SVAT CVP800 Mini Portable DVR Digital Video Recorder with MPEG4 Compression
- Removable storage (SD card recording. 128 MB SD card included)
- MPEG-4 compression with audio
- Motion detection and scheduled recording options
- Easy to set up and use
- Records at 12, 24 and 30 FPS
Product Description
Want to not only monitor your home or business but also record what the camera is viewing? The CVP800 is a miniature portable digital video recorder that provides you with the ability to record camera images on a SD card. Set it to record on motion detection or at a scheduled time. The search and play option and the time and date stamp allow you to find the footage you need with ease. The CVP800 also ensures you do not miss a sound or voice with its audio function. … More >>
SVAT CVP800 Mini Portable DVR Digital Video Recorder with MPEG4 Compression
I’ve owned two of these for 3 years – one in each car. They loop-record anytime the car is in motion. I installed a GPS-overlay box between my forward-facing camera (mounted on my rear-view mirror) and the DVR. This imprints my speed on the video. The insurance this provides against he-said she-said accidents, inaccurate laser guns (check out my youtube video), or rogue police who say one thing on the side of the road, and another in court – is priceless.
All co-workers have these installed after seeing how it reveals how ‘unimpeachable, trustworthy, and honest’ police officer testimony is anything but…
I don’t go looking for trouble. It finds me. When it does, it’s great to have an unbiased witness ready to come to my defense.
Note: If your state is a two-party consent state, you’ll need to warn anyone within audio recording distance that they’re being recorded. Otherwise, at best it’s inadmissible, or at worst, you could be charged with felony wire-tap offenses. I solved this problem by applying small (3″ x 1″) red warning labels in the corner of all roll-down windows. They look like alarm stickers, but state “Notice: Any conversations inside and within 6′ of this vehicle may be recorded”.
I would have given it 5 stars, but I have two annoyances:
1) The A/V in/out jacks are nothing more than a 4-contact 3.5mm stereo jack. In humid environments the internal contacts become ‘dirty’ causing flicker in the video if the cables are bumped.
2) The video is actually split into multiple 1 – 1.5MB asf files. They can be spliced back together, but there is about a 2-4 frame loss at each seam. It’s barely noticeable, but it is an annoyance. I imagine this has to be the case as the files must be completed and saved before power loss. If the power is turned off, whatever file is being written is corrupt. Each segment is about 4-6 seconds long. So you lose the last few seconds of record when you turn off the car.
Because of the age of mine, I do not have a firmware update option under the SD section of the menu. I have an email into svat to see if there is a work-around. For now, my max SD size is 4GB (non-SDHC).
If you want to see videos of how this works in a car, look up my username on utube.
Rating: 4 / 5
Like other reviewers, this seems to be a unique product due to its small size.
However, that is not enough to make up for its shortcomings. The biggest which (related)
is a nearly unusable owner’s manual and the requirement to hook up the unit to a television
in order to access the menu. The menus are not intuitive – and confirmations are not obvious.
There are some sub-menus that “seem” to lead to a function, but there is no function.
I could never get the motion detector to work correctly even after emails and phone calls to
SVAT. Dan P eventually told me he did not have an answer to the problem of why the motion detect
would continuously record even though it was in a “manual” and “motion detect” mode at 50% sensitivity.
His idea was to use a different camera (which I did with the same results). However, both cameras
are made with high end Sony chipsets and lenses.
Well, I asked for and got an RMA. Then I read the details provide in the RMA instructions. SVAT has several
places where they remind you that if you miss anything or thepackage is not in conformance, they will hold
your unit until you pay at least $50 plus return shipping. They also write that if in their sole discretion
they determine it is not a product defect, the $50/hour charge applies. I purchased this unit from Amazon for 149.99
and simply cannot take the risk of a charge that is from 30% or more of what I originally paid.
To have such a warranty with so unfavorable terms to the consumer is not, in my opinion, a valid warranty.
These details were never disclosed at the original purchase nor in the User’s Guide warranty page. Buyer beware.
Rating: 2 / 5
The only con I noticed is it dont accept SDHC cads. But if you manage to buy some 4G or 8G non sdhc cards it works. The porblem is those are very difficult to find (and more expensive and non trustable cards).
As I did notice it seems to be an 2006 model, but lacks nothing it promises, with lots of options, including a grid were you can select wich areas of the screen trigers the recording.But the best are the loop dvr sistem, were it rewrite the card as it got full, and this is a very difficult to find option among all those tiny recorders all arround
Very nice, and came with all cables
Rating: 5 / 5
This is a good mini video recorder….Good for hidden video or car video applications…Would not recommend for long term recording as it wont replace a standard DVR in search and function options. Good Value/Quality for the money.
Rating: 4 / 5
When viewing footage on my tv I was upset at the poor quality. However, I viewed it on the computer and everything is completely clear. It must have been how I had the tv set to view, if you use full screen it is hard to see because of the bitmapping, but as a small video file it is clear.
A dog did its business on my driveway and I didn’t catch them because a spider set up shop on my lens. Spider is now gone. Also be sure and prune your trees, even though you can set the camera to ignore certain spaces, it can be tedious going through footage if a wind storm has your evergreens blowing around.
Seven months of use and no regrets. Might set up another one so I can put a camera closer to the mailbox. Only way to improve this little unit is to be able to hook up multiple cameras. I am very satisfied.
Rating: 4 / 5