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00:00:00 – 00:16:34
James Whitely reviews the "cop cam," a compact, cordless, as-seen-on-TV security camera, focusing on its performance, usability, and reliability over several days of testing. Despite the camera's small size and features like an 8 GB micro SD card and night vision, it consistently fails to deliver reliable results. Problems identified include poor motion detection, misleading charging indicators, inaccurate time stamps, and frequent premature shutdowns. Video quality, although acceptable, suffers from color distortion and the camera's recordings are saved in an inconvenient file format. Usability issues further include the lack of a preview feature and the camera's tendency to shut off unexpectedly, making it an unreliable security solution. Overall, James concludes that the device appears unfinished and does not recommend it, encouraging viewers to share their own experiences and follow his ongoing tech reviews.
00:00:00
In this part of the video, James Whitely introduces the “cop cam,” a compact, cordless, as-seen-on-TV security camera. He unboxes the product, revealing the camera, its mounting options, a charger, instructions, additional mounting hardware, and a USB cable. Notably, the camera includes an 8 GB micro SD card. He begins by charging the camera and reading the instructions before starting his first test recording.
During testing, James gives a brief walk-through to show the camera’s appearance and then conducts three different tests to evaluate its performance. The first test, conducted at night, fails. The second test involves setting up the camera on the patio to observe his dog Bailey but also results in a failure. He notices that there’s no way to preview what the camera is seeing, which poses a problem. Finally, he attempts a third test by leaving the camera out all day, which also does not succeed.
00:03:00
In this segment, the speaker discusses their experience with the cop cam over two days. Initially, they check the device after 90 minutes, only to find it did not record anything, likely due to battery exhaustion. The charging process is explained as confusing, with different indicators when charging via wall outlet versus computer. The speaker then fully charges the cam using a computer and sets it up again alongside another camera for comparison. They find the cop cam unreliable as it fails to consistently activate with motion. Leaving it on the patio for an extended period is planned to capture footage of their dog, Bailey, while they are away for around 10-11 hours.
00:06:00
In this part of the video, the creator reviews the performance of a compact cop cam. The device’s motion detection activates only once in 11 hours, capturing Bailey, a dog, and raising concerns about its effectiveness as a security camera due to limited footage. The video and audio quality are deemed satisfactory given the camera’s size. The creator conducts a comparison test by mounting the cop cam on top of a $1,000 RX 105 camera to illustrate differences in color accuracy, field of view, and stabilization. Notably, the cop cam shows incorrect time stamps that cannot be adjusted or turned off, further impacting its usability.
00:09:00
In this segment of the video, the speaker discusses issues with a cop cam. They note the cam’s time stamp is permanently set to January 30th, 2018, with no apparent way to change it, and that the videos are saved in AVI format. The speaker experiences difficulties as their default video player on Windows won’t play the videos; only Windows Media Player works. Furthermore, their video editing software, Vegas, cannot import these files without conversion, though the conversion is lossless and maintains quality. They observe that the cop cam records in five-minute chunks, and each five-minute clip is about 500 megabytes. Despite expectations for continuous 80-minute recording based on the 8 GB card capacity, the cam shuts off randomly, typically after a five-minute segment. They conduct a test to monitor battery duration and find that the cam shuts off after 30 minutes of recording. Additionally, they notice a color distortion issue where black appears purplish in outdoor videos.
00:12:00
In this part of the video, the presenter encounters an interruption from a loud ice-cream truck and addresses the video and audio quality of a compact camera. They switch to using the “cop cam” and critique its narrower-than-expected 140-degree field of view and inconsistent battery life, which is challenging to measure due to frequent shutdowns. The presenter attempts to test the night vision feature, noting a persistent problem with the camera shutting off prematurely and delivering a pink hue in the footage. Despite multiple efforts to evaluate the night vision effectiveness, the camera’s short runtime hinders any conclusive results. The video transitions into discussing the pros and cons: the acceptable audio and video quality for the camera’s size and inclusion of an 8GB card are pros, while drawbacks include the lack of a preview feature, an unmodifiable and inaccurate timestamp, and a poorly designed SD card slot.
00:15:00
In this part of the video, the reviewer discusses several issues they encountered with a product, including difficulties accessing photo mode and inconsistencies in the camera’s color output under different lighting conditions. They note that the files required specific software to play and edit due to uncommon codecs. The charging process also presented ambiguity with varying indications. Overall, the reviewer feels the product seems unfinished and prototype-like, leading them to not recommend it. They invite viewers to share their experiences, follow their social profiles, and support their new Patreon page for updates and more reviews.