A118 Novatek 96650 Full HD 1080P Car Camera DVR

In view of jokiin's comment I had another look. And he's quite right, with the cable cover off, the cam can be removed from the base.

If, like me you need to remove the cam to remove the card (my cam is on the right of the mirror support), and you do this quite often (in my case to transfer the recordings to HDD), then having to also remove the cable cover becomes all very fiddly and awkward. An alternative method would be to leave the cam in-situ and connect a laptop to it to transfer recordings. Then nothing need be removed.
 
Hi All,

just joined after referring to this site to get the cam - had a blackvue 400 and a G1WH before.

The A118 fits nicely and I have hardwired, but I am experiancing a slight issue. The camera will record for 10-15 mins, then stops, creates a small corrupt file. I have to stop it recording (because it still thinks it is) and restart it. The LED still flashes recording but the record red dot is gone and the timer has stopped. Interestingly the timer shows a time over the selected loop time interval when it gets to this state. Using a sandisk ulta 32gb card - http://www.sandisk.co.uk/products/memory-cards/microsd/ultra-class10-for-android/?capacity=32GB that is fine in the blackvue and G1WH?

Any thoughts?

Cheers
Dave.
 
Try reformatting the card using the camera to do so or try a different card. SanDisk cards usually perform well but they sometimes have a spotty history of balking in certain cameras or being prone to corruption or failure.
 
I formatted in the camera to start with - I have removed it and tried a full fat32 (not quick) format to see what that does - will try another card if not
 
Great forum. Thanks for all the great details, reviews and insight from all who've done the work, especially niko.

@chris-s, niko and others who've tried this cam:

- what are your thoughts after a few weeks of use? any glaring concerns? would you still recommend this cam?
- of the rumored GPS model, do you feel it's worth the wait, or do you suggest those interested in this proceed now and deal with the GPS via add-ons and/or firmware later?
- any news of upcoming cams with similar form factor, but better quality parts? (I'm willing to pay $300+ for a cam with this form factor and with upgraded parts/optics, etc., especially for better night performance).

I bought the Mobius last month, but I'm generally disappointed with it, mainly due to the poor night performance. Very grainy/dirty image. I'll probably put it up for sale soon, or maybe relegate it to the back of the car as part of a 2-cam makeshift.

But I really, really love the A118/B40 form factor. Even if its night performance is not awesome (if I remember correctly chris-s thinks it's good, but I believe niko didn't quite feel the same), I can deal with "average" because of that perfect form factor, which should allow it to perfectly fit right under my rear-view mirror housing, which has a nice, wide and flat space for it. Once installed, I think it will look like a natural, OEM part of the housing.
 
mspin said:
(if I remember correctly chris-s thinks it's good, but I believe niko didn't quite feel the same),
Click to expand...
I was wrong, and I have admitted it.
=> 0803 is much better at night.

So, if your concern is driving by day, choose the A118.
A118 is better than 0803 by daytime.
If you drive more than 40% by night, choose the 0803, it will be a good compromise, because video quality by day is acceptable, even if not as good as A118.

I'm driving 95% during the day, so A118 is the best choice for me.
In this case, it is a good idea to choose A118 and wait for GPS option.
 
mspin said:
- what are your thoughts after a few weeks of use? any glaring concerns? would you still recommend this cam?
Click to expand...
I've nothing to say against A118. It is the perfect dashcam if you mostly drive by day.
No freeze, except with my 64GB Sandisk SD card. Reverted to 32GB, no problem anymore.
Image is always perfect, dark and brilliant areas in the same image are well balanced, I can't say the same about 0803 which has more probems with dark areas during the day.

A118 is very reliable, just have it and forget it !
Again, I can't say the same with 0803 and its startup issue.
 
Any further suggestions for me would be appreciated.

I ran with a different SD (but the same make and model), formatted with the camera - it was better but did lock out once so thoughts for next steps.

1. try a difference brand of SD?
2. Reset all back to default?
3. reload firmware - came with latest - but would that help?

any other suggestions?
 
I only noticed a couple of days ago that I'm getting jerky video from my A118.

I've been so busy with positioning and settings and card problems I hadn't noticed before. I thought it might have something to do with the memory card (Samsung 64GB Class 10) but I've now tried it with other cards (Samsung 32GB Class 10 and Transcend 32GB Class 4) and it exhibits the same jerkiness. It can
be seen in this short clip recorded at 1920 x 1080.

EDIT: Video removed as no longer needed

Now that I've noticed it I can see it clearly. It's no good to me like this.

I never had a problem like this with my Mobius using the Transcend 32GB Class 4 card, but when I tried the 64GB Class 10 card in my Mobius I got the same jerkiness. I've always got nice smooth video from my Mobius.

So not sure now if cards or A118.
 
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tonyl09 said:
I only noticed a couple of days ago that I'm getting jerky video from my A118.

I've been so busy with positioning and settings and card problems I hadn't noticed before. I thought it might have something to do with the memory card (Samsung 64GB Class 10) but I've now tried it with other cards (Samsung 32GB Class 10 and Transcend 32GB Class 4) and it exhibits the same jerkiness. It can
be seen in this short clip recorded at 1920 x 1080.


Now that I've noticed it I can see it clearly. It's no good to me like this.

I never had a problem like this with my Mobius using the Transcend 32GB Class 4 card, but when I tried the 64GB Class 10 card in my Mobius I got the same jerkiness. I've always got nice smooth video from my Mobius.

So not sure now if cards or A118.
Click to expand...

Maybe you have a fake or damaged card?
Try this test:
http://sosfakeflash.wordpress.com/2...standard-in-detecting-usb-counterfeit-drives/
 
Thanks but as I said in the second para, I got same prob using other cards in my A118.

I'd already checked them with H2testw and no probs.

So I did more tests this morning and found that the problem is present on the three cards when recording at 1920 x 1080. At 1280 x 720 there is no sign of jerkiness on all three cards.

The cards are Samsung 64GB Class 10, Samsung 32GB Class 10 and Transcend 32GB Class 4.

So I need to get on to Foxoffer.
 
OK. As the forum restricts what can be uploaded you can download a clip (top & tailed with audio removed in MPEG Streamclip) from here:

EDIT: Link removed as no longer needed

My previous comment that all seems OK at the lower res I now find is incorrect. I was viewing them in a smallish window. When I view the videos at full screen they are all jerky.
 
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chris-s said:
I've nothing to say against A118. It is the perfect dashcam if you mostly drive by day.
No freeze, except with my 64GB Sandisk SD card. Reverted to 32GB, no problem anymore.
Image is always perfect, dark and brilliant areas in the same image are well balanced, I can't say the same about 0803 which has more probems with dark areas during the day.

A118 is very reliable, just have it and forget it !
Again, I can't say the same with 0803 and its startup issue.
Click to expand...

Ok, I appreciate the reply. I'll take a look closer at the 0803, but that form factor on the A118! I can't get over how perfect it is for my car. Also, the 0803 has some vastly differing reviews on Amazon, mostly with out-of-box functionality/realiability issues. Might have to wait a while for production issues to get fleshed out.
 
jokiin said:
Not seeing the jerkiness in the video, YouTube isn't the best place to judge though, can you upload an unedited MOV file from the camera instead?
Click to expand...

Yeah, I don't see any jerkiness either.

@tonyl09 — Have you looked at potential decoding issues with your player/s? For me, my 720p Mobius files don't play well on certain players (WMP, VLC, etc.), while the 1080p files do. However, the 720p files (and the 1080p files) always play smoothly on the mpc-hc player, free to download here: http://mpc-hc.org.
 
Yes, and probably computer is not powerful enough to read 1080p as well.
 
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tonyl09 said:
OK. As the forum restricts what can be uploaded you can download a clip (top & tailed with audio removed in MPEG Streamclip) from here:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/89246875/A118_32GB_C10_1920x1080.mov

My previous comment that all seems OK at the lower res I now find is incorrect. I was viewing them in a smallish window. When I view the videos at full screen they are all jerky.
Click to expand...

played in the web player - jerky - download and played in potplayer and windows media player and no jerkiness
 
Any other thoughts for my lock up - tested one of the sd's with the checker - cleared 100%?
 
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