Cheap "ok" dashcam with large screen?

[nerys]

Here is what I would like.

USABLE day and night 720p or better video. RELIABLE is critical.

large 4 to 5" screen.

I want to use it as a "rear" window camera and have also found them useful as "reverse" cameras but need a larger and BRIGHTER if possible screen.

what might you guys suggest? don't need gps or anything fancy for the rear. a remote wireless save video trigger would be nice but not required.

just need usable day and night video of decent quality RELIABLE and very large bright screen.

 

[thancam]

Reliable is something cheapdashcam rarely have.
But i think with your required, you may buy a old tablet and use it as dashcam.
Pro: when it's down, you will see it easily with 5 inches screen.

 

[nerys]

tablet wee too big

I find the opposite. CHEAP cams are shockingly reliable. the POS $10.27 fake 1080p cam that is so bad the lcd flickers.

2 years blazing heat crushing cold the damned thing has yet to FTR a single time and has not eaten a single SD card yet.

$20 GS8000 knockoff? same thing. besides the SD coming "loose" in the socket now and them (losing contact eject reinsert and your good and it fails LOUD when it does (once or twice a year so far) with big blue box on the screen.

otherwise same deal. its been my rear view cam for 2 or 3 years and has yet to FTR yet and yet to eat an SD card. **** video. but damned reliable.

I IMAGINE the expensive ones (lukas etc..) are also very reliable but I can't afford them.

it seems its the inbetweeners ($50 to $150) where its damned hard to get "reliable" ie where the features just start to get good and the video quality just starts to get good.

the G1w is amazing. incredible quality for the price. I have 6 of them in a box. all died within 3-5 months and worse they failed silently. the worst kind of failure.

you could have the most amazing gps auto this auto that 4k this camera in the world and its worth dirt if it FTR's when you freaking need it most.

its why I run two cams forward. cheap garbage but insanely rock solid reliable and my "nicer" one prone to failure (currently M6+)

drives me nuts. if I could get a refund for all the cams I bought over the last nearly 10 years I could afford a lukas or something like that

drives me nuts man!

 

[SawMaster]

I'm a fan of cheaper cams but there's a point where either video quality or reliability just doesn't cut it well enough. Plenty of cams below that level Most of the 'high-end' cams have issues or oddities that turn me off, but some of their features can't be found reliably in anything else. You don't get what you don't pay for, but with a lot of cams you don't always get what you pay for either- it's a minefield to sort through

My 'bottom line' choice is the G1W-HC, a capacitor-based cam which tolerates heat well and for me has been quite reliable. About $35 from GearBest It's got the NT96650 processor and the AR0330 sensor, a known good combination which was once considered very good but has been surpassed with newer technology. Of my 2, one has some weirdness in the red recording LED but it records properly otherwise and the vids are good enough.

Moving up a notch there's the newish G1W-S with a Sony sensor which provides great low-light recording at under $60 Also cap-powered this has a different circuit board than the other G1W series cams, basically sharing only their case. IMHO it is the best bang for your buck at the moment and I plan to buy another (or more) in time The Viofo A118C is another solid performer using caps, but not as good at night, and the Chupad D501 is another wedge cam bargain that is battery-powered. And there's the hoary old Mobius- always a worthy contender which just doesn't seem to ever die. Not exactly plug-and-play, but add the caps and once you set it up it runs like the 'energizer bunny'

Some cheap cams can be OK but if you really want something good, you have to pay more. Most folks now consider 1080P/30FPS the minimum acceptable performance and I do too. Less than this loses details which can matter. The above cams do this, but better can be had at a good value so I'm moving up a bit as funds allow because my vehicle and me are w0rth that investment You pays your money and you makes your choice, but it's your own fault if you go too cheap and your choice fails you when you need it the most.

Phil

 

[thancam]

tablet wee too big

large 4 to 5" screen.

it doesnt sound logical to me.

 

[kamkar]

You could get a camera with AV out and then connect a LCD screen to that, small LCD screens do come in the small 4 - 5" sizes too

But the signal of the AV out are not HD, some cameras have a HDMI out, but not sure if all are live when camera are recording, and not sure if you can get a small LCD screen with HDMI in.

But to my knowledge the dashcams with the largest screens are Lukas, but they do not fall in the cheap bracket.
And in general i don't keep track of the cheap cameras as i would never consider buying one of those, but there might be something out there.

 

[SawMaster]

Of the few I remember seeing tried, I have heard of no dashcams which would support recording at the same time as using any 'video out' port; it's one way or the other but not both. Having said that, if such a thing exists I'm sure someone will arrive and point out my mistake

I'd simply get a reversing cam and a separate dashcam so both could be best tailored to my needs with less compromise needed

Phil

 

[kamkar]

The joovuu X cam support live TV ( HDMI ) as the camera are recording, so you can point the camera at the TV screen and get that weird thing going on.

And the X cam use the A7 chipset so i would assume other using the same chipset have a chance of working too, but not sure how many small LCD screens with HD resolution is out there.
On the other hand the cameras that just have a analog low res output should also work alright as i believe the Analog signal are split off from the digital signal going to the memory card.

But i am not 100% sure here, other than the x cam i have not experimented with this, but i could try the SJ7 Star, that dident work at one time but i think it is supported now many FW upgrades later.

 

[kamkar]

Okay i was wrong about the Sj7, there are no action at all on its HDMI slot, not for recording and not for playback via the camera.

BUT ? the x cam are working as i remembered.

And you can use a long HDMI cable i understand, problem is what will you plug it into in the front of the car.

 

[arsh]

tablet wee too big



$20 GS8000 knockoff? same thing. besides the SD coming "loose" in the socket now and them (losing contact eject reinsert and your good and it fails LOUD when it does (once or twice a year so far) with big blue box on the screen.

This 100%. GS8000l have been my go to, i'm finally trying out something better (Chupad d501 since GB had them for $38). However, once i started using the class 10 sd card in it they've been rock solid. The first one ended up with a lose power socket (ran but i exchanged in advance). This second one took a few tumbles (the suction gave out when weather changed and i didn't have a 3m plate mounted for it yet). Despite it, it functions the power on sound just doesn't always active, although video has sound liek it should). I ordered a 3rd as a backup but honestly even if they last around a year at $20 they're impossible to beat.

I've noticed the same as the rest of what you mentioned that it's the "middle" ones that seem to have issues. Seems to be if you like lesser video quality, which mind you will still have your back in court and quite easily as most police dash cams have even crappier resolution, you can get somethign that functions relatively nicely.