E3 Code: J7ZGK7HO ($20 OFF)
Deal Price $229.99 after code & coupon
Start Date:05/08/20235:00 AM PDT
End Date: 05/13/202311:59 PM PDT
Shared By Customer:
Set-up
Set-up was straightforward: install and format the micro-SD card, download the app, turn on the camera’s’ wi-fi mode, connect the phone to the camera’s wi-fi, start the app and add follow the guided steps to connect to the device. The camera starts recording once the car is powered up. There are many preferential settings available, explained in the instructions. I used the default settings for most, but elected to increase the loop length (i.e. the length of each sequential recording) from one to five minutes, and turn off the camera’s display after three minutes.
Operation
Once I read the instructions to understand all the camera’s features, I found operating the camera intuitive. The control buttons are located on the bottom of the device so they’re hard to see, but the indicators on the screen, above the buttons, make it easy to find them. The remote control allows an alternative to reaching up and handling the camera. The remote control can take a photo, lock a video and turn the microphone on and off.
Some basic camera functions can be controlled with voice commands: take photo, video start, turn on/off audio, turn on/off screen, turn on/off wi-fi, lock the video, show front/rear camera, inside video on.
Connecting to the camera’s wi-fi is optional. It allows the user to use their smart phone to control many of the camera’s features, view recordings and real-time images from any of the three cameras. The GPS map track function plots the location on Google Maps in a window beneath the camera view. The user must download the specific file to their smart phone to use this feature. The wi-fi connection has to be restored each time you use the app: turn on the camera’s wi-fi, access the phone’s settings and connect to the camera’s wi-fi, open the app and connect the device. When wi-fi is connected, the only way to control the camera is with the app. Pressing any button on the camera immediately disconnects the camera’s wi-fi from the phone. The app is not necessary for day-to-day use as recordings are saved to the micro-SD card.
The camera accepts up to 512 GB micro-SD card, which is larger than any other camera I’ve seen. Using the default resolution and frame rate, the camera writes 260 MB of data per minute to the micro-SD card. When the card is 70% full, the oldest unsaved recordings are overwritten. Based on this, I should be able to store just under 23 hours of video. The camera offers options to save space, including low bit rate (i.e. low-resolution) and low frame rate recording for longer retention.
The camera has parking mode, which uses motion detection to record activities outside the vehicle while parked. This feature works very well as a security feature.
Video/Photo Processing
The camera produces crisp, focused images from all three cameras. The default setting is a one-minute loop. On this setting, once a minute the system produces three MP4 files – one from each camera – each one minute in length. The loop length can be increased to up to five minutes. Each file is named with the suffix “A” (Front), “B” (Cabin) or “C” (rear). To save the files, I connect the micro-SD card to my computer with a micro-SD card adapter (connecting the camera directly to the computer works just as well), then move all the files into a folder on an external hard drive. I run a Rename Master script to rename the files so the “A,” “B” or “C” is at the front of the file name, then sort them and place them into subfolders for “Front,” “Cabin” or “Rear.” I use VLC Player to load multiple files and play them in sequence.
