[SkykingUSA]

I watched this video yesterday and couldn't believe that my car had this feature and I never really played with it - until today.

I assume it's the same for all the 2024-2025 five series, but I can confirm in the i5, that if you hold down the parking button for about 2 seconds (in the center console) it will do as the video indicates and manually save a recording to the car (I have mine set for 30 seconds in the past, and 30 seconds in the future). I had no idea that I could manually save a minute of footage from all external cams by just holding down the parking button.

I took a couple of test videos and I suggest you set your car to also save/export the RAW footage as well (it's in the Drive Recorder settings). I found that the RAW videos were much clearer and also had more coverage.

[SkykingUSA]

Also just noticed that you can also choose to save the METADATA. I did that and it looks like the text below. There are two entries per second recorded. I have shown the first two only. Neat how it shows all the details about your location, speed, cam status, etc. Pretty cool stuff. FYI, I blanked out my VIN below, but it is included in the file.

[AiredaleDad]

Good to know in the event of a fender bender too. Train yourself to mash that button if you get hit to prove fault/no fault.

[RichardInCA]

I believe it’s also activated if your alarm goes off, possibly in the event of a crash in iDrive settings, but don’t recall exactly where you find that.

I accidentally set my alarm off when picking up my daughter from the airport a few months back and have some nice video of the guy in the Tesla next to me putting his hands up in a “hey, I didn’t touch it” maneuver.

[handinpalm]

Originally Posted by AiredaleDad

Good to know in the event of a fender bender too. Train yourself to mash that button if you get hit to prove fault/no fault.

That is the major problem, hit the button after an accident. Usually, if you are in an accident, that may be the last thing you might think about. It is a damn shame that this drive recorder does not constantly save video like a regular cheap dash cam. I would only use this as a backup, and get a real dash cam with high res video and constant recording. When will the car manufacturers get up to speed on technology? They are always behind the curve. Another half ass solution.

[RichardInCA]

Originally Posted by handinpalm

That is the major problem, hit the button after an accident. Usually, if you are in an accident, that may be the last thing you might think about. It is a damn shame that this drive recorder does not constantly save video like a regular cheap dash cam. I would only use this as a backup, and get a real dash cam with high res video and constant recording. When will the car manufacturers get up to speed on technology? They are always behind the curve. Another half ass solution.

It does automatically record in the event of an accident, no need to press the button per the manual.

[handinpalm]

Airbags deployed only? What is a definition of an accident? One important thing I learned from security camera business, you always want to constantly record. How expensive is memory this day and age? Cheap. BMW could do it right and use this as an additional option and make $. Like other car manufacturers, not too smart.

[RichardInCA]

Originally Posted by handinpalm

Airbags deployed only? What is a definition of an accident? One important thing I learned from security camera business, you always want to constantly record. How expensive is memory this day and age? Cheap. BMW could do it right and use this as an additional option and make $. Like other car manufacturers, not too smart.

No idea. Just pointing out that there’s no evidence that BMW isn’t “doing it right”. This thread started by the fact that BMW has included a recording system that can be manually activated should you desire, but there are several ways that the system automatically activates. Not exactly sure where the assumption that the system doesn’t work came from?

[ToddRGuy]

Originally Posted by SkykingUSA

I watched this video yesterday and couldn't believe that my car had this feature and I never really played with it - until today.

I assume it's the same for all the 2024-2025 five series, but I can confirm in the i5, that if you hold down the parking button for about 2 seconds (in the center console) it will do as the video indicates and manually save a recording to the car (I have mine set for 30 seconds in the past, and 30 seconds in the future). I had no idea that I could manually save a minute of footage from all external cams by just holding down the parking button.

I took a couple of test videos and I suggest you set your car to also save/export the RAW footage as well (it's in the Drive Recorder settings). I found that the RAW videos were much clearer and also had more coverage.

I love this guy! I found his YouTube channel a few weeks ago. I've learned a lot about my BMW even before I've driven it

[ToddRGuy]

I'd really like to know what "Pollution Status" is in the metadata. lol

[Scrapula]

How do you pull the metadata? When I have used the drive recorder, it just sends the videos to my phone. Is it in the log files in the MyBMW app?

[handinpalm]

Originally Posted by RichardInCA

No idea. Just pointing out that there’s no evidence that BMW isn’t “doing it right”. This thread started by the fact that BMW has included a recording system that can be manually activated should you desire, but there are several ways that the system automatically activates. Not exactly sure where the assumption that the system doesn’t work came from?

You must not have ever used a Good dashcam.

[LVBMW]

Yes, it will activate itself automatically in an accident. But, it's not clear what type of impact will trigger it.

[ToddRGuy]

Originally Posted by LVBMW

Yes, it will activate itself automatically in an accident. But, it's not clear what type of impact will trigger it.

I think I recall the content creator at BeamerView stating that it requires an airbag deployment, however, he also stated that it saves information anytime you press a button, up to 20 seconds prior and 20 seconds after the request. This makes me think it’s on some sort of continuous loop of recording and overwriting.

[LVBMW]

Originally Posted by ToddRGuy

I think I recall the content creator at BeamerView stating that it requires an airbag deployment, however, he also stated that it saves information anytime you press a button, up to 20 seconds prior and 20 seconds after the request. This makes me think it’s on some sort of continuous loop of recording and overwriting.

Yes, it’s constantly recording and overwriting, but an accident (or pressing the button) stores the recording for access.

[SkykingUSA]

Originally Posted by handinpalm

Airbags deployed only? What is a definition of an accident? One important thing I learned from security camera business, you always want to constantly record. How expensive is memory this day and age? Cheap. BMW could do it right and use this as an additional option and make $. Like other car manufacturers, not too smart.

Not sure if it will solve your issue, but in the Drive Recorder app, you can start recording manually anytime you like and then tell it to stop whenever you like. I'm pretty sure you're not limited to 1 minute clips. I'm not sure what the size limit is, but I suspect it's a lot higher than 1 minute. Next time you're in your car, you should start recording when you get in, then see if it can record your entire trip - I suspect that it could. Please let us know if you try it. I'll try to remember to do the same tomorrow for my next 20 minute or so trip.

Originally Posted by Scrapula

How do you pull the metadata? When I have used the drive recorder, it just sends the videos to my phone. Is it in the log files in the MyBMW app?

You get the metadata from your phone within the myBMW app. See screen shots below. Tap on the areas circled in yellow and you'll get there. I just emailed it to myself.

[SkykingUSA]

I did a quick test today and manually started recording when I drove off from home - saving the video to a USB stick. Didn't go so well. It recorded for 10 seconds, then stopped on its own - don't know why. Started it manually again and this time it ran for 3 minutes and 19 seconds, then again stopped on its own. I tried a third time and it ran for 24 seconds then stopped.

After that I gave up until I got to my destination. On the way home, I thought I would try recording it to my phone instead of a USB drive. That seemed to work pretty well for a while, but it must have stopped at some point during the 20 minute trip because when I got home it had already stopped and I had no video to look at - it was as if it never started, even though I saw the recording start in the Drive Recorder app in the car.

So, needless to say, the manual recording is not great, but at least I've never yet had the "automated" one fail on me, so that's something. I'll test again later and provide any updates which may be significant.

By the way, the cameras are not high quality with regards to reading license plates or other small writing. The raw footage videos are only 1216 x 960 pixels. I also learned that the system can only save up to 10 videos at a time, and after that will start to overwrite the oldest one.

[handinpalm]

Originally Posted by SkykingUSA

By the way, the cameras are not high quality with regards to reading license plates or other small writing. The raw footage videos are only 1216 x 960 pixels. I also learned that the system can only save up to 10 videos at a time, and after that will start to overwrite the oldest one.

Resolution of your camera is very important this day and age, because hit and run accidents are dramatically increasing. Need a good dashcam that has resolution to read licence plates. Seems as though the drive recorder is more a gimmick than a dashcam. I plan on installing this dashcam in my new car, mainly based of the camera sensor size.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CKYFSKNN/?psc=1

[AiredaleDad]

Odd that the same cameras that can drive your car on the road at 80 MPH, can't read a license plate.

[Scrapula]

I only tried manual once on a deserted road. Did launch control and drove over 100mph. It took a couple tries to download it to my phone. I saved it in photos. It no longer appears in MyBMW, but it is still in the car. I tried to redownload it yesterday to get that metadata and it failed repeatedly.

[handinpalm]

Originally Posted by Scrapula

I only tried manual once on a deserted road. Did launch control and drove over 100mph. It took a couple tries to download it to my phone. I saved it in photos. It no longer appears in MyBMW, but it is still in the car. I tried to redownload it yesterday to get that metadata and it failed repeatedly.

Well, since the recorder did not work, how was the launch control?

[Scrapula]

Originally Posted by handinpalm

Well, since the recorder did not work, how was the launch control?

Lots of fun.