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Rear View Mirror Mount Dash Cam Systems (Jan 2020)


tstockma

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I am looking to add a high-quality camera system, especially wanting great rear-view mirror mount functionality (possibly dash-top instead) including night vision, infrared, & backup guidelines.  The range of choices is overwhelming, especially with off-brands dominating review sites & even Amazon search - and on closer look, many of the 5-star products are severely lacking in features, often on no-name or obscure brands.  Even Amazon presents fabulously-reviewed products that on intense scrutiny, are quite lacking.

So I'm looking for recommendations - especially with ID'ing several good or top notch brands that I can rely on.  (I titled this post "Jan 2020" to help future researchers...and I think we've just seen "generational changes" with these systems, in the last year or so.)

That sums it up!  I'm amazed at how difficult this turned out to be.  It's not too difficult to ID some great hardware/software features, but reviewing the hundreds of Amazon search results & entries for the specific features is so far a wretched task.  If I could narrow down to 4-5 reliable brands, that'd be a great start.

Features:
- Rear mirror mount (although a 6" screen size or similar, mounted on top of the dash of the '86 cab, probably is fine too)
- Hi res system including monitor, recording, big storage capacity - CMOS or HDR seem to be best video level at present?
- Touch screen, for changing which camera is on-screen?  And zooming or panning?  Multi-cam display ability?
- Anti-glare lenses, software/hardware that deals well with different light levels, infrared also good, esp on back-up cam
- Programmable guidelines on-screen for back-up use
- "G-Sensor" or "Accellerometer" for accident detection & auto-lock for saving those files
- "Heat resistant" - I think this especially means on the central module, I guess higher temps can cause issues for some
- Typical decent resolution & light-condition adaptive forward-facing camera also desirable for event & accident recording...not to mention pulling scenic stills & video is nice too

I appreciate any of you with somewhat recent experience here..and to repeat myself, just narrowing down to several brands which I can rely on would be a very significant step forward.

Thanks all!

Edited by tstockma
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Dec 30 2019, this is a work in progress.  I'm find this research painful & can't find "go-to" brands.  Amazon has a flood of on-brand, off-brand & even generic rear-view mirror style dash cams, many do have the very latest features & appear quite good.

Ideally, you're getting an onboard (built-in) front camera shooting thru the windshield, a separate wired (or sometimes wireless) rear camera.  Depending on how to you place that rear camera, it can serve as both rear view mirror & a good backup camera.  In my case, I plan to optimize cam placement for best rear view mirror viewpoint & also add a separate device with radar type sensors & slow/fast beeping sound to tell me distance to nearest obstacle (within 2 meters).  Some of the slickest Amazon pages are for the older technology cams, so you have to watch carefully.  I'm having to learn much more than I wanted & do my homework.

Price Ranges
- $100 or less at best might have 1080p resolution, often displays camera's view within a square image area within the screen
- $100-$150 can get you entry into today's newer generation resolutions, with IPS Touch Screen & several of the modern useful features
- $150-$200 & up is where things get interesting, should be IPS Touch Screen, resolutions at "2K" or better, ideally with Sony night vision, separate hi-res files of front & back camera, much more

Brands & Latest Tech
- If there are "go-to" brands, I can't tell what they are.  The exact same camera maker's products might be sold by many different brand labels.  
- Therefore I'm looking at specific Amazon listings, comments & reviews, comments on features, also comments on seller support.  I can't recommend any brand or seller over another.
- I see "Hisilicon Hi3556ZV200 Chipset" on what I believe are latest listings (late Dec 2020).
- "Streaming WIFI Video" is a great gee-whiz feature, letting you watch (& pull recordings, I believe) on your phone or tablet via the cam's onboard WIFI.

Screens
- IPS Touch Screen (very good, looks like)
    - Normally fills the entire screen, looking like a rear view mirror
    - Switch between rear view & front view at will
    - IPS sometimes gives full touch screen functions (zoom & pan left/right/up/down, etc), depending on the brand & model
    - Often can split screen, showing front & rear
- Non-IPS screens - as far as I can tell, anything non-IPS is probably older & more limited
- FPS matters (frames per second)
    - 30 FPS looks fairly standard
    - 60 FPS is offered on some & is likely very very good
    - Less than 30 is likely getting quite choppy

Screen Size (applies to clamp-on rear view mirror screens)
- IMO, 10" is likely a better fit than 12", in our older Toyota trucks & with sun visor spacing, but I haven't tried any of these yet
- 12" & perhaps are all IPS (full touch screen)
- 10" & looks like best are IPS, some are not
7" (older, often smaller rectangle viewing area within frame)
5" (older yet, smaller rectangle viewing area)
- Non rear view mirror screens are nice, but ensure you do not obscure your view thru the windshield
- Trucker's allow more cameras to be attached, especially useful for security when parked

Resolution
- Display resolutions are important, be sure to verify recording resolution
- 2560 x 1440p (front x rear)
- 2150 x ?
- 1920 x 1080p (front x rear)
- Other resolutions exist
- 1080p is last generation's standard good quality
- 760p is pretty cheesy these days & you won't pick out license plate numbers very well

Night Vision Technology
- Sony Starvis aka IMX335 aka Sony's Starlight CMOS, is perhaps newest. is very highly regarded
- WDR is very highly regarded for night & lighting issues, it looks like some systems might have both Sony Starvis & WDR
- Infrared emitters onboard the camera help nighttime security recording a lot, might significantly help your backup camera
- I can't tell whether front camera infrared has use other than security when parked
- Older systems rely only on brightness & contrast tweaking, market this as "Night Vision" but it's distinctly limited compared to Starvis
- You might find older cams without night vision at all

Backup Onscreen Guidelines
- Better models will detect reverse gear (you attach a wire to your backup light wire) & show guidelines on-screen, many models let you turn that on/off with touch screen swipes
- Best quality lets you customize where the guidelines appear for accuracy, given your specific vehicle size & your camera placement

Other Features
- GPS ideally records your exact position, speed & direction, which seems mostly useful for accidents you might be in
- "G-Sensor" detects impacts, even small ones, and locks those specific files for accident recording, ideally including when parked - useful for proving fault to police & courts
- Security/accident monitoring/recording while parked records front & back views, mostly for ID'ing hit-and-run events including parking lot dings
- Storage: cams get fussy about brand name & type of memory cards, you need to match your card to the device; cams record over their oldest files when the card is full & so bigger capacity cards give you longer history of recordings
- Heat Resistance, these can overheat & malfunction, a more resistance model supposedly is better ventilated & temperature hardened
- Looping Time Span - this impacts any accident/security recordings & also how easily you can drill into & find specific events
- Recording front vs rear - best is with front & rear separately recorded, or (inferior) "frame within a frame" of single recording files

Your comments appreciated...  I will update this as I learn more, and I would love to learn from you all.  What do you know?  I'm a newbie at this.

Edited by tstockma
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I recently installed the one linked below. I've been pleased with the performance so far. It's not the fanciest but does the job well enough. It has more capabilities but I primarily use it as a rear view. I do let it it record the front and rear cams when travelling in case of a wreck. Installation was fairly straight forward. The main hassle was running the wire from  front to back. I hooked into the rear marker lights for power and mounted the rear cam on the central red marker light by drilling some small holes for the bolts through the red lens. Wiring into the rear light proved unnecessary as the camera is always on - I thought it would act more like other rear cams I have installed and only come on with power at the rear connection. This model seems to draw power for the rear cam from the front wiring. Still works well the way I did it. Let me know if you have any questions!

 

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07MHK6JRJ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

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5 minutes ago, neilp said:

I recently installed the one linked below....

Especially for $80, I think you found a gem.  It appears to have a good non-Sony night vision CMOS camera setup, and a very good full-screen touch screen setup.  The 1080p resolution is perfectly adequate IMO.   A terrific example of a great "previous generation" setup.   Nice!

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5 minutes ago, tstockma said:

Especially for $80, I think you found a gem.  It appears to have a good non-Sony night vision CMOS camera setup, and a very good full-screen touch screen setup.  The 1080p resolution is perfectly adequate IMO.   A terrific example of a great "previous generation" setup.   Nice!

Exactly. I didn't want to pay a premium for the latest tech. And this one does all that I need, and for a decent price. I'm pleased with it so far. I have not used it at night, but day time performance is good,  a huge improvement on not having a rear view that works! 

Edited by neilp
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Sheesh exploring different options on Amazon is brutal, I'm not finding exactly the feature combination I want, but finally settled on "Yulu" brand 12" modern modern model.  Because I have seen Yulu as a player a year or two back, well reviewed, and they have most of what I want - the main lack is, no Sony 335 on the rear camera (hardly any have that) but other solid night vision features are applied to that rear one.

I noticed on 12/29 thru 12/31 that Amazon's offering decent "coupons" for a New Year's Eve discount, so went ahead & pulled the trigger on that Yulu.  https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B0829214JH/

It'll be a few weeks or longer before I install, so no updates for a while.

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