Review of the iRoad V7 2-channel car camera

Nicolas Phua

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iRoad%20V7.jpg

The following is the overview of IROAD V7 * Front/Rear : HD(1280x720) * Frame : 60fps * CPU : A20 Dual-core CPU * Camera : 2.3 mega pixel Real HD CMOS image sensor embedded * Viewing angle : 132 degrees wide view * Impact sensor : High sensitivity 3 axis sensor
Main features * WIFI function(Real time view, playback, image saving, settings, firmware auto
update, dedicated app supported) * Memory card auto recovery/format * Low voltage cut-off function embedded * Auto parking(motion detection) mode switch * External GPS antenna * Motion detection alert
--> This is the link to the PDF file of the review: https://www.dropbox.com/s/hvubqcgta5f77tq/iRoad%20V7%20Review.pdf?dl=0

IROAD V7 full unboxing and review on the exterior design of the device
My first look of the front and rear camera was that it was futuristic and compact. I have experience with another brand of camera and I have to say the design impressed me a good deal. The front camera is hidden right behind the rear view mirror of my car which is something of a plus point. I choose to have it installed by the authorised installer Tip Top Car Audio & Accessories Centre at Blk 18 Sin Ming Industrial Estate Sector A #01-45 (DID: 64587406 and the boss name is Ricky: 84464646). The boss is a super friendly person. Installation was quick – about 45 minutes (had my breakfast, came back and it’s done). I paid $80 for the installation. I met with a small setback though, the wireless dongle that came with the set was spoilt on installation and I discovered it the next day when I couldn’t connect to retrieve the footage. Went back to TipTop and the boss exchange it without any further question with one of his own dongle, even though he is not obliged to do so. Good service 
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Comparison with other in-car cameras and objective view on IROAD V7(pros/cons)
Pros

I have previously used an off-the-shelf camera which is not comparable to iRoad V7. As such I shall compare it based on my research online of like-to-like car camera and also reviews from some of my friends on their car camera. In terms of similar specs car camera to iRoad V7, I would say the main attraction is the price. For the specs of iRoad V7, you would be expecting to pay something in the region of S$600 to S$650. The iRoad V7 is marketing for S$300 plus excluding installation. With installation it would probably be about S$400, which is still a pretty good price to pay for. If you choose not to have installation done, there are brackets that comes with the iRoad V7 that allows you to DIY but I chose to pay for the installation as I like the wiring to be hidden and neatly done.
I know many other car cameras of the same specs have the same mobile apps to retrieve and view live footage, but I have to mention it again. The mobile app is pretty user-friendly. If you are a regular smartphone user, it would not be difficult to get the hang of using the video apps (iRoad from Android Google Play market).
I had several friends who used a popular car camera (I shall not name the brand for legality issue). The main complaint from them is that the camera will drain their car battery when used on 24 hour standby/parking mode. As such they are asked to buy a auto cut-off device that detect that their car camera are dying and will automatically cut off power to the car camera. My feeling on this is that it is too unpredictable. Can you imagine this scenario: Your car camera power is cut off and then something happens to your car, then it defeats the purpose of having a car camera on parking/standby mode. I have used the iRoad V7 for about a week and I have not seen any problem with the battery issues. You don’t have to pay extra to get an extra battery pack or battery detector etc. I have parked over the weekend for a continuous 2 days and was able to start the car on Mon without any problem and without the power being cut off from the iRoad V7.
Cons

There is no review screen which does not allow you to view direct from the iRoad V7 but if you ask me why would you want to view a live recording from the car camera. If there is a need to, you can use your mobile phone apps to view live recording. Anyway it is a trade off between size of the camera and having a screen on it. I would rather the camera is compact.
There is the use of the wireless dongle which I thought should be built in. However I think having a separate plug-in wireless dongle helps. Imagine having the build-in wireless device spoilt and the entire car camera had to be sent in for repair. In my case, since I detect that the wireless dongle is spoilt, I can have it exchanged even by buying one off the shelf.
I am pretty worried about the night footage (the day footage are pretty decent) of the iRoad V7. In places that is not very well-lit, I can’t even see the licence plate number of other vehicles. But then again, it is the same complaints that other brands car cameras are having. Ultimately in badly-lit places, you would probably need an infrared car camera to see the licence plate numbers.
Saved video recordings while driving(day/night/parking mode etc)
Day Driving Mode Front Cam 1 -
[YOUTUBE]
[/YOUTUBE]
Day Driving Mode Front Cam 2 -
[YOUTUBE]
[/YOUTUBE]
Day Driving Mode Front Cam 3 -
[YOUTUBE]
[/YOUTUBE]
Day Driving Mode Rear Cam 1 -
[YOUTUBE]
[/YOUTUBE]
Day Driving Mode Rear Cam 2 -
[YOUTUBE]
[/YOUTUBE]
Day Parking Mode Front Cam - http://youtu.be/cUAkuWxwjMA
[YOUTUBE]http://youtu.be/cUAkuWxwjMA [/YOUTUBE]
Day Parking Mode Front Cam 2 - http://youtu.be/c1o-pc91-sQ
[YOUTUBE]http://youtu.be/c1o-pc91-sQ [/YOUTUBE]
Day Parking Mode Rear Cam - http://youtu.be/W90QrZxwYFo
[YOUTUBE]http://youtu.be/W90QrZxwYFo [/YOUTUBE]
Day Parking Mode Rear Cam 2 - http://youtu.be/diiBYBe5BQY
[YOUTUBE]http://youtu.be/diiBYBe5BQY [/YOUTUBE]
Night Driving Mode Front Cam - http://youtu.be/6Ea-AmHmwh0
http://youtu.be/6Ea-AmHmwh0
Night Driving Mode Rear Cam - http://youtu.be/QqsbSQ8D-Xw
[YOUTUBE]http://youtu.be/QqsbSQ8D-Xw [/YOUTUBE]
Night Parking Mode Front Cam - http://youtu.be/uoBDF1RxtMQ
[YOUTUBE]http://youtu.be/uoBDF1RxtMQ [/YOUTUBE]
Night Parking Mode Front Cam 2 - http://youtu.be/Mv-_0vrHROk
[YOUTUBE]http://youtu.be/Mv-_0vrHROk [/YOUTUBE]
Special episode while using IROAD V7
During the use of the iRoad V7, I had an interesting experience during my trip to JB where the live reviewing from the mobile phone app came to good use. During the trip, I was parked by the roadside of KSL waiting for my wife when I noticed from my rear mirror that there was a fellow who seems to be behaving suspiciously a distance away from my car. You can call me paranoid or what, but knowing the security concerns in JB, I cannot take any risk, especially since I have my baby in the car as well. I used the mobile app on my phone to view the live recording of the rear camera to monitor the situation without that fellow realising it. Nothing untoward came out of it but I was glad that this function came to good use. It’s something good to have though.
Overall evaluation(i.e. rating with explanations)
I have used it since 13 Nov 2014 (last Thurs). Overall I am satisfied with what I have seen thus far. I have got to say it is a value-for-money buy. Except a little bit of teething issues here and there in the initial installation stage and a short getting use to, which comes naturally with any new device you buy.
Specs: 7/10
Mobile App: 8/10 (easy to use app)
Price: 9/10 (the main attraction, at least for me)
Review footages: 6/10 (would have been higher if the night footage had been better)
Installation: 9/10 (I chose to pay for installation and glad to say I did not regret it. I heard some users had problems with DIYing and had some problem installing it)
Design: 8/10 (pretty compact and futuristic)
By Nicolas Phua
*This is my personal review after using the iRoad V7 2-channel car camera for about 5 days. It is purely my personal view and had no influence whatsoever from the manufacturer or the distributor*
 

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3 reviews of this one in as many hours from new members.

Maybe when they're giving these away one of the tasks is to leave a review here - maybe I'm being generous. How are the IPs looking between these three reviews today please @DashCamMan?

For one of the best selling cams it's got some crappy looking footage - any of you fancy making raw footage available please?
 
3 reviews of this one in as many hours from new members.

Maybe when they're giving these away one of the tasks is to leave a review here - maybe I'm being generous. How are the IPs looking between these three reviews today please @DashCamMan?

For one of the best selling cams it's got some crappy looking footage - any of you fancy making raw footage available please?
You must be wrong!

Didn't you read the last sentence?

"no influence whatsoever from the manufacturer or the distributor"
 
I was being generous initially but it does feel like we're having our pants pulled down :)
 
Not sure if you've tested the Auto parking ( motion detection ) mode?
* Auto parking(motion detection) mode switch * Motion detection alert *

From my experience, it does not work at all. And Corvit tech support team is not honest.
I bought IROAD v7 on 28 Nov 2014 during SITEX show in Singapore Expo. Setup & installation done by IROAD technical support folks on-site.
A few days later, I found that the above mentioned parking mode does not work because I saw that it keeps on recording when I'm parking at my place's underground car park. Worse is when I stop my car to wait for my family & if it is more then 10+ minutes, the video recorder will alert & switch off the car engine.
I call Corvit @+65-66590141. The tech support told me that I've to reformat the memory card. I did that and try again - Not working.
I went to Corvit's technical support located at 21 Bukit Batok Crescent #28-73, Wcega Tower Singapore 658065 to ask why it is not working. The first thing that the technical support told me is that the product is working and that user don't know how to use it. I then ask the technical support person to set for me so that when I park my car, it will only record when a motion is detected. The technical support person do the proper setting and told me that it will work with the new setting.
I went home & test it and it is still not working.
I visited Corvit's technical support center again the following week to ask what happened and why the IROAD v7 keeps on recording when the car is parked overnight? The technical support person start to make excuses. He said that even though it is parking, there will be wind blowing and if this happened, motion detection will be activated. I told him that it is an underground car park and it is impossible to have wind continuously blowing every minute because the IROAD v7 keeps recording every minute for more then 12+ hours. After I make noise for a while, the technical support person admit that the specific Auto Parking ( motion detection ) does not work no matter what option you choose. I was told that I'm not the only one giving this feedback. They knew about this problem even during the SITEX show and he blurt it out that they already feedback to HQ but HQ is not coming up with a fix.

Frustrated that the sales person in SITEX did not tell me the truth. Also disappointed that technical support team in Corvit is not honest with its customers and wasted my trips to their office and one of the visit, I've to take leave to go down.
 
Not sure if you've tested the Auto parking ( motion detection ) mode?
* Auto parking(motion detection) mode switch * Motion detection alert *

From my experience, it does not work at all. And Corvit tech support team is not honest.
I bought IROAD v7 on 28 Nov 2014 during SITEX show in Singapore Expo. Setup & installation done by IROAD technical support folks on-site.
A few days later, I found that the above mentioned parking mode does not work because I saw that it keeps on recording when I'm parking at my place's underground car park. Worse is when I stop my car to wait for my family & if it is more then 10+ minutes, the video recorder will alert & switch off the car engine.
I call Corvit @+65-66590141. The tech support told me that I've to reformat the memory card. I did that and try again - Not working.
I went to Corvit's technical support located at 21 Bukit Batok Crescent #28-73, Wcega Tower Singapore 658065 to ask why it is not working. The first thing that the technical support told me is that the product is working and that user don't know how to use it. I then ask the technical support person to set for me so that when I park my car, it will only record when a motion is detected. The technical support person do the proper setting and told me that it will work with the new setting.
I went home & test it and it is still not working.
I visited Corvit's technical support center again the following week to ask what happened and why the IROAD v7 keeps on recording when the car is parked overnight? The technical support person start to make excuses. He said that even though it is parking, there will be wind blowing and if this happened, motion detection will be activated. I told him that it is an underground car park and it is impossible to have wind continuously blowing every minute because the IROAD v7 keeps recording every minute for more then 12+ hours. After I make noise for a while, the technical support person admit that the specific Auto Parking ( motion detection ) does not work no matter what option you choose. I was told that I'm not the only one giving this feedback. They knew about this problem even during the SITEX show and he blurt it out that they already feedback to HQ but HQ is not coming up with a fix.

Frustrated that the sales person in SITEX did not tell me the truth. Also disappointed that technical support team in Corvit is not honest with its customers and wasted my trips to their office and one of the visit, I've to take leave to go down.

Dear customer

Thank you for leaving here your valuable opinion.

First off, we are sorry for any inconvenience this has caused.

We have been notified of this case and are working on the issue.

IROAD V7 allows you to activate motion detection function while continous parking mode is deactivated, meaning the camera is automatically turned on and records only if it senses motion during parking mode.
Our research centre has recently found that there is a number of errors with the latest firmware or software used for IROAD V7 regarding the above mentioned function.
That is why one of our staff casued miscommunication with you, sir.
As mentioned, we have been working out on this problem.
Once again, we are sorry for this problem.

Regarding the refund that you claimed last time, as far as I am concerned, our staff requested your front and rear camera excluding cables that were already installed in you car, to collect the cameras from you and give you refund. The rear camera is connected to the usb cable, so unplugging the rear camera from the rear usb cable does no harm to your car, sir.

The thing is that you only brought your front camera to our office, sir, so one of our staff was going with you to the car park to collect the rear camera and give you refund right away.

I suppose there should have been some misunderstanding between you and our staff at that moment.

As you are our valued customer, please call us directly so that
we can sort this out without you having to visit here again.

Our manager shall be dealing with this issue directly with you.

P.S. The firmware repair/upgrade will be done by the end of February.
You can only activiate motion detection function from the date of upgrade.

Best regards,

Corvit International pte. ltd.
 
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This continuous recording issue also happens on my parking mode. What I noticed is the rear camera video will flicker randomly which triggered a motion detection. Also the video pixelation for the rear camera is quit bad in low light condition which also contribute to the motion detection activation.

I also got another problem of 3-error beeps after overnight parking daily. I am not sure what this means as it isn't explained in the user manual. The camera continue working after the engine starts. But the beeps won't go away unless I unplug and replug the power cable again.

My IRoad V7 is also brought at SITEX show last year.
 
This continuous recording issue also happens on my parking mode. What I noticed is the rear camera video will flicker randomly which triggered a motion detection. Also the video pixelation for the rear camera is quit bad in low light condition which also contribute to the motion detection activation.

I also got another problem of 3-error beeps after overnight parking daily. I am not sure what this means as it isn't explained in the user manual. The camera continue working after the engine starts. But the beeps won't go away unless I unplug and replug the power cable again.

My IRoad V7 is also brought at SITEX show last year.

Dear customer

Thank you for your comment.

Regarding the unintended continuous, as mentioned on my previous writing, the newly updated firmware will sort out the problem. Sorry for the inconvenience.

For beeping issue, we first need to check on the product. Please kindly visit our branch for assistance.

Best regards,
Corvit International pte. ltd.
 
I just bought a iRoad v7 2CH and have it installed by one of the authorised dealers. At night, the license plates of the oncoming cars captured by the front camera are blur; although I had no problem seeing the license plates myself. I have feedback to the dealer and sent him the video clip. Does anyone else have a similar experience? Or is this normal for the iRoad v7?
 
I just bought a iRoad v7 2CH and have it installed by one of the authorised dealers. At night, the license plates of the oncoming cars captured by the front camera are blur; although I had no problem seeing the license plates myself. I have feedback to the dealer and sent him the video clip. Does anyone else have a similar experience? Or is this normal for the iRoad v7?

Dear customer

First off, thank you for purchasing IROAD V7.

As a forum member jokiin kindly mentioned below your comment, it is normal at night.
Normally, cars on the road moves very fast and there is certain limit on dashcams to
capture it clearly unless they are action cams.
However, if the camera can not capture stationary signs on a highway or
stationary car clearly, then it would definately be the camera's problem.

Notwithstanding, we keep working on making better ones.

If you, in the future, suspect that the quality of camera has a problem indeed,
Please kindly bring it to our office for assistance.

Cheers!
 
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