Help selecting car DVR

[Gil]

Hi all,
I'm new here. My name is Gil.

I've heard a lot about people who are using car DVR and I realize how important it is these day.
I did buy one from ebay but it turns out that I just don't like it because of it's quality (license plate numbers are visible from short distance) and really weak battery (5 minutes tops ). This is the camera: http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/271178587211 ... 1439.l2649

I really liked the fact it has a rear view camera so that's why I got it

So now, after a wee bit of experience with it, I think I know what I want from a car DVR but I have no idea where to start looking (thank god I found this lovely forum )

This is what I'm looking for and I hope you might be able to tell me if there's such an animal or the next best thing:

1. Great video quality (can see license plate more than 5 meters away from the camera) 720p? 1080p?

2. Good image quality at night - I know it's a though nut to crack but I hope you guys can help me figure out what brands are known for good image quality at dim light situations.

3. Rear view cam. I know most don't have it, but once you have got one, it's hard to think how one can manage without it

4. Motion detection. I found this thing as misleading. Many sellers advertise this feature as if it's out of the box feature but in reality the camera has to be hard wired or if can be operated by battery, the battery is really weak and renders this feature useless (my current case). Given the fact that the camera can record with the monitor off, this yields greater battery life. So if I park for 2~3 hours, I'd like to know that the battery can last since it's not really recording unless there's a movement. Is there such camera? I hardly believe so but it's worth asking.

I read that Ambarella chip based dvr's are good in image quality but none of them has rear camera.

Please, if you can direct me to the best place to look for such a thing or give me any useful info before I make my 2nd purchase I would really appreciate it.

Thank you all

Gil.

 

[jokiin]

you'll want 1080p if you want to catch licence plates on the go

1080p and a rear cam is limited (at the moment), I'd suggest maybe using the cam you have as a rear cam, ditch the second cam from that one as they get flaky when used as a dual cam anyway and just add a decent front cam

night vision is getting better, a few models around now and better solutions coming to market that will increase your choices as updated models come to market

motion detect needs permanent power, the internal battery on any cam is never going to suffice

dual 1080p Ambarella powered cams will be in the market later this year and will meet all your needs, just a bit early right now

 

[Gil]

Hi and thanks for the reply!

The problem I'm facing with switching position of the current front cam is powering it. I'm not a car electrician expert so I don't know how to get around that.

For the rest of your answer, isn't there any model that can meet my requirements in the market?

Thank you once again

 

[jokiin]

Hi and thanks for the reply!

The problem I'm facing with switching position of the current front cam is powering it. I'm not a car electrician expert so I don't know how to get around that.

For the rest of your answer, isn't there any model that can meet my requirements in the market?

Thank you once again

I don't believe there's anything dual 1080p right now, the dual cams I've seen even if 1080p up front seem to be lower res and/or lower frame rate in the back as well, the vast majority of dual cam models available right now don't offer any better res than what you already have, dual 1080p is certainly coming though and you'll see a lot more choice in the market soon

the power requirements of these cams is nothing special, if you could have run the cable for the rear cam you could run the power, not that different, the cam you have I think was a great concept, I like the design, the platform it's built on though is terrible and they suffer reliability issues, used as a single cam they're not quite so glitchy and just mentioned the idea of re-purposing it so you could at least get some use out of it instead of throwing money away

 

[Gil]

The rear cam is not powered by itself, it's connected to the front cam and the front cam it's easy to power, although I can't figure out how to hard wire it to the car.

An idea I had was to buy a 12v battery, the big batteries you can find for flashlights in supermarkets and then connect a 5v converter http://dx.com/p/dc-12v-to-dc-5v-convert ... ack-147841 which should supply enough battery power for a long long duration (an assumption I like to lie to myself ) and this will at least solve the hard wiring required for Motion Detection.
The downside of it is that I have to replace the batteries every once in a while and to turn the camera on and off manually.

Actually, I was hoping to get front cam @ 1080p and rear @ 720p.

When do you reckon these cameras you mentioned will be available?

 

[jokiin]

yeah familiar with how the rear cam works now, just meant running a power cable is no more difficult than running one for video

the running off batteries idea is flawed I feel, will be cheaper overall to get someone to hardwire it correctly from the beginning

before the end of the year you should be spoiled for choice on dual cams

 

[Gil]

End of the year :/
Can't wait for that!

I wish I could be a beta tester and get them earlier

 

[jokiin]

End of the year :/
Can't wait for that!

I wish I could be a beta tester and get them earlier

I'm sure some will come to market well before then