Disappointed by current Dashcam, which one should I buy ?

[Leon69]

Hello,

On my current car (a Kia Sportage HEV), I have a Vantrue N5 (4 channels) with Vantrue power kit. I plan to sell the car with the dashcam, and I'm looking for a new one.
Here is the list of feature that I currently don't like on the N5 :
* Front cam is rated 2.7K, but I cannot view the record on my smartphone at this resolution, needed to downgrade to 1080p
* Parking mode is awfull : either "shock detection" which will start to record 30sec after shock event, missing the event, or any other mode will drain the battery. Could be OK if the switching of the parking mode were decent (suggested here: timeout mode ; hotkey)
* After 2 years, I've no firmware improvement, dispite various feedback on Dashcamtalk and ack from vendor : feeling that the vendor is not really listening to their customers
* Application not able to download in background : need to wait endless before being able to continue operations

For the parking mode, the Vantrue powerkit was useless, but that's mainly due to Sportage HEV design : there is no 12V battery (main battery used instead), so the 12V cuteoff thresholds are useless.

My new car will have a regular 12v battery.

I'm looking for a dashcam with 4 (or 3) channels, a good image quality, and good parking modes. I've been trough the forum, but could not find a good replacement. Before giving up, I'm asking you 🙂

 

[kamkar]

I never tried parking guard on the N5 as i recall.

Today the super low power modes do mean the camera is pretty much asleep and need to wake up before it start to record, this can use very little power.
There are also buffered operation, but then the camera are sort of recording all the time to a little memory buffer to give you some seconds from before the event trigger, down side is much higher power usage.
My personal favorite also record all the time, but in low bitrate, but this is still a " thirsty " mode, but it work for me CUZ if i can i just use it on a 3 hour timer, CUZ other places where i park there are CCTV on my car.
Some brands have also some hybrid modes, others have " AI" motion detect, but they too have their challenges, and accompanying high power use.

The new deep sleep systems, some of them will boot in a few seconds though, but you still do not have the before, i am personally OK with that though it do of course mean less recording time in which details like a plate can be captured.

I am currently running dual 4K systems, no problem viewing those videos on my very old not at all 4K screen phone, but it is of course downscaled to fit, it is also next to never i look at footage on my phone, i do that at home on my also not 4K screen but 1440p resolution.

I have once given police footage of a accident i witnessed first row, but they had to wait getting the footage until i got home and pulled it from my memory card and then drove to the station so they could copy it.
They liked that CUZ the drive did a runner, but not before he stood still right in front of my side camera, so the police went " O that is Abdellah, we go pick him up right away if he have run home "
The gut ran a blatant red light and took out a mother with a child in the car, fortunately not bad.
As most Danes, the guy was probably stoned out of his mind.