Why I got a dash cam

[Gost]

I was wondering, if any of you owners of a dash cam think it would be viable, or even possible to mount the camera to the rear of the car, but facing into the car. From what I have read so far the dash cam has been used to record outside in case of an accident. I'm looking for something more as a security measure to record the inside should someone break in. Yea I probably won't catch the guy, but I would at least know if it was a random attack or someone in the area.

[Gary in NJ]

I never gave a thought to a dashcam until I read through this thread this morning. Now I feel like I need one just to go out on public roads again.

[Melody]

Originally Posted by TM

These videos make me want to get a dashcam. I know the Blackvue does HD recording, but it is clear enough to capture the license plate number of someone parallel parking in front of me? I can't tell from the YouTube clips. When I had my previous car, every time I visit my parents in NYC for a weekend, I would always get an extra ding or two in my front and back bumpers. No off-street parking.

I visited NYC last week, was waiting in line for a restaurant, while this Honda driver was trying to a parallel park right out front. The driver of the Honda bumps the Acura SUV parked behind her, parks anyway, and gets out of the car and walks away like nothing had happened, while this large group of tourists all just kind of stared and gawked at the situation.

The lady didn't even check the bumper of the Acura she hit. Her own bumper was really badly dinged & scratched. Luckily, the Acura had a front license plate that took the impact, and no visible scratches or dings that I could see, because I briefly considered leaving a note on the Acura's windshield.

[shirker]

Originally Posted by Melody

I visited NYC last week, was waiting in line for a restaurant, while this Honda driver was trying to a parallel park right out front. The driver of the Honda bumps the Acura SUV parked behind her, parks anyway, and gets out of the car and walks away like nothing had happened, while this large group of tourists all just kind of stared and gawked at the situation.

The lady didn't even check the bumper of the Acura she hit. Her own bumper was really badly dinged & scratched. Luckily, the Acura had a front license plate that took the impact, and no visible scratches or dings that I could see, because I briefly considered leaving a note on the Acura's windshield.

was she asian?

[Gary in NJ]

Originally Posted by Melody

The lady didn't even check the bumper of the Acura she hit. Her own bumper was really badly dinged & scratched.

If she doesn't care about her own car...then she really couldn't give a crap about someone else's car.

People suck.

[Melody]

Originally Posted by shirker

was she asian?

You would think.... (hey I can say this because I am Asian ok)... but no she wasn't. Older white lady!

[kludger]

Installed a dashcam last week (Livue LB100) and was reviewing the video this week and noticed instead of a bad event, it caught one of the many times where my BRZ gives me pure unadulterated pleasure:

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNbKnULS9yY"]BRZ Dashcam Capures the 86 Joy - YouTube[/ame]

Jezza 19:3
And Jezza spake unto them and proclaimed that he who shall be last, shall be sideways and smiling.

[SLICVIC]

Originally Posted by GregV

I would have a road rage induced aneurism if I had to drive in the city every day.

i have to commute from the bronx to manhattan everyday for work, about 10-15 miles. Takes me a hour and a half to two hours both ways (in my work truck with commercial plates). im 25 with a receding hairline

This thread makes me want a dash cam

[jstans84]

Just remember if you get one to adjust the sensitivity if you have a loud exhaust. My evo3 catback constantly makes my blackvue think there has been an incident.

[zipfizz]

Originally Posted by Snoopyalien24

I lol at this because you have never been to Miami, have you?

Where 90% are immigrants from countries where street laws don't exist. Everyone drives new cars, have no idea how to drive them (or at least they think they're the best and deserve the right-of-way every single time), and none have insurance.

fun

God damn it Florida, get your shit together!!

[blue cat]

Originally Posted by TM

These videos make me want to get a dashcam. I know the Blackvue does HD recording, but it is clear enough to capture the license plate number of someone parallel parking in front of me? I can't tell from the YouTube clips. When I had my previous car, every time I visit my parents in NYC for a weekend, I would always get an extra ding or two in my front and back bumpers. No off-street parking.

i've got an itronics, which also does 1080p recording. I've managed to get a good recording off a dangerous driver that was clear enough to pull a screen capture of a clearly legible number plate. So yes they are good enough to capture plates, but it has to be a good angle and fairly close. If we're talking parallel parking directly in front of your car then yes it should definitely give you a clear capture.

However, lazy police department did not follow up on my report. go figure

[Gixxersixxerman]

Originally Posted by BioRage

Posted before, but..

I should upload the rest I've been compiling haha.

Just me most likely, but it looks like you just over reacted, maybe because of the "fish eye" look and he pulled farther Into the road then what it looked like on the video??? Just looks like he pulled up enough to see over those stupidly high snow banks

[campy]

Originally Posted by LSxJunkie

If we're going with personal experiences, I drive fairly large 2010 RX350 and park as close to the door as I can pretty much everywhere (mall, work, school) and have since the summer of 2010. It has 45k on it now. There is not a single door ding on my car.

My first car was a Lexus RX330 (thanks mom!), and like any 16 year old, I abused the shit out of it. I would drive over any curb, bush, or tree that got in my way. I once drove off the highway and took out a couple small trees on an off-ramp, and it was fine. In the winter I would slide it into snowbanks, a bridge, or whatever else was in front of me to stop me. They are literally invulnerable to scratches, door dings, and any other daily wear-and-tear. If you took 2 Lexus RX's, and opened the doors of them into eachother, I believe you would create a black hole. It's like the unstoppable force vs immovable object question. The only time it was ever in the shop for repairs was when someone drove into the side of it (it was parked in someones front yard at the time, I wasn't in the area), then that driver slid off a cliff and totalled her car. The lexus only needed the front fender replaced. When I sold it, the steering alignment was off and one of the wheels kept going flat, but otherwise it was in pretty good shape. Had surprisingly good resale value too.

[kALMIGHTY]

Originally Posted by Tim_Asphalt_FRS

I'm pretty sure there's a way to convert them.

Originally Posted by Jive Turkey

they record in AVI. imovie/final cut need mp4.

Prepare to have your minds blown. On your mac, all you have to do is rename the file. For example: DashCam.avi is the file, and you want mp4. When you choose the rename option, it'll highlight the whole name, including the file extension (i.e. DashCam.avi). All you have to do is rename the extension. So change it from DashCam.avi to DashCam.mp4, and you when you press enter, your Mac should bring up a dialog box asking you if you're sure you want to use the new extension. Say yes.
I had a .mkv file, but I needed .avi to play it on my Xbox. All I did was rename it to .avi, and it instantly worked on my Xbox. No waiting for files to convert anymore!

Originally Posted by Jive Turkey

my issue isn't watching but rather being able to work with them in final cut/imovie. i really dont care THAT much for the software it comes with, i can set up the camera quickly on my parent's PC, and then never use that again.

i've always wondered about bootcamp, how much memory will that take up? i'm too lazy to search, spoon feed me

You can use whatever amount of space you want to give to your Windows side. The minimum is 15 GB or so, but I gave it 100 GB so I could download games.