Navman MiVue388

Terrible product – Terrible product. Not worth for 480$. The suction cup simply falls down. Unbelievably poor performance. I will not recommend this particular mode to anyone. Made a terrible mistake by buying this product. Show details

Very disappointed in mivue dashcam – Bought Navman mivue 388 dashcam last year. Didnt need it till now. I just opened it to install it in my car now and no display displayed for the video. Battery playing up. Look at the questions forum and see there is something I need to do but apparently its well known issue and I m stucked with this now since I bought frok dicksmith and cant even returned it. Very disappointed customer. :(

180 Degree turnaround view of Navman – I recently posted on this page my concerns over the two Navman dash cams I had the 338 & the 560 which were both switching off within a short time of switching them on, well Navman to their credit got in touch with me & offered to check them out. Both of the camera,s had faulty built in batteries they replaced the faulty units and I have not had… Read more ·  1

any problems since. It may be an idea if the dash cams could have internal batteries that are accessible so that it would help with a simple maintenance issue and customers could change their own and possibly end a lot of complaints and lead to greater customer satisfaction of Navman products. I must give Navman ten out of ten for the way they handled my issue, thank you.

Switches on when you start your car, but records nothing when needed. A waste of money! – Because this was my fourth attempt at installing a functional dash cam, I thought finally this seemed to be working OK at least it came to life every time the ignition was on (many don't even get that far). Today tried viewing files after an accident, error nothing recorded. (USELESS). Buyer beware.

what use is a camera when it doesnt record? – stops and starts recording of its own will. i dont know what the trigger is to start recording but its not in the owners manual. i had an accident that the recordings this camera would have proven I wasnt at fault, but the POS wasnt recording even though it was plugged into car power and had a compatible Micro SD card. i have removed this from my… Read more

car now and am in the market for a different brand, and one that has park mode. DO NOT BUY, it cannot be trusted. If I could give it under 1 star thats what id give it

Total disaster – Bought a year ago, but only had the time to use now. Turned on OK with all the screen prompts but no vision in the screen. Customer service are useless, and as it is out of warranty they could not even come up with a reason. No more Navman items again.

Crapman – Don't ever buy 1 as their support is crap as the product wrong date's doesn't record after updating some files are missing after all the complains they don't even have your details like 20 complains later. Don't ever trust this product you should go see a lawyer and sue these people as they are so dodgy. May 31st 2016 Update: suction cap … Read more

suction cap another product of Navman the suction cup does not work it's unbelievable these guys and you can't even buy it from a shop you have to order it from the idiots why can't JB or Harvey Norman have this product suction cap is important without it nothing works so can you please start selling these products

great dash cam. crappy battery – Great footage and easy to use. Major problems with battery life. Had head on crash this morning and no footage as its corrupt. Camera died on impact without saving as battery is shagged when power cut out. Defeats the point of having it. Lucky it was easy to see I was not at fault.... and there is no way to replace the battery so the whole unit is useless.

Works like a dream. Can't live without it – Purchased in NZ at JB hi fi store. A bit on the pricey side even with a very slight "haggle" to get a lower price for cash, which didn't reduce it at all. Also purchased a Class 6 MicroSD card 16GB. You must purchase a good quality video capable MicroSD (Grade 6 or above) otherwise the unit wont work and you will get exasperated. Straight out of… Read more

box,inserted SD card and mounted suction mount onto windscreen, use Meths to clean screen.

Didnt use the clumsy arkward power unit from the box, used an after market MINI usb cable and fitting to car cigarette lighter. Taped cable to windscreen and started car, Mivue started immediately. I used the handbook to adjust the date/time and off I went for a test. Every thing worked perfectly video was really sharp.Two slight distractions were 1. my looking at the picture while driving !!!! and 2. the "split in windscreen" caused by the cable. I am a technical person and I fixed these problems and several others (Navman GPS and Superant3 Handsfree and Cellular Phone) all requiring to be plugged in and on, by using long cables (tucked into/behind windscreen and door pillar and a four way after market (more expense) USB outlet on cigarette lighter socket.

Everything worked fine and things charged up slowly while driving. Three things that I found to do with the Mivue were turn the unit display (not the recording) off after 3 minutes, change the clip length to 5 minutes(from default of 3) and when you stop/park up, wait for 10 seconds then press the ok button on Mivue to stop recording before you exit car. This step means you do not have "crash/ding protection and saves the Mivue battery from going flat overnight. All of these settings are found in the manual that comes with unit.

Playing the recordings back requires the use of the Mivue software on a PC and will work on Windows XP/7/8.1.

If the operating system is windows 8.1 and this is a brand new installation there is a problem with some files not automatically loaded when installing windows(talk to your computer guru). I have had and constantly use the Mivue for last 4 months and it has never missed a beat. May it long continue

Navman MiVue388 Drive Recorder – This is the 4th Car Cam I have had all have failed or have not done the functions they claim to do - this one failed within just 8 months. Continually stopped recording and in last stages several error messages would appear. After a delay retailer has refunded on evidence from their repairer that it is faulty. Refunds are OK but I am getting fed… Read more

up with faulty products, in so many different types of products.. Manufacturers need to get their act together.

MiVue 388 - Great performance - Easy to use – Bought the MiVue388 from Dick Smiths. Bought a 32GB card from them to put in it. Records for about 4 hours before overwriting previous files - plenty of time to upload a file if required. Files can be 3min or 5min long, so it's easy to track down an incident you want to view. Hardest part was getting the suction holder to stick to the… Read more

windscreen. I have a VE Commodore. Best point to locate is just to the left of where the rear vision mirror attaches to the screen. Very important to use metho to clean the pad and the glass first. Now sticks like glue.

Picture quality is fantastic. Clarity at night is unbelievable. Driving down a normally streetlit suburban street, you can see people clearly on footpaths. The 388 gives GPS coordinates and your speed in the bottom corner of the playback (you don't see this on the unit screen in the car).

I would definitely recommend. Some of the reviews here seem negative, but if they are true, I've got a good one. I can only comment on what I've seen, and to this stage it's all good.

Rubbish – Bought it from dick smith and have it replaced three times due to same problem it stop recording so you have to keep look at unit to make its recording then turn off and then on to start recording again big thanks to dick smith for replacing unit

Twice bitten, always shy – I bought my first Navman388 at my local JB HI FI in WA prior to a round Aus trip. After about a week and much stuffing around trying to get the bloody thing to work as advertised, we decided to go for help at a JB HI FI at Melbourne only to be told they couldn't help. I then tried the Navman on line help but got meaningless 'assistance' from them… Read more

and finally told to send it to them which was no good as we were travelling. Some of the issues were that it would not start recording automatically, would stop recording after about 3-4 minutes so if we weren't watching, we were getting nothing. Strangely though, the unit would automatically start recording when the vehicle's engine was turned off and it would continue recording until the battery was flat. After getting back home we had the unit exchanged for a new one but it was exactly the same so finally, demanded and got a refund. If this unit actually operated as advertised, it would be great but if they are all as I found, they are rubbish.

MiVue 388: Excellent results so far – I've had mine for about 3 weeks now, and I find that it works most of the time, as it was designed to do. There has been a recent firmware update which I have applied, and night time video has marginally improved. Daytime 1080p video is sharp and smooth. Virtually gapless between sections of the recording. Having motion detect enabled (for when… Read more

you're away from the car) drains the battery quickly, and may cause issues with restarting recording when the car starts up again.

[Edit 19/3/2016]

I've now been using this for almost 2 years and have remained pleased with it. I imagine the later models will be even better, but I don't need to update. It does the job well. Small (though not the smallest by any means) and fairly discreet. Poorly designed mount: difficulty sliding unit out of mount, necessitating the removal of all when leaving the car unattended.

Need Quality Control – Fitted the camera to the windscreen & was happy until the first time I removed charger from cigarette lighter socket. It fell into several pieces & Dick Smith's advised it had actually broken off. and breakage was not covered by the Navman warranty but Dick Smith's staff where very helpful & submitted to their workshop.It could not be repaired so… Read more

Dick Smith replaced the charger. Full points to Dick Smith for their service. That it enables you to have a record of any accident you may be involved in. The charger was of such poor quality that it fell appart the first time it was reoved from a socket.

Love the concept but could not get the emergency recording to work - tried 2 models – Purchased the 388 model for its gps and motion detection recording. We have a different brand in our other car so was familiar with how these things work. Loved the gps but didn't end finding a good use for the motion detection. What caused me to return the camera to the store was that for the life of me, I could not get the emergency recording… Read more

to work - every time it triggered, the whole camera would freeze and I would need to reset it. I returned it to the store but the same thing happened on the next model. I upgraded the firmware, lodged customer support queries but they said to return the product for assessment. As I live in NZ this wasn't practical so I gave up trying and luckily good old JB's gave me a full refund. A real shame as I really like the product otherwise. Still looking .... Now that I think about it it could have been the SD card (Samsung) but not one person suggested I try a different card ... GPS, size, software, price point Emergency recording would not work. No clips included in box. Awkward interface and mounting.

only stores 10 Emergency files – If you go on long trips be aware if you have 10 emergency files already stored on the unit, and lets face it sometimes we want to save more than ten because maybe we have passed a speed camera with another car who was speeding, or something else a bit iffy and you wish to keep them, you better hope you don't you don't hit a large bump which… Read more

activates another emergency file and records over your previous emergency files , or if you press to record another emergency file you want to keep, as it will record over another of your previously saved emergency files.

In conclusion every time you save ten emergency files you have to unplug go to a computer download the files so you can store another ten ,the silly thing is it can store over 100 useless files which are not the ones you really want to keep.Otherwise I rate this unit between bad and ok.

I am using a 32 gig card. shows your speed 10 Emergency files Definately NOT enough

Power adapter needs redesign to strengthen it – I had upgraded to the Navman from a no name brand (which had been a cheap trial). Although the unit records a nice clear video, the power adapter/attachment (inserted in veh's power socket) is poorly designed and the plastic becomes brittle within a month. Navig[8]r in sharp contrast has a well designed power adapter c/w with a strong metal… Read more

interface. I hope Navman redesign this part of their product. Would have no hesitations of recommending them if they do, it is well priced for the features....but would not recommend current unit's accessory. Well priced, clear video, easy to use, fixes to the screen in a low profile so it doesn't restrict driver or passenger vision. Brittle plastic tip on the power adapter.

Navman mivue 388 review (Dick Smith Electronics copy) – Navman MiVue 388 review (Dick Smith Electronics copy) 

• Cost $279-00 from Dick Smith Electronics at Noosaville Queensland Australia.
 http://www.dicksmith.com.au/handheld-navigation/navman-mivue388-drive-recorder-dsau-d4498
 • Requires micro SDHC card, Dick Smith 32GB class 10 supplied @ $64-96;
 • Total cost : $343-96.
 • Product… Read more

specifically purchased for its GPS facility and it being supposedly top of the range.



• Period of review 28 June 2013 to 6 July 2013.



• Often freezes / locks up while driving, in one instance twice within 30 minutes.



• Continually stops recording while driving, when the OK button is pressed to restart recording, the recording is restarted but stops again within 2 minutes.



• On one occasion when the product was disconnected and removed from the car, it then became impossible to turn it off.



• Displays unreadable messages on the screen while driving, which quickly disappear before you can stop the car to read them.



• Movie length reduces from what was set (3 minutes loop), to 15 to 38 second loop



• No DVD in box despite navman internet marketing material publishing there was, hence MiVue Manager software had to be downloaded.



• MiVue Manager software will not run until additional third party software downloaded. There are no instructions as to the precise name of this software or an address on the internet for downloading. Substantial trouble and wasted time was encountered locating the correct software.



• The MiVue Manager software will not run on Mac, however details on the box advising this, require a microscope to be read.



• When the software was finally installed (with third party software) on Windows 7 :


• very difficult to get camera to connect to software;


• GPS facility does not run, the GPS screen is blank. I managed to get it to run only once.



• It was thought that a firmware update may fix the problems which is available at the obscure address of http://www.navmansupport.com.au/DDR03___628.htm,


this address is not obvious in the manual or the navman website support page
 http://www.navman.com.au/customersupport/ as of 7 July 2013.


however on every download the file came though as corrupted and was unusable.



• Dick Smith website has reviews of this product disabled, and now appears to have removed the product. Hence my publication at Product Review.



• navman product + Dick Smith SDHC card, returned to Dick Smith for a full refund.



• navman is to be invoiced for my wasted time in trying to get its unsatisfactory and highly disappointing product working to a satisfactory standard. 
It is assumed that navman was not aware of these defects, thus this review should be of use to navman in identifying them. However if navman was aware of the defects then the navman marketing material is misleading or deceptive in contravention of Australian Consumer Law, which allows for damages to be claimed. Good quality video For numerous reasons given in the review, it was rendered unusable

Navman Mivue 388 – I did a considerable amount of research prior to buying one of these. I wanted a camera that didn't have a power cable hanging in the middle of the windscreen given that it has to be plugged in all the time to work properly. A number of reviews of the other Mivue cameras indicated that the supplied clips work well to route the cable over the… Read more

door and the instruction booklet indicated that clips should be used for this purpose so I bought one. When I opened the package there were no clips so I rang Navman support to be told that "the clips only come with the other 2 models. The manual is written for all models but the content does not necessarily apply to all models." Maybe there is a good reason they are not supplied but no explanation was forthcoming.

When I asked where I could get the clips I was told to try Dick Smith; they might have some left over from the other models as Navman don't supply them as an accessory. Also the packaging indicated that it contained a DVD with the software but there wasn't one; no big deal as it can be downloaded but it should have been provided. Went to Dick Smith and was told to try Jaycar who might have something suitable. Couldn't be bothered having to sort out what should have come as part of the package so got a refund. Thank you Dick Smith. Navman - you may have saved 20c by not providing the clips but you lost a sale and a previous customer who will now go elsewhere in future. Never got to try it. Probably works well if you can put up with the cable in the way or find a way to route it above the door. Contents of the package wasn't what I expected. Didn't want a power cable flapping around in the middle of the windscreen.