# Sentry Mode strikes again... or not



## Griff (Aug 23, 2017)

Upon returning home from the dentist today, I noticed a small door ding on the drivers side, with white pain transfer. Luckily, I turned sentry mode on when I parked at the dentist this morning. I had just hoped that it was recorded. I started reviewing the footage, and what do I see, a white jeep pull into the spot to my left. Just as the door begins to open, the video ends, cue next video, corrupt.

I guess now would be a good time to mention, that ever since the release of dash cam and sentry mode, more than 50% of "left repeater" videos are corrupt. I attempted to recover one with video recovery software, but the file size is 0 bytes. Also, the left repeater videos that are not corrupt, are of lower and very digitized quality. Does anyone else have this problem? Is it likely a hardware problem or software? Could it effect AP performance?

I guess the door dinger will remain anonymous. I can assume it was the Jeep, but no proof and no video of the face of the driver.


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## lance.bailey (Apr 1, 2019)

first off, if you make an insurance claim - then tell them you have video and let them determine if the video is of any use. A ding with white paint and video of a jeep pulling into beside you may not be a smoking gun to you and me, but the world of insurance is different from the one in which you and I live.

secondly - yes. I have seen a lot of corrupted sentry mode videos from the driver's side fender camera. most usually I see the bottom half of the video all green, or I see heavy pixelation in the image. I just figured my camera was wonked up.


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## PNWmisty (Aug 19, 2017)

lance.bailey said:


> first off, if you make an insurance claim - then tell them you have video and let them determine if the video is of any use. A ding with white paint and video of a jeep pulling into beside you may not be a smoking gun to you and me, but the world of insurance is different from the one in which you and I live.


Claiming insurance for a door ding? Is that something that people actually do?


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## Gatica (Oct 25, 2018)

My drivers side Sentry camera sometimes gives a the green lower half and corrupt files, other times it works normally. for me having the chance to catch something on camera is better than not having anything at all. I am sure that it will get better with updates in the future.


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## lance.bailey (Apr 1, 2019)

PNWmisty said:


> Claiming insurance for a door ding? Is that something that people actually do?


would depend on the size of the ding I suppose, the cost to fix it and the desire to have a pristine door. If @Griff cares enough to check the video perhaps he cares enough to get it fixed. dunno.


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## Griff (Aug 23, 2017)

I'm not a pristine car kind of guy, but I will probably look into fixing this one, and the matching one on the other side. (gotten before buying a drive for sentry mode). I doubt I'll bother with insurance though. If I had the video proof and license plate, I would probably ask for compensation.


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## gary in NY (Dec 2, 2018)

I haven't called upon the sentry yet, but you are making me think I should. If only to check the quality of the footage.


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## Craig Bennett (Apr 6, 2016)

lance.bailey said:


> secondly - yes. I have seen a lot of corrupted sentry mode videos from the driver's side fender camera. most usually I see the bottom half of the video all green, or I see heavy pixelation in the image. I just figured my camera was wonked up.


For me it's the passenger side. And I see exactly the same spectrum of behavior. Sometimes a zero byte file, just blank screen, heavily pixelated, green on the bottom half of the video.

The fact that it seems to be the same camera 99.9% of the time sounds like hardware to me but I have yet to report it.

It does make me wonder if this impacts A/P or FSD but I don't recall any behavior that is right side of the vehicle biased.


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## 19Model34me (Apr 5, 2019)

I had that problem with the memory sticks, but the cameras have been clear since I switched to an ssd drive. I suspect it’s not the cameras but the ability to write it.


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## zosoisnotaword (Aug 28, 2017)

I have the same issue with corrupted files but only while parked and using Sentry Mode. All of my saved driving files have been clean, so I doubt EAP is affected, and it's not a hardware issue.

On Friday I was able to get clean Sentry files somehow. I got to my destination and turned on Sentry Mode from inside the car, and I also hit the camera save button to record something I saw right before parking. Later, when I reviewed the saved footage, I also looked at the Sentry footage that was saved from that same destination, and none of the files were corrupted or distorted. I was only parked for about an hour, but I wonder if activating Sentry from inside the car will help prevent corrupted files. Or maybe the manual save after I parked had something to do with it. I plan to test this more, but I haven't remembered to.


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## Technical48 (Apr 29, 2018)

Griff said:


> I guess now would be a good time to mention, that ever since the release of dash cam and sentry mode, more than 50% of "left repeater" videos are corrupt. I attempted to recover one with video recovery software, but the file size is 0 bytes. Also, the left repeater videos that are not corrupt, are of lower and very digitized quality. Does anyone else have this problem? Is it likely a hardware problem or software? Could it effect AP performance?


I see the same issues with pixelation and corrupt files from the left repeater camera. I also occasionally get a warning that says "blind spot detection limited, camera visibility reduced" at times when ambient conditions are clear, and most frequently when I'm backing out of the garage first thing in the morning. I scheduled a service visit to replace the mid aero shield and I also put this down as an item to be addressed. It'll be interesting to hear what they say...


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## Griff (Aug 23, 2017)

19Model34me said:


> I had that problem with the memory sticks, but the cameras have been clear since I switched to an ssd drive. I suspect it's not the cameras but the ability to write it.


I already have an SSD, so probably not my problem.


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## processengr (Aug 17, 2017)

Having same issue with mine, 0 byte files, green lower half.


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## FurryOne (Apr 19, 2019)

Personally, I'd like to see a window pop-up instead of having to interpret those icons - ugh! Bring up a window that gives clear choices of what to do. Right now the icon gets covered up by your finger so you don't know WTF it's doing until you lift your finger, and then it's too late - that's a poor GUI design that needs to be addressed. Other stuff brings up a window, why not DashCam/Sentry???


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## MJJ (Aug 7, 2016)

Griff said:


> I guess now would be a good time to mention, that ever since the release of dash cam and sentry mode, more than 50% of "left repeater" videos are corrupt. I attempted to recover one with video recovery software, but the file size is 0 bytes. Also, the left repeater videos that are not corrupt, are of lower and very digitized quality. Does anyone else have this problem? Is it likely a hardware problem or software? Could it effect AP performance?
> 
> I guess the door dinger will remain anonymous. I can assume it was the Jeep, but no proof and no video of the face of the driver.


This is a good description of what my experience has been like


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## DannyHamilton (Jul 9, 2018)

processengr said:


> Having same issue with mine, 0 byte files, green lower half.


I occasionally get this from my passenger side repeater (haven't seen it from the driver side). I've noticed that rebooting (holding both scroll wheels while pressing the brake until the T logo returns) seems to clear it up for a while.


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