Gaps In DashCam Video

[Wingsy]

This has probably been mentioned before but I couldn't find it, so...

The image on the left is the last frame in one 1-minute clip and the image on the right is the 1st frame in the subsequent clip. What happened between the two is that a car was passing me over a double-yellow line, and another car was running that stop sign. They collided and one of the cars side-swiped my car doing extensive damage. Both drivers say that I was across the centerline and caused both of them to collide. Or something.

That's purely fictitious but something like that could have happened. There's about 3 seconds of no video between one clip and the next. A lot can happen in 3 seconds, and that accounts for 5% of total recording time that's missing. So here's hoping that this is a software issue and that sooner or later Tesla will get around to "filling the gap", literally. Other dash cams I've used don't have these gaps so I know it's doable.

On a hunch I bought a 120GB flash drive with enclosure & USB port, formatted one 100GB partition with the "TeslaCam" folder and another 20GB partition for music. I was hoping for the increased write speed and huge disk space to aid in reducing the delay between clips. And as a disadvantage to doing this, if some thief was rummaging around in my console he would surely see that black box and take it, to figure out what it was later. I read of some guy doing this to solve his problem of corrupted video in a thumb drive (which I don't have) and took a chance that it may do the same for the gaps between clips. Nope.

 

[yellowcakepie]

I had a SanDisk Ultra Fit that wrote at around 100 MB/s that also had a similar problem with gaps in recordings. I think it might've been overheating due to the constant writing and reading and I swapped it out for a 100 MB/s SD card plugged into a USB adapter because SD cards are used in cameras for long writes, and those gaps went away. Maybe swap your flash drive out for an SD card.

 

[Wingsy]

On the dashcam SSD device (143MB/S sustained write speed, 500MB/S burst) I get 3 simultaneous recordings of around 38MB each and each recording lasts around 57 seconds. So, 38MB X 3 = 114MB total every 57 seconds. Divide 114 by 57 seconds and the average bandwidth needed is 2MB/S. Any non-broken 100MB/S SD card can maintain 2MB/S. I know the recordings are not saved at a 2MB rate but they are made with short bursts of high speed data. It almost seems like the gaps are actually when the car is writing to the SD card. Using the numbers above it would need to write at 38MB/S for 3 seconds. The same 3 seconds where I have gaps. Like it can't record and buffer video while it is writing.

Yellowcakepie, are you sure you have no gaps at all between your clips? Even a small one? And specifically what SD card are you using now?

 

[notsure11]

I also have this ~3-second gap. I witnessed a crime yesterday, so I looked at the videos to provide to the police, but unfortunately, about 3 seconds were missing in between files. A real bummer since I might have been able to capture the license plate better during those 3 seconds. I'm using SanDisk MobileMate USB 3.0 microSD Reader and Samsung 256GB 100MB/s (U3) MicroSDXC EVO Select Memory Card (MB-ME256GA/AM), which I understand to be an Amazon-specific model of a Samsung MicroSD card (it was recommended by WireCutter).

Looking at the filenames, the first file began recording at 18:23:22. That file only contains 58 seconds of footage. The next file, rather than starting from 18:24:20 (i.e., 58 seconds from 18:23:22), it starts from 18:24:24. The videos show that it's missing about 3~4 seconds of footage.

Just wanted to add my datapoint here.

 

[diezel_dave]

I am using a 128 GB Sandisk ultra fit USB drive currently (do not recommend btw) and I also have the 2-3 second gaps that are pretty frustrating to have because yes, a lot can happen in 3 seconds, especially at highway speeds. The theory about the missing time being caused by the car flushing the buffer to the USB drive during that time sounds pretty plausible but its a terrible way for Tesla to do it. Like can they really not record video while the file is being written to the external drive? That seems pretty silly...

 

[ambudriver03]

I am using a 128 GB Sandisk ultra fit USB drive currently (do not recommend btw) and I also have the 2-3 second gaps that are pretty frustrating to have because yes, a lot can happen in 3 seconds, especially at highway speeds. The theory about the missing time being caused by the car flushing the buffer to the USB drive during that time sounds pretty plausible but its a terrible way for Tesla to do it. Like can they really not record video while the file is being written to the external drive? That seems pretty silly...

I too have one of the Ultra Fit drives (256), and it occasionally has the write gaps too... My primary device is a Samsung EVO SSD with a SATA to USB adapter on it, the ssd is 128gb and i bought it about 3 years ago and sat in its original packaging for a different project until unwrapped to use as sentry/dashcam.

the SSD is a much better/reliable solution.

 

[bwilson4web]

My 3d party dash cam also has gaps between each file. The solution is to run two as the probability of both being in the interfile gap is the product of the two:

• 3 sec inter file gap of 58 seconds -> 3/58 or ~0.05
• 3 sec inter file gap of 300 seconds (commercial dash cam) -> ~0.01
• 0.01 * 0.05 = 0.0005 or 99.95% coverage

Bob Wilson

 

[diezel_dave]

I too have one of the Ultra Fit drives (256), and it occasionally has the write gaps too... My primary device is a Samsung EVO SSD with a SATA to USB adapter on it, the ssd is 128gb and i bought it about 3 years ago and sat in its original packaging for a different project until unwrapped to use as sentry/dashcam.

the SSD is a much better/reliable solution.

Funny that we went through the same evolution. First I tried the SanDisk drive but it's pooping out already and now I'm going to put one of my spare 250 GB Crucial SSDs in an enclosure. Haha.

 

[diezel_dave]

My 3d party dash cam also has gaps between each file. The solution is to run two as the probability of both being in the interfile gap is the product of the two:

• 3 sec inter file gap of 58 seconds -> 3/58 or ~0.05
• 3 sec inter file gap of 300 seconds (commercial dash cam) -> ~0.01
• 0.01 * 0.05 = 0.0005 or 99.95% coverage

Bob Wilson

Interesting! I figured the gaps were a Tesla induced phenomenon but I see your other dashcam does it as well. Really seems like we should be able to record video without gaps in the year 2020. Haha!

 

[diamond.g]

I think this is a product of the compression (video format) used. They keep the time to a minute to minimize the chances of lost footage.

 

[dklein]

Another note, it seems that we're reliant on the one minute cuts to get a capture. Tonight I saw a fox crossing the road just as I pulled up to my destination. I parked, hit the download button and pulled the stick when it finished. It didn't save the little bit. The 10 minutes before was on but I think I hit download before the one minute session had ended so I got nothing. The recent folder didn't have it either.
I guess the lesson is let at least a minute pass after the event you want to capture?

 

[Texas Flood]

I had a car ever into my lane and was lucky to avoid an accident. When I reviewed the video later, the gap happened when the car was crossing the line. There was enough information to show that the car was in the next lane before the gap and in my lane after (with me on the shoulder), but any impact likely would have been missed.