I've been thinking of getting an incar dvr and I'm looking for one that has the ability to record even if the car is turned off. After looking at ebay I really didn't see any that have that functionality, but I'm sure there must be some that have battery backup.

Has anyone here bought and used one of these? I think it would make for good viewing to people in the west and it would also be good in case of an accident.

Generally speaking, there are circuits which are live even with the key removed.

These could include but not limited to.

Anti-theft alarms

dome light

hazard flashers

brake lights

Don't know the power consumption of the recorder but it can be wired up apart from the ignition switch. Thus always on. Clearly you don't want to run the cars battery flat. Seems unlikely expecially if the recording media is digital like SD card or SSD.

Check out these guys

GOPRO

You can get an extra battery for it and other devices that could make use of it and then use an isolator which allows the car to charge the aux battery. It won't let the circuits connected to it drain the main car battery when the car is off.

RV's use systems that have multiple batteries to protect the starting system while camping in locations without power. You can start the vehicle to recharge the aux batteries if they run down.

Thanks for the help.

I heard back from one seller and this is what they said "After you turn off the vehicle the camera will keep recording as it runs on battery power for up to 2.5 hours. If you would like to stop recording, you simply need to press the REC button on the back of the unit to stop recording.".

Out of curiosity, What do you plan to record??