Cobra Electronics CDR 840 Drive HD Dash Cam with GPS

**** MANY OF THESE REVIEWS ARE NOT FOR THE COBRA CDR 840 - PLEASE READ THEM CAREFULLY - MY REVIEW (THIS ONE DATED 6/21/14 ) WAS THE FIRST REVIEW AND SUDDENLY ALL THESE OLDER REVIEWS FOR DIFFERENT MODELS APPEARED ON 6/25/14 ***I Ordered this yesterday afternoon (Friday 6/20/14) and got it early this morning (on a Saturday!) less than 24 hours after I ordered it so definitely 5 stars for that. Less than 5 minutes from opening the box to taking it for a test drive.The manual is small but you can see the full size one on line. Just Google COBRA CDR 840 and go to the COBRA site. There you can see the 840 manual in full size which is a whole lot easier to read.Warning: The micro SD card that is shipped with the dash cam was laying under the camera so be very careful when you remove the camera from the plastic packaging so you don't lose the SD card - it's very small. I suggest doing all the unpacking in or over a box so if anything falls out you can find it. I used the amazon shipping box and the SD card fell out right into it.When peeling the plastic from the suction cup be sure not to pull the entire clear suction cup off with it. Before you can attach the mounting bracket to the camera you need to unscrew the locking knob and remove the mounting screw. Note there is a small metal nut in the end of the locking knob. Don't lose this. I did all of this over the box and the nut fell out after i unscrewed the knob just like the sd card.Attaching the mount to the camera just requires sliding the mount onto the GPS portion of the camera by lining up the holes and adding the screw and knob. Make sure that little metal nut in back int he end of the knobPutting the SD card in was a little tricky. It did not want to stay in. I had to use my fingernail to put it all the way in for it to stay in. Make sure you have it with the bumpy side down as the manual says.To attach it to the windshield takes about 2 seconds. With the lever for the suction cup pointing down push the suction up against the windshield where you want to mount the camera and press to make the suction cup stick. Then flip the black lever up to lock it in place.To remove it from the windshield hold the camera with one hand and flip the black level down and then pull the suction cup by the little clear plastic tab located at the top of the suction cup. This will release the suction and the mount and camera will be free.Plug the power in and you're all set.There is an excellent video viewer that Cobra has for download for free for this camera. It not only shows you the video but also the time, direction and speed. Also on the right of the screen is a Google map showing exactly where you drove on your entire trip!To view the videos, I plugged the camera into the supplied USB cable and attache it to my computer. There is a menu option to set your camera to be viewed as a storage device (came set as the default). Just press the menu button on the left side of the main button and then use the down arrow to get to General Settings. Then press OK and then the down arrow to get to the USB function then set it accordingly.When you go to select the files to view you need to specify the camera drive (mine showed up as H) then there are two folders. Select the second one then you have to go down one more level to see the movie files.The picture quality is outstanding and so is the sound (you can turn on/off the mic with the up arrow on the main knob) .I haven't tried this at night yet but will update my comment as soon as I do.Based on my experience so far (all of ten minutes) I give this 5 stars for super fast delivery, easy setup and great recordingUpdate: Tried it at night and it gives a clear image of the road and street signs. You can see the cars in front of you clearly.So far I'm very pleased with this and recommend it based on my short testUpdate 2: The manual doesn't say this but when you are using the Cobra viewer software (download it from the Cobra site - it's really very good) you can play the files in auto sequence if you select the entire folder that the files are in and not just selecting the file. If you select a file it will only play that single file and will not auto play the other files in the sequence.

BEWARE !!!!I found that the plug that plugs into the cigar lighter socket in the car is totally crappy design.Inside the plug there was a plastic isolator that keeps the positive (+) center pin of the plug away from the negative (-) contacts.Over time the plastic isolator deteriorates and falls apart allowing the short to occur.So when the plug is inserted into the car socket, the (+) pin is depressed and the side (-) contacts go inward and short against the pin or top of the internal fuse. So the short occurs before the fuse inside the plug. This short then blows the car accessory fuse.The car accessory fuse in my car was hard to find and replace.One of these shorted out and blew my car fuse !!! NOT GOOD !I may trying to use a piece of plastic tubing to cover the pin and fuse inside the plug.Great claims, poor quality hardware and software.I have two of these and both have the same problems.The video quality, played on the Cobra software or VLP, is no different and very poor overall.As a moving object is videoed, it tears up so badly that it is unrecognizable.Objects moving with you or when stopped come in clearly.One CDR 840 has the mfr's supplied SD and the other has a Samsung 32G SD.Both cameras have the same problems no matter what SD is installed.The Cobra software (downloaded from their website) crashes often and has a poorly designed user interface.When it works (after reloading after each crash), it works OK for a while.It is NOT user friendly compared to almost all other Windows 3rd party applications.Before I got the Cobras, I was using a Sony Video Camcorder with big battery and large SD with no problems.Looks like I am going back to the Sony, it is 1080P, clear, sharp and does not suffer from any of the cobra problems.

I've had it for about two or three days now. Today was the first day I drove with it. On the day I received it, I set it up in motion sendng mode and tried it as a security camera (connected to one of those backup batteries for cell phones). It worked very well capturing video when there was movement in the image.So far I'm very pleased with the performance of the camera. The video quality is very good to excellent. I didn't have it set to the highest quality mode either. I viewed the videos on my 42" TV and they looked fine.The downloadable software is good but it suffers from lack of instructions.Low light recording is good, however it's not a night vision camera.I took a point off for two reasons. The instructions could have been better. They didn't always explain how changing the settings would affect the videos. Second to the instructions was the screen is too small. It's impossible to read (at least for my tired eyes) and the icons are difficult to make out.Time will tell if it holds up. I hope so because I am pleased with it so far and don't want to be disappointed should it fail.