In this day and age where video surveillance is everywhere, having a dash cam for your own personal vehicle is becoming affordable, easy to setup and install, and priceless when you are involved in an incident where video would prove beyond any doubt what actually happened.

With Genius manufacturing a number of mobile/in-vehicle “dash-cams” and Security.World (SecurityHive) reviewed the DVR-FHD568 model. This is a true 1080p HD wide-angle video surveillance camera with a built-in micro SDHC slot (SDHC card not included). This model also has built-in High Dynamic Range (HDR) that delivers clear video by cutting down on bright / reflective light.

The true test of any video surveillance camera is the quality of video. And the Genius DVR-FHD568 delivers excellent quality video that is clear, crisp, and most importantly great resolution to do what it is intended to do – clearly display what happened.

The Genius DVR-FHD568 unit has a 140-degree wide angle lens sitting atop a 2M CMOS sensor with a 1.5M to infinity focal range. The 2.4″ LCD monitor allows you to see what the camera sees as you travel down the road. The built-in audio microphone also records the sounds inside the vehicle with surprisingly good quality, which is played back on the recorded video stream.

This model can record at 1920×1080 at 30-frames per second as well as 1280 x720 at 60-frames per second in AVI movie format. All this in an approximately 2.5-ounce unit.

Connect the provided cigarette lighter power adapter to the camera/recorder unit, attached the suction-cup windshield mount to the camera/recorder unit, and turn the unit on. The unit will immediately enter “capture” mode and begin recording whenever the unit is powered up. This could be a little annoying when you are trying to review video or adjust settings but you can quickly switch modes and stop recording.

We used a SanDisk 4GB SDHC card and was able to record about 45 minutes of 30-fps 1080p video.

And of course within the first five minutes of installing the unit and starting to record our trip around town, a car cut us off as we merged onto the highway. The video (playback the recorded video here) clearly showed the license plate number and the environment around us. If this had been an actual emergency, the video would have been indispensable.

The package comes with the camera/recorder, cigarette lighter power adapter, car suction cup mount, USB cable, and a sparse quick start guide. Our biggest compliant with this package was the quick start guide.

A built in microphone was capable of picking up a normal conversation within the car and this audio is part of the video file.

Although it is almost completely intuitive to setup and install, there are a couple of points that could use a much better description.

For example, there is a button labeled ‘push’ on the side of the windshield mount that is a bit difficult to find when you first pull the unit out of the box.

Then being able to download the video, there are a number of folders that are created such as the “N” and “P” folders that are not explained at all.

By using the on-screen menu options you learn that you have the ability to “protect” video from being deleted and when this happens, the video is moved to the P folder.

Once you bring the camera/recorder unit indoors and connect the (provided) USB cable to the unit and your Windows-based computer, the typical “open” dialog box appears.

Once you choose the Open in a Folder option you can see those N and P folders (plus two others that we were not able to figure out their purpose). Opening the N folder will display all of the .AVI movie files available to play.

Connecting the camera/recorder via the USB cable to a Mac computer, a typical drive will appear on the desktop and upon opening that drive you will see the N and P folders. With a Mac, you will need an .AVI file format video player as QuickTime does not natively play .AVI files.

With a street price of around US$125.00, this device could prove to be worth its 2.5 ounces in gold.

We were pleasantly surprised by the overall quality of this product and even more impressed with the rich quality of the video. We highly recommend this product.

Product Specifications

• Unit Weight: 86-grams / 2.5 ounces
• Unit Size (LxWxH mm): 79 x 55 x 30.5 / 3″ x 2″ x 1.25″
• Support capacity: Supports up to 32GB micro SDHC
• Sensor Type: 1/2.7?CMOS Sensor
• Screen: 2.4? panel
• Video Recording Format: DV mode: AVI
• Frames per second: 1920 x 1080/30 fps, 1280 x 720/60 fps
• USB cable: Included
• Car Cigarette adapter: Included
• G-Sensor: YES

View the 1080p high-resolution version of the sample video here. (280NB .mov file)