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      08-07-2020, 03:05 PM   #1
TheObviousChild
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Drive Recorder reviews now that it's been out a while

Hey guys,


I was having trouble finding any user reviews from people who have used this for a while now. Best I can find are videos showing "This is what it looks like".


Just yesterday I FINALLY was able to get my 2020 M340 off of 7/2019.40 onto the 11/2019.70. Now that my car can finally support Drive Recorder, I'm looking to get off of my wired dash cam.


I'd really like to here some long-term experience from those who were immediate adopters. Seems like a clean alternative to a dash cam. Detail may not be as great, but looks good for accidents.


Wondering about the day-to-day though that you can't just get out of a product review. I imagine you have to make sure your lenses are clean. How does it do in the rain or snow?


Thanks.
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      08-07-2020, 03:47 PM   #2
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Only reason I didn't get. is the limited time of 20 seconds, which is a total disappointment. I don't understand why it has to record for 20 seconds only? Why not like other dashcams, record until the provided sdcard/usb stick runs out of memory, then cleanup and start again, why this very short unconfigurable time limit?
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      08-07-2020, 04:05 PM   #3
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Good point. What I read indicated 40 seconds so, if in an accident or in the case of a manual recording, it saves off 20s before and 20s after.


But you're right. With 20G or whatever it is on the internal HDD, No idea why it wouldn't support continuous recording in 5min blocks just like a normal dash cam.


I'm still compelled to get it though just to get rid of my current cam and wire. I very rarely pull video off of it to view. It's just insurance if I get in an accident. Other people have commented on the lack of parking cam, but I don't use that feature on mine right now.
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      08-08-2020, 04:53 PM   #4
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I've had it since October and so far it's proven fairly useless, for good and bad reasons.

The bad reason: as mentioned, you can manually start a recording and make it record the 20 seconds prior and the 20 seconds after the manual start. If you consider the number of menus you'll need to go through to start a recording, you're losing a lot of those 20 seconds upfront.

The good reason: Drive Recorder is supposed to start recording automatically in case of an impact, but since I haven't had one, I'm not even sure if this works. But I intend to keep it that way.

Another bad thing: you're supposed to be able to copy the video files to a thumb drive over USB, but haven't been successful so far. I tried two different formats on the drive, but apparently didn't have the right one.

Totally agree that continuous recording would be very useful.
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      08-08-2020, 08:24 PM   #5
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I ended up signing up for the free 30-day trial. Played with it a bit today. The easiest way to kick off a manual recording is to press and hold the panorama button to the left of the shifter. Video quality seems pretty good. Definitely good enough for insurance reasons.

Tomorrow I'll try transferring some vids to a USB drive.
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      08-08-2020, 08:35 PM   #6
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It must be continuously recording all of the time for it to save the last 20 seconds after an ‘incident’.
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      08-09-2020, 02:56 AM   #7
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Quote:
Originally Posted by phillyd2 View Post
It must be continuously recording all of the time for it to save the last 20 seconds after an ‘incident’.
Correct, but it doesn't store anything until you tell it to do so.
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      08-09-2020, 02:57 AM   #8
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Quote:
Originally Posted by phillyd2 View Post
It must be continuously recording all of the time for it to save the last 20 seconds after an ‘incident’.
Correct, but it doesn't store anything until you tell it to do so, or until there's a crash.
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      08-09-2020, 08:59 AM   #9
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Quote:
Originally Posted by richardvinger View Post
Correct, but it doesn't store anything until you tell it to do so.

Would the reason be because of the lack storage space?
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      08-09-2020, 09:00 AM   #10
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Quote:
Originally Posted by richardvinger View Post
Correct, but it doesn't store anything until you tell it to do so, or until there's a crash.
Would the reason be because of the lack storage space?

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      08-09-2020, 01:57 PM   #11
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Quote:
Originally Posted by phillyd2 View Post
Would the reason be because of the lack storage space?

Nope, it's a limitation on BMW's side that it can't record more than 40 seconds, doesn't matter if you provide it with infinite storage, thus why opted out of the feature.
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      08-16-2020, 09:00 PM   #12
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I haven't encountered any issues transferring videos to thumb drive (Sandisk brand).

Overall the feature's not as useful as I had hoped, due to short clip duration. Nice to know it's there in the event of a crash.
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      08-17-2020, 04:27 PM   #13
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For me, the main limitation is that there’s no parking mode. That’s the main reason I get Dashcams.

My last 3 cars were hit whilst parked. The first time I waited for the driver to return, the second left their details and the third was only because parking mode captured the whole thing.

I’m just waiting for Thinkware to release the T700 which is supposed to have an in-built SIM card.
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      08-18-2020, 03:03 AM   #14
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The only rational reason for 20 seconds limit I can think of BMW saving its internal drive from wearing. Apparently they don't want to write to drive over and over so they keep the last 20 seconds in RAM until recording gets triggered (manually or automatically). They can't afford wasting too much RAM thus the 20 seconds limit.

Quote:
Originally Posted by richardvinger View Post
If you consider the number of menus you'll need to go through to start a recording, you're losing a lot of those 20 seconds upfront.
Hint: hold the "Panorama view" button.
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      08-25-2020, 01:07 PM   #15
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I’ve had ‘Drive Recorder’ since purchasing the car in Sept ‘19. Initially there were issues with it not always starting on starting the car. I put a widget on my home screen to show the status. After an update in January all was good and it always showed as available when I used the car.

This morning as I was going to take my car to the dealer, as my factory fitted spoiler was starting to lift, the widget showed ‘not available’. I shut down the engine, opened the car door to shut the system down then restarted the car and it showed as working.

Mentioned this at the dealers when I took the car in. This afternoon they called to ask if they could keep the car overnight as after discussing with BMW they had been sent some software to install which they hope will rectify this. I asked whether this was an iDrive update but the service advisor didn’t know.

I’m picking the car up tomorrow and will try to ascertain what they have actually done..
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Last edited by Tam the Bam; 08-25-2020 at 04:08 PM..
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      08-25-2020, 04:05 PM   #16
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My experiences with drive recorder

My experiences with drive recorder.

It saves the video 20sec before and 20 after an accident. It Will have the titel accident yyyymmdd . Not sure of it will record when in park mode.

While driving you van start record for 20 sec, therefor you only have to press the camera/park button next to the gearselector.

Saving a recorded video to thumbdrive takes a long time, slow datatransfer.
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      08-25-2020, 04:09 PM   #17
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ETan View Post
. Not sure of it will record when in park mode.
.
It doesn’t...
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      08-26-2020, 01:05 PM   #18
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Tam the Bam View Post

I’m picking the car up tomorrow and will try to ascertain what they have actually done..
Picked the car up today and they have updated the iDrive software from 11/2019.70 to 03/2020.69. Not the latest, I know, but still an upgrade.
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      08-26-2020, 02:03 PM   #19
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Quote:
Originally Posted by richardvinger View Post
I've had it since October and so far it's proven fairly useless, for good and bad reasons.

The bad reason: as mentioned, you can manually start a recording and make it record the 20 seconds prior and the 20 seconds after the manual start. If you consider the number of menus you'll need to go through to start a recording, you're losing a lot of those 20 seconds upfront.
Drive recorder is one my presets
so no need to go through menus, press a number than press record, takes 1-2 secs
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      08-26-2020, 02:49 PM   #20
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Quote:
Originally Posted by chris_portimaog20 View Post
Drive recorder is one my presets
so no need to go through menus, press a number than press record, takes 1-2 secs
Do you not have the camera button next to the park button? You just push and hold that button and it records instantly?
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      08-26-2020, 03:39 PM   #21
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Quote:
Originally Posted by srbs73 View Post
Do you not have the camera button next to the park button? You just push and hold that button and it records instantly?
did not know. thank you. even better
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      09-06-2020, 10:56 PM   #22
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Quote:
Originally Posted by chris_portimaog20 View Post
Quote:
Originally Posted by srbs73 View Post
Do you not have the camera button next to the park button? You just push and hold that button and it records instantly?
did not know. thank you. even better
Quote:
Originally Posted by chris_portimaog20 View Post
Quote:
Originally Posted by srbs73 View Post
Do you not have the camera button next to the park button? You just push and hold that button and it records instantly?
did not know. thank you. even better
What I did is put the drive recorder app on the home screen bottom right side. If I want to activate the drive recorder manually, it's then just 1 touch. It's easier and less distracting than holding the camera button down when you are driving.
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