Dashcam vs MDVR: Which Does Your Fleet Need?

A dashcam is a single unit on the windscreen with one or two built-in lenses, usually for the road and the cab; some models add a rear camera on a cable. An MDVR (mobile digital video recorder) is a separate recorder, mounted out of sight, that takes four or eight external cameras. Choose a dashcam when the road and the driver are the main risks, and an MDVR when you need to see the sides, the rear, the doors or the passengers.

We design both at SKYWONDER. This is how we choose between them for a customer.

The difference in one table

When a dashcam is the right choice

A dashcam suits vehicles where two views answer the questions after an incident: what happened ahead, and what the driver was doing. It needs one power cable, so it also suits rental and leased vehicles that change often.

The D9 records the road and the cab in 1080p, runs ADAS and DMS alerts in the device and streams live to the office. The D9 and the WD02 also take two external 720p cameras, which covers the rear and one side without moving up to a recorder.

When you need an MDVR

Move to an MDVR when the vehicle has risks a windscreen unit cannot see:

• Long or tall vehicles. Blind spots along the side and behind need cameras mounted on the body, at 1080p if number plates matter.
• Passengers. Buses need views of the doors and the aisle, and the WD10 and WD11 count passengers on one to four doors.
• Long retention. With four 1080p cameras, a 2 TB hard disk holds about 11 days of continuous recording; a 256 GB card holds about 33 hours.
• More inputs. The WD10 has four alarm inputs for panic buttons and door switches, and RS232 and RS485 ports.

The WD12 is a four-channel recorder of 120 × 120 × 46 mm for vans, minibuses and trucks. The WD10 takes four 1080p or eight 720p cameras and a hard disk of up to 2 TB.

Storage is where the two differ most

More cameras fill storage faster. At our recorders' standard bitrate of 4 Mbps per 1080p camera in H.264:

These are continuous recording times. A vehicle that drives ten hours a day keeps 33 hours of footage for about three working days, and 11 days of footage for about 26. On the D9, D2, S202, WD10, WD11 and WD12, recording in H.265 roughly doubles these figures. Try your own numbers in the storage calculator.

How to decide

Start from the views you need. If two are enough, buy a dashcam. If you need a third and a fourth view and 720p is enough for them, choose a D9 or a WD02. Choose an MDVR for four 1080p inputs (WD12), for eight cameras or a hard disk (WD10), or for passenger counting (WD10 or WD11). Our guide to how many cameras a vehicle needs goes through this by vehicle type.