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Dashcam videos

Started by 1995hoo, September 24, 2013, 05:52:22 PM

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1995hoo

I've had my dashcam since June but only in the last week have I finally started uploading to YouTube and learning enough about video editing to create compilation videos and to add a censor bleep for my sometimes-copious use of profanity. (I've uploaded a few to Photobucket.) Here are my first three YouTube uploads. The first two are short single-incident videos, the third is a compilation. The captions in the compilation are a little messed up at times because I added captions to some of the clips before creating the compilation, only to decide when sequencing that I wanted to speed them up. That in turn messed up the captions. Well, I know for next time, anyway.





"You know, you never have a guaranteed spot until you have a spot guaranteed."
—Olaf Kolzig, as quoted in the Washington Times on March 28, 2003,
commenting on the Capitals clinching a playoff spot.

"That sounded stupid, didn't it?"
—Kolzig, to the same reporter a few seconds later.


empirestate

Not bringing this up to criticize, but the date in your first two videos reminded me how little this sort of thing mattered to me on the original 9/11. It's one of my most vivid memories of that day, how petty irritants like this simply vanished from my consideration for a time; they just stopped mattering altogether.

Years have since passed, of course, and I still find myself grappling over how to avoid being excessively affected by annoying drivers. Talking it out helps, and I'm sure posting it on YouTube does too. :-)

Takumi

#2
I love the use of the Russian national anthem in the last video in what I'm assuming is a nod to the ubiquity of dash cams in Russia.

What video editor do you use? I have a few videos I haven't uploaded yet from over a year ago because they need editing.
Quote from: Rothman on July 15, 2021, 07:52:59 AM
Olive Garden must be stopped.  I must stop them.

Don't @ me. Seriously.

1995hoo

Quote from: Takumi on September 25, 2013, 09:27:21 AM
I love the use of the Russian national anthem in the last video in what I'm assuming is a nod to the ubiquity of dash cams in Russia.

What video editor do you use? I have a few videos I haven't uploaded yet from over a year ago because they need editing.

Heh. Actually, I wasn't thinking at all about the use of dashcams in Russia. I just like their rendition. But I really like your comment and in the future if anyone comments about it I now know what I'll say!  :-D

I used Windows Movie Maker (running on Windows 7) because it's free. I don't want to spend money on better editing software until I'm a bit better at doing this. WMM is not without its problems. Even with 16 GB of RAM it sometimes runs slowly or has problems playing back video at seemingly random times (the solution seems to be just to let it sit for a while). The interface in the old version that ran on Vista was a lot better than the current version, but my old Vista PC is just too slow despite having a beautiful display. Maybe I'll try pulling out that old machine, cleaning as much as possible off the hard drive and stripping down the boot configuration, and then using it for video editing.
"You know, you never have a guaranteed spot until you have a spot guaranteed."
—Olaf Kolzig, as quoted in the Washington Times on March 28, 2003,
commenting on the Capitals clinching a playoff spot.

"That sounded stupid, didn't it?"
—Kolzig, to the same reporter a few seconds later.

mrsman

1995hoo,

Where was the first scene on the third video taken?  I live in Silver Spring, and it looks like it's somewhere in DC.  It seems to be an intersection to avoid or at least watch out for.  Do a lot of people make lefts from the right lane there?


empirestate

Oh, the other thing is, I enjoyed how you attributed one guy's boneheadedness to being from New Jersey, whereas from where I'm watching this, everyone's boneheadedness is most readily attributable to being in what appears to be the greater D.C. area! :-)

1995hoo

Quote from: mrsman on September 29, 2013, 01:32:30 AM
1995hoo,

Where was the first scene on the third video taken?  I live in Silver Spring, and it looks like it's somewhere in DC.  It seems to be an intersection to avoid or at least watch out for.  Do a lot of people make lefts from the right lane there?

Corner of 9th Street and Maine Avenue SW near the waterfront and the tennis stadium. I was on my way to Nationals Park and I'd just come off I-395 via Exit 4 (the ramp that comes up next to the traffic emerging from the Ninth Street Tunnel). Yes, lots of people make illegal left turns out of the straight-thru lane. That's hardly unique to there in DC, though; I see the same at lots of intersections. I just haven't driven in DC as much over the summer since I got my dashcam, but now that Caps season is starting I will be down there a lot more often.




Quote from: empirestate on September 29, 2013, 02:46:18 AM
Oh, the other thing is, I enjoyed how you attributed one guy's boneheadedness to being from New Jersey, whereas from where I'm watching this, everyone's boneheadedness is most readily attributable to being in what appears to be the greater D.C. area! :-)

Heh. I probably should have just said "out of area plate." Only thing is, there are a lot of people with out-of-area plates who actually live here (military/government), so there's no way to know if the other driver doesn't know the road or is just being a dick.
"You know, you never have a guaranteed spot until you have a spot guaranteed."
—Olaf Kolzig, as quoted in the Washington Times on March 28, 2003,
commenting on the Capitals clinching a playoff spot.

"That sounded stupid, didn't it?"
—Kolzig, to the same reporter a few seconds later.

NJRoadfan

In NJ, making a turn off of a divided highway is usually easy, get in the right lane and take the jughandle! Some of those intersections look like they could use such a thing.

dfwtbear

Any good Dash Cam recommendations?

1995hoo

Quote from: dfwtbear on October 01, 2013, 03:00:24 PM
Any good Dash Cam recommendations?

I only know the one I have, which is a Chinese-made device (well, what isn't?!) called a DVR 207. Got it from a place in New York called Spy Tec Inc., very fast shipping. It was $70 plus the cost of a 32 GB SD card. Been very satisfied so far, especially for the price! I haven't hardwired it because I move it between cars.
"You know, you never have a guaranteed spot until you have a spot guaranteed."
—Olaf Kolzig, as quoted in the Washington Times on March 28, 2003,
commenting on the Capitals clinching a playoff spot.

"That sounded stupid, didn't it?"
—Kolzig, to the same reporter a few seconds later.

hbelkins

Is this some kind of special dash cam that you're using, or just a run-of-the-mill camcorder like most of us use? If so, what's the difference between it and a regular camcorder?
Government would be tolerable if not for politicians and bureaucrats.

1995hoo

Quote from: hbelkins on October 01, 2013, 10:21:07 PM
Is this some kind of special dash cam that you're using, or just a run-of-the-mill camcorder like most of us use? If so, what's the difference between it and a regular camcorder?

I wasn't going to post a link lest it be construed as advertising for the seller, but your post changes my mind so you can decide for yourself:

http://www.spytecinc.com/hd-car-camera-with-night-vision.html
"You know, you never have a guaranteed spot until you have a spot guaranteed."
—Olaf Kolzig, as quoted in the Washington Times on March 28, 2003,
commenting on the Capitals clinching a playoff spot.

"That sounded stupid, didn't it?"
—Kolzig, to the same reporter a few seconds later.

Alex

Quote from: 1995hoo on October 02, 2013, 07:47:28 AM
Quote from: hbelkins on October 01, 2013, 10:21:07 PM
Is this some kind of special dash cam that you're using, or just a run-of-the-mill camcorder like most of us use? If so, what's the difference between it and a regular camcorder?

I wasn't going to post a link lest it be construed as advertising for the seller, but your post changes my mind so you can decide for yourself:

http://www.spytecinc.com/hd-car-camera-with-night-vision.html

I don't mind you posting this link at all. I have pondered the concept and thought about getting one for fun. So having an idea of cost, availabilty, etc. is useful for any road enthusiast interested. Have you tried it out at night yet? If so, what were the results?

1995hoo

Quote from: Alex on October 02, 2013, 09:39:16 AM
Quote from: 1995hoo on October 02, 2013, 07:47:28 AM
Quote from: hbelkins on October 01, 2013, 10:21:07 PM
Is this some kind of special dash cam that you're using, or just a run-of-the-mill camcorder like most of us use? If so, what's the difference between it and a regular camcorder?

I wasn't going to post a link lest it be construed as advertising for the seller, but your post changes my mind so you can decide for yourself:

http://www.spytecinc.com/hd-car-camera-with-night-vision.html

I don't mind you posting this link at all. I have pondered the concept and thought about getting one for fun. So having an idea of cost, availabilty, etc. is useful for any road enthusiast interested. Have you tried it out at night yet? If so, what were the results?

I have used it at night and in indoor parking garages (underground garage type stuff). Let me follow up with some video samples. I deleted most of the night/underground stuff because I didn't have anything in them worth putting in a compilation, but I can pull some out of the Recycle Bin and use them as samples.

The camera has an infrared sensor that allows it to work well enough (not fantastic, but adequate) in low light such as a garage. The tricky part about night-time driving is that if you use the motion sensor to tell it when to start recording (I do, as it's easier that way), the camera may not start recording even though you're moving because there's simply not enough light. This has happened to me multiple times even on suburban roads with a decent amount of traffic.

I'll follow up in a while with night and underground samples. Got to find some in the Recycle Bin and then edit them a bit because I have it set to film in five-minute chunks. A five-minute sample video would be unnecessarily long and a waste of Photobucket space (I don't think I'll put the samples on YouTube).

One other thought.....the power cord is vital. Spy Tec's page mentions two-hour battery life if you don't use the cord. My experience suggests that's a generous estimate. I just use the cord pretty much all the time. I'm wondering when some overzealous Virginia cop might decide he thinks it's a radar detector. I have it mounted up by the rearview mirror in between the E-ZPass and the SunPass.
"You know, you never have a guaranteed spot until you have a spot guaranteed."
—Olaf Kolzig, as quoted in the Washington Times on March 28, 2003,
commenting on the Capitals clinching a playoff spot.

"That sounded stupid, didn't it?"
—Kolzig, to the same reporter a few seconds later.

hbelkins

I'd love to see some still shots of how you have it mounted.
Government would be tolerable if not for politicians and bureaucrats.

1995hoo

Quote from: hbelkins on October 02, 2013, 10:55:14 AM
I'd love to see some still shots of how you have it mounted.

I'll do that later today. Nothing too remarkable or interesting. It comes with a suction-cup mount and I have that stuck to the windshield behind (I guess it's really in front of) the rearview mirror. I just let the power cord dangle down because, as I mentioned before, I move the camera back and forth among three different cars, so I need to be able to move the power cord as well unless I go out and buy two more of them (although it wouldn't be easy to hardwire the cord in the RX-7 because it's a convertible, meaning I can't tuck the cord into the headliner).




Following up on my promise to upload sample videos. Two videos here. Actually, it's three videos. I combined two videos from last Wednesday night into a single video (there's a slight blip where I merged the files; you might notice it as we cross Pennsylvania Avenue). We were on our way home from a Capitals preseason game and the video has a good mixture of various lighting conditions. I've sped it up to four times actual speed for space reasons and to make it less boring, as it'd be about a ten-minute clip at full speed. The other is from August and in that one I was driving my wife's car, which has less-powerful headlights than mine (you can tell where I put the highbeams on and off). I've left part of the second video at actual speed so you can get a sense for how it picks up ambient noise, but I've sped up part of it where nothing was happening. The sequence at the end where the dumbarse in front of me almost stops at a green light will find its way into a future compilation video, as will the idiot woman who walked in front of me right as the left-turn light went green.

Frankly, I think my biggest difficulty is Windows Movie Maker. The old version that ran under Vista was a lot better than the current version. Sometimes it slows to a crawl for no reason whatsoever, and when that happens often my entire PC slows big-time (you know how it is when the mouse pointer feels like it's underwater?). But the biggest hassle is that sometimes I just have to let it sit until it cooperates. For example, in the second video below, I split the video in order to speed up part of it. I then wanted to split it again so the final part wouldn't speed up. But when I split it the first time, it didn't let me see any of the video after the split. It was THERE, it just wouldn't display. I don't know why this happens, but from what I could find online it's a common problem. After I let it sit for about ten minutes, the part after the split displayed, and I then split it again at the point where I stopped behind the white Acura. Then the same problem happened again with the final segment. At least the substantive work I'm doing this morning is on paper, as some of the PC slowdowns have been intolerable.

I wound up having to upload to YouTube because Photobucket rejected the uploads for whatever reason.





"You know, you never have a guaranteed spot until you have a spot guaranteed."
—Olaf Kolzig, as quoted in the Washington Times on March 28, 2003,
commenting on the Capitals clinching a playoff spot.

"That sounded stupid, didn't it?"
—Kolzig, to the same reporter a few seconds later.

1995hoo

Quote from: hbelkins on October 02, 2013, 10:55:14 AM
I'd love to see some still shots of how you have it mounted.

As promised, here are some pictures. I resized them all to save some space. The first one is simply the camera without the power cord to give a sense for how it looks that way. As I said in a prior post, I almost never use it without the cord because the battery drains too quickly (especially at night or in garages). I flipped down the screen to give a sense for how that looks, but I seldom have the screen down while I'm driving because I find it distracting (I do sometimes flip it down at red lights at night to make sure the camera is running). The final picture is there to give a sense of what the included suction-cup mount looks like. The camera screws onto the mount, so when I want to download pictures I usually just pull the whole thing off the windshield and bring it inside with me. It's easier than removing the memory card (lest I drop it and lose it) and it's definitely easier than unscrewing the camera from the mount.

I also took two pictures looking in from outside, but they didn't really come out well due to too much sky reflection (about all you see are the E-ZPass, the suction cup, and the SunPass). I tend to leave the camera in place when I'm parked most places I go; the main exceptions are if I want to put up the window shade due to sun or if I'm in an area where I feel there's more chance of a break-in (main one there being down in Buzzard Point in DC).

             
"You know, you never have a guaranteed spot until you have a spot guaranteed."
—Olaf Kolzig, as quoted in the Washington Times on March 28, 2003,
commenting on the Capitals clinching a playoff spot.

"That sounded stupid, didn't it?"
—Kolzig, to the same reporter a few seconds later.

1995hoo

Latest installment, compiled this weekend:

"You know, you never have a guaranteed spot until you have a spot guaranteed."
—Olaf Kolzig, as quoted in the Washington Times on March 28, 2003,
commenting on the Capitals clinching a playoff spot.

"That sounded stupid, didn't it?"
—Kolzig, to the same reporter a few seconds later.

1995hoo

Here's my latest compilation:

"You know, you never have a guaranteed spot until you have a spot guaranteed."
—Olaf Kolzig, as quoted in the Washington Times on March 28, 2003,
commenting on the Capitals clinching a playoff spot.

"That sounded stupid, didn't it?"
—Kolzig, to the same reporter a few seconds later.

1995hoo

I don't understand why so many people find this lousy half-mile stretch of road in DC so confusing:

"You know, you never have a guaranteed spot until you have a spot guaranteed."
—Olaf Kolzig, as quoted in the Washington Times on March 28, 2003,
commenting on the Capitals clinching a playoff spot.

"That sounded stupid, didn't it?"
—Kolzig, to the same reporter a few seconds later.

1995hoo

"You know, you never have a guaranteed spot until you have a spot guaranteed."
—Olaf Kolzig, as quoted in the Washington Times on March 28, 2003,
commenting on the Capitals clinching a playoff spot.

"That sounded stupid, didn't it?"
—Kolzig, to the same reporter a few seconds later.

1995hoo

Quote from: 1995hoo on October 02, 2013, 10:00:09 AM
....

One other thought.....the power cord is vital. Spy Tec's page mentions two-hour battery life if you don't use the cord. My experience suggests that's a generous estimate. I just use the cord pretty much all the time. I'm wondering when some overzealous Virginia cop might decide he thinks it's a radar detector. I have it mounted up by the rearview mirror in between the E-ZPass and the SunPass.

I now have an answer to the comment above about a cop thinking it's a radar detector! We were in slow traffic on I-66 today and an unmarked cop car was passing on the right, when suddenly he slowed, matched his speed to mine, and whooped his siren quickly. I thought he wanted to get over to go after the guy to my left who wasn't an HOV, but he gestured at my dashcam. So I put down the window and called over, "It's not a radar detector." He said, "What is it?" I replied, "It's a video camera." He drove away without further inquiry. I didn't even flip down the screen!

It occurred to me later that I could have said, "Officer, what point would there be in using a radar detector in traffic this slow?"

"You know, you never have a guaranteed spot until you have a spot guaranteed."
—Olaf Kolzig, as quoted in the Washington Times on March 28, 2003,
commenting on the Capitals clinching a playoff spot.

"That sounded stupid, didn't it?"
—Kolzig, to the same reporter a few seconds later.

1995hoo

Posting this one because it raises the sort of question that people here might find interesting: Why isn't there any advance signage warning of the "NO TRUCKS" restriction on Washington Boulevard past the Pentagon until AFTER the point where all trucks must exit?!

"You know, you never have a guaranteed spot until you have a spot guaranteed."
—Olaf Kolzig, as quoted in the Washington Times on March 28, 2003,
commenting on the Capitals clinching a playoff spot.

"That sounded stupid, didn't it?"
—Kolzig, to the same reporter a few seconds later.

1995hoo

Erratic driving in the DC area:

"You know, you never have a guaranteed spot until you have a spot guaranteed."
—Olaf Kolzig, as quoted in the Washington Times on March 28, 2003,
commenting on the Capitals clinching a playoff spot.

"That sounded stupid, didn't it?"
—Kolzig, to the same reporter a few seconds later.

Alex

Quote from: 1995hoo on March 31, 2014, 04:16:08 PM
Erratic driving in the DC area:



Really enjoyed that! The wife bickering was an added bonus.  :nod:



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