[Studio25]

Originally Posted by Accyexplorer

The video won't play for some reason or other...

Not sure what technology YouTube uses, but I think it's "Flash" - video is playing fine for me even on the PC that's got an out-of-date Flash version and guest access to Accyweb.

If you click on the word YouTube at the bottom right of any embedded YouTube video, you'll be taken to their website to view it, rather than embedded in a forum.

Originally Posted by Gordon Booth

What lovely clear video. Much better than you see on those Russian Youtube videos.
Seems like a good idea, save a lot of arguing with the other driver and the insurance company.
What sort is it, Studio25, might be a good investment?

It's a Transcend DrivePro 200 - they are more famous for their memory products, so I'm surprised the video quality is so good (notwithstanding the dirty windscreen, sorry). Audio quality is extremely poor, as you can tell, but audio is rarely important. Currently £90 at Argos. I got it for Christmas, and actually wanted another type, which had a built-in GPS receiver to show my speed and location, but my wife decided that my detailed research was less important than those of the random people who post anonymous reviews on Amazon and got me this one instead.

They are all pretty clear these days. If you're thinking of one, check out the quality for day and night driving, especially what happens when there's an oncoming car with headlights on. Make sure it has a wide field of view, so that it can see at least both corners of your bonnet when mounted on the windscreen. It means you'll get barrel distortion on the video (look at the bendy lamp posts as they are passing out of view) but it's meant to record evidence, not look pretty. Also, it needs a very long power cable so it can be routed around the screen and not left dangling down the middle.

The DrivePro can create its own wifi hotspot so you can download to your phone or tablet. I've only ever used this if I've been stuck in a parked car waiting for a family member. It's always far more convenient to pull the memory card out and stick it in the laptop when I get home. I'd much rather have had a speed readout than the wifi gimmick.

With its 16 GB card it records about 2 hours of 1080p 30fps video and erases the oldest when full, so you're really on a video loop. The same size card would record more or less driving depending on the frame size or frame rate. There's a big red button on most of them which you can press to protect the current event from being overwritten. On this camera, it's a stupid system where the 10 secs before the press and 50 seconds after the press are protected. That's no use, it needs to be the other way around.

If you're looking for one, it's worth visiting techmoan.com. His reviews are respected enough that dashcam manufacturers send him cameras to review. It's a developing market, so the one I wanted is no longer in his favourites list, so maybe my wife was right after all. (In my defence, the one she got isn't on his list either.)

As far as I'm aware, Direct Line is the only insurer that offers a discount for having a dashcam. I use Swinton, but no worries - if my insurer's case can be made easier by having access to the camera footage, they can buy it from me and claim it back from the other party.

Originally Posted by Margaret Pilkington

...Cars queue in the left lane and as they get nearer the junction, they force their way into the right hand lane to go to Accrington....It drives himself mad and there are usually a lot of expletives let rip when this is happening.

Would it be against any forum rules to have a thread of dashcam videos of this happening (the cutting up, not the expletives)?

You might consider buying your hubby a dashcam just for the benefit to his blood pressure. I don't get anywhere near as mad as I used to, because there's the knowledge that their antics will be on YouTube within hours for other people to see. It's very therapeutic.

There's a facebook group called "Idiot UK drivers exposed" which gets a couple of videos per day added. It's all far, far worse than anything I experience on our local roads.