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Excellent place to start with a dashboard (or maybe home security) video camera and DVR. Cheap and reasonably good. Just to be clear, the 270 degrees refers to turning the camera around by hand in the mount; the field of view is 120 degrees. The instructions were so bad that I have regenerated them below. UPDATE: In response to readers, I'm using the default settings, And am getting about 80 1-minute videos with audio, about 50MB each and they are automatically overwriting the oldest on a 4GB chip. I have not yet filled a 32GB chip (24 hrs)! LAST UPDATE: l am informed that the menu on items purchased after Dec 3, 2013 has changed, so these instructions may not be useful for people who have purchased such units. Did I mention that these might make dandy motion- activated home security devices? Dowson Dashboard Video/DVR Operating Instructions These instructions are based on the actual menu settings of a device delivered in mid-February, 2013. The included instructions did not match. Switching Modes 1) Press ON/OFF: (on the back of the DVR this is the international O+I superposed). 2) Default mode is Video Recording; press "OK" (which is a round spot on the back of the DVR which lights up) to begin recording. Press it again to stop recording and save file. 3) Press MODE to switch successively between: Video recording (red cam icon), Audio Recording (blue A), Playback (left arrow icon), in circular fashion. 4) Press to turn OFF Function Keys ON/OFF OK- confirm mode selected Keys below screen, in left to right order: MENU - choose a menu for settings, detailed below, and also leave a menu DOWN - go down a menu, or 4/3/2/1 x digital zoom while recording UP - go up a menu, or 1/2/3/4 x digital zoom while recording MODE - mode switching video record / audio record / playback Menu Settings Video / System Settings Press ON, press OK, press MENU, press OK, then UP or Down as needed Video................Output Settings 1. Size..............640x480, 720x980, 1280x720, 1280x960 2. EV................+1/3, +0.0, -1/3, -2/3, -1.0 3. White Bal.........Auto, Daylight, Cloudy, Tungsten, Fluorescent 4. Time Stamp........Off, Date Only, Date & Time 5. Video Time........3, 4, 5, 10, 15 minutes (per file) 6. Motion Det........Off, On (when On saves 2 min files during motion) 7. Record............Off, On 8. Night Mode........Off, On After each selection press OK to confirm, and press MENU to leave one menu item for another and then again to exit Video with Audio Settings Press ON, press OK, press Mode, press MENU, press OK, then UP or Down as needed Capture.................Setup 1. Size:................12, 8, 5, 3, 2, 1.3 M, or 640x480 (0.3 M) 2. Quality..............Fine / Standard / Economy 3. Scene Mode...........Auto, Sport, Night 4. EV...................+1/3, +0.0, -1/3, -2/3, -1.0 (Exposure luminance adjustment) 5. White Bal............Auto, Daylight, Cloudy, Tungsten, Fluorescent 6. ISO..................Auto, 100, 200 7. Color................Standard, Vivid, Sepia, Monochrome 8. Saturation...........High, Normal, Low 9. Sharpness............Hard, Normal, Soft 10. Time Stamp..........Off, Date Only, Date & Time 11. Burst...............On, Off After each selection press OK to confirm, and press MENU to leave one menu item for another and then again to exit Playback Settings Press ON, press OK, press Mode, press Mode again, press MENU, press OK, then UP or Down as needed Play....................Setup 1. Delete...............Single, All, Select (came up as Execute) 2. Volume...............1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 Press MENU again to get the following: 1. Format...............Cancel, Execute (came up Next Menu) 2. Beep.................On, Off 3. Language.............English, Francais, Deutsch, Italiano, Espanol, +6 others 4. Auto Off.............1 min, 3 min, 5 min, Off 5. Sys Reset............Cancel, Reset (came up Next Menu) 6. Light Freq...........60 Hz, 50 Hz 7. TV Output............NTSC, PAL 8. Data Input...........Off, Set 9. USB..................PC Cam, Disk Drive 10. Screen Set..........Always On, 1 min, 3 min After each selection press OK to confirm, and press MENU to leave one menu item for another and then again to exit The rest of the operating instructions provided make some sense, except Loop and Slideshow commands, which may be on another hidden menu. If I find them, I will update.