Porsche Dashcam First Impressions
Posted: Sun May 22, 2022 1:45 pm
I finally got to play with the dashcam yesterday on a reasonable trip and as there was some interest in this device I thought I would post some first impressions. This is not a review as there are other YouTube reviews around and I presume that you all know it has a radar and shock sensor in addition to the camera so it stays on when you park without high battery drain but will shut down if the battery voltage drops.
It ships with a 32GB MicroSD Card and when you are driving it records continuously, saving the files in 60 second chunks with the filename based on the date and time of each one. File format is MP4 and 60s of video takes 137MB so you can do the maths and you get about 4 hours of video before it starts overwriting the oldest files. If it gets an event due to shock or radar then it stores these in a separate 'Event' area so they are not overwritten. An 'event' only records 20s of video after the trigger, which seems a bit odd to me as I would like to see immediately what happened before the trigger (as you can do on most CCTV systems). The event video is in addition to the continuous video if you are driving so you can still go back and look prior to the trigger.
The most frustrating part is connecting your app to the dash cam. After a few factory resets and deletion and reinstall of the iPhone app I have now worked out that the most stable solution is to get both the Dashcam and phone paired to your vehicle hotspot rather than use the option to connect the phone directly to the dash cam. Perhaps you can do better but I lost 2 hours of my life on this discovery. If you do try to pair to the dash cam directly then make sure your phone is not connected to your car in any way (wifi,BT, hardwire) and do a factory reset of the dash cam and delete and reinstall the app. do not use the wifi to search for the dash cam but open the app and let it guide you and open the connection for you. This will save you at least an hour of wasted time doing it any other way.
This is the first dash cam for me so I don't have much to compare it to. The formats are as follows:
Video: 2560 × 1440 @30fps = 18Mbit/s (8 bit colour depth) HEVC
Audio: 48kHz AAC at 128kbit/s
There is a polarisation filter on the lens to help with glare and the low light performance of the sensor seemed reasonable - it gets a bit harder to read number plates and road signs compared to midday but I thought it was acceptable.
Screenshot below on the A281 to Guildford for those that know it... I have chosen a clip which avoids me needing to worry about masking number plates/faces etc but trust me it is pretty sharp even with closing speed of 100Mph. The Audio quality is not very good at all and I will probably switch the mic off anyway.
You have the option to overlay date, time, speed and location information individually and you can see that I am running with them all for now.
I put the shock sensitivity up a bit and whilst driving it would trigger an audible warning when it went off and recorded an event so it works but I don't see any reason to play with the factory settings.
The device and the app clearly support the rear camera so no idea why it is not offered but having a rear camera doesn't really bother me that much.
Hope the above helps. It is not worth £880 (OPC fully installed price) but then again most of Porsche options are not worth the price. However it is well integrated and well fitted and there are no warranty worries. I also get about £40 a year off my LV insurance premium for having it.
It ships with a 32GB MicroSD Card and when you are driving it records continuously, saving the files in 60 second chunks with the filename based on the date and time of each one. File format is MP4 and 60s of video takes 137MB so you can do the maths and you get about 4 hours of video before it starts overwriting the oldest files. If it gets an event due to shock or radar then it stores these in a separate 'Event' area so they are not overwritten. An 'event' only records 20s of video after the trigger, which seems a bit odd to me as I would like to see immediately what happened before the trigger (as you can do on most CCTV systems). The event video is in addition to the continuous video if you are driving so you can still go back and look prior to the trigger.
The most frustrating part is connecting your app to the dash cam. After a few factory resets and deletion and reinstall of the iPhone app I have now worked out that the most stable solution is to get both the Dashcam and phone paired to your vehicle hotspot rather than use the option to connect the phone directly to the dash cam. Perhaps you can do better but I lost 2 hours of my life on this discovery. If you do try to pair to the dash cam directly then make sure your phone is not connected to your car in any way (wifi,BT, hardwire) and do a factory reset of the dash cam and delete and reinstall the app. do not use the wifi to search for the dash cam but open the app and let it guide you and open the connection for you. This will save you at least an hour of wasted time doing it any other way.
This is the first dash cam for me so I don't have much to compare it to. The formats are as follows:
Video: 2560 × 1440 @30fps = 18Mbit/s (8 bit colour depth) HEVC
Audio: 48kHz AAC at 128kbit/s
There is a polarisation filter on the lens to help with glare and the low light performance of the sensor seemed reasonable - it gets a bit harder to read number plates and road signs compared to midday but I thought it was acceptable.
Screenshot below on the A281 to Guildford for those that know it... I have chosen a clip which avoids me needing to worry about masking number plates/faces etc but trust me it is pretty sharp even with closing speed of 100Mph. The Audio quality is not very good at all and I will probably switch the mic off anyway.
You have the option to overlay date, time, speed and location information individually and you can see that I am running with them all for now.
I put the shock sensitivity up a bit and whilst driving it would trigger an audible warning when it went off and recorded an event so it works but I don't see any reason to play with the factory settings.
The device and the app clearly support the rear camera so no idea why it is not offered but having a rear camera doesn't really bother me that much.
Hope the above helps. It is not worth £880 (OPC fully installed price) but then again most of Porsche options are not worth the price. However it is well integrated and well fitted and there are no warranty worries. I also get about £40 a year off my LV insurance premium for having it.