ADVERTISED features

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I really like the Mini 0806 -- just wish it worked with all the advertised features.

  • Advertised Lane Warning System --- seems to be novelty.
  • Advertised Forward Collision Warning System --- seems to be novelty.
  • Advertised Parking Guard --- Not available, see this from JooVuu's posting:-
Updated news about 0806.
Mini 0806 will not have parking guard feature or bracket.
But parking guard will be the standard function for later Mini 0807
Parking guard usage is: when there is any person touch or crash the car,dash camera starts to record for several minutes. Mini 0806 menu has the description of parking guard feature,but actually there is no such function.

  • Advertised Motion Sensing --- Caused a lot of video recorded while driving to turn on/off. Also usage is doubtful due to temperature concerns according to a number of previous posters.
  • Advertised Dual Memory Card --- Files not recording to 2nd card when 1st is full, other users have posted about this often.

I really rather like the style and size of the 0806 and together with all the ADVERTISED FEATURES - thought this was a pretty good unit, THAT'S WHY I BOUGHT IT.

It seems more and more items are being crossed off the features list as not working properly or not available that I feel duped.
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This unit is really 'not as advertised' and I would like to know what the manufacturer intends to do in relation to these problems for all those who have purchased in good faith based on the ADVERTISING of the units capabilities.
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I personally would just like a 0806 that did all the things as advertised.
 
Did you buy it from an Austrailan company or did you buy it from an internet order from outside your country? It so, the ACCC may not be able to help you?
 
Did you buy it from an Austrailan company or did you buy it from an internet order from outside your country? It so, the ACCC may not be able to help you?

there are a couple of online sellers based in Australia that sell it, no doubt they only repeat what they're told are the features (pending or actual) of the product, I would think if it came to it that any of the Australian based sellers would just refund it, consumer law says they must, I don't think you'd need to get as far as the ACCC, if bought outside of Australia you're pretty much on your own
 
no such consumer law here in Canada.....even for big items like cars...appliances etc...
 
I am curious to know what the manufacturer, who after all created the advertising spiel, has to say to those who have bought products that don't live up to what was advertised.

One thing it does for me is not to believe the adverts at all - perhaps even look elsewhere.

Note to manufacturer - don't promise what you can't deliver, you'll end up sounding like a politician.
 
I am curious to know what the manufacturer, who after all created the advertising spiel, has to say to those who have bought products that don't live up to what was advertised.

One thing it does for me is not to believe the adverts at all - perhaps even look elsewhere.

Note to manufacturer - don't promise what you can't deliver, you'll end up sounding like a politician.
Unfortunately there are a lot of these Chinese manufacturers who are greedy and only want maximum profit, they don't really care a sh*t about the customers.
 
The point is all about ideology of the companies ( manufacturer or resellers ) how they want to win a customers.
Some are winning customers with the lowest price, but then there is always a rule: you get what you pay. This strategy in most cases called: "sell and forget the customer."
Others are winning a customers with higher priced products and services quality where they are standing by their customers no matter what issue they have.
In some way I can blame us ( consumers ). We are "greedy" to get "the best deal" and often having temptation to go for the lowest priced, but at the same time forgetting the rule : you get what you pay. We can compare same product which is sold by "lowest price vendor" vs higher priced vendor. Those vendors who have low margins on their products, they usually have no or limited funds to help customers in case there is a problem. On the other hand, if you buy something from vendor with a "different mentality" of doing business ( yes, higher priced ), but at least they can offer you instant help.
 
The point is all about ideology of the companies ( manufacturer or resellers ) how they want to win a customers.
Some are winning customers with the lowest price, but then there is always a rule: you get what you pay. This strategy in most cases called: "sell and forget the customer."
Others are winning a customers with higher priced products and services quality where they are standing by their customers no matter what issue they have.
In some way I can blame us ( consumers ). We are "greedy" to get "the best deal" and often having temptation to go for the lowest priced, but at the same time forgetting the rule : you get what you pay. We can compare same product which is sold by "lowest price vendor" vs higher priced vendor. Those vendors who have low margins on their products, they usually have no or limited funds to help customers in case there is a problem. On the other hand, if you buy something from vendor with a "different mentality" of doing business ( yes, higher priced ), but at least they can offer you instant help.
I agree, and that is why I buy from @Pier28 & @jokiin. Products and service are over the top in quality :)
 
Unfortunately there are a lot of these Chinese manufacturers who are greedy and only want maximum profit, they don't really care a sh*t about the customers.

to be fair the claims were not made by the manufacturer
 
to be fair the claims were not made by the manufacturer

OK you are right there. May be I should say the Chinese business who licensed the models to be manufactured.
It's like Apple gets Foxconn to manufacture some of their products, and if the products don't perform as they are advertised, we should blame Apple, not Foxconn.
 
OK you are right there. May be I should say the Chinese business who licensed the models to be manufactured.
It's like Apple gets Foxconn to manufacture some of their products, and if the products don't perform as they are advertised, we should blame Apple, not Foxconn.

yeah pretty much, you've got the hang of where I'm coming from
 
I don't disagree that some dash cams on the market, including the mini 0806 tout features and capabilities they either don't deliver or that perform poorly. Advertising a feature that doesn't even exist in the device is certainly not anything we like to see.

Nevertheless, I'd like to offer a different perspective for consideration.

The fact is these "features" are what many of us who have been using dash cams for awhile would call "Bells & Whistles". Many of us generally turn off these "features" even if the camera we are using has them because the are superfluous to our primary concern which is video performance and audio quality. These "advanced" features are often more of a distraction than anything else. In fact, they can be so much of a distraction that curiously, no one in this thread has even mentioned video quality at all!

The dash cam market is extremely competitive and overcrowded with products and so manufacturers take different approaches to what they sell. A select few developers focus primarily on intelligent, logical design, a high level of build quality and excellent video performance. Others may also focus on design and video quality (like the 0806) but also on presenting as many features as they can pack into it in order to make their product stand out in the crowd. A vast number of generic manufacturers spend all their energies on producing the cheapest product they can push out the door of their factories whether they have the advertised features or even advertised components or not.

In many ways, the blame for these "features" that everyone is complaining about fall mostly at the door of the producers of the DSP chips used in these cameras rather than the dash cam manufacturers. In this instance I am referring to Ambarella, the producer of the processor used in the 0806. The chips are delivered with all these advanced features already built in and it is up to the dash cam manufacturer whether they want to enable any of them or not when they design and build the camera using this component. Of course, in such a competitive market environment the motivation to do this is very compelling, even if some of these features (like lane departure or collision warnings) are not yet well implemented in the first place by the chip maker and may never be suitable when used in dash cameras, so they come across feeling like gimmicks. In some cases however, a feature like collision warning may not yet have been fully implemented by the dash cam manufacturer or perhaps there was a problem with the implementation that caused a delay in introducing it but this advertised feature is real and will become available with a future firmware update when it is soon ready (I believe this to be the case with the 0806). In some cases, an already working feature may prove to have a flaw and require tweaking in a future firmware update for it to be resolved. ALL IC based devices like dash cams (and iPads) rely in firmware updates to introduce features or improve existing ones. Obviously, an argument can be made that the 0806 was released prematurely before all the pending features were ready and that may well prove to be true but then again not everything is so cut and dried and certain things are beyond the manufacturers control when trying to bring a product to market.

Generally speaking, whenever I hear complaints about the kind of features mentioned in this thread they are coming from people who are new to dash cam ownership. Often there is a lack of understanding of how and why some of these features should even be used or whether you would even want them in the first place. For example, the OP complains that motion detection, "Caused a lot of video recorded while driving to turn on/off." This is because motion detection is simply not designed to be used while driving. It isn't even designed to be used while parked in a stationary position outdoors because anything from clouds passing overhead, to birds flying by, to wind blowing through the leaves of a tree, to pedestrians walking past will cause countless false triggers. Motion detection (as it is deployed in dash cams) is really intended for use in a static, still environment, like perhaps an underground parking garage where for the most part the only motion being detected is the motion you wish to capture. Only after one becomes more experienced using a dash cam can one realize that such a complaint about a feature like motion detection is not valid.

Many of these advanced features may be "fun" or "interesting" or even sometimes indeed even useful but the important concerns to focus on for a dash cam user are video quality, sound quality and reliability, not bells and whistles, advertised or not.
 
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......., the OP complains that motion detection, "Caused a lot of video recorded while driving to turn on/off." This is because motion detection is simply not designed to be used while driving. It isn't even designed to be used while parked in a stationary position outdoors because anything from clouds passing overhead, to birds flying by, to wind blowing through the leaves of a tree, to pedestrians walking past will cause countless false triggers. Motion detection (as it is deployed in dash cams) is really intended for use in a static, still environment, like perhaps an underground parking garage where for the most part the only motion being detected is the motion you wish to capture. Only after one becomes more experienced using a dash cam can one realize that such a complaint about a feature like motion detection is not valid.

One of the main reasons I wanted motion detection was to see what was happening around the vehicle while PARKED - I don't care if it is people walking
by or not but I do want to know who did what (work car park) an also to have evidence of whichever driver reverses into me (happened twice at workplace of more than 600 employees).

Turning motion detection ON however has the side effect of turning videos on / off whilst driving.

The other option is to use Parking Guard according to the manual :-

PARKING GUARD
When you have turned off your engine, the 0806 camera will detect the battery
voltage change and launch Parking Guard mode. The video recording will then
be low frame rate to save storage space. Once any impact over the threshold
value is detected, the camera will change to normal recording mode to save a
30 second video clip. This file will be protected from over-write by the loop
recording function.
(You need the Parking Guard mounting bracket to support the Parking Guard
function, which is an optional accessory.)

Off course as we all now know - there is NO parking guard mounting bracket available for the 0806.

I bought the unit primarily for two reasons,

  1. Record whilst driving
  2. Record whilst parked
It fulfills my first requirement but not the second.

The rest of the advertised FEATURES are interesting but not why I bought the unit.

Manufacturer or not, SOMEONE obviously choose to list these features to ENTICE buyers to make a purchase.

 
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It depends on the circumstances of course, but I think you will find that in a great many situations motion detection while parked will trigger far more events than you expect to the point where the feature becomes unusable. Like I've said, even passing clouds can cause a false trigger. Still, there is nothing to stop you from using motion detection when parked if you so desire but you'll need to turn it off while driving or you will end up with the same start-and-stop behavior you are complaining about.

I agree that if you bought the camera expecting what is touted as "parking guard" you should expect it to be available to you. As far as motion detection is concerned, it is not and has never been designed to do what you are asking of it so to complain that it doesn't is not valid.

Many of us find that recording full time video is far superior to motion detection when we are away from our vehicles. (like when you are at work)
 
Many of us find that recording full time video is far superior to motion detection when we are away from our vehicles. (like when you are at work)

Just out of curiosity, does running the cam when the engine is not running not kill your battery? and do you run it 24/7 as I thought you couldn't due to it having an internal battery rather than a capacitor
 
24/7 use is going to shorten the life of the battery

Powering the camera 24/7 is going to have the same impact on the car battery whether its a camera with a battery or a capacitor and whether its recording constantly or using parking mode
 
Some of us use portable external battery banks which can run dash cams for quite a few hours. Others who want longer camera run times or more convenience will use the car's battery along with a discharge prevention device that will turn the camera(s) off before you run down your car battery too far. See the DCT Battery Discharge Prevention page for more details.
 
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Just out of curiosity, does running the cam when the engine is not running not kill your battery? and do you run it 24/7 as I thought you couldn't due to it having an internal battery rather than a capacitor
I would be much more worried about the car battery than the camera battery, you will significantly shorten the life of the car battery even if you have a device to prevent full discharge and car batteries are many times more expensive than camera batteries! As jokiin says, a capacitor based camera will have the same effect on the car battery.

I think the effect on the camera battery will be quite small unless you leave it on while parked in hot sunshine. It can have a significant effect with some cameras though.

Motion detect will have the same effect on the batteries as leaving it on.

The existing Parking Guard function, not using the optional mount, will have virtually no effect on the battery life and if someone reverses into the front of your car and then drives off they are quite likely to be caught by that.
 
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