Cheap Chinese no-name brand dashcam probs!

[Grant Dee]

Hi, just bought a cheap no-name brand HD dashcam on Ebay and while in general it's working ok, I have a few issues. 1st, the reversing camera produces a mirror image. I contacted the seller and in broken english he said it's suppose to do that .. for reasons? looks like i'll have to go into Windows Movie maker and reverse back all videos I want. 2nd, I cannot view most of created videos on my old , 5 years, desktop PC. The picture is totally black while the sound is ok. If I view the videos on the 3 year old laptop, they are all fine ! But as my desktop is my work station, I need it to run there. I thought the problem might be old CODEC drivers so updated them but no joy, still black videos. Any help ?

Dashcam = "HD Car Camera"
TD card = Samsung 128G PRO plus class 10 high speed
programs tried to view = Windows media player ,and Firefox (work on laptop not desktop)
Video format - MOV files

 

[Moon]

Hi

Don't know how much of a response you are going to get about problems you are having with a cheap no name Dash Cam you got on eBay

For starters - no one is going to have one of these ... whatever they are .. so this makes it very difficult for anyone to know what is going on with it.
I may be wrong ... I'm still fairly new around here - time will tell.

My tip ... save up for a good one ... plenty of information on this forum ... and help too with well known Brands people are familiar with.

Good luck

 

[#2_Fuel_Oil]

C'mon, man... you are seriously expecting tech support on a cheapo-no-name Ebay dashcam with a generic description?

Tech support is one of the reasons you buy from a known manufacturer.

 

[Viking]

programs tried to view = Windows media player ,

Try VLC player, its free.
You can also try Registrator Viewer, its also free.
Search here in the forum and you should be able to find a link to it.

 

[Module 79L]

Hi, just bought a cheap no-name brand HD dashcam on Ebay and while in general it's working ok, I have a few issues. 1st, the reversing camera produces a mirror image. I contacted the seller and in broken english he said it's suppose to do that .. for reasons? looks like i'll have to go into Windows Movie maker and reverse back all videos I want. 2nd, I cannot view most of created videos on my old , 5 years, desktop PC. The picture is totally black while the sound is ok. If I view the videos on the 3 year old laptop, they are all fine ! But as my desktop is my work station, I need it to run there. I thought the problem might be old CODEC drivers so updated them but no joy, still black videos. Any help ?

How about some pictures of the camera?

Dashcam = "HD Car Camera"
TD card = Samsung 128G PRO plus class 10 high speed

If the camera works well with a 128GB card it's probably not that cheap a camera. Even most of the high-level cameras don't support that size.

 

[Module 79L]

Try VLC player, its free.

And works everytime. The same can't be said about WMP or even QT.

 

[c4rc4m]

I suspect the issue with your desktop if low end could be you're trying to edit HD video on a PC that doesn't have sufficient resources to do it. The fact it works on a 3 year old laptop suggests it's not the camera but the pc at fault.

If you need Codecs the K-Lite Codec pack is well known and should contain everything you need. Just be careful where you download it from and virus scan it before opening / installing.

As for the reversed picture, not too difficult to flip.

 

[tabetha]

Don't buy a crap el cheapo cam!!

 

[DashcamDPR]

buy cheap, get cheap, unfortunately

 

[SawMaster]

How about some pictures of the camera?


If the camera works well with a 128GB card it's probably not that cheap a camera. Even most of the high-level cameras don't support that size.

And that could also be the source of the problems One of the first diagnostic steps with any cam is to try another known good high-quality card preferably in a size which within the advertised specs of the cam.

Cheap cams are rarely worth the troubles they give, and as often as not the cam will be totally dead before you get everything sorted out I too suggest that you peruse DCT and get a cam which is more widely recommended here as you'll have far less trouble that way. FYI I have 2 $34 cams which gave been serving me well for almost a year now so it need not be a costly endeavor but this rarely happens at this price level and never happens for cams costing much less

Phil

 

[Moon]

FYI I have 2 $34 cams which gave been serving me well for almost a year now so it need not be a costly endeavor but this rarely happens at this price level and never happens for cams costing much less Phil

Feel free to share what they are?

If folks can only afford the 'cheapies' ... it might give them a fighting chance of not blowing their money

 

[Module 79L]

And that could also be the source of the problems One of the first diagnostic steps with any cam is to try another known good high-quality card preferably in a size which within the advertised specs of the cam.

I don't think the OP's "problems" are really problems and in any case, they're not related to the camera or the card.

 

[SawMaster]

Here's my thread on the cheapest cam I can recommend, the G1W-HC:
https://dashcamtalk.com/forum/threads/g1w-hc.20951/
and here's a link to where I bought these:

Keep in mind that this was almost a year ago and that they may have made changes to the cam or changed manufacturers since then, which has been known to occur with this seller. Caveat Emptor, but if it's the same cam then it is still worth it's modest cost

Phil

 

[DashcamDPR]

there's always the luck of buying a more expensive cam cheap...

All 3 of my cams cost less than 50% of their actual selling price at the time of purchase, all brand new