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E**K
Fantastic Product - Best Dashcam Solution I've Found!
Your browser does not support HTML5 video. Quick background on me: I’m a Software Engineer and a tech geek. I recently got a new car and it's my first time owning a hatchback with such a limited view out of the rear view mirror. In my 2019 Mazda 3, I wanted to add a dash cam and I researched about 100 of them here on Amazon. When I came across the VanTop 4k Rear View Mirror I was amazed. I watched a bunch of videos, read all the reviews, and for the price $139 with $10 off coupon on Amazon, I decided to go for it. What sold me was the front facing 4k video + 1080p Rearview - OR 2k front and 2k Rear and the ability to have a camera that doesn't add more clutter to my front windshield view. The clip-on mirror is brilliant in that it doesn't take up any additional real-estate on my front view. It literally covers the existing rear view mirror as if it were originally part of the car. No additional space needed.** Overall Quality: The product is of top quality all around. It's not cheaply made, and I am satisfied with the quality and it exceeded what I would expect for the price point. Overall, I am pleased with the product and it’s features and I’m sure it’s going to continue to grown on me as I use it more.** Installation: Installation was fairly easy. You strap the camera over your existing mirror using the provided straps and run 3 cables along your upper trim to hide them. 1 power cable, 1 rearview camera cable and 1 GPS module cable. These 3 cables if properly installed can look professional. I added some Zip ties to keep the cables together (as seen in the pic) and it looks like a professional install.VanTop provides you with a tool that helps you tuck the wires into the trim, and all of the wires were long enough to reach their destinations with the exception of the power cable which was just a tad short to reach under the passenger seat where I wanted it to go. The power cable would reach under the driver's seat just fine, but was about 2 feet short of making it under the passenger seat when routed around the driver's side trim.I opted to install the rear camera above my license plate, so on the 2019 Mazda 3 Hatchback, I ran the rear camera cables along the trim all the way down the drivers side, and then I removed the back trim inside the cargo bay to discover there was a "firewall" boot that the car's rear lighting cables ran through on the far rear driver's side underneath the trim. I used the provided orange cable guide tool and pushed it through the rubber boot, then pushed the rearview camera cable through that boot and went underneath the car and reached up into the bumper well and pulled the cable through enough to reach where the license plate is. Then, I took off the license plate, drilled a 3/16" hole through the bumper and pushed the camera cable through that whole and connected it on the other side. I then drilled 2 very tiny holes to mount the camera next to my existing backup camera and screwed in the provided screws and successfully mounted the camera. (Tip: Before you finalize your mount, I recommend having a friend put the car in reverse and test your camera position so it doesn't appear in the original Rear view Camera position like mine does, it's a minor intrusion because I mounted it just a bit too close to the Mazda rear view camera, but not a major deal). I put the license plate back on with the camera's cable running behind it and mission complete.Problem: The interior 12 Volt Cigarette lighter on newer Mazda cars is always on even if the car is off. It’s located inside the center console compartment under the arm rest. So this presents 2 problems with the provided 12 Volt Cigarette lighter adapter: 1) The cable is not long enough to reach that compartment, so you’ll need an extension cable that would run out of the center compartment to under your seat. 2) Since the 12 volt adapter is ALWAYS on, you will need to unplug the camera when you’re leaving the vehicle or it will drain your battery and prevent it from switching to parking mode. When the VanTop mirror is in parking mode, it uses it’s own built in battery. So you have to unplug this when you leave the car. The solution to this is to hard wire the camera to an accessory fuse inside the engine compartment which requires additional hardware such as a Fuse wire tap and either a Cigarette lighter extension, plus additional wiring. Overall, I was able to get the components I needed for about $20 bucks on Amazon. I plan to run a fuse tap to the Accessory Fuse in the engine compartment that connects to a 12 foot 12v Cigarette lighter extension cord and run it under the seat into a cigarette lighter splitter with USB ports so I can also plug in my interior LED lights and the Vantop Mirror and provide my rear passengers with USB ports. This is not really a fault of VanTop or this Mirror, but it’s something that I had to overcome. I want the mirror and the interior LED lights to shut off when I shut the car off, so this is the route I had to go.** Built-in Software / Operating System: This must be Android based…. The mirror software itself functions very well and I’ve only had a couple of instances where I got stuck with a Spinner graphic while trying to switch modes. The boot up sound: “Welcome to VanTop” is kind of distorted because it’s too loud for the built in speaker. I was able to navigate the mirror easily (after reading the provided manual) and it’s intuitive and well designed. The settings menu is fully loaded with all sorts of options to include changing the video file resolution from 4k front / 1080p rear to 2k front / 2k rear. As well you can change the video encoding (thankfully) from H2.65 to H2.64. I chose H2.64 due to the H2.65 playback issues on Windows 10. They give you so many features in the settings menu that make this mirror very well thought out. I do wish that there was a way to Bluetooth or WiFI connect to a mobile device to download the videos because taking the SD card out is pretty painful. I have to disconnect the GPS cable, tilt the mirror down just to get the SD card out to play back on the computer. Also, it would be great if they added some basic camera settings to be able to adjust contrast. I noticed in some areas the sky was overcast and the whiteness washed out half of the video where the sky was present. Some Contrast controls would have been useful here, especially if the rear camera is mounted outside the vehicle.** Mirror Size: In my car, the mirror fit very well. However, due to the cables mounting on the top, I cannot tilt the mirror up enough to use it as a stand-alone mirror without the video. In my particular car, there's not enough clearance to do so, therefore if I wanted to use it as a regular mirror, I can't. I would have to take this mirror off completely (which is easy to do) in order to use an actual mirror for my rear view.** Front Camera Video Quality: They advertise 4k video quality for the front camera. I have my doubts that the camera is actually 4k, but the video is recorded at 4k. If the front camera is 4k, it's of the lower side of quality in 4k cameras. As well, it's 30 FPS 4k video, and you can see a lot of flickering in lights. For example, I was sitting at a stop light and on the video playback, the light was flickering the whole time I was sitting there. Same goes for any kind of fluorescent lighting it records. So that's annoying. The video is also encoded at H2.65 by default which caused playback issues on my Windows 10 computer, and the videos wouldn't even play on a Macbook Pro (Latest) using Quicktime. They would just skip very poorly and I had to manually scrub the video. More on video playback below.** Rear Camera Quality: The rear camera is just OK. You have the option to switch between 1080p or 2K recording, but I have strong feelings that the camera is 1080p itself at best. I mounted the camera outside for full effect and it looks good enough to get the job done. What is amazing is the field of view (FOV) this camera gives. I was able to see vehicles in my blind spots that neither my existing rear view mirror or my side mirrors could give. It was quite amazing to have this view because the video is streamed in real time in the mirror as you're driving. There is a bit of refresh rate drag that happens, so at 30 fps with that kind of motion, and no motion blurring it's very crisp, but it's lack of "smoothness" was making me a bit queasy while driving and looking at the rear view video. I'm sure I'll get use to it and it's worth the trade-off for having such a wide angle view from outside the car. It's a whole new experience.** Video Playback Software: On Windows using the provided GPS Player, I couldn't scrub the videos easily, using the slider would rarely work, and the software just feels like it's 20 years old and out of date. The GPS Map does work and it works well, but the basic video playback features were buggy at the least. I guess if you only need this for emergency purposes such as an accident, or a break in, or etc, this would be just fine.I tried using "GPSPlayer" on Macbook but the GPS coordinates would not appear on the video so the map feature wouldn't work. I haven't spent much time looking for a compatible Mac OSX software for this particular camera, so if you have one, leave a comment in the review, I would like to check it out.Pros:+ Mounts over existing mirror, does not take up any extra windshield space that traditional cameras do. Very professional looking+ Front 4k / Rear 1080p or Front 2k + Rear 2k Video+ Streams either Front, Back or Both cameras onto the screen inside the mirror. Effectively giving you live streaming of the cameras inside the mirror.+ Rear Field of View is far greater than traditional mirrors nearly eliminating blind spots, especially if rear camera is mounted outside of the vehicle.+ Looping Video Recording - Records over the oldest videos first.+ Lock Video Recording - Prevents from overwriting important files+ Ability to switch between H.265 recording or H2.64. I choose H2.64 for smoother video, yet it’s not the greatest.+ Screen Shot Feature - tap the screen shot icon to snap a photo+ GPS Module - Stamps the GPS coordinates and vehicle speed onto the videos and software can playback video and map it out for you during playback. Also sets the time from GPS so you don’t have to mess with the clock.+ Parking Sensor and G-Sensor (Impact Sensor) can monitor your car while it’s parked or turned off and record a video.+ Easy to install, only minor skills needed to make it look like a professional installation+ Video playback on the mirror. You can browse and watch the videos on the mirror if you desire.+ Voice controls+ Time-lapse Mode - Haven’t tried this yet, but I plan to!+ Enhanced Night Vision - It’s not like Night Vision Goggles (Green) or anything, but it does enhance the night viewCons:- Even though it’s a 4k video recording, I have my doubts about the camera being 4k quality. It seems upscaled.- Only 30FPS video frame rates… causes flickering and shuttered video effect especially at 4k with H2.65 encoding- No ability to Bluetooth or Wifi download the videos from the camera. You can plug a computer into the mirror and download- While the video is streaming, you lose the ability to see in to the back seat so if you monitor your kids, or passengers through the rear view, this disables that ability. Would be nice to have a section of the video playback area cut out for monitoring the rear seats.- No interior video view, so if you’re in an accident, you cannot see what happens inside the vehicle on the video. Perhaps future versions could have a 3rd camera for inside the vehicle documentation.- Memory card is difficult to get in and out of the mirror due to it being mounted on the top side of the mirror. You have to disconnect some cables and tilt the mirror down to get the SD Card out. Not optimal. A side mount would have been better.- Cables mount on top limiting the range of motion on some cars, like my 2019 Mazda 3. I cannot tilt the mirror up enough to see outside using the mirror without video. There’s just not enough clearance in this particular vehicle.- Provided GPS Video Playback software is not very good, it does the job, but has some basic user interface issues such as the ability to use the playback scrub slider and it just seems like really old software. I hope they find a better software vendor and give user’s a free or licensed version of that. Vantop only provides Windows software, not for Mac OS.** Summary: Even though I was very critical of some of the features of this product, I do highly recommend it to anyone wanting to improve their tech in their car, as well as improve the safety of their driving. The ability to record front and rear is a blessing. The ability to reduce blind spots is also amazing. The price you’re paying for this is far below the actual value of the product. I believe they did this right, and I hope they take these reviews seriously and improve their products. Overall, I say go for it, you can’t go wrong. I love my Vantop 12” Mirror and think it’s a great addition to my car. Installation was really easy especially if you have basic knowledge for wiring.Get it!
J**.
Experienced the power cycling issue right out of the box
I should have read the other reviews before purchasing. All of the one star reviews that complained about the mirror randomly power cycling were correct. I set the mirror up on my dash before installing anything to make sure it was going to work. Once powered on it was great. The camera quality was good. Both front and back cameras worked fine as well as the GPS. BUT, as I was scrolling through the menu looking at the settings, the screen dimmed and then the mirror turned itself off. I thought maybe it was the screen saver but the screen saver was off. I had to unplug it and then plug it back in to get it to turn again. As it was booting it showed the low battery alert. This happened several more times before I boxed it back up and requested a return through Amazon.
J**
Amazing quality, worth the money.
Your browser does not support HTML5 video. Honestly no regrets buying this. I got it because a lot of my friends have recently been in accidents and people were trying to put the blame on them when it wasn’t their fault. With this, I know have evidence if I were to ever be in their shoes. I bought the hardwire Kit and it works while the car is off and on. The camera quality is amazing during the day and even during the night. Voice control is very efficient, a bunch of settings so you can customize to your liking. The angles the camera gets is awesome, I like to have it on either both front and rear camera on or just rear, with just rear the camera it can even get the blind spot (however I don’t rely on it for the blind spots, only to assist). The G-sensor and Parking mode work like a charm. Now I have more friends getting this and having me hardwire it. Great purchase.
J**Z
Very happy with this camera
FOLLOWUP REVIEW: I was contacted by the company about my issue with the camera and the drop down list. After I showed them exactly what I was talking about, they let me know they appreciated me informing them of the issue and would be sending me a new one, free of charge. Since they are very attentive and very fast at customer support, I'm bumping up my review to 5 stars. I believe other companies could learn from this kind of support.Old review:The camera quality is fine, but if you have the sun on the camera, it can be difficult to see what is going on behind you. Also at night, headlights basically blind the rear camera as well, making it virtually useless for seeing plates. However the front camera is as clear as day in most cases. Very happy with the quality. The picture is clear as can be, although a little strange getting used to 170 degree wide view on the front and 160 degree on the back.It's surprisingly accurate with the speed detection. I would glance up and notice that it was matching my MPH on my dash near perfect. Voice command work very well.Only real issue I have is this, when trying to set up the cameras, the software has drop down lists to select items from. On mine, I cannot select the top item on any list. I just reset the device, which defaults to the top selection, and only change things I need to. It's a lame work around, but since I'm not digging through the menu's often, It works.I'm still leaving off one star though since the menu system still has an issue with me not being able to select the top item. However everything else about the device is a delight. Just sitting in the car while chatting with someone, and having all of their attention on the view was fun.One note I think might help some others (didn't happen to me, but my wife discovered this). If you plug in the device on a vehicle which has a push button start, it might not turn the device off when you turn your vehicle off. Unlike a key activated system, you're unable to completely turn the plugged in devices off. I was informed you can just turn the device off with the push button on the bottom, or just unplug it.
C**R
Quality product build and feel, great camera clarity, still functions as a mirror when off.
Great product and the front is a very high quality picture, waiting for the hardwire extensions before installing the reverse camera, I did find during the day there is some reflection on the screen which could purely be because of default brightness settings, however with digital screen off the mirror worked quite well as just a regular mirror, however at night it may be better to use it as a live stream from reverse rather than a mirror depending on your vehicle, as I own a Mazda 3 hatch my rear window view is minimal at best and used more to see if someone's riding your butt that an actual rear vision mirror and use your side mirrors as the confirmation of safety to merge. That being said compared to local retailer options, I paid 1/2 their store pricings for a brand, mirror and camera quality they're charging twice the amount of, for half the quality. So all in all I'm quite happy. Product doesn't feel cheap at all, everything is solid, packaged well and with appropriate protection for international shipping. As I bought this via my amazon account on the 10th septemvet, I received it 7days later from the USA to Australia. If you want to save $20 waiting 3-6weeks for china to send it over privately, be my guest. But we know the sensible decision. All in all an initial 5 stars, however be aware when mounting, different vehicles can have different optimal mount areas, not just on your license plate, to use the rear mirror as a constant and more informative display of what's happening behind you, you may not want to just stick it next to your license plate lights. Strongly recommend inspecting possible positions for a better view of behind you with it tilted appropriately if you require accurate guide lines when reversing. If this is not a big issue for you as you just want clarity of the distance behind you not available via mirrors, stick with license plate positions, some hatch backs, 4WD, pick up trucks / Utes rear window is useless so you may decide to aim it further down with only the top 1/3rd of your camera picking up traffic behind. I'll be most likely installing mine on my hatch spoiler for a mixture of decent rear angle with useful guidelines. Hope this helps others when choosing your product. But all in all I'm very pleased with the features, should be able to stream a smaller window to the right of the mirror whilst using the left 2/3rds of the mirror as a "non digital mirror" as I use the left corner to check that sides blind spot and confirm the passanger mirror before moving. I'll be even more stoked as it'd be a fantastic feature. If I don't change my review you can rest assured the reverse camera was very happy but if I add to the bottom... Well there's the cons,Probably my biggest disapproval to mention now which I didn't appreciate immediately, is the camera quality should be flipped. I'd rather a 4k resolution and clarity on the rear with 1080p in front, even though it can be split to 2k/2k live stream. It doesn't quite hit the mark for your expectations.In fairness I'd give it. 4.5/5 because I feel the reverse camera should of been the best camera provided not the dash. As well as the reverse camera not having any built on LED lighting for night parking in dark areas, I know it's relying on your vehicles reverse light. But you can never have too much vision and reverse lights really leave a grainy transmission to the camera feed as it tries to predict true colour and display it from low light areas.Just my thoughts. As said will add if required. I still think that after a week and a half of digging through everything and not trying to spend $500+ on the latest and greatest this is still a very affordable piece of technology that if you're trying to upgrade the features of an older model to those more in line with factory standards without replacing their whole vehicle. This product is brilliant and will likely only be replaced with a touch screen display for the camera however I'd still use the vantop mirror and front camera seperately, I'd just rig the reverse camera to a aftermarket touch screen head unit suitable for your vehicle as most have a simple AV in plug for the reverse camera anyways.I am mildly concerned about auto turn on or some other reason that the screen will turn digital and stream when I've got it switched off to use a regular mirror (if that happens, till you're comfortable with thebfewtures and it's performance, this can be quickly turned off by button underneath as this may be the reason an accident is caused. Also I'm not entirely sure on local laws and technology, I'm really hoping I don't have an officer see my rear view mirror streaming and decide I don't have a functioning rear view mirror and give me a defect penality and fine. So again, be aware of local laws, I know in the US you can do just about anything as long as you drive "safe" (you don't even need road worthy certification to use a vehicle, if it goes it goes, pay insurance and registration and off to go, if you want to drive with failing brakes that's your stupidity. Ok, so that being said, be sure to consider your cable management and order some 3M stick on cable clips, in the short term you can only fit so much into your door rubber liners and you'll either do a bad job trying to run them under your carpet and paneling, rip up the side carpet and or roof trim and probably not realize roof trim just doesn't tuck back in and have ugly damage, or try to drill access holes to run the wires between panels only to realize you found a better path an now have to hide these holes or find rubber seal to plug it up. If you're going to drill holes, inspect your vehicles ability to remove it's dash paneling and steering column paneling, check your gear shift area for removable panels as you may be able to run through the inside of that with cable clips, drill a hole near the drivers side of that section and newtly run the cabling under your front seats and under the carpet neatly up and behind your back sheets and access your boot without a ton of messy wiring everywhere lamely taped to other things with electrical/duct tape. However it'll save on professional installation. I do recommend using electrical signal testers so you can splice your power lines to the reverse lights and all cars are different even if you think it's the red wire to resld wire, the power wire colour leading to your tail light plugs may be different and mismatched from the coloured wires attached to the tail light and using an electrical fitting to connect to the cars wiring. These devices are under $10 generally. So do the right thing and if you plan to DIY, you have the appropriate tools, if you plan on hiding wiring inside of paneling that require you to remove plastic popout rivets, they'll never go back in the same way. Grab yourself some replacement popout plugs otherwise your boot paneling won't sit securely, snug or be entirely clipped in as the plastic expands and can be removed but getting the same ones back in once they're popped open will shred your hands (personal experience) and make you sigh as you order replicas (like I did!)Hope this review and advice helps
W**N
Car moderniser
This is a product definitely worth buying to modernise an older car. Crystal clear quality and thr best out there. Alhough the speech recognition is a bit too sensitive. If you like you can deactivate it.
S**R
why "low battery " signal
Hi anyone ,I had it installed for 4 months and running well.But, unfortunately , it does not turn on when start engine now.Instead , I press the "start" button below and it started but the " low battery " message came on and then the set completely turns off .What is the problem , please helpCheers - stargazer
R**R
Easy to setup!
Good product! High quality cameras.
B**N
Great product
I guess I won't be able to drive without Vantop now 😆 Great quality and value for money. Only down side is it turns off randomly especially when I'm trying to reverse park.
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