Installed a 2 channel dash cam last week. Ended up getting aThinkware f800 pro, and using some of the tutorials on this site an y.t., got it hard wired in to take advantage of the parking mode features— which I ended up turning off anyway.
Camera quality is pretty good, but I had several “issues” with the general design and thought processes of the designers.
1) Instructions. Yes I’m old fashioned, I like an instruction manual, this one doesn’t have one. It has a “booklet” in 12 languages on how to insert an advert card, but no other information than that—not even information on how to get information. O.k. You have to download instructions on your device, yet you have to use the same device to “aim” the cameras, the same device to view the cameras, AND the same device to program the unit. You can’t do all three on one device at the same time. Instruction manual please....
2) parking mode. There are several parking modes. The first one I turned off was the motion activated mode. Every time you start the car you get a verbal report telling you how many objects passed the camera. This could be people, birds, leaves, or shadows. So I turned it off. The next mode was impact mode. Every time you start the car you get a verbal report of how many “ impacts” the car sustained. Problem is, the device records your entering the car or opening/closing the hatch as an “ impact”. I don’t need a recorded voice telling me that Ive entered my own vehicle. So that got turned off too.
3) the recorded voice....Lets just say it’s somewhere between pathetic and embarrassing. The quality is reminiscent of those battery operated dolls my sister used to get for her birthdays, back in the 70’s. Yet every time you start the car the voice recording blabs out of how it’s connected to the gps, how it’s recording, and to please connect to wifi. After two days of this I turned off the “voice”, with my wife threatening to rip it off the windshield (u.k. windscreen) if I didn’t make it shut up.
But the cameras work great.....