Background tasks in WP8 and why do dash cams for WP suck.

[Saltbridge]

I have the original Samsung Galaxy and while using it, I also used it as a dash cam. DailyRoads Voyager is a good app that did what it should. It ran perfectly fine in the background (screen off and all), and getting videos from the SD card was not an issue. After I updated to Lumia 925, I still used Samsung as dash cam because of SD card. Well, video was not the best quality and resolution was limited to 720, but it worked. Now recently I got a Lumia 820 for free. So I decided to use it as dash cam (1080, better camera, better optics, well, you understand). But there are no apps that can record in the background. I'm not a technical person, but what I gathered from a quick search is that Microsoft still limits severely what apps can do in the background. And apparently recording in the background is not supported.
There is also an issue of getting recorded videos off the phone, because they are saved on those hidden partitions along with the program, but I don't know if it's Microsoft forcing developers to do that, or it's just developers choosing to do so.
Anyway being a somewhat proactive member of WP, I decided to make a petition on WP feedback page, and now I am asking you to support me right here: Allow camera to run in the background – Feature Suggestions for Windows Phone
Unless of course I am being stupid and don't understand something, then feel free to point it out.

Thanks

 

[azcruz]

Just use the video recorder

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[Saltbridge]

Just use the video recorder

Sent from my Windows Phone 8S by HTC using Tapatalk

But still it does not resolve the problem of a background task. Sometimes it is distracting to have a screen on when you are driving at night. And what about 12 hour drive when I go to visit my family crash prone Ukraine? That would be one long video.

 

[bozza72]

try Timelapse Pro | Windows Phone Apps+Games Store (United States)

it runs with a black screen to save battery

 

[HarkAtYou]

You should just buy a real dash cam. You can buy them for pennies on eBay, and they turn on and off with your ignition (so long as your cigarette lighter does too, I had to rewire the one in my Vauxhall, but my Mercedes, Citroen and Volvos all turn off with the ignition, the Volvo and Mercedes about 30 seconds after). So once you've installed it, you can forget about it forever. But not only that it will record the rear view as well, which in 85% of accidents is where the accident will be happening. The only time I've had to use mine as evidence was when I was rear ended and the woman claimed she had sold the car the day before. Except I had the rearview video of her showing she was the driver.

 

[Saltbridge]

You should just buy a real dash cam. You can buy them for pennies on eBay, and they turn on and off with your ignition (so long as your cigarette lighter does too, I had to rewire the one in my Vauxhall, but my Mercedes, Citroen and Volvos all turn off with the ignition, the Volvo and Mercedes about 30 seconds after). So once you've installed it, you can forget about it forever. But not only that it will record the rear view as well, which in 85% of accidents is where the accident will be happening. The only time I've had to use mine as evidence was when I was rear ended and the woman claimed she had sold the car the day before. Except I had the rearview video of her showing she was the driver.

And what dash cam do you use. Cause I tried one off ebay and it sucked rather badly before breaking after 3 months. That's why I decided to use a phone afterwards.

 

[azcruz]

I used my HTC 8S before but I couldn't get a nice stand. In the end I bought Vicovation dash cam and I'm happy with it.


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[dgt02]

Unfortunately, WP has no equivalent apps to Dailyroads. I found a mint Galaxy S4 on eBay for $250 usd that has a 13mp camera with much better quality for being able to actually read license plates compared to dedicated cams such as the Vicovation or Garmin with lower quality cameras. It would be great to use a Nokia Lumia 1020 but the WP dash cam apps are too basic - no autostart or customizations/options.