Memory Micro SD Cards.. a cautionary tale

Having just upgraded my dashcam to a dual channel affair, I thought I'd increase the size of my Micro SD card to allow for the extra footage from the second camera.

The camera I purchased was the Vantrue N2 Pro. It records at these resolutions:

• 2560x1440 @30fps front only
• 1296p @30fps front only
• 1080p @30fps both cameras
• 1080p @60fps front only

I figured 5 min clips at 1440p would be about a gigabyte with 1080p being half of that. I wasn't that far off to be fair (990 odd Mb for 1440p, 485Mb for 1080p).

Anyway, my previous 32gb card just wasn't going to cut it so I started browsing Amazon for a 64 or 128 and found a SanDisk Ultra 128gb Class 10 for £23. Bargain or so I thought...

The card arrives, formats it and off we go for a test drive. Records OK, all files present but when I get them off the card onto the PC, the video is stuttering like mad. Thinking I'd bought a duff camera, I went through various forums, settings on the camera, tried recording again with g-sensor off, GPS off, audio off - no dice.

So I started thinking about the SD card but surely it's fast enough? It's a SanDisk Ultra Class 10! 85Mb/s - says so on the box! Well a quick test or two later, read is indeed 85Mb/s but the write speed (which is the only one that matters for dashcams/cameras etc) tested at 27Mb/s.

Now, and here's the rub... 27Mb/s is enough to record 1440p video nearly 9 times over; however, after a bit more internet searching, the SanDisk controller just isn't fast enough to process the constant writes from the dashcam. There are lots of accounts of this with SanDisk (and other well known brand) cards.

I've now got a 128gb Samsung Evo Pro card on the way, for £1 more than the SanDisk, which I've been recommended by another Vantrue owner who had similar issues. It reads at just short of 95Mb/s but crucially it writes at just over 70Mb/s despite being the same Class 10 as the SanDisk but therein lies the cautionary tale.

 

Have a Sandisk 128gb card myself, works flawlessly in my Viofo A119 Pro at 1440p 30fps, same with my Samsung 64gb Endurance card.

My issue now that I have found a camera that record's with good quality unlike the nextbase cam I tried, is that it's recording a constant beeping noise every second, but it could be a power issue which I am going to work on one day but for now it does the job.

Memory cards for dash cams are something not to cheap out on though, they get some abuse and the quality of video with a cheaper card will show as rather poor compared to a decent card because of the write speeds.

 

Totally agree. I found the stuttering effect lessened if I turned off the audio and recorded at 1080p front camera only - leading me to realise it was a limitation of write speeds.

Although the Sammy Evo card I purchased isn't the endurance, at £24, I don't care if it only lasts a year or two. The 'pro' or 'endurance' cards are significantly more expensive at present, so for the purposes of proving write speed was the issue, at this time, longevity isn't my primary.

 

Absolutely. The Pro/Endurance cards aren't faster either - in fact, they're actually slower BUT they can withstand significantly more read/writes than the standard cards. So much so that the standard fast SD cards are not warranted if you use them in dashcams. Says very clearly in the small print!

 

I had a Sandisk that decided to unmount itself from my phone as I was filming dolphins by our boat in NZ.

So instead of a great little movie I have aboyt a 10 second clip. Luckily I tend to watch with my eyes and film without looking, it's why i didn't see a problem but at least got to see it.

Samsung Evos have never let me down, won't touch anything else for my phone and camera now.

 

I found a Samsung Evo laying on the ground at Pripyat, judging by the EXIF it had been there two years and was still working fine; Geiger counter was going off and everything.

Had some drone footage of a woman in a bikini on it, too.

 

As suspected, the Samsung EVO card solved the stuttering video. That's the last SanDisk SD card I'll ever buy... Ultra?! My arse......

 

I don’t touch them and wouldn’t with someone else’s barge pole. They’re just not great and have so many issues...

 

There's quite a few fake ones nowadays, some quite obviously fake called Scandisk. I have had a SanDisk SD card for my phone for over 4 years, no issues with recording 1080p.

 

Mine was not a fake. From a reputable retailer. It’s just a sh@t memory card with a terrible controller and write speed!

 

I had an issue like this. I bought some cheap "go go action 4k camera" and after about 5 minutes the sound started falling out of sync with the video. Just checked the card and it's a Samsung Evo, so IDK why it does that. Maybe I got a cheap one?

Doesn't matter, as it's just me riding my bike any way and I dub music over it.

 

I only have Sandisk Micro SD cards, but I've noticed their write-speeds are .. Wildly variable. Some 16gb's are fine, others are utter tosh.

I'm looking at a 256 or bigger next purchase, I'm debating whether I ..Sep-tuple? down and have another Sandisk, or try a Sammy.

 

Well, I put both SD cards into a USB reader and did a drive benchmark on them both. My SanDisk managed 28MB/s write speed and the Sammy managed 73MB/s... told me all I needed to know!

I've put the SanDisk into the wife's Samsung phone for apps and photos but it's not fast enough for a dashcam with high resolution, increased frame rate and audio recording. It would probably work for a lower-res one without audio but that's about it.

 

My Sandisk worked fine in my Crosstour 4K Action Cam recording at 4K 30fps and the quality was really good, but it was awkward to use in the car constantly removing and fitting it again.

At some point tomorrow if the weather is not as it is today, raining and windy then I am going to change the power cable and the usb power adaptor and then go for a drive to see if the beeping noise goes from the video footage, will also try with it not recording audio and see if that gets rid of it, if the cable doesn't as I don't need the audio.

 

So here is an interesting development.

So my Dash Cam I thought needed a faster Micro SD card because I was getting issues with other cameras, poor video quality etc.

I bought the Samsung 64Gb Endurance card and a Viofo A119 Pro, and the quality was great except the annoying Beeping sound in the background on both cards the Samsung and Sandisk.

Changed the power cable and adapter today and the beeping was still there, so I tried my Sandisk 128Gb card and the beeping sound was gone, then try the 64Gb again and the beeping was gone.

So I am going to try it tomorrow and see what happens with both cards.

 

After a quick Reddit search, the two top fixes for Viofo beeping constantly are: try flashing it with the latest firmware or if you're using the GPS mount, try plugging power directly into the camera.

 

Already done that, and it was still happening.

Not in the office today so not able to test it today but should be tomorrow so can test it then.