Wirecutter picks the A229 Pro as the best dash cam

[Dashmellow]

I noticed that well known product reviewer "Wirecutter" at the New York Times is recommending the Viofo A229 Pro as "the best dash cam".

Congratulations @viofo! A recommendation from the New York Times is a nice endorsement to receive.

The Best Dash Cam

If you want the peace of mind of having a dash cam record as you drive, we think the Viofo A229 Pro is the best overall choice for most people.

www.nytimes.com

 

[Dashmellow]

Some of the comments made in the review don't quite live up to our stringent standards here on DCT, especially about the finer points of license plate capture but all in all the audience they are speaking to is not quite the same as on an enthusiast forum full of fanatics like many of us here.

 

[Nigel]

Though its footage is not as good as what you’d get from an action camera or modern smartphone camera, the only other dash cam that came close was the 70mai,

I think they need educating!

But otherwise, it was a pretty good test, certainly needed a good dashcam to win.

Not many people do this test, good to see it done:

We also preferred models with buttons we could identify in the dark,

@Dashmellow
You might want to move this thread...

 

[Dashmellow]

@Dashmellow
You might want to move this thread...

Oops! I clicked on the wrong thread when I posted. My bad.

Thanks @Nigel, I'll see that it gets moved to where it belongs.

 

[Paul Iddon]

I can't complain at plate pick-up...

 

[Dashmellow]

I can't complain at plate pick-up..

True, but keep in mind that the camera evaluation was done by an American publication in a country where plates are smaller and different in all 50 states where each can be of different color and design with different sized lettering, numbers and reflectivity, so plate capture at night even with HDR is more challenging. Members here on DCT often refer to these plates as "US plates" but the fact is that smaller plates are the norm in virtually all of the Western Hemisphere including Canada, Mexico, most of Central and South America. Nevertheless, the A229 does an impressive job so the review is still more or less on target.

 

[Nigel]

True, but keep in mind that the camera evaluation was done by an American publication in a country where plates are smaller

Was it not done for New York, given that it is the New York Times?
Their plates look fairly decent, so would make for an easy test if the testing was done in New York.

but the fact is that smaller plates are the norm in virtually all of the Western Hemisphere including Canada, Mexico, most of Central and South America.

Just checked Brazil and Chile since I didn't remember them being small, and they don't look bad either, taller than EU plates, not as wide, but they have less characters.

Brazil:

Argentina:

Columbia;

Bolivia:

Every one I have checked has large, easy to read, characters!

Other Western Hemisphere plates:

(Greenland)

 

[Dashmellow]

Was it not done for New York, given that it is the New York Times? Their plates look fairly decent...


Just checked Brazil and Chile since I didn't remember them being small, and they don't look bad either!

I often wonder what is is about you that you seek to turn every interaction with me on this forum into some sort of petty, picayune pissing match over trifling or non-existent matters.

The New York Times is one of the premiere newspapers in the nation and perhaps the world, founded in 1851. It has won 140 Pulitzer Prizes during its history including three very recent ones, more than any other news publication. It currently has a circulation of 10,360,000 (nice for @viofo with their recommendation) and has a wide national audience and is read and published around the world, plus online. It is hardly directed towards New Yorkers alone. Similarity, the equally well respected Washington Post is also read nationwide and around the world and is also not directed solely towards Washingtonians.

I know you live inside your insular British Bubble based on so many of your remarks on this forum but it is hard to believe that you really could be this ignorant of these publications and their reach, so I have to assume that this is a another one of your gratuitous challenges over nothing serious. It simply doesn't seem credible that you would really believe a Wirecutter recommendation (which are followed by people around the world) would be done just for New Yorkers because the license plates in the tests they performed happen to be in New York.

As for the issue of Brazil and Chile (and a few other) South American countries plate sizes, again this is a petty gratuitous challenge to my remarks. Either you are again playing games here or your reading comprehension is very poor, as you appear to be ignoring exactly what I said in my post above, which was "most of Central and South America"

the fact is that smaller plates are the norm in virtually all of the Western Hemisphere including Canada, Mexico, MOST of Central and South America.

Obviously, I was acknowledging that there are some exceptions.

Since you've previously provoked essentially this identical argument two and a half years ago I have to wonder what your motive is in revisiting it again here? Indeed, what I posted below was actually inspired by your numerous "swipes" at the USA for having smaller license plates and implying it is the only nation that does.

I guess you wanted to derail yet another enjoyable thread with more of your paltry nonsense, virtually identical to what you did two and a half years ago. You need to finally stop this sort of behavior.

Dashmellow - December 17, 2022:

I don't know why but for some reason everyone keeps referring to smaller license plates as "US license plates". There are even a couple of members (the usual suspects) here on the forum who look down their noses at "USA" license plates as if they are some sort of unfortunate anomaly unique to the United States. That is far from the truth and so I'd like to set the record straight.

Basically, smaller plates are primarily a Western Hemisphere phenomenon. "USA" size and style plates are the standard in Canada, the US, Mexico, Central America and most of South America. There are some variations in shape and size for some nations, especialy in South America but for the most part they are far smaller than European plates. These style plates are also in use in some locations in the Eastern Hemisphere such as Australia which are slightly larger than US plates but nowhere near the size of European plates. Australia is not the only country in that part of the world to use smaller plates.

The fact of the matter is that more of the world population of automobiles use smaller plates than larger plates.

A few examples:

Canada

Mexico

Panama

Australia

Columbia

December 18, 2022

NZ plates have characters even bigger than UK plates, so it is probably best to just say that American plates are much smaller...
Well, there is a small part of Russia in the Western Hemisphere, but I don't think there are many car licence plates there!

Why just American plates? Didn't you read my post or comprehend it? Maybe it's just your bias showing again?

What I said was that license plates in the Western Hemisphere are smaller than European plates. This is still correct regardless of the size of NZ plates.

Once again we are treated to another example of your usual nitpicking which so often comes across as some odd sort of micro-trolling. I'll never understand your motives for posts like this.

I have some unpleasant news for you though, Nigel. Far more than some barren territory in eastern Russia, significant parts of the UK are also within the Western Hemisphere. In fact, I hate to be the one to break it to you but as a resident of Wales, YOU live in the Western Hemisphere!

The zero meridian used on most maps is defined by a line running North to South, passing through one particular point in Greenwich, just to the East of the City of London. If you visit the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, there is a sign and a line marked on the ground where you or a friend can take a picture showing you standing with a foot in each hemisphere.

 

[Dashmellow]

So, I see that you've edited your post to further crank up your trolling. It's really quite pathetic to witness this behavior from you.
This was really a very nice thread until you started with this and sadly it happens with you all too often.

 

[mentadent]

So, I see that you've edited your post to further crank up your trolling. It's really quite pathetic to witness this behavior from you.
This was really a very nice thread until you started with this and sadly it happens with you all too often.

Who?

 

[Dashmellow]

Who?

I was responding to @Nigel who, in response to my post, decided to double down on his previous remarks by editing and embellishing his entirely unnecessary and gratuitous challenge to my simple statement that:

Members here on DCT often refer to these plates as "US plates" but the fact is that smaller plates are the norm in VIRTUALLY all of the Western Hemisphere including Canada, Mexico, and MOST of Central and South America.

Even though I used the adverb "VIRTUALLY" and the adjective "MOST" in my reference to the Western Hemisphere and Central and South America, Nigel felt it necessary to initiate another one of his niggling, engineered spats over literally nothing by jumping in to challenge me and point out that he found a few countries in South America with different style plates while intentionally ignoring my use of the terms VIRTUALLY and MOST which already addressed and indeed anticipated his so called "findings".

And FWIW, the South American license plates he added to his post happen to be quite small when compared to European license plates, but of course, he conveniently ignores that fact.

To make matters worse, Nigel does this sort of thing all the time and has been doing it for years, especially with me. Two years ago he initiated an almost identical nit-picky, gratuitous argument over similar comments I made about smaller license plates being the norm in the most of the Western Hemisphere. When he lost that argument he pivoted to arguing with me gratuitously about what is and what isn't the Western Hemisphere.

And all this started with an otherwise friendly and pleasant interaction with @Paul Iddon where I replied to his post about "plate pick-up" where I brought up the challenges of capturing smaller plates at night in the Western Hemisphere compared with UK style plates but noted that the A229 still produces impressive results.

Nigel's behavior here was uncalled for as is so often the case.

Picking gratuitous petty, ongoing arguments with other members over literally nothing on a forum with the goal of provoking conflict or being irritating is called TROLLING.

Just checked Brazil and Chile since I didn't remember them being small, and they don't look bad either!

 

[mentadent]

What a silly billy

 

[DT MI]

I was responding to @Nigel who, in response to my post, decided to double down on his previous remarks by editing and embellishing his entirely unnecessary and gratuitous challenge

One way to prevent this, or at least make it obvious that it's being done, is to quote the post you're referencing. I'm referring to quote in the sense of using the 'quote' function of the post, as I did here, versus a 'cut and paste' of the text. I've done it many times on numerous forums (on some it's more necessary than others) and it's effective, especially when you can later publicly disclose the original and modified versions.

 

[Vortex Radar]

Nigel does this sort of thing all the time and has been doing it for years, especially with me.

Nigel's behavior here was uncalled for as is so often the case.

 

[Dashmellow]

One way to prevent this, or at least make it obvious that it's being done, is to quote the post you're referencing. I'm referring to quote in the sense of using the 'quote' function of the post, as I did here, versus a 'cut and paste' of the text. I've done it many times on numerous forums (on some it's more necessary than others) and it's effective, especially when you can later publicly disclose the original and modified versions.

Yeah, you're quite right and that's what I usually do but in this case I just spontaneously posted my thoughts because my remarks were directly after the interaction I was referring to. Somehow I thought it would be obvious considering the way the thread was going. In a way, I'm glad it worked out this way after @mentadent asked "who" because it gave me an opportunity to better clarify what happened and has been happening for a long time now, as you well know.

 

[Dashmellow]

View attachment 72345

I understand but that approach doesn't always work as well as intended and can have some unexpected pitfalls. I've done it a few times over the years here and ended up abandoning the practice but I'll reconsider.

 

[kamkar]

Hey! I'm driving here.

With a dashcam

There now i have offended the good people of the big apple too

 

[mentadent]

I think they need educating!

The grammatically correct version of the phrase is "I think they need to be educated."

"Educating" is a present participle, which can function as an adjective but not on its own as a verb in this context. The sentence needs a verb to indicate what you think should happen.

 

[kamkar]

/me turn slowly and quietly leave the chat.