dashcam

Using ffmpeg on macOS to Correct AVI Index Errors and Convert to MP4

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I’ve had a dashcam in my car for several years. My first dashcam worked great but after a few years it died. I replaced it with a less expensive unit and, as they say, you get what you pay for. It works OK. The quality and perspective isn’t as good as my first dashcam – it also doesn’t record GPS and current speed. If I replace this one I’m definitely going to get one that has features more similar to my first dashcam.

In addition, the video that I pull from the SD cards it records to usually have index errors, which prevent the videos from playing in most players (it works in VLC but requires a little bit of preprocessing to correct index issues). Obviously, this isn’t very good for something recording video that might one day be provided to law enforcement, compiled into a video poking fun at bad drivers or perhaps on the rare ocassion you’re nearly hit by a horse and rider as they gallop across a busy highway. I used ffmpeg to correct this issue with the last video prevoiusly linked.

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Fixing GPS and Speed Indicator on a FalconZero F170HD Dashcam

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This post contains Amazon Associate links. If you purchase something through them I may get a small commission, which helps cover the hosting costs for this blog.

At the end of December 2015 I started riding with a dashcam in my car. The first dashcam was a TaoTronics Car Dash Cam HD 1080P Wide Angle with G-Sensor WDR Night Mode 2.7″ Screen, which had excellent video quality but earlier this year the battery finally gave out completely and as a result it kept losing settings including the time and date.

In April of this year I decided to repace it with a FalconZero F170HD dashcam. The dashcam has some additional features including a GPS attachment, which the camera uses to generate and save GPS information about each drive as well as displaying the current speed. I’ve managed to record a number of videos worth saving with these devices.

I don’t leave the camera powered when I’m not driving my car (the main reason the battery in the first dashcam died) and this camera also lost all settings a couple of times but strangely enough one of those settings seems to have impacted the speed indicator. It also looked like the GPS itself didn’t seem to be working as the GPS icon was showing an error on the display.

Despite ensuring that the GPS option was set to ON I was still unable to get the speed to display. I even tried checking the GPS attachment connection but nothing seemed to work.

Then suddenly, when I changed the Auto Update Time from off to the correct GMT offset for my area the GPS functions started working again. The speed indicator showed the correct value and the GPS icon was showing that it was enabled. The additional benefit is that since it’s getting the time directly from the GPS signal I no longer have to worry about manually setting the date and time again, whenever the unit is without power for a night or two.

Updated 04/18/2018: Nearly a year later and this dashcam still appears to be working well. I’ve pulled video from it many times and have even made my own, personal compilations of bad driving as well as a couple of time-lapse videos.

Falcon Zero