I thought about using a CCTV camera that I have in lieu of a dash cam.
It has a DVR.
I would need a power inverter.
But I am worried about the temps inside my car.
Sometimes it gets to 130 degrees F.
Not sure if it would hurt the dvr and camera ?
What do you think ?
I think the heat will kill both. Neither use hardened electronics because they don’t need to.
A dash cam is less than a $100 with solid state memory and hardened electronics, why would you bother fiddling around with CCTV and a DVR?
Possibly helpful, we have an emergency call out van, now the computer has always worked well, but the hard drive had a temp rating from 46 to 90 operating temp, and it would fail on cold nights as the watch person might drive it home and let it set outside during -15 degree nights. So we tried an aquarium heater that had to be plugged in on cold days to keep the computer warm. The concept of the guys plugging in the heater at home turned out unworkable.
We ended up putting in a ruggedized hard drive good to -20, to +120 and problem solved.
My thought look for a ruggedized system if you can find one.
Chances are it will not be harmed, but may not work in temp extremes.
It was just an idea.
Not saying it was a bad idea, just look into ruggedized options. Thinking of one myself, keep us posted.
Wouldn’t a dedicated dash cam use the car’s 12 volt power and plug into the cigarette lighter, like my GPS does?
Yes it does.
And I found out that most produce .mov files.
I use Linux, so I would have any problem viewing the files.
I would think the cam would not use much currrent.
My garmin GPS has gone into safety mode due to high temps. As far as current draw I have left it on for days with an always active power port and never had a slightest indication of battery drain and would think the cam would be about the same, but usually turn it off as the display on might be attractive to a thief.
One think I did not think about was the hard drive in the DVR.
Not convenient having to take the DVR out to transfer movies.
I am sure there would be alternatives to taking the drive out, usb transfer, wireless or bluetooth may be options.
Another consideration is what happens to the hard drive if I hit a bump or in an accident.
Like Mustangman said, the system is not hardened.
The modern SD cards are so “hard” that they survive in cameras that are bolted to shotguns. You could be in a fatal car wreck and the data in the camera’s SD card would likely be ok.
The hard drive would be damaged if the bump was big enough and the drive head were not “parked” Solid state hard drive is the way to go for any mobile storage needs. They have been getting cheaper and cheaper. I use on in the computer I’m typing on right now. Access speed is WAY faster than even 10,000 rpm mechanical drives. I popped an older, smaller SSHD into my netbook to make it more robust.
Dedicated dash cams are so cheap that if it only gets you out of one speeding ticket, it pays for itself. Here’s why most Russian drivers won’t drive without a dashcam rolling.
I have not parked a hard drive for decades, I am not even sure if you still can. When looking into the rugged hard drives,it was surprising to me, at the time ssd did not like the cold, here is a “rugged” seagate ,min temp32, max 158.
Interesting video.
Someone needs to take the guy out back and “you fill in the rest.”
Why the hassle with a CCTV cam and separate DVR. Today’s dash cams are cheap and with everything integrated it’s an easy installation (one power cable to your cigarette lighter). Most dash cams support up to 32GB of mini sd card storage. I have been using dash cams for years now and I like the little “insurance” in the event something happens.
All have a wide angel field of view. You can setup continues recording and automatically loop if the storage becomes full. I like the ones I have because I can setup file sizes in minutes increments. For example, after 15 minutes of recording start a new file name. It makes it extremely easy if you wish to go back and review a specific time period.
You can easy remove the SD card and view the recordings on your PC or laptop or you take the cam and connect it to your tv. Different models have different options, but they are basically all the same. For $40-60 you can get a very decent cam of clear video quality. Most dash cams have an option to automatically save a set amount of second before and after an impact, i.e. crash.
The only thing all dash cams have in common is the pathetic battery life. They literally turn off after a minute when disconnected from a 12V source.
Scammers are just another type of thief . . . disgusting parasites
Not worthy of existence
As far as I’m concerned, they don’t deserve to live, because their very existence is a detriment to everybody around them
They should be thrown in prison,with the violent offenders. Perhaps they wouldn’t fare so well 
In the United States, the outright insurance scams shown in that video are not that common, possibly because you go to prison if you get caught, however there are a lot of real accidents where the other party changes their story later on. That’s where video documentation of the accident can come in quite handy.
The one I am thinking about has no battery but uses a high capacity capacitor.
Since it has no battery, that cuts down on future replacement.
Years ago I experienced 1st hand how much power is in a large capacitor.
I had an old analog tv set that had no been used in over 5 years.
Wearing gloves, I cut the wire going to the picture tube.
My hair stood on end. 