Kenwood DRV-A601W

Interesting, please share experience and footage when convenient.
 
Yeah, nothing wrong with the soundtrack at least to start with, Germany are not build for such speeds ( of video ) that would be much better in the wide open expanses of the American mid west.
Youtube i find tend to not cope so well with timelapse / speed up footage.
 
I think he got up to 174kmh at one point, but my computer stopped streaming at around the 12 minute mark-small memory. So, if he sped it up 20 times, he'd be going 3480 kmh.
 
Here's one from another guy using the Kenwood video player.
The map alongside is awesome, I feel.
 
A unique mounting system- haven't seen one like that before. Would need a very strong magnet to not lose the electrical connections on large bumps or crashes. Supercaps a plus :cool:

Phil
 
jokiin said:
have a look at the Nextbase cameras
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Never paid attention to that detail on them. Fantastic for those who like to pull the camera when parked I guess, otherwise could be a potential trouble point.

Phil
 
SawMaster said:
Never paid attention to that detail on them. Fantastic for those who like to pull the camera when parked I guess, otherwise could be a potential trouble point.

Phil
Click to expand...
magnet is strong enough for it to not fall off, but also strong enough that getting it on and off without changing the camera aim becomes a challenge
 
I own this dash cam before but finally returned it. The video quality significantly degraded when paired with the rear camera. The image zoomed in and turns blury when rear camera plugged in (solo camera you can read the far license plate, dual camera mode you cannot). The video blury is causing by the bitrate decrease when rear camera running together (from 5x mbps to 3x). I have the conversation with the distributor here but they said they can't fix that, and insists it is no design flaw. The camera also have consistent freeze during cold startup. It has been tested with several power source (car 5V supple, power bank, etc) and different usb cables but issue still exists.

The front camera, when using as a single camera alone is really nice in quality. However, the image turns to unacceptable (subjective, consider a 4k dash cam with this price tag) when paired with the rear camera.

 
I've read in the manual that the front camera image quality degrades from 4k to 1440k when the rear camera is plugged in, but you're saying the image degrades further when the front camera is set at 1440k and then the rear camera is plugged in? (That's what the labeling on the video suggests.)

The cold start issues sound like a problem. How cold was it?

Plugged into a Garmin mini USB cable, it's nice messing around with it in the comfort of the porch.

We'll see how the mount goes in real life. Manipulating it on the porch, I can see maintaining point of aim after removal could be a challenge, although when I crank down on the knuckle's wheel, it still moves. Hopefully it maintains poa during use. If it does, the LCD would make it pretty easy to re-establish. I'm thinking of putting it to the left of the mirror in my MINI Cooper.
(Edit: Angle of mirror on left side takes room and more visually obtrusive-going with the right side.)

A few observations so far:
-It comes with a 64 GB card
-It has two power inputs: one on the side of the separate magnetic mount, which also contains the GPS module, and one on the top, which also handles data transfer (one way, from camera to computer)
-SD card access is on left side (easier to get to than top, for example)
-There's an HD video output-it looks smaller than the typical TV type, so would have to buy a cable for that

Not to obsess too much on parking mode, but on the tabletop it seems to work. When parking mode option is turned on, the camera sleeps after 5 minutes of quietude, but will wake up and record if vibration is felt. It gets out of parking mode if constant vibration is felt for 15 seconds or more, and resumes normal recording. The hardwire constant power adapter is required: CA-DR1030. Doesn't look there's any low battery protection. At this stage of my life, I probably won't use this function anyway.

I have yet to use the wifi smartphone app; I'm not sure it's that necessary, but I'll try it at some point. Also haven't used the PC app yet.

A link to the manual: https://www.kenwood.com/usa/car/dashboard_camera/drv-a601w/
 
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My video shows the two video comparison - before 00:57 is the 1440 front video under dual camera mode, after 00:57 is the 1440 front video under solo camera mode, just put that in full screen and read the white nissan number plate then you will see the difference. Kenwood explain that is the "design" which they have to reduce the bitrate of front video so it could write in both the front and rear video into the SD card and so video degrade is in purpose and expect, not a design or hardware faulty, however you probably know there are lots of dash cam (viofo, thinkware, blackvue, etc) they didn't sacrifice the video quality in that way and they still did a very good job under dual camera mode, so......

Regarding the cold start, that is when the camera left unpower for maybe 1-2 hours (probably when the capacitor depleted, but I can't find the exact time frame and probably will not trigger if you power the camera up within 30min) and power on, the camera will freeze up, no matter you unpower and repower up it, the only way is by pressing the reset button.
 
JoePGM said:
Regarding the cold start, that is when the camera left unpower for maybe 1-2 hours (probably when the capacitor depleted, but I can't find the exact time frame and probably will not trigger if you power the camera up within 30min) and power on, the camera will freeze up, no matter you unpower and repower up it, the only way is by pressing the reset button.
Click to expand...
Maybe something to do with parking mode?
 
Velvetfoot said:
Maybe something to do with parking mode?
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Was checked the parking mode didn't turn on or activate back to that time.... anyway, the solo camera video quality of the 601 is really nice. I will definitely keep the package if the quality didn't drop when paired with rear camera
 
I wouldn't call the resolution drop a "flaw" as many 2-channel cams are like this. But it does need to be more clearly stated in advertising specs and not just hidden in a user-manual which most people are not going to read before purchasing their cam even though we should be doing that. Could be done easily in listed specs such as:

Resolution: 1440P Front 1080P Rear (Note that adding the rear cam limits the Front to 1080P maximum resolution)

The "flaw" is in that there's some intentional misleading going on, but it's a common practice :( People buying a 2-channel cam have no reason to unplug the rear cam to get better performance with the front cam. If they wanted a single-channel cam they would have bought one. They have every reason to expect any full performance levels being listed in the main advertising.

Hard to blame buyers for missing information which is being intentionally obscured even if it isn't being totally hidden, and in those cases the manufacturer should offer them a full refund since it was the manufacturer who "hid" the facts :cautious:

Just how I see it from my side of the computer screen :cool:
Phil
 
Kenwood didn't lie in this way, the video in dual camera mode is 1440 + 1440 and 1440/4k in solo mode. However they just didn't mention "video will zoom in and degraded due to lower bitrate" on the spec, and the degrade is significantly between you can/cannot read the number plate away the same distance

The dual camera mode 1440p image looks a bit like scaling up a 1080 footage to 1440 resolution.... the detail lost....
 
I knew about the resolution downgrading to 1440 with the addition of the rear camera before I bought, but not the bit rate downgrade.
JoePGM said:
Was checked the parking mode didn't turn on or activate back to that time.... anyway, the solo camera video quality of the 601 is really nice. I will definitely keep the package if the quality didn't drop when paired with rear camera
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One less wire to route!
 
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