- Unique rear view mirror design + adjustable camera lens + wide viewing angle, easy installation, blend in perfectly with car interior, no windshield mounting requiredLoop recording + built-in 2.7" TFT LCD + Instant playback + Audio recording
- 2.7 inch TFT LCD :Recording resolution:1920x1080 / 1440x1080 / 1280x720 pixels
- When the car starts,the mirror car camera will automatically start recording.
- This kind of rearview mirror recorder not only is a car video recorder,but also arearview.It's nice nice and stable quality.
- Accessory: main machine, AV cable, stand, car charger, USB charger, user's manual
2/25/13 Update: Screen update, bumped stars from 3 to 4.
Packaging:
Amazon shipped me an extremely beat up box. No stars removed for this since it is for the product but the corners were smashed in pretty hard.
The "retail" box it ships in is very nicely sleeved with all the random Engrish on the outside and a very sturdy, thick (albeit smashed) inner white box that folds out.
The unit was wrapped with some foam and a plastic sheet over the glass.
Protip: Don't remove that plastic sheet until after testing the unit, setting it up and hiding the cables or you'll be cleaning fingerprints everywhere.
Inside the box: the unit itself, a standard miniUSB to USB cable, miniUSB to car accessory power cable (roughly ~10ft long, I forgot to measure it), an AV "white and yellow" cable, and more Engrish papers.
Positive:
The unit is big. Probably around twice the size of my stock 2010 Toyota Corolla rear-view mirror. It was a shock but the way these are designed to clip onto an existing rear-view mirror means it has to be larger so the camera can see the road. I actually like the larger mirror much more after having it mounted but it does create a small blind spot to the front of the car. Shouldn't be an issue for larger cars, trucks, or SUVs but anything smaller than a Corolla will take up a chunk of windshield visibility.
Having the LCD and camera on the left is awesome, this alone makes it better than the HDVR-150.
The camera position is slightly adjustable since it is on a swivel base and can be adjusted independent of the mirror.
Update 2/25/13: I have managed to turn off the LCD during driving. I believe it's the "motion detection" option but not sure, I was just fiddling with it, went driving and magically the LCD turns off a few minutes after booting, this bumps the product to 4 stars.
Negative:
The video quality even at 1080HD was very... Questionable. I definitely wouldn't be able to read any license plates without being right behind them even at 1080HD. There's no reason to use the 720 or lower settings.
Worst flaw so far has to be the card slot for the microSD card. I nearly pushed my microSD card into the unit itself, since there's a hole there just big enough for the microSD to fall in if you don't pay attention to where you're putting the card. *Be very careful inserting a microSD card.*
"Rearview" is imprinted on the top of the mirror. Might be cool in Asia but that's just redundant and unnecessary.
More of an annoyance than anything but the car power adapter is at a 90 degree angle to the right when plugged in, not to the left. No big deal.
If I keep this unit, I'll probably rip the speaker out. It serves no purpose but to make annoying sounds while powering on and changing menu settings, only the latter can be disabled.
Neutral:
My 16GB Samsung class 2 microSD card did not work in the unit. It gives an error message. I'm going to chalk it up to the "class 2" part, I will do testing on higher capacity cards in the near future. I am looking for options to hide the cable and will post if I find a solution to that. The 8GB class 6 microSD card I am using works great even at the highest resolution setting.
Night drive clip
Literally my "video review" is just a 10 minute, unedited clip of just a Saturday night out. I tested the video at 10, 45, 70, and 5 miles per hour, respectively. The video is unprofessional but I could not think of a more real life situation where the camera would come to play. I did not test the daytime features yet since night driving is "the torture test". If I can see things at night, I can see those same things during the day. This video is linked in the comments section and tagged as NSFW for the audio content.
Conclusion:
I deduct a star for the video quality. The picture is pretty good but unless I can see license plates from at least 30ft away at night, and I'd gladly pay double the price for this feature, I'm not giving full marks. I should drop a star for the annoying welcome *sound*, the microSD card slot problem, and all the other small problems I listed above but I won't. I believe at $99, the product does what it advertises at a great price and would recommend it to a friend. Please leave a comment if you have any questions or would like anything tested.
I *will* update on reliability if the unit ever stops working.For this price, you can't get any better Car Dvr Camera with a 2.7 -inch LED than this one! I like its LED screen on the left side of the unit because it's easy for me to view as a driver. This Car Dvr also works as a rear view mirror! The set up is pretty simple since it is built in rechargeable battery, just insert a micro sd card in the unit then power on; set the time/date and select recording resolution! Installation is also very easy, just clip it on the car's rear view mirror then plug the supplied car dc to usb wire to the unit and that's it! It will turns on and start to record when you start the car, then it will stops recording and turns off itself when you shut off the car. The recording video quality on this Car Dvr is very good! It records 720p in 30fps; 1080 in 15fps and 1080p in 10fps. It captures still image in 12Mps. This unit uses micro sd card up to 32gb. It does loop recording in 2min, 5min and 15min. I configured it in 1080/15fps with sounds on 15min loop recording setting and it works great! With my setting, it captures street signs and front car license plate clearly on a close distance. Another thing that I like about this Car Dvr is the built in speaker was pretty loud. I enjoyed to play back the recordings on this Car Dvr very much!I chose this one because the camera is on the left side, which shifts the mirror to the left eliminating the interference with the passenger's sun visor.
It will record at 30 fps using a class 4 uSD card when set to 1280x768. With a class 6 card the frame rate drops to 15 at 1440x1080, and at 1920x1080 the frame rate drops to 10. It also has SVGA or WVGA setting which I have not tried. I think the 1280x768 looks the best, so that's the one I am using.
The Chinese/English instructions can be confusing, but you'll figure it out. The product I received must be a newer revision than the one the instructions were written for. One setting in particular, the frame rate, is not an option. I think the unit automatically calculates the highest frame rate it can use based upon the resolution and flash card's speed, which makes more sense to me.
Mine seems to be a little out of focus on the left side. The lens looks okay, so I am going to try cleaning it to see if that clears it up. The image is still clear enough to identify a vehicle. To read a license plate the vehicle must be fairly close, such as when pulling up to one that is stopped.I just received this product in the mail in a great short amount of time.
Let's get to it!
The body is really light which is good, but questionable at the same time. I travel to Chicago at least every other week for business, and that is the reason I purchased this camera. Their is a crackling noise that is received by the mic that is built into the mirror. It's unfortunate but this product obviously isn't high quality. The camera isn't to bad if you use 720, if you dare using 1080P you will get a snow like effect on the recording, so it can be rather annoying! It really isn't the BEST thing on the market, but it does the job because it picks up the vehicles rather well. The other raters must have been blind, because you cannot see the license plate, I can verify that because I did a couple videos. I will hopefully get this review on Youtube so other potential buyers will know more about this product. The mirror is rather large, it says 12 inches, but it doesn't effect my vehicle. To get every angle when driving the mirror as the practically be centered, but then you can't see what you need to behind you!! I'll explain in the video a little more thoroughly, but as of right now this review may be vague. What should you gather from this? Bottom line, you get what you paid for, it's a piece of plastic with a decent design, and the camera and mic isn't the best of quality. It's decent, an okay buy, but that's all I can really say!!
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Finally got it installed and working. Very happy with the results. Great view and good imagery. First time useing it, I caught a herd of Elk crossing in front of me. What a sight!
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