Mini-Review: G1W Fake from BG

[SawMaster]

I just got this cam: from Banggood. It's listed as:
Full HD 1080P G1W 2.7 inch LCD Camera Auto Video G-SENSOR 120 Degree
and it claims to record in .mov which the original with a Novatek chipset did. However this one has a GeneralPlus chipset and the vid's are in .avi format, thus this is not as advertised but another 'fake' G1w

But for ~$26 USD it seems to be worth the price so far. Comes with the usual accessories, and wasn't packed well, being delivered unhurt but in a partly crushed box inside a bag. This is the norm for BG so I wasn't surprised. The menus and buttons were intuitive for an experienced G1Wx owner knowing that each model varies a bit, and in moments I had my Samsung 32GB Class 10 card in and formatted. Settings were a bit weird- loop was only 5 or 10 mins, it has 'park mode', it has LDW (which I ignored as it probably doesn't work on a cam this cheap), the "power off" function had just "off" and 1 or 3 minutes to select from (I chose 1 but it shuts down in 7 seconds instead of 60). The firmware was listed as: 20160304 V1.0

A quick temporary install as a side-cam was a breeze. This has the old short mount which I like better than the new-style ball-joint mount as those can be loose and break when you tighten them enough for the cam to become solid. It powered on when powered up as expected and all seemed well. The screen-saver worked as expected and the cam seemed to function correctly during my 30 minute drive to work. Once parked and powered down, the cam shut down after about 7 seconds. All seemed well on the drive home, where I removed it and checked the vids. First I discovered the .avi format. Then I noticed some 'wavering' of light intensity at regular intervals as if the WDR couldn't get a lock. This happened even when stationary and is definitely a fault. It was not present on every clip and there seemed to be no pattern to it. The images were still decent overall for a cam this cheap.

I tried to get it to accept a 64GB Transcend card and when I inserted it, the card slid past the socket and into the cam. This is a fault with many of the cheap G1W's and you have to be careful or you'll end up having to open the case as I did. Once reassembled, the cam didn't recognize the card which was formatted to FAT32 on my PC. I did a PC re-format and got the same results. So with this cam it's max is a 32GB card as it's advertised. During this process a few of the settings I'd selected changed themselves, so I went back to the 32GB card and reset the menu settings again.

PROS:
Decent images for a cheap cam
Seems to function as expected
Good Mount supplied
Really cheap price

CONS:
GP chipset
Wavering light levels
32GB card maximum
Can lose card inside of camera when inserting

CONCLUSION:
For ~$26 you can't really expect much and though I've used it only about an hour so far it seems to give you what you paid for. I am disappointed in the mis-advertised vid format not being .mov as claimed and with the 'wavering' issue. I can't recommend this cam unless you're so poor you are giving up meals to get money to buy a dash-cam with, and even then you're better off missing just a couple more meals to get a far better cam for a few dollars more. Best to pass on this one

Phil

 

[Module 79L]

(...) the "power off" function had just "off" and 1 or 3 minutes to select from (I chose 1 but it shuts down in 7 seconds instead of 60).

Isn't that setting, by any chance, the time the camera takes to shutdown after detecting motion when Motion Detection is activated? I'm asking this but I don't even know if the camera has MD!

 

[jokiin]

the power off function is normally when the camera will turn off when in standby (not recording), it won't normally affect the shutdown runtime after power off

 

[SawMaster]

Yes it has MD (and G-sensor); I think all G1Wx type cams do. But like the LDW it's not going to work as you'd need so there's no point in wasting your time trying. I'd check into this for you if it were a cam worth having but it isn't

The G1W-HC's I bought from GB are currently about $10 more in price (plus can use a 64GB card) and they're still working well. There's really no reason to be buying this one and I just wanted folks to know to avoid this cam

The only reason I bought this was to use it temporarily for my 4th cam till after Christmas when funding will be much improved. Judging from how people drive here, I think South Carolina will go from the 3rd worst state for driving to the absolute worst next year Even as bad as this cam is I feel much better knowing I'm now pretty much covered on all sides. Now I can concentrate on upgrading to better cams

Phil

 

[Module 79L]

Judging from how people drive here, I think South Carolina will go from the 3rd worst state for driving to the absolute worst next year

I am well aware of that and judging by what he's been showing us throughout the years I'm surprised SC hasn't reach the top spot yet.

 

[SawMaster]

Hadn't watched those in awhile, they're mostly in the Columbia (Mid-state) area I think but it's every bit as bad in the Upstate. No thought given to other drivers, only of themselves. I see vids other DCT members post from elsewhere and think "Gee, that's nothing..." because I've gotten used to the normal insanity here. If given a ticket for every violation, over half the drivers in SC would lose their license every 5 minutes they drive

One thing I'm going to try with this cam is 720P to (hopefully) get extended recording time since ~4 hours @32GB is half of what I want. I'll update on that once when I do it

Phil

 

[Module 79L]

If given a ticket for every violation, over half the drivers in SC would lose their license every 5 minutes they drive

Sometimes I follow some drivers for less than 30 secs and in just that time frame they do enough sh*t to lose the license immediately, not to mention the hefty fine they'd get. The problem, and I risk saying it's the same everywhere, is they don't get caught doing it.

One thing I'm going to try with this cam is 720P to (hopefully) get extended recording time since ~4 hours @32GB is half of what I want. I'll update on that once when I do it

Phil

Only 4 hours at 1080p on a 32GB card? Is the camera's bitrate that high?

 

[SawMaster]

I haven't checked it TBH. Mobius and G1Wc are in that range so I'm guessing this one is as well. Certainly won't be 8 hours without some changes and maybe not even then. This is my first GP chipset so I should see if anyone has found a way to manage this. 720P should be enough resolution for my needs as all I want to see will be close by.

Just a toy to play with till I can do better
Phil

 

[Module 79L]

I haven't checked it TBH. Mobius and G1Wc are in that range so I'm guessing this one is as well. Certainly won't be 8 hours without some changes and maybe not even then. This is my first GP chipset so I should see if anyone has found a way to manage this. 720P should be enough resolution for my needs as all I want to see will be close by.

Just a toy to play with till I can do better
Phil

I think these "downgraded" G1Ws' bitrate isn't even close to the one of those two. You'd probably get between 5 1/2 to 6 hours at 1080p. My AT11DA's bitrate is 12,39Mbps and a 32GB cards holds 5h35m of footage.

 

[SawMaster]

I just did a rough check with the card and with about 85% space used (I haven't been driving as much as usual) I'm seeing 2 1/2 hours recorded so at the most it seems to hold about 3 hours. Something doesn't seem right there as the bitrate can't possibly be that high (or can it?) How would I go about checking the bit-rate? I've not done anything like that before.

I'm going to try 720P today and see what the IQ is like. At 1080P (1920X1080) the images are sharp and clear but still pulsating in brightness IQ is equal to my G1W-HC otherwise and it does accept a 64GB card so that is still the lowest cost cam I can recommend at this point

I also noticed yesterday afternoon that the cam had shut down mid-trip; it was working when I started. The PS light was still on so I un-plugged/re-plugged and all was well again. The outlet I'm using may be at fault; it's picky about how things are plugged in and a bump in the road may have interrupted it causing a shutdown. I'll monitor this more closely.

Kind of fun playing with it like a toy- that's about all it's good for
Phil

 

[Module 79L]

How would I go about checking the bit-rate? I've not done anything like that before.

If you have the K-Lite Codec Pack installed, right-click on the file, then MediaInfo. If not, right-click on the file, then Properties, then click on the Details tab. You'll see two bit rate values, it's the first one.

 

[SawMaster]

Thanks for the help Module 79L It was easy and painless!

Here's what I'm seeing:
1080p @ 30FPS 27556kbps
720p @30FPS 14738kbps

So only 30FPS? I expected 60 @1080 but nope I also see more motion blur @720 on stills reaching the point where details are lost even with cars passing right beside me. @1080 I could see faces and hands (and fingers sometimes). @720 those are just smudges. Not so much difference in the distance but some. Hardly any difference when still. (Remember this is a side cam so motion blur will be exaggerated compared to front or rear cams.)

Given the detail loss was more than I want I'm going back to 1080p. I won't have to live with this cam too long and it will suffice till then.

Phil

 

[Module 79L]

Here's what I'm seeing:
1080p @ 30FPS 27556kbps
720p @30FPS 14738kbps

That can't be right. I don't think that chipset is capable of such a high bit rate in 1080p. Can you post a screenshot of the file's properties?

So only 30FPS? I expected 60 @1080 but nope

Hahaha, you set your expectations too high!
From my (limited) experience, 720p is pretty much useless in these cameras. Don't even know why they include it.

 

[SawMaster]

The card is outside in the van where it's raining, but those were the first numbers in Windows "Properties/Details" about middle of that section. Audio and Total bitrate was listed near the bottom - "audio" (which is small as it's turned off) was insignificant and the "total bitrate" seemed to jibe with the other figures (first number plus audio) at a glance.

It does indeed seem high but that jibes with the short recording times I'm getting. Also I'm not sure if it being .AVI instead of .MOV would matter. Is .AVI a less efficient format?

I've got to go out shortly but I'll post a screenshot when I get back in a few hours.

Phil

 

[SawMaster]

http://s1268.photobucket.com/user/m...[user]=145398863&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=1

http://s1268.photobucket.com/user/m...[user]=145398863&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=0
http://s1268.photobucket.com/user/m...[user]=145398863&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=0
I couldn't upload the images directly for some reason so here's links to my photobucket page, Top link is 720P and the lower one is 1080P. And they almost didn't make it- some idiot ran a red light and almost crashed me while I was out. I'll post that in the proper forum if I can figure out how.

Phil

 

[Module 79L]

It does indeed seem high but that jibes with the short recording times I'm getting. Also I'm not sure if it being .AVI instead of .MOV would matter. Is .AVI a less efficient format?

I've never worked with a camera that records in AVI, so I don't know what their typical bit rate is. With that bit rate and file format you won't get as much time in 720p as you'd get with a MOV camera in the same resolution.
The AVI file is less compressed than the MOV files, thus bigger. That's probably why the card's available recording time is smaller.

 

[Redy]

However this one has a GeneralPlus chipset and the vid's are in .avi format

Hi. I've just received a dashcam from eBay that seems exactly the same, but how did you identified a chipset as GeneralPlus? I thought GeneralPlus chipset should look like this, but mine looks like this.
I wasn't able to identify it. Is there any firmware for this cam?

 

[SawMaster]

I discovered mine when in the menu doing settings. I clicked to see the firmware version and on the screen it said "GeneralPlus" with some numbers On opening it to get the lost card I saw the processor in your first pic (or one similar) clearly marked GeneralPlus. My start-up screen shows a beach pic making me think I may have a version sold through "BlueSkySea" but I'm not certain of that so I didn't mention it. I don't think any firmware is available for the non-Novatek G1Wx cams. Mine came in an orange and white colored box marked "BLACKBOX" and on it they claim a NT96650. No specifics given in the user manual.

Not sure who make yours. Maybe somebody will recognize it and comment.

Phil

 

[Redy]

Mine also shows a beach pic and the firmware is also 20160304 V1.0, but no "GeneralPlus" anywhere.
Everything else fits your description.
Video quality is mediocre at best.
My cam also makes high-pitched noises with static when charging and recording simultaneously, which is pretty annoying. So I'm thinking about cutting off the speaker if I'll decide to use this cam.

 

[SawMaster]

There's really not much you can do with or for these G1Wx clones; only the original type (NT96650/AR0330) and the G1W-H models seem to have known firmware swaps and updates available. It's a gamble buying these cams on the cheap- sometimes you get a good one and sometimes you don't. I didn't get what I thought I would, but I knew there was a risk of that and I took the gamble. I ended up with a cam that does what I needed it to do so I don't consider it a loss, more like breaking even on my bet For my $25 I got a $25 cam that does what I need it to do and I'm not complaining. I just wanted others who might be considering this cam to know what to expect from it since it ain't what it says it should be.

If you want any certainty of authenticity, any hope of decent customer service, or a warranty you can easily use of you need it then buy only from recommended sellers. If you want to have fun and play around with cheap cams knowing the risks then do what I did Just remember that you don't get what you don't pay for and that will never change

Phil