in the truck in the front bumper, recording directly to a DVR, no computer involved, better quality at night, standard def, but it's analog, so there is noise. Reliable as a brick though, never failed once since first install.

I also bought a second logitech 9000 as a dash cam, just to add gps info and what not. I plan to use Dashcam. However, I plan to use NO COMPRESSION this time. Storage is cheap now a days, usb is weak, if all you want is to record an accident/odd encounter with the rogue police officer, I say you won't need to storage days worth of footage. One hour should be more than enough. Record AVI, no compression, no reason an Atom wouldn't work with it, right? Trust me, real time live compression = headache.

What is a Logitech DV? I'm not coming up with anything...

Are there any USB3 webcams that can overcome the transfer barrier? The only one I see is the protoype from 2009. http://gizmodo.com/5365507/worlds-fi...ed-1080p-video

and this one http://www.ptgrey.com/usb3/#/flea3_u...nary_datasheet

but that looks like a bit too much camera.

So that means usb 2.0: maximum bandwidth of 480 Mbit/s (60 MB/s)

from vegas guy in another thread: An uncompressed 1080p 24bpp 30fps video source will generate close to 145MB per second all by itself.


from vinchan in other thread:

The codec I use is PICVideo. I choose 720P recording without sound.
My MSI PR210 laptop with 2.2GHz CPU:
Lifecam HD-5000 720P @ 30FPS CarPC Webcam Car - Daytime Front
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0VuF8MQeiM

Lifecam Cinema 720P @ 30FPS CarPC Webcam Car - Daytime Rear
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7BsPtwwDp8




Guys...Any proven webcam/CPU configuration which can record 720P 30fps video?

I meant logitech 9000, dontknow why I wrote dv...

Again, I think that if your concern is the atom and the capacity to encode files, try saving uncompressed avi, what's that going to cost you 10GB? That's nothing nowadays. Buy a Logitech 9000 at your local frys or best buy, test it that way and return if your not happy with it or if you want a better price. Or buy at Amazon and return it saying it's night time recording mode is useless, or that there is echo on the mic or whatever. Free shipping both ways.

It's time to start testing and see what works.