The software viewer lets you browse files and view the footage from each event. It takes the GPS data and correlates it with a Google map, helping establish precisely where each 20 second clip of footage was taken. The Google map interface is interactive, letting you zoom in. The events that trigger the footage actually mark the midpoint of the recording, as the DRS-1100 saves 10 seconds before the event and 10 seconds after it. You can adjust how many seconds of video are saved both before and after the triggering event in the settings menu.
You can save files onto different drives, and give them more logical names than that provided by the device. The saved files use the extension ub1, a proprietary format that combines video and GPS information. There are also buttons to take a snapshot at any given point in the footage, or print out the screen. The ub1 files generated by the device can also be exported as a simple avi movie file, although these files will only show the video taken by the camera, and none of the attendant GPS information.
Performance
While driving, the device stays quiet, although the red LED blinks whenever it saves an event. During an excursion out to test the device, we noticed that light blinking frequently, leading us to suspect that the DRS-1100 has a fairly low threshold for registering an event. Monitoring it a bit more closely, we saw the device trigger its recording mode when we made a hard turn or went over a pothole.
As expected, when we took the SD Card out and viewed its files with the viewer software, we found a large number of events, making it difficult to find a specific one. Fortunately, clicking each file entry brings up a snapshot from the video with the date and time of the event.
The video footage is clean enough to get a good idea of what might have happened during an accident, at least from the front of the vehicle. The camera uses a wide angle lens, but it wouldn't show if someone hit you from the side or the rear, although if you were in such an accident, it could show if you were following the traffic laws at the time of the event, such as if you crossed an intersection with the light green and got hit by cross-traffic. We really like how the Google map component provides an accurate path for the car, showing the streets the car was traveling.
Loading files into the view is a bit rough. You have to load a file named _system.mdb from the SD Card to see the saved event files. You can save event files off to a hard drive or other location. But they won't appear in the same list format as the files on the SD card, instead requiring a different file open button to view each one individually.
What You'll Pay
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