Carlos Thomas

Hello Everyone. First time poster, long time lurker. I just placed an order for a 2018 Grand Sport Convertible on Saturday (10% below MSRP). I have a question about the Performance Data Recorder. I read on the forum that some folks are able to format up to 256 GB cards which gives them 6,317 minutes or 4 days and 9 hours of footage. So my questions are:

1. Does the Performance Data Recorder allow you to set it to "always on" while driving or do you have to manually start recording each session?
2. What happens when your card is full? Does it start to record over itself or just stop recording and require you to delete or provide a new card?
3. Is deleting the card easy or do you have to delete each session? I am sure deleting it once you put it in your computer is easy.

My goal is to set my Performance Data Recorder up as Dashcam. Is this possible?

mountainears

You cannot just have it come on every time. You have to start it, dismiss the legal screen and then hit record each time you start the car.

It will also only record for 45 minutes and then stop. So if your trip is longer you will need to restart.

While you can use it as a dash cam it was designed for the track. Many of us use it like a dash cam though.

You can format a longer card, I use a 256 GB card. But you have to do it on a computer first. Instructions for that can be found in the forums.

You can delete sessions much more quickly from the computer too, but you can delete and view them in the car as well.

Carlos Thomas

So if you have the car in valet mode or in for service, how does it know to turn on? I assume once you leave the car you can set it to valet mode and it just "comes on"?

Strake

Mountainears,

Are you sure your's only records for 45 minute segments? I believe mine goes until I shut off the car, or the card fills up. I think I recently deleted several sessions, which were over 45 minutes.

Maybe I'm just brain dead...

UPDATE: I did verify that my recording sessions go well beyond 45 minutes each. I looked at my recorded sessions, and deleted one that was 122 minutes.

mountainears

You have to go into the settings for valet mode to enable video recording during that. Once you enable that, anytime you start valet mode it will record when triggered.

Strake

OK, so I just tried my Valet Mode yesterday for the very first time.

All I can do is set a 4 digit number to "Lock" or "Unlock" the Valet mode.

I don't see any other place to go WITHIN Valet Mode to adjust Settings.

Am I missing something? Are you saying all you have to do is put it in Valet Mode, and until the car is taken out of valet mode, each time it's started, it will turn on the PDR automatically ? hope that's the case.

thanks,

mountainears

Sorry, I believe the setting to enable video in the Valet mode is within the PDR settings. But yes, once you have video enabled, there isn't anything more to Valet mode, you just set the pin and it turns it on until you turn it off.

L8ter

However you won't be able to get behind the screen, get into your glove compartment, or use any of your media.

mountainears

Hmm, I'm not sure I totally checked and I recently deleted all of my recordings. I was mostly repeating what I saw others post on here with regards to the 45 minute time limit. Wonder if that changed in some model year because people sure were talking about it like it was the real deal. Now I'll just need to go on a long drive and check it out :-)

mountainears

I don't think the OP was thinking of using Valet mode to have the PDR turn on every time like a dash cam. Although they did state that in the OP, in a later post they were specifically asking about enabling the video for Valet mode because that is not enabled by default.

But if one were to leave it in Valet mode all the time, I suppose it would work more like one. But as you say, you'd lose a lot of stuff to do that :-0

Walt White Coupe

Which makes Valet Mode pretty much useless as a means of activating the camera. I believe the limit on recordings is around 1 1/2 hours.

mountainears

I'm thinking the limit has to do with file sizes with the way they have the card formatted (FAT32 has a 2 GB file size limit).

If the 2018's got any different resolution or other changes to the amount of data that is stored with it, I suppose that could mean a different length of time.

Walt White Coupe

I'm thinking the limit has to do with file sizes with the way they have the card formatted (FAT32 has a 2 GB file size limit).

CP

The vid limit is about 100 minutes caused by the 32 bit operating system limit of 4GB file size. The system doesn't tell you it stopped recording, either.

mountainears

FAT 32 limit is 2 GB, not 4 GB....if my memory serves me right :-)

Strake

YES...... that was it. All set now. Thank you !

As for the time limit, mine is a 32gb card and I get up to 177 minutes of total recording time.

mountainears

There are two limits.

1) The amount of data your card can hold, yours is a 32GB card, holds 177 minutes, mine is 256GB and holds over 6,000 minutes.

2) Is the amount of time that an individual session can be recorded. That is going to be the same regardless of the size of the card. These cards are formatted with a file format that prevents a file from being over 2 GB in size (from my recollection). Once the file size hits that limit, it will stop recording. It sounds like that may be around 1.5 hours, but you should try a long recording and see where it stops.

Walt White Coupe

If a 256 Gig card holds 6,000 minutes then simple math says a 32 Gig card should hold 750 minutes.

Just checked my PDR with a blank 32 Gig card and it says 765 minutes available.

mountainears

I know the 256 is over 6,000 minutes as I stated, just not sure at the exact number :-) Haven't looked at it empty in a little while :-) Sounds like Strake should be seeing more minutes available, there could be some stuff already stored on that card....may want to look at it on the computer.

Mike Mercury

Carlos, since you gave numbered questions, I will try to give answers in numbered fashion:

you will need to manually start each recording, and you won't be the only one disappointed with this.

it stops recording. You either need to delete (make room) on your card, or pop-in a blank one

I hope others answer on this one.
But other than removing the card from the car and reformatting it (or deleting files) via a PC... you can delete individual sessions from the cars screen , but this is time consuming... deleting sessions one-at-a-time

Does anyone know if there is a "delete all" function on the info screen for this... or a way to select multiple sessions for delete?