Simon Lai reviews a Gator Car Camcorder with GPS tracking.
Proving an insurance claim or a road rage incident can be a difficult task. An in-car dash cam provides indisputable evidence in what can be an uncertain situation.
Gator has a range of car camcorders encompassing every resolution and function on the market and over the next few reviews we’ll take a look at some of their models which have been supplied by our friends at TDJ Australia.
Starting at the top of the range, the full hi-def unit comes in 1920x1080P resolution (like your TV), a 170° wide angle lens and motion detection function.
But the unique feature about this dash cam is that it has a GPS built into the suction cup mount which records the location of the vehicle in-sync with the visual information.
Also supplied in the box is software allowing you to view the recorded footage and the GPS info. Acceleration, deceleration, speed and time are all shown and a map also displays your trip route. So you can see the speed you were doing at 9.15am on Tuesday through that school zone on John St.
The default language is in Russian which comes as no surprise with Russia being the dash cam capital of the world given their poor motoring reputation.
All functions are simple to use, however, the power and record buttons are a little too sensitive and located in the wrong place making it easy to press accidentally, especially when trying to reposition the camera.
Overall, the unit is easy to operate and navigate with many menu options being a higher end model. Picture quality is excellent, and as expected, this results in larger file sizes with the additional trip information.
However, the Full HD 1080P Camcorder does come in a base model without the GPS for those who don’t require the function.
The Gator Full HD DVR 1080P Car Camcorder with GPS tracking [HDVR265H] RRP $279.00
The Gator Full HD DVR 1080P Car Camcorder plus GPS RRP [HDDVR360] $249.00
The Gator Full HD DVR 1080P Car Camcorder [HDDVR520] RRP $199.00
All models come with a 4GB micro USB card are available from Autobarn, Autopro, Supercheap Auto, Repco, Car Audio Maters and independent car retailers.
Does this dash cam turn off when you switch the engine off? We bought it & it doesn’t seem to stop recording. Also once the memory card is full it doesn’t recycle files like other cams. I can’t find the answer in the instructions…
I found if I turned the “Motion Sensor” option off, and then selected a 5min or 10min cycle, it would record in 5 or 10min cycles without starting and stopping the recording as it wishes! It will also delete old data as it adds a new cycle. Hope this helps!
YES IT DOES , GO INTO THE MENU ,IT SHOULD SAY AUTO TURN OFF
Has anyone had any battery issues with this model? Mine will only turn on if it is plugged in via USB. Issue with this is that I can’t save the time and date, as the internal battery seems to be faulty, unless i manually set it every time before I start my car journey! …pretty frustrating!
Yes, mine just passed warrentyand the internal battery dies in cold morning!
Suction cup its so bad unit comes off every day as i get up in the morning and check always find it down on the floor my car is always garage when im at home so is not beacose its sun Taking camera back not happy only head it fore 2 weeks Bad buy
I have one of these – bought 6 months ago. Easy to use, great video and works well. However, one issue: the piece of black plastic joining the suction cap to the mounting disintegrated after 5 months. Was it the heat or the UV? or maybe both. Unfortunately you can’t get a replacement and generic suction cap mounts are no good as the GPS aerial/receiver is mounted in the mounting. Adrian
MINE TOO ,I HAD TO SUPER GLUE IT BACK TOGETHER
Great unit but sick of picking up the mounting off the floor, the suction cup keeps letting go . My GPS Navigator sticks like glue but not this.I am contemplating buying another makers camera as its frustrating having this one falling to the floor all the time.
Can somebody please help me with the installation and manual cd as supplied with my dash cam (I have a widows 7 computer).My dash cam is Gator dvr 1080p unit. (Model had r 330. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
I cant work out how to watch the recordings either on the camera or my laptop. I cant find any instruction the littlecd just goes straight to lightroom.
Hi Leanne. instructions are located in the manual. To view recorded files on the device, press Mode then select SD Card. Press mode again to select the video library and play the recording of your choice. To view on the computer either take out the SD card and plug it in or plug in the device directly and copy the files.
i can,t charge my unit from car as keeps charge for a while then turns it,s self ofand when i insert pc cable to go through pc it comes up with connecting to usb and thats it doesn,t do anything else.
The Gator crash cam does not work in regional areas, when we plug ours in we lose the radio all together, nothing. In cities it does work ok but still has some static. They need better shielding to stop the interference from the USB cable and power etc…
Great screen, capture just poor use when you can’t drive and listen to the radio – boring especially for the price.
Hi.Why my gator camera is very dark at night? I tried to on the infrared lights but still wont work. Please need some advise.
why does it loss footage? i press the button to save a clip but when you plug it into the PC 8 out of ten or so are missing yet at the time of recording the white key was on saying its making a undeletable file???
How do I set time, date etc as my product did not have instructions.
Would like to know how to set time, date etc.
I have a Gator GHDVR291 with SanDisk 16Gb micro SDXC/SDHC card, loop setting 3 minutes. Monitor indicates ‘card full’ Is it possible to record over previous data or does it have to be deleted?
George K: In menu 1 make sure Motion Detect is Off: In menu 2 make sure Auto Off is set to Off – otherwise it will NOT loop record. When starting make sure there is a red light in the top left of the screen – if it shows a white arrow loop & doesn’t change, press the OK to start recording. It will then record in continuous 3 minute segments, automatically overwriting previous ones starting with the earliest on the SD card & won’t fill the card. It’s showing “card full” now because it’s recording in one big segment & won’t re-record (unless you delete it – it’s full!!). Cheers – Nev.
how do i set the date and time
Hi Brendan,
It’s hard for us to answer specifics as we don’t keep a unit with us after we review it. Having said that, try holding the mode button to enter the menu settings, select with up/down buttons then press OK.
Does anyone know what warranty the Gator HDDVR360 has? The suction cap unit has separated.