How to Choose the Best Micro SD Card for Your Dash Cam [MiniTool Tips]
How to Choose a Micro SD Card for Dash Cam
The dash cam is an instrument that records information such as images and sounds during the driving of the vehicle. These videos and sounds can be used as evidence for traffic accidents.
Some dash cams will come with a memory card but some may not. In addition, if the memory card is small or the lifespan of the memory card has run out, you should purchase a new card. Most dash cams will use micro SD card to store videos.
But how to choose the best micro SD card for dash cam? What should be taken into consideration when you choose a micro SD card for dash cam? Please keep reading to know these factors.
Factor 1. Dash Cam Manufacturer
Some dash cam manufacturers may recommend their customers to use micro SD cards from a certain brand. In some cases, some manufacturers even go as far as having their own brand of memory cards.
Although these micro SD cards are typically more expensive, the compatibility and video quality can be guaranteed. In addition, if the micro SD card is bought from dash cam manufacturers, they will take responsibility for it if anything goes wrong.
Factor 2. Speed
To make sure the video is clear enough, most dash cams will record 1080p videos. Some better dash cams can even record 1600p (2K) and 2160p (4K) videos. It's obviously that better video quality requires faster micro SD cards.
The speed of a flash drive is variable. Sometimes, it is fast, but sometimes it is slow. The variable speeds are difficult to reliably record streaming content and it will affect the video quality. In a word, recording videos requires a constant writing speed.
To ensure video quality, SD Association has made a speed class for video recording, which designates a minimum writing performance necessary for video recording. If a micro SD card meets the speed class, it means that the minimum writing speed of the card is no slower than the speed designated by the speed class.
The SD Association makes 3 kinds of speed classes: the standard speed class (C2 to C10), the UHS speed class (U1 and U3) and the video speed class (V6 to V90).
What do these minimum sequential write speeds stand for?
2MB/s: Support video recording and playback.
4MB/s: Support 720p/1080p video recording.
6MB/s: Can record 720p/1080p and some 4K videos.
10MB/s: Can record 720p, 1080p, and 4K videos.
30MB/s: Can record 1080p/4K videos @ 60/120fps.
60MB/s: Can record 8K videos @ 60/120fps.
90MB/s: Can record 8K videos @ 60/120fps.
To ensure video quality and FPS (frame per second), many manufacturers will recommend users to use C10 (10MB/s) cards for 1080p videos and V30 (30MB/s) cards for 4K videos. When you choose a micro SD card for dash cam, you should check whether this SD card has met the required speed class. If it meets the speed class, it will have the speed class mark.
Factor 3. Capacity
How much capacity do I need for dash cam micro SD card? Under normal circumstances, the dash cam will only be turned on when driving and be turned off when parking. If the memory card space runs out, the dash cam will erase old videos to record new videos.
In general, you may drive 3-4 hours a day (sometimes 7-8 or more). So, I will recommend you to choose a micro SD card that can hold at least 3-4 hours of videos. If there are important videos, you can back up them to other devices later.
How much video can 32GB hold? How much 1080p video can 64GB hold? Can 32GB or 64GB hold 3-4 hours of videos? To figure out these problems, you should refer to the following two tables.
At present, most dash cams on the market will use about 30fps to record videos, and use H.264 to encode videos. Some advanced dash cams may use H.265 encoding method. If you want to know a memory card can hold how long of videos, you just need to use this formula: card capacity / video size per minute.
Factor 4. Lifespan
Flash drives have limited write cycles. In theory, when the write cycles run out, the flash drive comes to the end of the lifespan.
Recording videos will erase data and write data over and over again. Therefore, you should choose a memory card that has a long lifespan. The lifespan is related to many factors like SLC/MLC/TLC technology, wear leveling algorithm, etc. This is very complicated.
To check the lifespan of a micro SD card easily, you can refer to the warranty offered by manufacturers. In general, manufacturers will offer a longer warranty to flash drives that have longer lifespan. Manufacturers may offer warranty in the following ways:
TBW (Terabytes Written): It indicates how much data a drive can write over its lifespan. For example, a flash drive with 500 TBW means that the drive can write 500 TB before it needs to be replaced.
Years: Some drives may tell you the warranty is xx years. This warranty is inaccurate to some extent, but you can still know something about the lifespan. The longer warranty usually means longer lifespan.
Tip: If you want to know the accurate lifespan of a micro SD card, please find out its TBW. In addition, larger capacity usually means longer lifespan (if the two cards use the same technology and hardware).