AUTO-VOX G1W-C Capacitor Model Dashboard Dash Cam - Heat Resistant

I bought this DVR about 6 months ago. The video quality was pretty good (both day and night).It worked great up until last month. It started giving me problems with recording. I contacted the seller, got a very prompt response with a link asking me to update the firmware. I did that and it worked well for a week or so and then I started having similar issues as before. The DVR tried to lock everything it recorded as if there was an accident. I had to constantly manually unlock the content once the card filled up. Then it just stopped recording altogether even though I had formatted the card. I contacted the seller again and was issued a very prompt refund. From reading other reviews it looks like I just got a lemon.

I bought this camera because I drive through the city to and from work every day and most of the drivers are a little crazy. I wanted to make sure if someone hits me (or people crash in front of me) that I have it on camera. This does a very good job of capturing everything going on in front of you. You need to be fairly close to a car to read the license plate but the whole scene is very crisp. I'm impressed with how much video it can hold and I like that I can disable the audio. (No one deserves to hear me singing...)It could use another button or two for the features it offers. You can get through everything but some of the buttons do multiple distinct actions. But, after 10 minutes of fiddling with it, you'll have it all figured out.I was hoping that the mounting arm would be a little more versatile. I was unable to get mine mounted to my dashboard (which is the fault of the dashboard, not the device) so I attached it to the window. The only way I could get it on the window was up high and out of sight with the arm facing downward. Then, at that angle, I have to have the camera cranked all the way upward for it to capture a full road view. Plus, I keep it plugged in all the time so that it automatically turns on and off with the car, so the cord is in the way. (Again, more my fault than anything.) Another thing I'm a fan of is that it keeps recording for 3 seconds or so after the car is turned off. I could see this being useful if an accident that shuts down your car.

The LCD screen gives a great picture when the item works. The manual does not give good instructions on how to work the menu options. It has taken a while to learn those on my own. The problem I am having now is the item quits recording around 9 minutes after starting. The LCD screen completely freezes up. The only way to restart the recording is to shut it off and turn it back on.I'm still going to play around with the item as I believe it has potential, but I am not convinced, yet, it will record continuously as it was advertised to do.I have even tried the two and three minute loop back options (after I figured out that part of the menu setup) and the item still freeze frames at 9 minutes.

I bought this camera to replace one of those cheap $20 cameras with the LEDs on the front. While the old cheap camera will prove if a car pulled out in front of you or if the light was green when you drove through the intersection, it couldn't give you more detail than that.This DVR has crystal clear true 1080p video that puts the cheap camera to shame. This may have cost 3x what I paid for the cheap camera, but the image is 10x better. This camera has great low light image quality. Some will say that the image is noisy, but that is what you get with any digital camera that costs under $1,000. My cheap one was worthless in the dark. The 8GB micro SD card that was included was made by Samsung and so far holds about 1 1/2 hours before being written over. (Recording at 1080p, 3 minute files and using Wide Dynamic Range) The camera was ready to go right out of the box. All I had to do was change the date and time. The manual was well written and easy to understand. The suction mount holds tight and the ball head can be articulated to any position you need. The power cord was plenty long enough to hide it and run it in the overhead, down the passenger side and back to the 12v power supply in the middle console.As with anything in life, you get what you pay for and you have to balance what you want with what you can afford. As I said before, a $20 camera will tell you if a blurry car pulled out in front of you during the day. But this camera will show you if they were on the phone.Answers to common questions;Q: Is this camera HD?A: Yes the camera records in 1080pQ: Does the camera turn itself on and off automatically?A: Yes the camera turns on when the car starts and turns back off 10-15 seconds after the car shuts down. As long as you have it plugged into a 12v outlet that is only powered when the car is on. If the outlet is always on even when the car is off, the camera will not shut down unless you turn it off or remove the plug.Q: How long can it record, what happens when it runs out of memory?A: At 1080p, the highest setting the included 8GB card will hold between 1 1/2 hours worth of video. Once it reaches capacity, the oldest video file will be deleted to make room for the new file.Q: How can I view/save files on my computer?A: Remove the Micro SD card from the side of the camera and insert it into the included USB micro SD card adapter and insert it into your computer. Or if you want you can always take down the entire camera and plug it in to your computer using a mini USB cable.Q: Can you read license plates?A: Yes, but only until the cars reach about 20' away. Since the camera is a wide angle lens, it becomes hard to read. All Car DVRs suffer from this because they have wide angle lenses. I can read plates of cars that pass me too.