Quick review of my recent purchase of HDVR-150 from Amazon:
and a chepo Mirror mounted double cam DVR from ebay (china)
The short story - very cool mounting idea, but very bad video quality on both of them.
The longer comparison:
Fit and finish: a tie. HDVR has nicer and more solid feel, but not by far. DVR has frameless design, which provides bigger mirror and hides imperfections
Button operations: a tie. HDVR has less buttons, but you can get used to them quickly if you go through the manual. DVR manual is useless, but buttons are somewhat easier to understand. Flash card is very much to access on HDVR, not so on DVR
General operations: a tie. HDVR has smaller but brighter display. DVR is bigger but almost useless during the day because of the glare. HDVR has camera and display on the right side, which doesn't make sense for left sided cars - the display is further away and the lens has to be tilted to the maximum, which might explain bad picture quality
Picture quality: a hand to HDVR. They both suck, the plates are impossible to read on most occasions even standing right behind (other reviews indicate better quality, maybe I got a dud). Both work in 720p/30fps mode. HDVR has 1080p/15fps, but it provides no image improvement at all. HDVR has less amount of compression artifacts and you can get more details out of it. (see the pictures)
File size: DVR wins. HDVR clips take about 10 times more space (a gig for 5 minutes) without any reason to do so
Stitching: a tie. Both are good
Features: a tie. HDVR has G sensor which starts recording when power is off in case of shock. DVR supposedly has the same as well as motion detection, but I couldn't figure out how to activate it. DVR has a second camera which can be mounted behind.
Price: DVR wins. $100 vs $150
My conclusions: for the price I'm going to stay with DVR. Second camera outweighs the slightly better picture. (and the fact that it's much harder and expensive to return)
and a chepo Mirror mounted double cam DVR from ebay (china)
The short story - very cool mounting idea, but very bad video quality on both of them.
The longer comparison:
Fit and finish: a tie. HDVR has nicer and more solid feel, but not by far. DVR has frameless design, which provides bigger mirror and hides imperfections
Button operations: a tie. HDVR has less buttons, but you can get used to them quickly if you go through the manual. DVR manual is useless, but buttons are somewhat easier to understand. Flash card is very much to access on HDVR, not so on DVR
General operations: a tie. HDVR has smaller but brighter display. DVR is bigger but almost useless during the day because of the glare. HDVR has camera and display on the right side, which doesn't make sense for left sided cars - the display is further away and the lens has to be tilted to the maximum, which might explain bad picture quality
Picture quality: a hand to HDVR. They both suck, the plates are impossible to read on most occasions even standing right behind (other reviews indicate better quality, maybe I got a dud). Both work in 720p/30fps mode. HDVR has 1080p/15fps, but it provides no image improvement at all. HDVR has less amount of compression artifacts and you can get more details out of it. (see the pictures)
File size: DVR wins. HDVR clips take about 10 times more space (a gig for 5 minutes) without any reason to do so
Stitching: a tie. Both are good
Features: a tie. HDVR has G sensor which starts recording when power is off in case of shock. DVR supposedly has the same as well as motion detection, but I couldn't figure out how to activate it. DVR has a second camera which can be mounted behind.
Price: DVR wins. $100 vs $150
My conclusions: for the price I'm going to stay with DVR. Second camera outweighs the slightly better picture. (and the fact that it's much harder and expensive to return)
