Hello everyone. Glad to be back here but the fed has approved my residency and maybe I’ll have some free time again to more regularly update this site! we shall see. Meanwhile this little beauty caught my eye..

The Tview Rv-102c is an unusually large monitor screen for what seemed at first glance a very reasonable price. While we all know that the price of consumer electronics goes down once the market is established this seemed to be a real stand out.

Its features beyond its excellent 10.2 inch screen are all you could wish for.  Twin video inputs, night vision capable camera and the device can go into a passive mode and serve as a standard interior mirror, and the thing comes with a keyring sized remote for when your parked up and fancy watching a Video before carrying on that Road trip!

The Camera unit is of a fairly standard wired design meant to affix to two of your licence plate tag holder screws. It is waterproof and has a cluster of  IR-LED’s around the 120 degree camera lens for the night use. All in all a solid if unspectacular unit that should do the job well.

But the thing that sets this apart is the price. All these features are being listed for under $130! Compared to some of the devices I’ve looked at before thats a great package deal! However technical details have yet to reach me in full so I really would like anyone that has one of these great looking little camera/screen units to leave us a comment here and let us know how well it performs in real world conditions.

But for now this is a great sounding deal and I encourage you all to take a closer look if you need a  Backup camera system for your RV or SUV

Now this is an alternative backup camera system unit that caught my atteniton. This device is a totally self contained camera display unit you can permanently fix it to the back of your vehicle with the screw mount on the camera unit but one of the intriging things is you really don’t have to! Not apparent from the picture is the powerful magnetic pad the camera comes with which is pleanty for short trips – or (as its manufacturers originally thought of) if you just need that extra hand hooking up a trailer hitch.

For trailer assistance its first rate position the camera and back up, the screen though smaller than some is of very good quality and many folks are reporting that its all they need to attach horseboxes, trailers (etc) single handed. One chap then had this camera repositioned so he could keep an eye on his beloved horses in transit.

So if you want versitility rather than a simple backup camera system than this is it! The batteries on it will last a long time on a single charge so it might even double as an overnight security camera while you were in your tent or cabin!

Naturelly there is (excuse the pun) one hitch… Its fairly pricey compared to some devices I have listed here, but for you money you get a tough camera and hand held (or mountable) screen. The thing has a listed range of over 300′ but from my research this really depends on conditions and as with all wireless Backup camera systems what the signal has to transmit through. Still by all accounts it does better than half that(200′) before any significant picture quality is lost.

So while not a “Classic” backup camera system like many reviewed here. This certainly is something to look at for its sheer versatility.

So it occurred to me that if I am going to include stand alone cameras I had jolly well better add in at least a few Stand alone display units as well!

So here is the first a 7″ display from Power Acoustik designed to fit where your regular sun visor does. I appreciated this as an option as when dealing with a Backup camera system you do not necessarily want a great big display continuously taking up space on your dashboard (unless it has some other function – like the sat nav combos) Nor did I feel that the readily available flip down DVD players were entirely suitable either. The danger their would be that while driving along there would be the temptation to look at something other than the road. And as road safety is what this site is about… probably not my best move…

So we have this device, overall its 9″x5″ in size and less than an inch deep (the screen as I said is 7″ visible) it accepts a single video input. As you can see it comes with a mini remote control rather than have controls on its fascia, this is not personally something I’d like. I hope to be able to track down something that has both a basic on panel control set as well as a remote. I am a terrible loser of remote controls and I have a fear that would happen all to swiftly with this one as well!

But apart from that the design is simple and elegant with decent brightness and quality. The main reason I include it is that as a slightly older design prices are beginning to drop and if you wanted a simple flip down display for your camera that you could later double up as a video display when you were stopped then its ideal. So I shall be checking out more modern versions from Power Acoustik ASAP to see how they have improved the breed. But for now the Power Acoustik PT-727MSV is the best value basic screen at about $90.

Now this device, the Navsgo GO760RV wireless backup camera system and GPS seemed to have it all at first glance.  But I thought at over £300 it ought to have it all. So with a dram of cynicism I did some digging.

The Technical specs are indeed impressive and include a 7″ screen. A low light Wireless backup camera. A separate AV input for a second camera or perhaps a DVD or game as well as such bells and whistles as having a picture viewer and mp3 player. It even can read e books on the SD Card! So it truly had all the features you would expect and a few I certainly didn’t!

Reassuringly the mapping software was recently updated and the manufacturer has facilities for you to download further updates as they become available. But my focus here was the actual RV backup camera system so after wading through the hype this is what I found. I knew with a 7″ screen picture quality was going to be great so I focused (excuse the pun!) on the camera itself.

The device comes with a very small camera ingeniously mounted on a screw fitment designed to replace one of your licence plate/tag screws. the cable for it passes into the trunk of your car through this same hole making installation even easier than normal. It has a generous 170 degree angle and is designed for low light use as well, though it does not by itself have any Infra red LED’s to illuminate behind you so in total blackness like a remote camp sight you had best have good reversing lights! The camera also has a fixed lens position which might be problematical in some cases but with that excellent field of view I doubt many will have much of a problem.

Indeed the only caution I would pass on about this excellent and well made unit is the wireless link from camera(s) to screen unit might get a bit fuzzy if there is a lot of metal between the two.  This is partially because the Bluetooth (did I mention it has Bluetooth as well? Sorry I should have, as everything is better with Bluetooth!) built into it can, as I have mentioned before, get scragged by the wireless signal or vice versa. So if you have an extra long or (pardon the phrase) dense vehicle you may want to invest in an extension cable for the backup camera’s antenna. But really that’s it, there are no other flaws in this device that I can discern. The Navsgo GO760RV is a backup camera system of the first order and a very decent GPS as well. Its wealth of bonus features are just icing on the very well made cake. So I am going to add it to my Recommended list without further ado. Take a look at the Navsgo GO760RV, at a little over £300  it would be hard to buy better!