Just Received Jaws "dashcam" Help!

[colyboy]

Been of simple mind, the instructions for the dash cam seem quite complex. Can some offer some VERY easy instuctions please?

It looks like a nice bit of kit.

colyboy

 

[DanielFord]

How hard can it be, did I see you are attending Newbury this weekend? If so, hang on until then, there'll be about 60 people who can show you how it works

 

[rosalan]

There are many different dashcams but if you need help please look at http://www.techmoan.com/.
He demonstrates most cameras and also shows very clearly how to use a dashcam. If it had not been for him I would never have understood from the supplied instructions. Incidentally a decent dashcam is a great tool to have and forget about.

 

[Jaws]

Basically, get it plugged in and on charge for a couple of hours.
Then unplug it and put the memory card in.
Fire it back up and it will ask if you want to format the card. Select YES

And thats about it really !

Always make sure the GPS antenna is in the best possible position to 'see' the sky

 

[DavidG58]

I have one of these, I did find it easy to set up, but something I had never thought of was how to download the images, has anybody else done this?

The memory card is too small for my card reader on my laptop, and if I just plug the USB lead into computer it does not recognise the device although it does power it up

I have windows 8 which seems to be the cause of a lot of grief, maybe this is a bit more

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[Jaws]

There are many different dashcams but if you need help please look at http://www.techmoan.com/.
He demonstrates most cameras and also shows very clearly how to use a dashcam. If it had not been for him I would never have understood from the supplied instructions. Incidentally a decent dashcam is a great tool to have and forget about.

Actually, the video he did is massively out of date and has some wrong info in it..
He had one of the very first versions that came out.. He reports issues with the GPS antenna flattening the battery which no longer happens and the plug he managed to break is far stronger now

Mind you, if it was not for his testing the issues he mentioned might well have never been addressed by the manufacturer so once again his input is worthy of praise

I would recommend anyone using his excellent web site does check how old his report is

 

[DanielFord]

I have one of these, I did find it easy to set up, but something I had never thought of was how to download the images, has anybody else done this?

The memory card is too small for my card reader on my laptop, and if I just plug the USB lead into computer it does not recognise the device although it does power it up

I have windows 8 which seems to be the cause of a lot of grief, maybe this is a bit more

I imagine since you say the card is too small, that the card is a micro/mini SD, you will need an adaptor to plug it into the pc, these usually come free if you purchase a new one.
Windows 8 should recognise that a mass storage device has been attached, and show it as another drive in the 'Computer' section of explorer.

 

[makems]

what software do I need John to view the footage on an Apple Macbook?

 

[colyboy]

Thank's everybody see you at Newbury.

colyboy

 

[jockaneezer]

Sure it says in the destructions that you can't plug in the unit to playback, only to charge. You need to put your card in a reader then plug that into your pc or whatever to playback other than watching on the dash cam's own screen.
p.s. got a Lexar 16gb class 10 card complete with usb reader in Staples for £4.99, thought that was ok as I wasn't sure about all the hookey ones on fleabay.

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[Deleted member 29692]

what software do I need John to view the footage on an Apple Macbook?

I don't believe you can view on a Mac. This was a question I had as well as we are Mac users. My backup plan is that if it comes to it and I need to watch anything back on a bigger screen I will take it to work, slip past the barbed wire and "here be dragons" sign and watch it on the windows machine I have hidden in a corner running a machine

 

[DP+JAY]

Basically, get it plugged in and on charge for a couple of hours.
Then unplug it and put the memory card in.
Fire it back up and it will ask if you want to format the card. Select YES

And thats about it really !

Always make sure the GPS antenna is in the best possible position to 'see' the sky

Can't see anything in the instructions about continuous recording(automaticaly recording over whats already there) or does it do that normally? Mind you I can't get into the menu either yet.

 

[Bobby22]

what software do I need John to view the footage on an Apple Macbook?

When you put the sd card into a reader the software is on your sd card from the dashcam.

 

[makems]

When you put the sd card into a reader the software is on your sd card from the dashcam.

Unfortunately that doesn't happen on a Mac (at least not this one), hence the question.

PS I liked your answer anyway cos you took the time to reply

 

[Bobby22]

Unfortunately that doesn't happen on a Mac (at least not this one), hence the question.

PS I liked your answer anyway cos you took the time to reply

Are the dashcams compatible with apple.

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[Puddleduck]

I had a play with my dash cam today after charging it and formatting the memory card yesterday.

Had a trip out to Berwick with the camera running so there was footage to play back.

I took the card out of the camera and put it into the adapter that came with it (card came from ASDA, don't trust the cheapies from ebay) and then put the card into the reader on my windows 7 PC. You could probably use a USB card reader that would take a micro card rather than the adapter but I didn't. When the windows explorer "what do you want to do" pop up came on I chose to view the files. There were two files and I clicked on the application file.

There was a pop up asking if changes could be made to the hard drive and I took a deep breath and said "yes" as I thought that would be the program that could "read" the camera files. Then I got a screen with the video recording on the top left and a map on the right (I'd set the camera for front view only so no idea what would happen if you were using both views). Below each was a list of more files and there are several "control" buttons.

Now the controls below the video screen are also in two sections - one is the standard video interface, fast forward, pause, play, reverse so easy. The other has various icons and I need to find out what each does.

Below the map part there are also icons and again I need to find out what they do. There are also icons above the video screen but they were greyed out I think so probably to do with dual cameras.

I transferred some of the files from the card to my hard drive but that had limited success. I need to experiment more and see if I can sort out what each control button does as there was no "hint" pop-up. The video files I did manage to save to the hard drive in a format that windows media player could use but the map data didn't transfer and can't remember how I did it Wish I could work out how to save the associated GPS data alongside the video.

Playing back through the hard drive files in the file windows media player recognised was great, good quality. I am very pleased with the camera.

Hope someone can add to my notes and put them into some sort of logical order!

 

[nomadic]

Unfortunately that doesn't happen on a Mac (at least not this one), hence the question.

PS I liked your answer anyway cos you took the time to reply

From memory this was asked before, and I think the answer was to download a specific apple driver to allow you to view.

I will try to find it or who provided the answer.

 

[nomadic]

Does this help?


Is it because the Mac will not 'mount' the volume on the SD card, or because the Mac cannot play the video format. If the latter, does the dash cam create a Windows Media file (WMV)? If so, Flip4Mac should enable you to play it with Quicktime.http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/17787/flip4mac-wmv-player

Philip

 

[Puddleduck]

Does this help?


Is it because the Mac will not 'mount' the volume on the SD card, or because the Mac cannot play the video format. If the latter, does the dash cam create a Windows Media file (WMV)? If so, Flip4Mac should enable you to play it with Quicktime.http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/17787/flip4mac-wmv-player

Philip

I got it to transfer the files as WMV (I think) can't remember exactly how but think I used the save icon. Not sure if that would work on a Mac though as I am not sure that a Mac would read the SDcard.

 

[Deleted member 29692]

A Mac will read the card, that isn't the issue. It's that the software on the card is Windows only so a Mac will see it but won't be able to process it.

It should be possible to open the card in finder and see what format the video files are saved in and take it from there.

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[Puddleduck]

A Mac will read the card, that isn't the issue. It's that the software on the card is Windows only so a Mac will see it but won't be able to process it.

It should be possible to open the card in finder and see what format the video files are saved in and take it from there.

Mine saved as a .avi file if that helps.

 

[Deleted member 29692]

Mine saved as a .avi file if that helps.

Yes it does From there it's just a case of finding the files on the card and viewing them manually. Mine's in the van so can't play with it now. I might go and get it tomorrow and figure it out.

 

[Puddleduck]

That was after I saved the file (exported it) to my desktop. There is a program that writes to the card (X2 player) that allows the files on the card to be read. The files on the card appear to have the extension .kml but I thought that was the GPS file so I'm not sure.

Would it be possible to get someone with a windows machine to export the files to the .avi format and save it onto removable media so it could then be read by the Mac?

I only used a Mac for a very short time many years ago so have no idea if that is possible.

 

[Puddleduck]

This is what I have managed to figure out so far - might help someone but needs someone with more tech knowledge and skill than me to figure out more!

http://www.motorhomefun.co.uk/forum/resources/jaws-dash-cam-playback.122/