Just ordered mine

J

Jc0187

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I am coming from a Transcendent DrivePro 200 that I have had for two years. Unfortunately the super capacitor stopped functioning.
Originally I placed an order for the DDPAI mini2p, however, after reading the awesome reviews here and elsewhere about B1W, I decided to cancel my DDPAI and get this one.
Will I have any regrets with my decision? One thing I absolutely hated about my DrivePro was using the wonky WiFi and App. It was always hit or miss with it.
Can you all weigh in on actual usage and if you are all satisfied with this purchase or if you have any regrets?
 
I like my B1W a lot, mostly for it's superb reliability, it's sweet form factor, the voice alerts for proper start-up and functioning, and that you have many firmwares to select from which give you different functionality. The price value is unbeatable for a budget-friendly cam. You shouldn't have any app-related issues unless you're running a really old or really new OS, and as always IOS apps take longer to get into the users hands. In all fairness you should know that mine was given to me for testing and review but I am going to buy at least one more to finish my side-cam installation plans this spring. The main downside with the B1W is probably that the IMX323 sensor is somewhat basic so vid quality isn't great but it's pretty good day and night and probably good enough for most folks. Audio quality isn't great (especially on older units) and the mounting scheme might not work so well for odd-ball installations though for front or rear coverage it shouldn't be a problem. IMHO for a basic dashcam it's tops by a wide margin, but there are better cams out there for much higher prices if you feel a need for better vid quality.

Phil
 
I don't use my test sample anymore, but it is sitting in a box with other cameras and still work just fine, i did not have any major issues with it while i used it.
It is a bit basic but well worth the money, if you want better you also have to pay more.
I cant say much in regard to APP sue ASO, cuz i dident use that in day to day use as i dislike touching my smartphone, so plopped memory card in card reader on PC to review footage.

its just about 4 in the after noon and i have been up since 7 this morning, i have touched my phone for 2-3 minutes so far, and i hope it will remain silent for the rest of the day.
 
SawMaster said:
I like my B1W a lot, mostly for it's superb reliability, it's sweet form factor, the voice alerts for proper start-up and functioning, and that you have many firmwares to select from which give you different functionality. The price value is unbeatable for a budget-friendly cam. You shouldn't have any app-related issues unless you're running a really old or really new OS, and as always IOS apps take longer to get into the users hands. In all fairness you should know that mine was given to me for testing and review but I am going to buy at least one more to finish my side-cam installation plans this spring. The main downside with the B1W is probably that the IMX323 sensor is somewhat basic so vid quality isn't great but it's pretty good day and night and probably good enough for most folks. Audio quality isn't great (especially on older units) and the mounting scheme might not work so well for odd-ball installations though for front or rear coverage it shouldn't be a problem. IMHO for a basic dashcam it's tops by a wide margin, but there are better cams out there for much higher prices if you feel a need for better vid quality.

Phil
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Awesome! Thank you for your response about this cam. The reviews is what sold me on this unit. I am not so much worried about the video quality being top tier, I just want something reliable, that looks decent enough and that just works. As for audio, I am impartial to it as I usually disable the audio right away. I will be running the app with iOS, latest version. I am praying that using it will be easier and less stressful than the DrivePro app was.
 
kamkar1 said:
I don't use my test sample anymore, but it is sitting in a box with other cameras and still work just fine, i did not have any major issues with it while i used it.
It is a bit basic but well worth the money, if you want better you also have to pay more.
I cant say much in regard to APP sue ASO, cuz i dident use that in day to day use as i dislike touching my smartphone, so plopped memory card in card reader on PC to review footage.

its just about 4 in the after noon and i have been up since 7 this morning, i have touched my phone for 2-3 minutes so far, and i hope it will remain silent for the rest of the day.
Click to expand...
Oh alright. I am just overall concerned on if the app will work when I need it to. If I am ever in a car accident, I want to be able to pull video at a moments notice.
 
You should be good.
I did some test drives with the phone constantly connected to the camera and streaming the footage, and that worked well, and after firmware changes ASO where i need to do settings again i cant recall having problems.
 
Personally i would not share anything to anyone right then and there, i will just let people do what they do, and then look over my footage when i get home to see what i have to share with insurance or police if the other part are lying.
Besides little information you can not see on a phone screen, i would only rely to be able to see the general picture,,,,, which of course might be just fine in most cases.
 
Even say if you have rules saying you must disclose any and all information then and there, you can just play the " OMG i totally forgot i had a dashcam only remembered that when i got home"
If the other part are a lying skum, i feel it is important to let him do just that, he will only get in trouble for that when you whip out your video evidence.
I would never say " well i got you on dashcam" at the scene of a accident, best to let people remain ignorant and dig their own grave.
 
kamkar1 said:
best to let people remain ignorant and dig their own grave.
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yeah I'm with you on that :)

another comment about the B1W. It's G-sensor isn't great. Potholes will set it off and you'll hear the camera say something. I know it says "lock file", but no one else in my family can understand the thing. In 2 of my cars, I have it turned off (I own 4 cameras so far as I do really like the cam)

I have not found another camera that is close to this price that is any where near as good.
 
I did not use G sensor, and dident have it hard wired, really there should be a setting for while driving ( should need a massive jolt ) and a setting for when parked which should be pretty sensitive.
Only on my very first dashcam ( Lukas LK 7500 ) did i have G sensor on, but factory low was triggered all the time by my driving and i drive a 70 BHP mini Suzuki car, so i experimented for 2 days with custom trigger values as Lukas allowed for that, and i did manage to get it tuned to where it only triggered once or twice on a 1 hour drive, but then i just gave up on the G sensor all together and just remembered where on my drive there was something i wanted to save.
And it is only lately i have started to use the manual event button on the cameras to lock down the little things i want to share on youtube.
 
No issues with the wifi on mine, I am using android though.

Once in a while (about a month) I get the "SD card slow" message. I just format the card and all is ok (the sd card is quite old now anyway)
 
My B1W's g-sensor was perfect in my old minivan, and only the worst bumps and RR tracks activated it when driving. But it is inconsistent from unit-to-unit as others have reported with some folks happy and others not being able to use it. Things like this go on with every cheap or budget level cam (and sometimes even more expensive ones) so it's best to not rely on them. The B1W has a g-sensor parking mode available but IMHO the low-bitrate parking mode is far superior and the one to go with. One issue to watch out for with the B1W is that it sometimes stops recording when the "locked files" section gets full, which is easily and quickly fixed by formatting the card. So based on your card size and driving habits formatting the card every 2-4 weeks is a good idea with this cam.

Phil
 
kamkar1 said:
Personally i would not share anything to anyone right then and there, i will just let people do what they do, and then look over my footage when i get home to see what i have to share with insurance or police if the other part are lying.
Besides little information you can not see on a phone screen, i would only rely to be able to see the general picture,,,,, which of course might be just fine in most cases.
Click to expand...
Mostly, the reason why I’d want instant access to footage is in the case of a car accident where I’m not at fault and the other driver, right off the bat, points fault at me, I can take the officer off to the side and replay the footage, which would earn the other driver a ticket and not me, of which saves me the time fighting said ticket.
 
Well i do hope whatever a attending officer come up with are not the final truth, cops here don't really have anything to say and their main objective at a crash scene are to make sure it dont grow in size and make sure rescue people and paramedics can do their job, and only in crashes where someone got hurt bad will a crash investigator be there.

My first car ( a 1967 Volvo 121 ) was hit from the rear and made about 2 - 3 feet shorter ( all steel car so take some effort ) and in spite of me calling the cops as the guy was drunk out of his mind they wouldn't attend, and when i got out from the house where i borrowed the phone 3 cop cars passed by the accident and they dident even look twice.
O and this was in the mid 80ties, before police and people here god as bad as it is today,,,,, which are sadly much worse, today due to lack of manpower police will not investigate a stabbing unless someone get killed or someone can tell then who the perp was, and financial crime have to be above 100.000 DKkr ASO. :cry::mad:
We only have about half of the cops we had in the early 90ties, and that a lot of cops was old and going on / forced on pension some years ago apparently come as a surprise to anyone involved.

30 years later i was again hit from behind, but this time the idiot in the 4x4 was on the pone i assume since he could plow into 2 stopped cars ( i had a car behind me that was pushed into me )
But this time my car was drive able and only the plastic bumper and the rear hatch had to be replaced and then a little welding work on the supporting structure the plastic bolt onto.
Sadly i did not get this directly on video as my rear camera was on a unreliable power source ( to long too bad quality USB wire )
I did sent video to the insurance from other cameras, not that it was needed as the guy admitted fault, but just cuz i could.

The insurance companies here duke it out for who have to pay what, and if you don't like their end result there is a neutral complaint commission.

I assume lying to police, and false claims on insurance papers are illegal in the US too, but i would give the other part the chance to do all that, and then whip out my evidence, so he can get nailed and maybe get jail time for being such a person.
 
kamkar1 said:
Well i do hope whatever a attending officer come up with are not the final truth, cops here don't really have anything to say and their main objective at a crash scene are to make sure it dont grow in size and make sure rescue people and paramedics can do their job, and only in crashes where someone got hurt bad will a crash investigator be there.

My first car ( a 1967 Volvo 121 ) was hit from the rear and made about 2 - 3 feet shorter ( all steel car so take some effort ) and in spite of me calling the cops as the guy was drunk out of his mind they wouldn't attend, and when i got out from the house where i borrowed the phone 3 cop cars passed by the accident and they dident even look twice.
O and this was in the mid 80ties, before police and people here god as bad as it is today,,,,, which are sadly much worse, today due to lack of manpower police will not investigate a stabbing unless someone get killed or someone can tell then who the perp was, and financial crime have to be above 100.000 DKkr ASO. :cry::mad:
We only have about half of the cops we had in the early 90ties, and that a lot of cops was old and going on / forced on pension some years ago apparently come as a surprise to anyone involved.

30 years later i was again hit from behind, but this time the idiot in the 4x4 was on the pone i assume since he could plow into 2 stopped cars ( i had a car behind me that was pushed into me )
But this time my car was drive able and only the plastic bumper and the rear hatch had to be replaced and then a little welding work on the supporting structure the plastic bolt onto.
Sadly i did not get this directly on video as my rear camera was on a unreliable power source ( to long too bad quality USB wire )
I did sent video to the insurance from other cameras, not that it was needed as the guy admitted fault, but just cuz i could.

The insurance companies here duke it out for who have to pay what, and if you don't like their end result there is a neutral complaint commission.

I assume lying to police, and false claims on insurance papers are illegal in the US too, but i would give the other part the chance to do all that, and then whip out my evidence, so he can get nailed and maybe get jail time for being such a person.
Click to expand...
I can understand what you mean.
 
SawMaster said:
One issue to watch out for with the B1W is that it sometimes stops recording when the "locked files" section gets full, which is easily and quickly fixed by formatting the card. So based on your card size and driving habits formatting the card every 2-4 weeks is a good idea with this cam.
Click to expand...

I was told locked files get overwritten once full so not sure why this would happen. That was my concern that so many locked files would cause the whole thing to stop recording. I was told once the card is full, both locked and non locked files are overwritten.
 
iShibby said:
I was told locked files get overwritten once full so not sure why this would happen. That was my concern that so many locked files would cause the whole thing to stop recording. I was told once the card is full, both locked and non locked files are overwritten.
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according to estore009, you should be formatting the card every week, thus locked files shouldn't be a real issue

** I format at most once a month when I remember
 
raskal said:
according to estore009, you should be formatting the card every week, thus locked files shouldn't be a real issue

** I format at most once a month when I remember
Click to expand...
Shouldn't need to if it overwrites. I really wanted a camera that I could set and forget and this may not be it :(
 
One of my 5 B1W's has not been touched for 9 months and with it's voice announcements that it is recording, I know it's working fine. It is "set and forget".
The reformatting was estore's recommendation, that is not written in the manual anywhere
 
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