Replacing a rear-view mirror with a screen isn't recommended

It probably will generate affiliated revenue but for the Viofo. Come next pension day (Saturday - woohoo ;-) I'll buy one from your link, just on your say-so and the brief sample you posted from that camera. Looks excellent.

For whatever it's worth, I bought a Ghost X helmet cam from your affiliate link and I've been very happy with it.

Good video once again. I love these mini reviews. You seem to have made an error in calculating the space required for 1 minute of recording for both cameras. The two numbers don't add up to what is stated in the video. It should be 142, not 146?

DEAR SIR, I WAS DISGUSTED AT YOR USE OF THE PHRASE 'LCD DISPLAY'. FOR A MOMENT I THOUGHT I WAS WATCHING THE THIRD CHANNEL AND NOT THAT ESTEEMED ORGAN OF RESPECTABILITY MSSRS. TECHMOAN. IN FUTURE I HOPE WE CAN LOOK FORWARD TO THE CORRECT PHRASIOLOGY OR WE ALL MIGHT AS WELL NOT BOTHER WITH ANYTHING EVER. THIS COUNTRY ETC... YOURS ETC... MRS TRELLIS, THE GLEBE, ORPINGTON.

Now I imagine driving with that camera running and having that wasp (or any other bug) crawl on the rear lens and scare the crap out of you...lol

Thanks for the great video, Matt. We bought a similar unit, but the rear camera is just a little inset window on the right 1/4 of the mirror. The big complaint we have is that the touch-screen starts selecting random functions within a few minutes of a trip. We figure it might be due to drastic temperature changes of getting in a hot/cold car and starting the A/C or heat. The manufacturer sent a replacement and it does the same thing. For the other car, we were considering the aukey, but the fact you've been using the A129 for a year is a huge endorsement. Your reviews are some of the best on YouTube, and you'll never seen a nitpicky comment from me. Thanks for all your hard work!

I'm guessing the auto manufacturers won't be including full dashcams in their cars mostly because of different laws in each country. Where I live (Greece) the legality of even having a dashcam is very much in the gray. I'm guessing it's the same in other countries (most notably Germany with its very strict privacy laws).

I kind of want to like devices like that, because they seem like a neat idea. But they just seem to fail on the "actually being practical" level.

Great video! And it was a bit disappointing as well; I have hoped for better results from the unit you tested. But of course I'm thankful that you gave us the facts without unnecessary praise. Let us stick to the facts, as you do! After seeing this video, I would be interested in learning more about the factory installed camera-driven mirrors that some new cars have today. Are they better than the one you tested? Surely they must be! Let us know! :-) /Greetings from Sven in Sweden

Interesting to compare this with the recent Fully Charged video which shows a new Honda that has small cameras instead of door mirrors. The screens are positioned on either side of the driver, but inside the car. One benefit is reducing the drag caused by external mirrors. Honda's implementation shows that the idea could be a sound one. Anyway I'd hate for this or my earlier remark to be perceived as negative. This is a good example of a successful video even if the object itself isn't an unmitigated success.

Thank you for the as always great video. Thanks for pointing out about the vibration. That alone would be a deal breaker for me. Looking at buying a 2019 Subaru Ascent. It has a similar device factory installed. It would be good to have if you had an suv full of stuff. And hopefully being factory installed it would perform better.

I appreciate this because it satisfies my curiosity about the thing without wasting my own money on it. Unlucky that you haven't chanced on something that you can wholeheartedly recommend.

Seeing you in sunglasses made me wonder if using the mirror as a screen would be a problem with polarised sunglasses. I’ve had problems seeing cars instruments with sunglasses on due to the polarisation of the LCDs in the car. I could imagine that a ‘mirror’ like this would appear black at certain angles.

Nitpick: refresh rate isn't lag, it's how many frames per second it has

Just out of curiosity, In the shot where you were talking while driving through the traffic lights, why was the image in normal orientation rather than a mirror image? Is that something you did in editing? I assume that a rear-view camera will present a mirror image on the in-car display screen. (Yes and just now I looked at the reverse camera in my own car's dashboard screen and confirmed it shows a mirror image).

Just add it as a second rearview mirror. Problem solved.

I recently had a run-in with a city bus, the crazy driver tried to push me off the road just before the train station. After that incident I vowed that I would get a front and back dash cam so I'd at least have evidence for the police. So I'd like to know what my options are. If you have a setup that works well, I'd like to know.

You don't have to do an entire video, just tell us what your top 1 or 2 or 3 favorite dashcams are as of 2019, if price is not a big concern (since even the most expensive dashcams are pretty low cost, especially if you consider the benefit of easily winning an insurance claim)

I think you buried the lead at the end there when you mention that it's time for this tech to become standard in car manufacturing. I think that is THE major reason for not going aftermarket with these products. It's a bit like when I had a cell phone AND a GPS device AND an iPod AND a digital camera! My urban adventures required a satchel of soon-to-be obsolete tech, even though the tech was in the vanguard at the time.

I have an Autovox X2 in my Smart Roadster Coupe, a very similar camera. As you'll know from experience, as soon as you put anything substantial in the back it blocks the rear view and this really does help for the kind of driving I do. It does have a case of the shakes as the mirror mounting in the Roadster isn't very solid, I need to work on this and have an idea involving R/C car dampers... For normal cars though I agree that the mirror is largely pointless but the rear camera is worth having.

Great stuff! I really like your product reviews and am sporting the Aukey dashcam you previously recommended in my MINI based on that review. Great camera system, but I'm curious what about your current one did you like better. Worth switching?

Thanks Mat. I would be interested to see the current camera you use reviewed.

I double Czeched, but indeed It has two Czech points.

With a lead-in like that, I can't wait to watch the clip! :-D