Reddit reviews Aketek 2.5-Inch HD Rotatable LED IR DVR Video Camcorder with Camera Holder

This is why I have dash cams in my cars.

If you don't want to spend a ton of money on good cams, get This one. It's cheap, but it records decent video and has a date/time stamp, and that's all you need to prove in court that someone cut you off/brake checked you to prove you aren't at fault.

Tip: Put in a 16GB or higher SD card and set it to 3min files. Works the best.

26USD dash cam from newegg. I got one for this very reason (along with catching other happenings that would be internet worthy.) Invest in a better internet.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=0GH-000G-00001

Edit: Reddit effect, sold out. Look here, its the same stuff. (I got mine from ebay, no problems.)
grandzooby found the same one on amazon: http://www.amazon.com/2-5-inch-Vehicle-Recorder-Dashboard-Camcorder/dp/B0053DDNW6

Also check:
http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_trksid=p5197.m570.l1313&_nkw=dash+cam&_sacat=0

UPDATE: (no video until I've worked this out)

GO BUY A DASH CAM. THIS IS THE ONE I HAVE AND ITS $21. Just needs an SD card. And an optional better mount. Mine is mounted behind my rearview mirror so you don't notice it and its hardwired in the same spot as my V1 so it automatically turns on with the car and starts recording.

UPDATE (cont.):

I seriously had to take a few hours to cool off and enjoy my vacation. Unfortunately I got back to the hotel after the managers had left.

Just spoke with the front desk manager who runs the show at night while the actual hotel managers are on during the day. He was super professional about it. Albeit, he's completely powerless in the situation but he took control, called everyone and setup a meeting for tomorrow morning.

Notes:

• He was completely shocked by the video.
  
• I had to tell the valet how to drive the SMG tranny is on tape.
  
• When another gentlemen comes up to the car and asks if its his, he responds with a laugh and says "Nope, but its mine for now!"
  
• He peels out of the hotel.
  
• The car goes airborne twice. Once entering the garage. And again as he goes down a slope and launches off a ramp that meets a right turn entrance a parking level.
  
• The wheels are burning at least 3-4 times.
  
• The valet laughs at the end to cap it off.
  
  New things:
  
  
• The valet turned out to be the supervisor.
  
• The valet is outsourced by the hotel and carries its own insurance.
  
• The other valets all knew about my car.
  
• The ramp he flew off, leads to another garage that I was able to park in tonight with another valet. Meaning that, he intentionally launched it off there instead of slowing down.
  
  Possible Solutions Discussed:
  
  
• Hotel
  
• Valet
  
• Food/Beverage
  
• BMW Inspection
  
• Repairs
  
• Future Stays
  
  The conversation went really well but again he's not the person in charge. Anyone capable of doing anything knows about it and will have a night to figure out how to appropriately respond.
  
  Sorry guys, no video yet until I have an answer. Another update will come tomorrow morning.

$10 cheapy.

$20 budget. My recommendation if you can't go higher.

Here you go. This is the one my buddy used. You can't read the license plate off of the video, but it works well for $20. It gets you the big picture. It sets thing up into like 3 minute segments and will over write the oldest one automatically.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0053DDNW6/ref=shptrk_scth

Holy moly that mobile site is hard to look at.

Better: http://www.amazon.com/2-5-inch-Vehicle-Recorder-Dashboard-Camcorder/dp/B0053DDNW6

I got one a couple weeks ago after seeing so many crazy dash-cam videos and having a few close calls caused by other drivers. The one I got was probably the cheapest going because I didn't really know if I'd find it useful or not. I'm happy so far. The viewing angle is rather narrow but its compact enough, and the built in screen is kind of cool.

http://www.amazon.com/2-5-inch-Vehicle-Recorder-Dashboard-Camcorder/dp/B0053DDNW6/ref=sr_1_4?s=car&ie=UTF8&qid=1406034520&sr=1-4

I bought it in 2012. It was $36 at the time.

http://www.amazon.com/2-5-inch-Vehicle-Recorder-Dashboard-Camcorder/dp/B0053DDNW6/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1408806355&sr=8-2&keywords=dash+cam

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0053DDNW6/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1427731761&sr=8-1&keywords=Dash+cam&dpPl=1&dpID=41GB83LsWWL&ref=plSrch

>If you're going to crash, take the other guy with you.

Or get one of this.

For $20 at least you can show them you were avoiding someone. I know that due to the recording resolution is really hard to get a plate but at least you're not lying. With a 32GB memory($20) you have a 6 hours loop at max resolution (480p), and it records when you start your engine and stops when you turn off the engine, no weird installation required, just plug it in the cigarette lighter connector.

You can even set it to stay on for 30 min after you turn off the engine (internal battery) and record with a motion detector in case they bump your car while parked.

Works great for me. For $40 more, I was thinking to put one in the back now...

No, I am not Russian... :)

Ask and you shall receive.

Fucking idiot pick-up driver, deserves to be shot. Still the truck driver could have stopped especially since this is an uphill. I know it would be extremely inconvenient.

Unfortunately the truck driver will get a preventable accident for this.

Oh also I do have a dashcam. $32 on amazon with memory card. It is not the best but it does the job. Audio recording is lacking but the video looks just like yours. I have seen these on sale at truck stops for $100.

Here's a good one to start out with. Cheap and works well enough to avoid insurance fraud.

I bought this one a while ago. It's not phenomenal quality, but it's good enough to distinctly make out the license plate of a car in front of you. It's great for the price and the charger it comes with has an insanely long cable. I snaked it around my car so it doesn't dangle randomly. I can post a video tomorrow if you want to see the quality.

This looks like the same one on Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/2-5-inch-Vehicle-Recorder-Dashboard-Camcorder/dp/B0053DDNW6

Search for "HD Car DVR 2.5 TFT LCD 270° 6 IR LED" on ebay, you can grab one for $20. Mine shipped from hong kong. It is cheaply made and has some rattles sometimes, but that is only on the video itself. It works very well and takes some pretty clear video for the price. You can set it to record until out of space or set it to record in 5 or 10 minute intervals and it will delete old footage as it runs out of space. I put an 8gb sdcard in mine and it lasts a long time.

Here is how it looks http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DuvGjOMmxSo which imo is pretty damn good for $20.

Looks like the same one is posted below from Amazon as well by TwistedMexi. http://www.amazon.com/2-5-inch-Vehicle-Recorder-Dashboard-Camcorder/dp/B0053DDNW6/ref=sr_1_1?s=automotive&ie=UTF8&qid=1376583384&sr=1-1&keywords=dash+cam

Not much help since you've already been in an accident, but after getting in a couple of accidents (none my fault) in the baltimore area I invested in 2 of these. One to cover the front and one for the rear windshield.

I bought this one but /r/dashcam recommends this one

Yes, and it works pretty well for under $20.

Nope not at all, I actively encourage them. I was one of the people in the other thread that said a radar detector would make me more likely to write a ticket. The big difference is intent. You aren't using a dashcam to break the law, you are using it to protect yourself. Big difference to me. I own a dash cam for my personal vehicle and use it ever day. Good peace of mind to me.

http://smile.amazon.com/2-5-inch-Vehicle-Recorder-Dashboard-Camcorder/dp/B0053DDNW6/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1408846794&sr=8-2&keywords=dash+cam

I can go on for hours, with similar stories of my home of 16 years. The following have been the best things I have ever done to combat my experiences:

• Home security camera's with a sample
  
• Dashcam with a sample
  
• Animal detterent (I use this with success and not on my 2 cats/4 doggies)
  
  Edit: I own/use a "pet trainer".

They can be amazingly cheap. I picked these up for each of my vehicles after my issues with being rear-ended by a police officer.

This one is not the best, but it gets the job done and is pretty cheap.

http://www.amazon.com/2-5-inch-Vehicle-Recorder-Dashboard-Camcorder/dp/B0053DDNW6/ref=sr_sp-btf_title_1_10?ie=UTF8&qid=1404912766&sr=8-10

It will take me a while to find the one that is higher quality and a lot more popular. Black something.

>GO BUY A DASH CAM. THIS IS THE ONE I HAVE AND ITS $21. Just needs an SD card. And an optional better mount. Mine is mounted behind my rearview mirror so you don't notice it and its hardwired in the same spot as my V1 so it automatically turns on with the car and starts recording.

I've been using [this one] (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0053DDNW6/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1) without issues since September. It is really cheap and isn't spectacular, but it gets the job done.

I've bought two of these for each of my cars (one front, one rear). Can't go wrong for $20 a pop.

http://www.amazon.com/2-5-inch-Vehicle-Recorder-Dashboard-Camcorder/dp/B0053DDNW6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1349044948&sr=8-1&keywords=dash+cam

I understand. If you do go for a cheap camera this one is about the only option you have left.

It's mostly a lottery if you will get something "decent" that's somewhat reliable or something that where the video looks zoomed in and looks pretty bad. In terms of MicroSD, I found Transcend to be the cheapest sold by Amazon instead of being sold by another seller, which assures you it's not gonna be fake. Transcend is a great brand too.

Edit: I found a Kingston that's also sold by Amazon, although I vaguely remember those cheap models not being compatible with it, not sure.

Sure, it looks like they are even cheaper now. $16.94 with 16GB flash card.
2.5-Inch HD Rotatable LED IR DVR Video Camcorder with Camera Holder https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0053DDNW6/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awd_sJOEwbKWEQJTG

Just buy a quality mount so it stays put. The one it comes with is a bit flimsy.

http://www.amazon.com/CTS-2-5-Inch-Rotatable-Camcorder-Camera/dp/B0053DDNW6?ie=UTF8&psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_search_detailpage

12 bucks

This cheapie!

It's the DVR-027, all over eBay. Be really careful and make sure to purchase from a highly rated seller - there are a lot of knockoffs. The real ones seem to be in the $60 range nowadays.

Do NOT buy the Amazon ones - they are $20 counterfeits with horrible video quality and you never know what you'll get. (I actually bought two of them a while back and received two different models in the same casing.)

I've actually got two real DVR-027s and two counterfeit ones - eventually I'll get around to putting up some example side by side videos to show the differences.

They aren't that expensive. http://www.amazon.com/2-5-inch-Vehicle-Recorder-Dashboard-Camcorder/dp/B0053DDNW6/ref=pd_sim_sbs_p_15?ie=UTF8&refRID=0P3CS0FC5FK458TGN25G

I got one, and about a year later it went to shit. It was supposed to record till it's full, then start recording over the oldest stuff and just keep going, never stop recording. It turned on when the car turns on. Well a month or so ago it has a little message "SD Card Full" on it, so I try the settings, but when I try to delete anything on the card the Delete choice in the menu is greyed out. When I try Format in the menu, it's greyed out. As if the thing is programmed to do this after a certain amount of time.

So I went to reset the thing hoping that'll fix it. It reset... into Russian. I'm pretty sure it's a firmware planned obsolescence for some shitty Chinese built Russian electronics.

So basically, spring for a bit higher than 30 bucks when buying a Dashcam. And the best part is, for the year I had it, I never needed it. But as soon as I didn't have it recording anymore, I actually had an incident with two assholes in a Shelby Cobra try to run me off the road intentionally and try as hard as they could to get me to wreck. It wasn't a "they sped up a bit when I went to merge" thing, either. For two miles these guys are standing up in their convertible, pointing, laughing, throwing shit, swerving between all three lanes like maniacs, bumping into my car and nudging me, suddenly swerving to get me to swerve off the road, slowly pushing my car to the left to get me to run off the road, etc. Truly terrifying maniac type shit. And the fucking camera wasn't recording. I got none of it. So all I could do was call services and give them their licence plate... I'm so pissed I went for the cheap dashcam.

EDIT:
THIS is the piece of shit I went for, although when I got it, it was more expensive. Do NOT get this garbage. It will only fail you when you need it most.

This is the cam, the reviews weren't great and I took a gamble but I am happy with it. Came with a mini usb cable, a car charger cable and the whole window mount. Totally worth the dough:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0053DDNW6/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Here is the card. I got a class 10 so the write speed would for sure be capable of the 1080p.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00B7ID99I/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I tried to run the cam at 720 but it looked fuzzy so I bumped it up to 1080p. I have it set to do 5 minute segments the whole time and each file is usually right around 1GB each. When plugged into a cig lighter that only has power when the car is on the cam starts itself and starts recording when it gets power and goes until you shut it off/loses power. I just set it and forget style on my window and pull the card when I see something interesting along the drive to save. It just overwrites the oldest files if you don't do anything with them.

I live in the USA, and I have one. I bought mine off of Amazon. I paid $21 for the dashcam and $13 for the SD card.

If you're interested I can upload some video onto youtube for you to check out how it works. It's alright for $34.

How about $25? http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0053DDNW6/

I got this for my father for Christmas. It is an old design, but just read the manual and don't use the motion detection mode. My father and I found it didn't work well. Good news is it's inexpensive so easy to replace. Just remember to get a SD card with it.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0053DDNW6?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s00

I got this one: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0053DDNW6?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s00

and this memory card:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00B7ID99I?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s00

At $15 you can definitely afford this one.

I deliver food in sketchy areas and use it myself. It's cheap as and shitty, but works.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0053DDNW6?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00 $12! I have one and mounted it on top my my rearview mirror and ran the cord along the windshield and through my dash to my plug. You can't even notice it's there and starts recording automatically when the car is turned on. No reason not to get one. This cheap one could use a wider angle lens but you can't beat the price.

The one in that ad has an identical one on amazon for half the price. Bought one that worked for 4 months, then started to break down. Bought the same one shortly after and to this day it's still working fine.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0053DDNW6?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_search_detailpage

Purchase history:
http://i.imgur.com/xCKsgwN.png

"[Your First & Last Name]: Dashcam Hero Contestant”

I'm already disqualified.
Seriously thought this is more about publicity for themselves, which I think is fine.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0053DDNW6/ref=oh_details_o02_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I also already have a dash cam and a lot of other fancy over priced garbage the government invested on and bestowed me with when they still believed I was going to be an up and coming asset. Oh how wrong they were...

I always take mine down except for the suction cup, the battery tends to heat up a little but mine has worked so far. Sorry just getting back to you, but here are the links:

http://www.amazon.com/2-5-inch-Vehicle-Recorder-Dashboard-Camcorder/dp/B0053DDNW6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1369791507&sr=8-1&keywords=dash+cam

http://www.amazon.com/Kingston-Class-Memory-SD4-16GBET/dp/B0021L9BKQ/ref=sr_1_6?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1369791866&sr=1-6&keywords=16GB+sd+card

2.5-inch HD Car LED IR Vehicle DVR Road Dash Video Camera Recorder Traffic Dashboard Camcorder Only costs ~20 bucks, minus the SD card. only problem is that I can't get the loop feature to work, so I have to format every so often. Others have it working though :\

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Direct link because amzn.to is an affiliate link.

Also, it looks like an okay starter cam, but I wouldn't trust my life with it.

I had one of the cheap $12 640x480 ones that were labels 720P (like this http://www.amazon.com/2-5-Inch-Rotatable-Camcorder-Camera-Holder/dp/B0053DDNW6/ ) that lasted me over 2 years. My friend bought the same camera from a different seller and it lasted him 45 days. I gave him my old one and upgraded mine. Chinese cameras are a crap shoot but if yours has been working that long it will probably continue to work.

How is that different from this: http://www.amazon.com/2-5-inch-Vehicle-Recorder-Dashboard-Camcorder/dp/B0053DDNW6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1419758046&sr=8-1&keywords=car+dvr+recorder

Aketek 2.5-Inch HD Rotatable LED IR DVR Video Camcorder with Camera Holder https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0053DDNW6/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_7upyzb9QZ5B4M

I had that one for a long time and it worked great. Just had to leave it plugged in the whole time. Get a big SD card. It would automatically rewrite the oldest video file when the SD card was full.

2.5-inch HD Car LED IR Vehicle DVR Road Dash Video Camera Recorder Traffic Dashboard Camcorder - LCD 270 degrees whirl by Dowson http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0053DDNW6/ref=cm_sw_r_udp_awd_OysYtb19KXAA1

Is the one I use. It's better than nothing I suppose. It does 720 and 1080 but damn is it pixely. I leave it on 640 for extra record time. The lens quality or whatever it's called is just bad. You could snag a license plate number if you were behind a car. You can make out city limit signs passing them at 60. The night time IR is really bad. Might as well leave that off. I didn't expect it would be good though. I've used it at the race track before and it's kinda fun to see all the cars as they pass me on the track (because 4runner). Also the sounds quality is bad. Leave that of too. The cord is really long and you can fit it with a huge micro sd. It has quite a few features if you can fumble through the poorly Englished manual. Overall for $16 though what do you expect. It does everything (not well) and hoping one day it will capture something cool or save my ass.

Here is the same one, if he means by the right side. Video can catch plates from about 20', and the video isn't that bad. It's not great, but it's also only $10, and could save you a world of trouble.

I got this one for $14 and it's still working great after a year.

https://smile.amazon.com/CTS-2-5-Inch-Rotatable-Camcorder-Camera/dp/B0053DDNW6?ie=UTF8&redirect=true

not great but well worth $15.

http://www.amazon.com/CTS-2-5-Inch-Rotatable-Camcorder-Camera/dp/B0053DDNW6?ie=UTF8&psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_search_detailpage

Amazon has a lot of them.