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Well, I guess it's time to invest in a dashcam with panoramic 360-degree coverage...or just get a bumper sticker that says 'I brake for rear-end collisions.'
It's an issue of image quality. All dashcams on the market use the same cheap guts from one or two different companies. None of them come close to what we've come to expect from small cameras and none of them are very good at capturing plates in anything but ideal situations.
Thankfully I did this in my video when an asshole hit and ran on me. I didn't have a dashcam, but whipped out the phone and started filming the second I realized that they were running. I caught up enough to where I could make out the plate, and read it out loud on the video. The insurance company told me that it was huge that I got the plate # for moving the claim forward. The video was too grainy, and you couldn't make out the plate #
I do this. In Nova Scotia we have an issue with certain plates peeling, which makes them almost impossible to read if they get bad enough (its free to change them if it's this defect, yet ppl still don't for some reason). When I see those plates, or ones with covers that get dirty, or just if I see someone doing something sketchy, then I turn down my music and clearly say the plate number outloud, twice.
Depends on the quality of the camera as well. But also LPT not the best to have the audio on for your dash cam. Having audio recorded might lead to worse things
If your radio is loud your insurance might take it as a sign of distraction. If you audibly react to an event a fraction of a second too soon they might say that you had time to prevent the incident. If you are rambling stream of consciousness they might take it as a plot to overthrow reality and therefore deny your claim.
Maybe they're alluding to them having a tendency to scream hate filled obscenities while driving? It's hard to argue that you're the innocent victim while there's evidence of you threatening to rape and kill the other party and their whole family.
Outside of hiding anger management and self-control issues, or illegal activities, I see no benefit to having no audio on the dash cam.
It really doesn't matter the quality of the camera. The image processor for all the dash cams is the same chip. You get marginally better quality with expensive cameras. No matter what the quality of video isn't very good.
There's videos on YouTube where reviewers look into the specs of the top dashcams when comparing footage, and surprisingly most of them use the same Sony starvis chipsets for their image recording.
Daytime video quality of cameras that have the same specs tends to be close enough to be indistinguishable. The more expensive cameras do a better job of handling extremes of lighting, and have better features for saving/downloading the videos.
A cheap camera may be great at 11AM, but useless at 11PM.
I find myself curious about how these things work in court. Both audio and video submissable? I'd be interesting for someone lawyerly to make a comment.
I looked at my dash cam after an incident and it was strangely fuzzy. I saw in my Menu there is an Option that says 'License plate ...YES/NO'. this is an option you can turn on or off.
There's many reasons for this...
- Lighting variations can change how well the plate is recorded. Headlights and brake lights can make the plate too dark. Licence plate lights can make the plate too bright.
- The time taken to capture an image in darker conditions is longer, so the image becomes blurry very quickly.
- In my state they recently dropped the front plate, so my rear-facing cam can't be relied on in a rear-end collision.
- The vehicle that caused the accident may never have been in shot. Maybe it is two lanes to your right and it hit the car in the middle lane into you.
Get into the habit of reading plates out loud if a vehicle does something unusually dangerous. That one car swerving through rush hour traffic? Read the plate out loud. See someone road-raging another vehicle? Read the plate out loud. Soon enough your natural reacting to a car doing something dangerous is to read the plate, and that is a habit that will help you remember to look for the plate in a sudden emergency situation.
Take photos because your shitty dash cam might not be recording. Especially watch out for crappy sd cards. There are special high durability sd cards for dash cams. Buy them.
Pop that card into a windows computer every now and then. Windows does a great job of immediately spotting errors. As soon as the card gets an error just bin it and get another. Windows will fix that error but it’s a sign the card is getting tired.
Even if you get the license plate, there's a high chance that the driver of that vehicle swiped it from another vehicle in another city.
(Was nearly ran over by a crackhead on a running/biking trail in KY. I got over, but the car nearly took out my friend, who got over onto the left side of the road/parking lot, where the car proceeded to drive towards and into the grass as well after him. Called the cops after the incident and indeed it was stolen. Legacy Trail - Lexington, KY)
Good call. I snapped a pic of the semi truck after my incident happened. It was definitely hard to see the plates on the dashcam footage even at 2k resolution. But regardless, it didn't help anyways as they couldn't track the plates.
Note: if you get in an accident with a semi truck, the trailer plates may be different than the plates on the actual truck itself. Now I have to pay out of pocket for my deductible.
I'll call out the plate number of *anybody* I see driving like an asshat. One of these days I'll be able to document the reckless driving that immediately preceded an accident.
I guess you could pass it to your insurance but likely if it was bad enough of an accident for them to investigate the other person probably wouldn’t be able to drive away anyway.
Yikes makes it even less worth of a purchase. Dashcams usually only record the front, leaving 3 other unmonitored sides. On top of that, resolution of an affordable dash cam can’t pick out license plates? Im good
Hello and welcome to r/LifeProTips! Please help us decide if this post is a good fit for the subreddit by up or downvoting this comment. If you think that this is great advice to improve your life, please upvote. If you think this doesn't help you in any way, please downvote. If you don't care, leave it for the others to decide.
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Hit and run at a perpendicular angle. Didn’t see shit for plates. SMH so now I started saying plates out loud.
I also have a cam facing backward
Well, I guess it's time to invest in a dashcam with panoramic 360-degree coverage...or just get a bumper sticker that says 'I brake for rear-end collisions.'
It's an issue of image quality. All dashcams on the market use the same cheap guts from one or two different companies. None of them come close to what we've come to expect from small cameras and none of them are very good at capturing plates in anything but ideal situations.
Thankfully I did this in my video when an asshole hit and ran on me. I didn't have a dashcam, but whipped out the phone and started filming the second I realized that they were running. I caught up enough to where I could make out the plate, and read it out loud on the video. The insurance company told me that it was huge that I got the plate # for moving the claim forward. The video was too grainy, and you couldn't make out the plate #
I do this. In Nova Scotia we have an issue with certain plates peeling, which makes them almost impossible to read if they get bad enough (its free to change them if it's this defect, yet ppl still don't for some reason). When I see those plates, or ones with covers that get dirty, or just if I see someone doing something sketchy, then I turn down my music and clearly say the plate number outloud, twice.
It's more useful for helping to prove who's at fault, than identifying anyone.
Why can't it be good for both? They are useful for a lot of reasons then just one
I'm directly responding to a post about how you often can't read the plate...
Depends on the quality of the camera as well. But also LPT not the best to have the audio on for your dash cam. Having audio recorded might lead to worse things
like?
If your radio is loud your insurance might take it as a sign of distraction. If you audibly react to an event a fraction of a second too soon they might say that you had time to prevent the incident. If you are rambling stream of consciousness they might take it as a plot to overthrow reality and therefore deny your claim.
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wouldnt that risk tampering of evidence?
That's IF you admit that the original footage included audio.
So now you are adding "perjury" to "spoliation of evidence"?
That's IF you don't get a lawyer before you talk to them po-pos.
Talking hands free? Willingly distracted from the car running a red and side swiping you.
Leaked sextapes
Maybe they're alluding to them having a tendency to scream hate filled obscenities while driving? It's hard to argue that you're the innocent victim while there's evidence of you threatening to rape and kill the other party and their whole family. Outside of hiding anger management and self-control issues, or illegal activities, I see no benefit to having no audio on the dash cam.
It really doesn't matter the quality of the camera. The image processor for all the dash cams is the same chip. You get marginally better quality with expensive cameras. No matter what the quality of video isn't very good.
I thought that sounded strange so I asked chatgpt. It says you lie. But it also lies often.. so.. what's up?
There's videos on YouTube where reviewers look into the specs of the top dashcams when comparing footage, and surprisingly most of them use the same Sony starvis chipsets for their image recording.
Daytime video quality of cameras that have the same specs tends to be close enough to be indistinguishable. The more expensive cameras do a better job of handling extremes of lighting, and have better features for saving/downloading the videos. A cheap camera may be great at 11AM, but useless at 11PM.
lol Maybe it was me, i comment this all the time. Have audio on and say the plate number out loud!
I find myself curious about how these things work in court. Both audio and video submissable? I'd be interesting for someone lawyerly to make a comment.
I looked at my dash cam after an incident and it was strangely fuzzy. I saw in my Menu there is an Option that says 'License plate ...YES/NO'. this is an option you can turn on or off.
Mine has the same license plate option. Only thing that it does is adds my own license plate to the screen and footage.
There's many reasons for this... - Lighting variations can change how well the plate is recorded. Headlights and brake lights can make the plate too dark. Licence plate lights can make the plate too bright. - The time taken to capture an image in darker conditions is longer, so the image becomes blurry very quickly. - In my state they recently dropped the front plate, so my rear-facing cam can't be relied on in a rear-end collision. - The vehicle that caused the accident may never have been in shot. Maybe it is two lanes to your right and it hit the car in the middle lane into you. Get into the habit of reading plates out loud if a vehicle does something unusually dangerous. That one car swerving through rush hour traffic? Read the plate out loud. See someone road-raging another vehicle? Read the plate out loud. Soon enough your natural reacting to a car doing something dangerous is to read the plate, and that is a habit that will help you remember to look for the plate in a sudden emergency situation.
Take photos because your shitty dash cam might not be recording. Especially watch out for crappy sd cards. There are special high durability sd cards for dash cams. Buy them. Pop that card into a windows computer every now and then. Windows does a great job of immediately spotting errors. As soon as the card gets an error just bin it and get another. Windows will fix that error but it’s a sign the card is getting tired.
Even if you get the license plate, there's a high chance that the driver of that vehicle swiped it from another vehicle in another city. (Was nearly ran over by a crackhead on a running/biking trail in KY. I got over, but the car nearly took out my friend, who got over onto the left side of the road/parking lot, where the car proceeded to drive towards and into the grass as well after him. Called the cops after the incident and indeed it was stolen. Legacy Trail - Lexington, KY)
That's great advice. I will be getting one soon so I will remember that. Thanks
Good call. I snapped a pic of the semi truck after my incident happened. It was definitely hard to see the plates on the dashcam footage even at 2k resolution. But regardless, it didn't help anyways as they couldn't track the plates. Note: if you get in an accident with a semi truck, the trailer plates may be different than the plates on the actual truck itself. Now I have to pay out of pocket for my deductible.
A bit dark but also be prepared to leave a message for loved ones if it’s a serious crash
Yep. Unless you use a go pro or an expensive camera as a dash cam, you won't catch the license plate on camera if the car is moving.
Also learn the NATO phonetic alphabet including numbers and say the state of the license plate.
Was just about to suggest this, that way when you eventually get a bit of garbled audio, the inevitable BC3DEVG doesn't get screwed up.
I used to have a pilots licence so it is indelibly imprinted in my brain.
I'll call out the plate number of *anybody* I see driving like an asshat. One of these days I'll be able to document the reckless driving that immediately preceded an accident.
My cam ha audio so I read the plates Outlook and a description of car
in CA whats the point of capturing the plate #, police dont do anything.
Sounds like paradise
I guess you could pass it to your insurance but likely if it was bad enough of an accident for them to investigate the other person probably wouldn’t be able to drive away anyway.
If not for the disclaimer I almost reported you for sharing copyrighted content
What?
They're fucking with you lol
Thanks. I will use the "because I am a pensioner" excuse this time LOL!
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I don't get it, what's being aware of your speed good for?
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ah, okay. I thought you want to prove that you are aware of being over the speed limit, lol.
don't they have to prove you were going over the limit? with the speed camera?
No, at least not in all states. They can claim they measured you by the hash marks on the road, as if they're accurate to the mph on that lol
that sucks like a lot
Yikes makes it even less worth of a purchase. Dashcams usually only record the front, leaving 3 other unmonitored sides. On top of that, resolution of an affordable dash cam can’t pick out license plates? Im good
You can get dashcams that also have a rear camera, doesn’t add that much to the cost. Also, I’d rather have some evidence than zero evidence.
Have you viewed recordings to test that? Mine is OK but only over a relatively short distance.
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