Help Russian Style Car Video Recording?

[Goodspike]

Is there an app that would allow recording say 10 minute loops of video, saving only the latest 10 minutes of video (and also doing so without having screen focus at the time so it can act in the background)? The asteroid event in Russia shows those types of devices are popular in Russia, so I'm thinking there has to be an app, right?

I found "Video Road" but it doesn't seem to work in background or limit file length.

 

[SebaKL]

Is there an app that would allow recording say 10 minute loops of video, saving only the latest 10 minutes of video (and also doing so without having screen focus at the time so it can act in the background)? The asteroid event in Russia shows those types of devices are popular in Russia, so I'm thinking there has to be an app, right?

I found "Video Road" but it doesn't seem to work in background or limit file length.

I'm afraid what you saw it's not an app. These are HD Dash Cams. Russian Taxi, truck and buss drivers, along with drivers from many other countries around the world, are using it for insurance claims. There are many attempts at insurance exploits and frauds, and people simply protect themselves by recording their journey and accidents as they happen. Same apply for bikers, bullied by reckless drivers. More and more riders are using front and back cams to substantiate their complains against nasty drivers, with video evidence.

These cams are very affordable, with great night and day recording, wifi, SD cards and what not. BlackVue - Full HD 1080p Dash Cameras with GPS

While I'm sure you will find an app that does close to what you are looking for, nothing compares to designated device, designed specifically just for that.

I have two of these in my car, and I would never use phone, after using the blackvue Can't compare the quality and ease of use.

 

[Goodspike]

I realized those were designated single purpose devices. Ignoring the cost, I don't really want a second device I have to deal with every time I get into and out of a car, or that I have to deal with mounting issues.

 

[SebaKL]

I realized those were designated single purpose devices. Ignoring the cost, I don't really want a second device I have to deal with every time I get into and out of a car, or that I have to deal with mounting issues.

Understand totally. I have it permanently, well, pretty much so. It comes with double sides tape mount, and it hangs under my rear view mirror. I only pull out the SD card from it, that's pretty much it. It start as soon as I power up the car, and shuts down as soon as I off it.

 

[Goodspike]

I did find another program called DailyRoads Voyager that seems to do what I wanted, but I haven't tried it out in the car just yet.

Interestingly, I found it by trying to find the paid version of that other program, just to see if it offered more functionality. That paid version didn't show up.

 

[Goodspike]

Using it in the car I realized it won't work well in portrait mode because the field of vision is too narrow, nor will it work well because the phone doesn't point straight forward. So basically it only shows a bit of the road on the right hand side of the car.

I guess a smart phone won't substitute for a dedicated device, unless you're willing to make some compromises.

 

[trucky]

Take a look at Daily Roads Voyager... it just might work for what you need:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.dailyroads.v

 

[Atma]

Take a look at Daily Roads Voyager... it just might work for what you need:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.dailyroads.v

"Auto retain video upon sudden shock (e.g. accident); configurable g-force sensitivity"

That's pretty cool. Gonna try the app out. I just hope the sudden shock doesn't throw the phone threw the windshield.

 

[Goodspike]

I found that two posts above yours, but since I like "tallscreen" orientation the lens angle doesn't work. The video is also tall.

 

[trucky]

I found that two posts above yours, but since I like "tallscreen" orientation the lens angle doesn't work. The video is also tall.

I see your post now, dohhh.

I thought I would use "tallscreen" orientation for a dash video too. I was not at all happy with the results. The camera and video are designed to be used in the horizontal position and all the resolutions and made the same way. You lose too much going vertical. Coming from other phones vertical seems like the natural way to photograph or video but it's really not with this phone.

 

[lotus49]

I see your post now, dohhh.

I thought I would use "tallscreen" orientation for a dash video too. I was not at all happy with the results. The camera and video are designed to be used in the horizontal position and all the resolutions and made the same way. You lose too much going vertical. Coming from other phones vertical seems like the natural way to photograph or video but it's really not with this phone.

All cameras and video recorders are and always have been mean for use horizontally (ie landscape). There is a very good reason why this has always been so and that is that we live on a plane in a relatively flat world. Things don't happen up and down they happen from side to side.

If you think of almost any scene, the bits of interest to people are from side to side which is why pretty much all photographs, films and videos are landscape orientation.

 

[Goodspike]

All cameras and video recorders are and always have been mean for use horizontally (ie landscape). There is a very good reason why this has always been so and that is that we live on a plane in a relatively flat world. Things don't happen up and down they happen from side to side.

If you think of almost any scene, the bits of interest to people are from side to side which is why pretty much all photographs, films and videos are landscape orientation.

That's all well and good (and the reason I said the app doesn't work for me), but orientating a smartphone in landscape mode in a car is stupid, at least if you use it for GPS navigation. You want to have more of the map display ahead of you, not for stuff to either side of you.

BTW, the app maker did say that a future version will have the option to switch orientation. I was concerned that it was a hardware limitation, but apparently not.

 

[lotus49]

That's all well and good (and the reason I said the app doesn't work for me), but orientating a smartphone in portrait mode in a car is stupid, at least if you use it for GPS navigation. You want to have more of the map display ahead of you, not for stuff to either side of you.

BTW, the app maker did say that a future version will have the option to switch orientation. I was concerned that it was a hardware limitation, but apparently not.

I presume you mean landscape rather than portrait above otherwise the comment you made straight after wouldn't make sense.

I do take your point but I use landscape orientation with my phone when I'm using it as a satnav and all the commercial satnavs I have ever seen (including built-in ones) have been landscape as well.

What you say makes sense but you definitely appear to be in a minority in wanting to use portrait orientation for your phone in the car.

Have you tried forcing the orientation using an app like Ultimate Rotation Control? I don't know for sure that it will work but it does appear to be able to force apps to change orientation against their will. There is a free 7 day trial in Google Play if you want to give it a go.

 

[Goodspike]

Yes, I did mean landscape--sorry.

And yes I am in the minority. When dedicated GPS devices started going to a widescreen format, I asked why? It only helped when typing in the address. Even back then I said I wanted tallscreen for the maps.

When GPS devices started adding text to speech, again I asked why? The street information is already on the screen, and in any case in most cities the size of the street signs is so small that if you can't read it on your screen you're not going to be able to read the street sign either. Back then I was asking for speech to text (speech recognition) instead.

Then company making the Dash Express GPS went defunct as a result of the financial crisis and I had to move to Android (after wasting money on a TomTom device). Suddenly I had both tallscreen and speech recognition, all in a user interface which was practically stolen from the Dash Express. And fortunately Google Navigation works just fine with sound muted (although it would be nice if text to speech were optional).

So anyway, yes I am in the minority, but I don't care. I know what I want and have valid reasons for wanting it.

Thanks for the suggestion on Ultimate Rotation Control. I actually own that app for another reason, but haven't activated it on the S4.

 

[Goodspike]

Ultimate rotation control didn't work--the program wouldn't even display properly in an altered orientation.

As a side note I set it up for the one program I bought it for. That program should have had a fixed rotation, or at least that option. But with the S4 it hardly matters because it switches rotation so quickly.

 

[lotus49]

As I said, I do take your point about satnav orientation. I had never really thought about it but you are right that a route map is basically tall and thin unlike most scenes you might photograph so it would make sense for cameras (and video players) and satnavs to be orientated differently. I wonder why they aren't.

I use Ultimate Rotation Control in the car. I find that going round corners quickly fools the sensors and it changes orientation even though my car hardly leans at speed. This wouldn't matter much except the Tasker profile I use in the car relies on the orientation and gets confused. It works best on apps that are supposed to work in both orientations but it does sometimes work for others as well but, as you found, not always. Good luck trying to find a solution.