Vicovation Vico-Marcus 4 UHDR Dash Cam Review

Features

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Vicovation’s Marcus 4 has a lineup of features to further improve its video quality and the device as a whole. Here are some of them:

World’s first 21:9 ratio — for a more cinematic look (Movie Mode)
Xtreme HD 2304 x 1296 — higher-than-average resolution for a dash cam
Ultra High Dynamic Range (UHDR) technology — good for low light situations
Smart Sensor — notifies you of various alerts including when you go past your speed limit (needs GPS mouse)
160-degree viewing angle — wider viewing angle
Auto ON/OFF — Recording can be automatically started or stopped when your car is turned on or off.
G-Sensor – Gravity sensors save and protect files automatically in case of collisions.
Emergency button – Manually save and lock files with one press of a button.
Loop Record – Overwrite oldest unsaved files to maximize memory.
Built-in Microphone – Record all audio within range.

What the 21:9 ratio does is it crops the upper and bottom part of the image and concentrate on the middle area (which is the road) in order to focus on what’s important. It shoots less of the clouds and the hood of the car and in turn, squeezes those pixels in the main image resulting to a more detailed picture quality in addition to the Movie Mode.

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Combine that to its 160-degree viewing angle and you can see more of the road horizontally. For comparison, the HP f310 only has 130-degree viewing angle, while the Zumi dash cam has 140 degrees.

After we set its G-sensor to medium sensitivity, some speed bumps on the road already made it activate its emergency file-saving feature. In short, it already thought we ran into an accident and automatically saved the video after being shaken by the light bumps on Skyway.

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Additionally, there was a time when a vehicle in front of us abruptly stopped, making it do the same thing. It was really a close call and we almost hit the car. The device felt the sudden brake and immediately saved that clip as an emergency footage. Good job!

Its HDR (High Dynamic Range) kicks in at 1080p which was designed to help produce more details when driving at night.

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Recording options:

2560 x 1080 @ 30fps (21:9 Movie Mode)
2304 x 1296 @ 30fps (2K Extreme HD 1296p)
HDR 1920 x 1080 @ 30fps (1080 HDR @ 30fps)
1920 x 1080 @ 30fps
1280 x 720 @ 60fps
1280 x 720 @ 30fps

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What the additional GPS mouse does once it connects to the device, is it collates data as you drive. This includes your speed, coordinates, time, and date. You can download a software for your computer so when you open your saved videos on it, it will show the aforementioned data since they were stored together with the clips.

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One more little thing it does is to overlay details on your video as you drive. From its 2-inch screen you can choose to show the date, time, speed, and your current location in one place — but if you’re driving, be sure to not look at it for too long and just keep your eyes and focus on the road.

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Lastly, you will be able to activate its Smart Warning function that includes GPS tracking. With this combination, it will be able to give you warnings (thru beeps) when you go faster than your pre-set speed limit.

Next Page: Video Quality and Conclusion

Kevin Bruce Francisco

Kevin Bruce Francisco is the Senior Editor and Video Producer for YugaTech. He's a Digital Filmmaking graduate who's always either daydreaming of traveling or actually going places on his bike. Follow him on Twitter for more tech updates @kevincofrancis.

http://www.yugatech.com

9 Comments

David says:

8 years ago

@Andrew
Where you brought your Marcus4 and what SD card you use? Hopefully is not Sandisk. VicoVation does not support Sandisk.
This applies to all SD Card that the read and write speed is slow. If your card is too slow, the camera may stop recording as the card can’t keep up with the output of data from the camera, regardless of your recording settings. Try SD card with above 40mbps speed and UHS-1. Hope this help.
- Reply
andrew says:

8 years ago

Hello,

I bought a marcus 4 few days ago and i have a problem : i recorded for about 1-2 hours but when i want to see the movie on my laptop it only has 20 seconds or less…what am i doing wrong? can you help me please?
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David says:

9 years ago

What I see, Marcus 4, blends in during the night. Not like others cam available in Philippines where it is too bright (white) during the night. In the night footage, what amaze me is the reflection or deflection of lights seems like non-existence. Not sure if the car was tinted heavily or else.

What I found in FB where there is a Chinese Cam, name ROGA X18+ (https://youtu.be/SAkofQ0qBR0?t=15) and A11 (https://www.facebook.com/1000093*****272/videos/1531051533*****1/) where my personal point of view can match up with Marcus 4. Take a look of the footage.

I hope Mr. Kevin Bruce Francisco can write a review on these five dash cams (Zumi, Vico, HP and ROGA) together having them installed side by side.

Thank you Mr. Kevin Bruce Francisco for the review and as a dash cam enthusiast, hope to see more review on the high end type like Thinkware, BlackVue etc.
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Elite's says:

9 years ago

Dashcam nowadays necessity na natin to, bukod na useful siya para ma record mo ung accident mo (huwag naman sana) / accidents nang iba. Iwas goyo din sa mga traffic enforcer na balak kang “kotongan” kasi ang Marcus may built-in audio recorder din kaya maririnig mo ang mga nasa loob ng sasakyan.

@Gio – nasa page three po mayroon po na price. 8,700 pesos
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gio says:

9 years ago

Walang price? Kulang yung info.
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juanchoweb says:

9 years ago

Oo nga e hehe

Digest says:

9 years ago

Sana may Dash cam roundup para maganda comparison ng bawat product with the price performance ratio. Necessity na dash cams ngaun. Lalo na’t mag eelection nnaman.
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John Nieurzyla says:

9 years ago

My experience with most Car videos, when using in Philippines, they tend not stay attached to windscreen as the heat causes problems, and when used on the dash, also fail to work if used when strong sunshine as the heat is too much for them.
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izrayel says:

9 years ago

this uses a capacitor, best suited for our extreme hot temperatures. that is why battery operated dashcams is not advisable as the battery is almost guaranteed to fail due to extreme heat,

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