DDPai M6+ Techmoan's latest droolfest

[AndrewL]

I think The Wirecutter has an excellent statement regarding biases and benefits of affiliate income. I've been in agreement for years and I'm running my reviews off the same model:

Doesn’t getting affiliate fees create a conflict of interest and bias?

We think it does create a bias—a bias to write about a lot of things with affiliate codes threaded in them. But we think it’s less of a conflict of interest than traditional advertising. Affiliate pay does not, in our opinion, create a worse situation than running a site based on pageviews, because publishers still get paid for ads on stories that are hyped up, unnecessarily controversial, or broken into multiple pages. Even stories that are flat-out incorrect. We know from past experience.

All we can say is that the most important things to the health of this site are its reputation and its relationship with readers. Here’s why: We are going to recommend gear, no matter what, and we’re going to make our best efforts to recommend the things that we truly believe are worth the money. If we recommend something because we are biased or lazy and the pick sucks, you can return the piece of gear and we will make zero dollars. We also invite you to fact check any of our pieces, which outline the time, logic, and energy spent researching, interviewing experts, and testing gear. Often, this is more than dozens—sometimes even hundreds—of hours.

All the evidence on why our picks are the right ones are laid out plainly in each guide for you to believe or not believe. And the two times we got it wrong so far, we’ve written clear explanations and apologies on the front page of the site. We don’t enjoy doing it. But pride is less important than our ultimate priority of making sure we’re recommending good gear and doing the right thing for all our readers, who are ultimately the ones who pay for this research.

I think the key is the transparency behind the review process and trust generated over a long period of time. Techmoan won't jeopardize the trust with his audience. He has his own biases as do we all.

no, but the normal Chinese business model is how to constantly make things cheaper so subsequent productions of a same item generally start to lose quality pretty quickly

That's referring to quality fade? How significant are the changes in quality - short term or long term problems?

 

[jokiin]

That's referring to quality fade? How significant are the changes in quality - short term or long term problems?

hadn't heard it referred to as quality fade, that analysis is kind of correct, there is a never ending cycle from suppliers trying to work out how to make things cheaper but it's not about trying to increase profit margin, perhaps that does happen in some product categories, the constant reworking of products to make them cheaper is the suppliers trying to outdo each other to get business thinking the only way to do that is to be cheaper than their competitors, wholesale buyers are their own worst enemy sometimes, no matter how cheap things get they're constantly pushing for lower prices, it's a ridiculous business model that is not sustainable

changes in quality happen very quickly in generic product, quite often from one production to the next

 

[FoxOffer]

There are not many manufactures can produce dash cam based on Hisilicon chipset, there is entry level.
I just visit one manufacture who can produce Hisilicon chipset cameras, also we talked about the DDP cameras.
They told me DDP used the capacitor before, but the solution is not good, then used the battery again.
I saw this camera use the OV4689 sensor, there are some other sensor for choose like Panasonic or Sony 2MP sensor, maybe have better low light performance.

 

[jokiin]

Previous model DDP cameras had a lot of reliability issues, not sure what sort of resources they have and if they've overcome some of the problems that they suffered from, time will tell I guess

 

[Dashmellow]

From what I remember, Techmoan stated that he does not accept free review units. He purchases them with his own money, to be completely unbiased.

While I don't always agree with his recommendations, his reviews are amongst the best in terms of detail and objectivity. My needs are different than his -- different strokes for different folks.

I don't know Techmoan's current policy but for quite a long time he did indeed do reviews at the request of various manufacturers who shipped products to him. One only needs to view some of his older reviews to confirm this. In some cases I recall them making changes to certain cameras based on his critiques and then shipping him the new models to review again. I also remember he did some reviews of products sent to him by certain retailers but I recall him ending that practice.

 

[irononreverse]

I really like the way the parking mode for this camera works. Are there any other cameras that do the same thing?

I'm eyeing up the good a119/a119s because of the form factor but I haven't read anything clear about parking modes and they don't have WiFi.

 

[Chicagojon]

@Techmoan
This is a forum with a lot of avid supporters and followers of your channel (me included), however, @jokiin was just highlighting his view, he's not slagging you off behind your back - it's not like he can email you and say...'i'm going to post a comment that could be interpreted as negative...is that okay?'

Another way to look at this is that jokiin is a manufacturer that jumped quickly into a thread to post negatives about a poster and the reviewed product that conveniently could be considered advantages for his product(s). Words don't lie. Saying "he used to say the K1S was and it was his personal choice, I'm sure there are plenty of owners of those that regret their purchase" is a cheap shot. Are we to go back and complain at reviewers who bought an iPhone3 close to when the iPhone4 came out?

I agree with Techmoan -- forums can be about talking about interests. When every thread turns into an advertisement with manufacturer's/retailers arguing about the thread at hand and trying to sell things then it's no longer a forum - it's a retailer spam site.

I agree with you, it's a sad situation but that is what this place now is mostly.

Now I agree with you.

 

[thancam]

Another way to look at this is that jokiin is a manufacturer that jumped quickly into a thread to post negatives about a poster and the reviewed product that conveniently could be considered advantages for his product(s). Words don't lie. Saying "he used to say the K1S was and it was his personal choice, I'm sure there are plenty of owners of those that regret their purchase" is a cheap shot. Are we to go back and complain at reviewers who bought an iPhone3 close to when the iPhone4 came out?

I agree with Techmoan -- forums can be about talking about interests. When every thread turns into an advertisement with manufacturer's/retailers arguing about the thread at hand and trying to sell things then it's no longer a forum - it's a retailer spam site.


Now I agree with you.

If you dig deeply enough on internet, you will see what jokiin say is true. Example like this page:

 

[sludgeguts]

If you dig deeply enough on internet, you will see what jokiin say is true. Example like this page:

If you look at that great review, dated May 18 2015, there's three replies, one dated Nov & one dated June 2016, both asking for updates on how the cam is running & the reviewer is, strangely, quiet - and I know that you are informed of any updates on your comment. I wonder if the reviewer doesn't want to lose face after giving it such a glowing reference?

 

[thancam]

the problem of unreliable device is: it's great in short time but it won't last long.

 

[DashcamUser1]

I really like the way the parking mode for this camera works. Are there any other cameras that do the same thing?

I'm eyeing up the good a119/a119s because of the form factor but I haven't read anything clear about parking modes and they don't have WiFi.

Thinkware's new model, the F770, apparently has time lapse parking mode feature.

To be honest, I never heard of DDPai before until watching Techmoan's review. I'm now stuck on which one to go for (will be my first dash cam), the F770 or this DDpai M6+. I even asked if Techmoan if he could do a review of the F770 so I could compare between the two.

Any opinions from the experts?

 

[thancam]

Thinkware's new model, the F770, apparently has time lapse parking mode feature.

To be honest, I never heard of DDPai before until watching Techmoan's review. I'm now stuck on which one to go for (will be my first dash cam), the F770 or this DDpai M6+. I even asked if Techmoan if he could do a review of the F770 so I could compare between the two.

Any opinions from the experts?

You can make a thread in this:
https://dashcamtalk.com/forum/forums/what-should-i-buy.71/
describe what you need, what you want.

 

[jokiin]

Thinkware's new model, the F770, apparently has time lapse parking mode feature.

To be honest, I never heard of DDPai before until watching Techmoan's review. I'm now stuck on which one to go for (will be my first dash cam), the F770 or this DDpai M6+. I even asked if Techmoan if he could do a review of the F770 so I could compare between the two.

Any opinions from the experts?

not claiming to be an expert on these as I haven't seen either of these new models personally, probably not many that have, based on last years models from each I'd look at the Thinkware, the 770 looks to be a good improvement over the 750 also

 

[irononreverse]

The F770 looks good. It's a shame there's no decent night footage for me to compare

 

[jokiin]

The F770 looks good. It's a shame there's no decent night footage for me to compare

Alex from @BlackboxMyCar has had the 770 for a couple of months and has night footage in his review, I'm sure he'd have some raw footage available

here's his review

 

[jokiin]

If you dig deeply enough on internet, you will see what jokiin say is true. Example like this page:

actually you don't even need to dig deeply, go to Techmoan's own site where he reviewed the product and just read through the comments there, lots of people having problems

 

[kamkar]

Looks like the SD slot of the 770 is easy to work for us with thick fingers and short nails

 

[irononreverse]

Alex from @BlackboxMyCar has had the 770 for a couple of months and has night footage in his review, I'm sure he'd have some raw footage available

here's his review

I was looking for night footage with no streetlights since about 50% of my journeys take me onto country lanes. The footage from the ddpai m6plus was really impressive; just a shame about the form factor.

I'll pm him and ask for some more details.

 

[jokiin]

I was looking for night footage with no streetlights since about 50% of my journeys take me onto country lanes. The footage from the ddpai m6plus was really impressive; just a shame about the form factor.

I'll pm him and ask for some more details.

he has had it for a couple of months so might have some suitable footage

 

[BlackboxMyCar]

Gonna upload some right now, not sure if there's any point uploading the rear. Without street lights and through my 18% tint you don't see too much!
Hard to compare the F770 with the DDPai though. Battery based with a bulky mount and no parking mode.

Here are some dropbox raws, what upload service do you guys recommend, running out of space on our Dropbox haha?
https://www.dropbox.com/s/xsc5w1eyu5zrk6a/REC_2016_06_30_00_03_43_R.MP4?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/5zi6lo7z8njr9s0/REC_2016_06_30_00_04_44_F.MP4?dl=0