Yet another Is it fake / How to use it from a newbie

David Chesler

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I've read through the threads, and I see others have asked the same questions about their purchases.

I'm still confused how a generic Chinese electronic can be genuine or fake, but I'm afraid I have a fake. If not (or if so) how do I use this DVR? I was able to get it to record movies once, but most of the time it is locked up, not responding to any buttons, with motion detect on or off. My car's cigarette lighter is always on, so I'm trying to emulate that by unplugging the adapter. I can wire it to ignition in the future.
Ebay listing here: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...8555829&tid=0&ssPageName=ADME:X:CPSOB:US:1123
The version number from the menus is 2011-07-13B. It does have an HDMI jack. The available resolutions from the menu are FHD 1980x1080, greyed out HD 1280x720, D1 848x480 and 640 640x480. I couldn't find frame rate.

Here is the box it came in, a picture of it playing back a movie, a screenshot of movie it recorded (a 4 Meg file is about 1 hour 15 minutes), and a picture of the menu screen showing the screen sizes. Is it counterfeit?
IMG_20140401_203626_dvr_box.jpg
IMG_20140401_215953_device_playing.jpg
dvr_screenshot_VLC.jpg
IMG_20140401_204108_screen_sizes.jpg
 
yes it's a generic version, however it works now is probably as good as it's going to get unfortunately
 
Thank you jokiin. The chip is by SPCA so I'm sure you are right in confirming my fear. Sigh.
IMG_20140406_143357_dvr_inside.jpg
 
David, you mention in your post that you couldn't find the frame rate for the video you were viewing but I see that you are using VLC Media Player. FYI, if you want to know the pixel size and frame rate of any video you are viewing along with other useful data: in VLC for Windows, just go to the Menu item: Tools> Media Information and then click on the Codec tab. On VLC Media Player for Mac go to the Menu item Window> Media Information and then click on Codec details. (make sure you click the white stream selection triangle to display the info)

VLC-Windows.jpg

Screen Shot 2014-04-06 at 3.25.12 PM.png
 
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Thank you Dashmellow. That is useful information. What I meant here is the DVR didn't seem to have an option for frame rate, and I thought I understood a genuine DVR-027 does have the option.
 
I see. There are so many versions, clones and fakes of this camera floating around I would imagine it is pretty easy to end up not getting a "real" one. To be honest, I don't really understand why anyone would buy one of these out of date dash cameras at this point when one can spend 52 dollars on a G1W from a very reliable seller and get dramatically better video performance, especially at night. Then again, the DVR-027 still very popular and there must be a reason for that.
 
Like I said, I'm new to this. Even the fake had decent quality video when it worked. For me it's something I'll need to work the one time I need it, and like anything else in the car I figure it will be stolen every couple of years. Another thread showed an apparently real DVR-027 for $23 on Amazon. For half the price I'd rather have "good enough" as long as it is really is good enough. (And now I've got a full-sized SD card, so add $8 or so if I switch to a camera that uses a min-SD...) The reviews seemed to tell me a DVR-027 will do the job.
 
Like I said, I'm new to this. Even the fake had decent quality video when it worked. For me it's something I'll need to work the one time I need it, and like anything else in the car I figure it will be stolen every couple of years. Another thread showed an apparently real DVR-027 for $23 on Amazon. For half the price I'd rather have "good enough" as long as it is really is good enough. (And now I've got a full-sized SD card, so add $8 or so if I switch to a camera that uses a min-SD...) The reviews seemed to tell me a DVR-027 will do the job.

Keep in mind that, "it's something I'll need to work the one time I need it" is usually not something you can rely on getting for "$23 on Amazon". Sometimes, spending more money on a "mission critical" device from a reliable seller is the cheapest thing to do in the long run.
 
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Like I said, I'm new to this. .
I can understand that a few years ago I was exactly where you are right now except my knock off had a green and not a yellow timestamp.

Even the fake had decent quality video when it worked.
For mine at least in the daytime it looked a little worse than okay, but at night it was horrible and the video was crushed to complete darkness at times.

I figure it will be stolen every couple of years.
I hate to push my luck so to speak. I guess it depends on where you live at, but I own cars with Glass T-Top roofs (A 4th gen Firebird and Camaro) My brother has the Firebird out with the roof off more often than on and no one has bothered my G1W.

Another thread showed an apparently real DVR-027 for $23 on Amazon.
I've mentioned it on the other page, but just for anyone else looking I think at one time a previous seller was selling real 207s on Amazon at that link, but there is a different seller using the same listing to push knock off versions now. Another attempt to pull one over on unsuspecting drivers.

For half the price I'd rather have "good enough" as long as it is really is good enough. (And now I've got a full-sized SD card, so add $8 or so if I switch to a camera that uses a min-SD...) The reviews seemed to tell me a DVR-027 will do the job.

I'll be honest with you. I know it looks crazy because I drive a loud fast red car, but sometimes money is tight, and the 23 dollar camera drew me in before I knew better, but knowing I am protected the next time someone tries to pull out close to get me to hit them because I have a Camaro (and it has happened before) I have the peace of mind knowing I am protected with a good device.

With how fast technology changes I would even say stay away from a real DVR-207. It only does 720P with not even HDR.

If you are on even the tightest of budgets or the most thrifty of people I would say look at a real G1W and nothing lower.

The real DVR-027 and some claim even the knock off is "good enough" but I don't think I would ever want to get by with good enough when it comes to something that can prove I did not cause an accident, my light was green and it was that guy over there saying his light was green that hit me, or because my camera had a better quality picture I was able to see that the guy that hit me while i was parked and in the store had a red Dodge Daytona with a missing emblem and broken door handle.
 
I really have to agree with all the comments in CYL's post.

Even a real DVR-027 sells at a low price today because it is yesterday's technology in a product category that is making great strides in performance at lower and lower prices. (We've heard this techno story before somewhere haven't we?)

The G1W is probably the lowest priced dash cam currently on the market worth considering.
 
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Even a real DVR-027 sells at a low price today
Maybe I missed it, but that is another thing that gets me. The 027/207/207GS is still about as much or more than a G1W everywhere I look.
futuretrend01 sells it for $52
estore009 sells the 207GS for $63
I doubt it would happen, but if i were these sellers I would push the G1W and stop carrying the DVR-XXX models. Less product to worry about and they could put a little more behind selling something that is better and cheaper
 
Maybe I missed it, but that is another thing that gets me. The 027/207/207GS is still about as much or more than a G1W everywhere I look.
futuretrend01 sells it for $52
estore009 sells the 207GS for $63
I doubt it would happen, but if i were these sellers I would push the G1W and stop carrying the DVR-XXX models. Less product to worry about and they could put a little more behind selling something that is better and cheaper

There is likely a much bigger margin selling the older camera so sellers are able to take advantage as long as there are enough people willing to buy who don't know the difference between the quality of the video from the two cameras.
 
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