Basic Functions are Excellent!

Really easy to install and connect to 12V power and the Kenwood radio. I really like the ability to record, take photos, view saved videos, etc. all from the head unit. Very cool. However, the more advanced functionality (departure delay and collision collision) so far have been completely useless. After setting up the horizon and hood settings, and camera alignment, the collision warning continually activates for no reason, and the departure delay also triggers often and unnecessarily (i.e. when at a stop light and traffic is passing in front of me). Anyway, that extra stuff would have been really cool, but the camera overall is still nice, and has a great HD quality video.

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Great quality video, limit MicroSD support

Camera itself is fairly good quality. Great quality video during the day and good enough at night time. Definitely better than most other dash cams. Only really complaint is that it only supports MicroSD cards that are 32GB or less. Considering this camera is over $200, this is quite frankly unacceptable. The dash cam in my wife's car we bought for $60 on Amazon accepts a 256GB card without complaint. If you plan to take a multi day trip, you better have a computer with you to be able to save a recording if you need to, because after 4 or 5 days it'll be overwritten with new footage.

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fabulous dash cam

the Kenwood DRV-N520 dash cam is all would ever need, coupled with the Kenwood DNR1008RVS it's great!

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Kenwood DRV-N520 Drive Recorder

Works great

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Works for intended use.

Camera appears to work well. I know other posts have complained about resolution but honestly this canera is at least as good as every other survalannce camera on the market. In short it does the job it is intended to do. The only real issue for me is that the camera is intended to be mounted on the windshield behind or just under the mirror. The mounting does not work well for mounting to a nearly vertical windshield or for dashboard mounting. I mounted mine using a camera mount from Amazon and a 4" long piece of aluminum bar stock.

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Kenwood DRV-N520 Drive Recorder

Very good product

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Kenwood DRV-N520 Drive Recorder

Works happy with the product.

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Kenwood dashcam

Works great like the fact you can view and change settings from select Kenwood headunits

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Worth It! (In My Opinion)

Very pleased thus far with the camera! Seamless integration with my DNR1007XR. Brings a new kind of functionality to an aftermarket receiver that still impresses me every time I get in the car. I found it to be a very easy install. If you have a Kenwood receiver and it's compatible with this camera, you ought to buy it. Reviewing recordings is a breeze, micro SD card is easy to get in and out. All around very satisfied with this product! I just wish it could handle a bigger micro SD than just 32GB!!! See Pros and Cons below for more details.

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Overpriced

The pre collision and departure warning features do not work properly. They just keep flashing warnings for no reason, so they have to be disabled.

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Crutchfield response on 2/7/2022

Billy, we're sorry you're having issues with your recorder. Whenever you encounter a problem with anything you purchase from Crutchfield, please contact our Tech Support team. They can help you solve the problem or set up a return within 60 days of purchase. Lifetime tech support comes with every Crutchfield purchase.

Amazing

It's small and compact, all the advertised functions work exactly as they said. Installation was easy and works perfectly with my Kenwood.

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Kenwood DRV-N520 Drive Recorder

Easy connecting to my Kenwood DNX577S. Love the compatibility.

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Pretty dang cool

Would have been nice to have in an unavoidable accident I was involved in. Works great paired with the Kenwood DNX 997xr

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Kenwood DRV-N520 Drive Recorder

Integrates well with the compatible receiver.

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Kenwood DRV-N520 Drive Recorder

Good dash camera

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Kenwood DRV-N520 Drive Recorder

Very good

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Software Not Great

The collision avoidance and delayed departure features do not seem to work well on my Sprinter. I've setup everything according to the manual, but still get many false positives.

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Crutchfield response on 10/26/2020

We're sorry you're having issues with your dash cam. Whenever you encounter a problem with anything you purchase from Crutchfield, please contact our Tech Support team. They can help you solve the problem or set up a return within 60 days of purchase. Lifetime tech support comes with every Crutchfield purchase.

Kenwood DRV-N520 Drive Recorder

Good camera. Resolution not quite as good as expected. Setup could be easier, particularly when installed with a compatible Kenwood receiver.

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Kenwood DRV-N520 Drive Recorder

works great with the kenwood recever.

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Kenwood DRV-N520 Drive Recorder

So far the pairing with my DMX907s is not working well. It does record, however the only way to see the video is to take the chip into the house and load it on my computer. There are no functions at all in the setup menu and so nothing at all can be adjusted. I can't aim it, set resolution, set recording length, overwrite, sensitivity, parking...like I said, nothing. I am working with Crutchfield to resolve the issues.

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Cool Dash Camera

Cool Dash Camera and I like the interface on the Kenwwod receiver The collision warning is nice as well.

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dashcam

I just installed this dashcam with the dnx997xr radio today setting the clock was kind of hard to do. The images so for are clear so far. The video recording playback is really good but the audio is really bad even with the audio settings on max 10 lvl hopefully on a pc the audio will be louder video quality is really nice not chopping. So far I am happy with my purchase I am surprised with everything I have behind my rear view mirror none of the items are in the camera view...

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A good dash cam with some flaws

A good dash cam. I like how it integrates with the head unit; makes for a much smoother experience than most dashcams.

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Very well designed

Camera works very well, plenty of settings to accommodate any vehicle

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Dash cam install number three.

Excellent picture quality!

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Super high def picture.

Works flawlessly with my KENWOOD DNX576S. Awesome unit and super clear picture. It logs the date, time, location and speed on the video. You can watch it on the head unit.

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DRV-N520 Drive Recorder in a 2017 KIA Forte

Record functions work well and integrates into the DNX995S head unit I purchased (why I selected it). Driving features (Collision Warning, Lane drifting, Departure Delay) do not work with my car. I assume the pitch of the windshield and reflections are too much for the cam to handle.

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Highly Recommend

Bought this to connect with my Kenwood Excelon DMX-905s. Connection was simple, as I originally bought the head unit from Crutchfield and the harness, head unit and camera power cables are all color coded. 3 Power connections, one video connection and the data connection and I was ready to go. The system auto-detected the camera and it was running as soon as I started the car! Picture is great, and it's small enough that it can fit right in front of the rear view mirror... in my Miata. Only complaint is the accident detection is way too sensitive, and rings occasionally. I think it may because my car is so low to the ground and the lowest setting for the mount height is 1.2 meters (my car is barely a meter high at the roof.

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Great!

Works great! First step into dash cams. Picture is stunning! Super easy to install. A must have.

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Good product - could have easily been a great product.

It's OK - fully integrated with my DNX996XR Receiver. The lane departure / collision avoidance doesn't work all that well - but it's OK. Video quality is great when viewed on a PC. I wish the function that deals with offlline recording (when the vehicle is turned off) had more functionality - it's more of an "On or Off" - no settings. This was a key reason for my purchase. Generally speaking I think Kenwood has some great tech but the user interface on their receivers (which is required to control this device) look like they were designed in the 1990's - not user friendly, hard to navigate, not intuitive, not visually appealing. The good news is that it does what it was designed to do - record high quality video all the time / be readily available if you need to pull it. This part works great. And - it's fully integrated with their higher end receivers.

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Kenwood DRV-N520 Drive Recorder

Great item works very well

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Kenwood DRV-N520 Drive Recorder

I like everything about this product , it functions well and the picture is very clear

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A must have.

What a great addition to my Kenwood multi media receiver. This dash cam really is a gem and a must have in this Day and Age. Very happy with all the features and the video recording is awesome. The software for viewing video is also awesome. I have been wanting to install a dash cam for a few years now, and finally I have one now . Very happy customer here in the Pacific North West

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Kenwood DRV-N520 Drive Recorder

Sweet little cam and smaller than I expected. Easy to hide behind my rear view mirror. Integrates perfectly with my new KENWOOD deck and adds forward collision warnings.

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Love it

Works amazing with the 9706 receiver great quality photo and video and very adjustable settings

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Dashcam

Easy hook up with the Kenwood head unit.

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Kenwood DRV-N520 Drive Recorder

Easy to install and configure. Very happy with the image and lots of drivers aids. Good addition for a Kenwood Radio.

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Kenwood DRV-N520 Drive Recorder

I have always wanted a dash cam, and this fits perfectly

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Meh

Below average camera and poor sound quality. When set to the highest res, I still can't make out license plates. In addition, the sound is well...horrible! I dont know if I got a defective unit, but I can barely here my own radio when playing back recordings. Driver support was annoying as heck!! Had to turn it all off...I would not recommend this product.

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Nice dash cam

I love it,good picture,easy install,fair price wound buy if you have a KENWOOD and you add a dash cam good product easy to use??

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Partly great, partly disappointing

For the most part this product does what it says. I'm only giving it two stars, however, because the driver assist functions are essentially useless as they do not contain settings. The departure delay warning goes off constantly if you are the first car at a stoplight or stopsign. In this case, every time a car crosses the street you are stopped at, the warning goes off. The front collision warning is even worse. It seems to only detect two things: (a) your car is over a certain speed and (b) you are less than a certain distance from the vehicle in front of you. If you are going fast this distance is the same as if you are going slow, making the feature actually dangerous. It doesn't seem to detect if the care you are following is slowing down, only if you are close to it. If you are going fast there would be no way you could stop in time and if you are going slower the constant warnings are like the boy who cried wolf. Needs a firmware update to correct these problems and the ability to detect whether something is actually slowing down (getting bigger) and compare that speed to your speed and then determine if it should warn you. For some things, it seems like it would go off right before impact. For many other things it goes of if there is no danger whatsoever. Also, lane departure warning is not available in north America, and not tied to the turn signals anyway, so it would be super annoying.

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Lane departure

I am posting a review because some people have mentioned that lane departure doesn't work in North America. I found a workaround. Update the firmware through Kenwood's Japanese site, I did it yesterday and now I have lane departure. There, for some reason, isn't any update on the American site. My system version is now 2.0

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Awesome and slim dashcam

i was contemplating on ordering this to add my head unit Kenwood DNX694S and I'm glad I did. Plugged in directly to my unit.

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Alright video, bad memory restrictions

The dash quality isn't the most amazing thing in the world but it is usable. The major downside of this is the restriction of 32gb memory. You can only have up to 32gb and that is disappointing.

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Kenwood DRV-N520 Drive Recorder

Video is alright. Love the camera size. Integrates nicely with receiver.

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Great integration, poor video quality

I already had a Vicovation Opia2 in my F-150 but the thought of integrating a unit with a new Kenwood DNX-874S was intriguing. The cam offered a 3MP sensor which was higher than the Vico, the seamless integration into the head unit was easy and overall I had high expectations. That's about where things end however, the video quality is lackluster when compared to the Vico, there is no way to add a polarizer that would greatly improve on the image and while it does offer HDR for better images between low and bright light such as when going through a tunnel, that function it not available at the highest 3MP recording quality. Install was easy, just ran the cable to the A-Pillar and through to the radio cavity, wired the cam into the harness along with the radio and connected the camera specific wires into the radio. One button push and the camera displays on the head unit, programming is done via the head unit and playback can also be done via the head unit which is awesome if you were involved in a situation and wanted to play back the footage for law or fire on scene. The big recommendation would be to get a 32GB memory card, that will only give you about 4 hours of recording time in 1080/HDR mode but it's a lot better than the small 8GB card they supply. The main issue for me is that Vico has a better image, next, these are dedicated cameras and still today a phone which is not a dedicated camera does a better job which should not be the case.

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Inside the park homerun

All in I really like this camera! It works well with my DNX994S, and the picture quality is very good in and out of the truck, the on screen warnings are a great feature although a bit over protective. The mounting height, angle and what the camera "sees" are all huge factors that need to be really strictly adjusted. For example 'mounting height' in meters, I need more options for a truck since I'm between the middle and highest points and it makes a difference. So depending on what you drive the ideal mounting location needs to be considered to get as close to preset points as possible. The only other reason I gave it 4 stars is the micro sd card Kenwood provides. If the camera has a max 32gb factor why are they giving up the huge 8gb card? As a seasoned dash camera user I know that life on the dash is tough on a card, the constant rewriting of data and the internal temperature extremes of the vehicle will kill most cards in a couple months. Give us (get your own) high endurance card from Sandisk or Lexar, I use them and they just don't quit. These are minor issues that can be fixed with a firmware update and a better card. I'm pretty much a dash cam savant at this point and for the price we expect a better offering when it's easy to spend $1k on the cam and the headunit. Kenwood came close, I'm hoping they get closer quick.

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Nice !

Works great! Small and hides nicely behind the rear view mirror! Incorporates well with the KENWOOD receiver!

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Kenwood DRV-N520 Drive Recorder

Does everything I need it to do. I don't need lane assist or crash warning... not relevant. My only disappointment is that camera is limited to a 32G card capacity.

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Nice camear with good stereo integration

I installed this a few weeks ago in my 2013 Jeep Wrangler (with a 3.5" lift on 35" Tires) thru a Kenwood DMX-7704s Head Unit. The unit works as expected I like that in the camera setup that it allowed for adjustment of the system mounting height for proper calibration. The default height of a car mount would have not worked from a software calibration perspective on my Jeep. Connection was a breeze to the back of the stereo, and to power/ground connections. The clarity on the screen is much better than I expected considering the varied reviews on clarity. I am not leveraging the lane, braking, and distance monitoring in this situation as I do not want that much information popping up at me. I did test those functions, and they did work. All-in-all this is a nice and small unit that fit nicely just below my rearview mirror. I feel better knowing that I can at least produce a video in the event of an accident.

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Good picture, nicely integrated.

Installed this camera along with a new Kenwood DNX994S head. Integration is perfect, I can review dashcam footage or live view from the stereo screen.

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Good hardware look and feel, terrible video

I ordered this to go along with the Kenwood head unit, and it seems like a great integrated system. The dashcam cast and installation seems high quality and looks good. The camera doesn't have a screen on it, so it's nice and small and sleek. Looks good in the car. Despite how good the hardware looks.. the video it produces is terrible. In the default 1080/hdr mode, the video looks blurry and low resolution, even in full daylight. The other modes, like departure delay, etc are useless. The kenwood head unit interface with the dashcam are fine. In summary, the hardware and interface are great - but the one main job the camera does - shoot video - is terrible quality and unacceptable for a dashcam. Kenwood needs to fix this asap either via a software or hardware update..

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Crutchfield response on 9/18/2017

Jeffrey, we're sorry you're disappointed with your video quality. Whenever you are not completely satisfied with anything you purchase from Crutchfield, please contact our Customer Support team at 1-800-955-9091. Purchases from Crutchfield can be returned or exchanged within 60 days of the purchase.

Really? This is what we have been waiting for?

I really tried to love this dash cam, but it is not possible. The advanced driving features are awful and I ended up turning them off. Far to many false alarms no matter how you fine tune the settings. The picture is just okay when using Kenwood's viewing app and it is down right awful on quicktime. I have another brand in the family car the picture quality is outstanding and I paid less for dual cameras. The sad thing is that I chose this particular headunit because of the dash cam. I have been a true Kenwood fan for a couple decades now and this is the biggest disappointment. Hopefully they will release an update to address the driving features.

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Keep looking....

Keep looking.... There HAS to be something better out there than this. It isn't terrible, but it isn't worth nearly what it costs. The video quality doesn't appear to be HD to me - that is when shown on a Retina display, and definitely not on the head unit in the car! The microphone leaves something to be desired too. If I could get my money back for the head unit, I would send this back as well. Forget about the driver assist features., they are an absolute joke! I spent at least a couple of hours combined over several trips in the car adjusting the parameters, and I couldn't get it to stop with the false alarms. Needless to say, it has been turned off, because it gets beyond annoying - the beeping and screen displays! I will probably go for a blackvue next... They seem to be somewhat comparable in price, but offer something closer to what I expected from this unit. We will see...

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Kenwood DRV-N520 Drive Recorder

As of right now I am waiting on a call from Kenwood technical support to try and figure out why none of the features are working as well as the ability to correctly set the date and time. The only option you have during set up is time zone, daylight savings time,time format (12 or 24 hrs) and date format. There is no way to set the exact hours and minutes or the day month and year. Also the forward collision warning, lane departure warning, and departure delay warning do not work. The event recording does not work. It does not record the speed that you are traveling while the vehicle is moving. Considering that this camera only works with the DMX 7704s that I had to purchase, I must say a major, major disapointment. UPDATED 7/31/17: I am upgrading my review to 4 stars as I learned that I was missing a critical part that was necessary for the dash cam to work correctly. I did not receive the GPS antenna with the unit and it was overlooked since I believed it was only needed for a receiver that had built in navigation. After talking with John at Kenwood technical support I was told that I did need the GPS antenna. They rushed one to me at no charge and within a few minutes of installation the dash cam had the correct time and date as part of the recording process as well as the MPH when driving. Excellent response from Kenwood TS. The reason I gave four stars and not five is because the forward collision warning and delay departure warning do not work as well as I would have liked. Maybe in a future firmware update they will figure out why they are so sensitive but until then I will just turn them off. A nice feature but not that important. That aside, a very nice camera with a crystal clear picture that mounts nicely behind the rear view mirror and easily reviewable recordings through the receiver.

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Thought it would be cooler than it really is.

The DMX7704S has some issues. The display layer is very reflective and fades out the picture in any direct sunlight. The lag time it takes for the unit to come to life when the vehicle is turned on is to long. The 'nag' screen is SUPER annoying, I understand Kenwwod is C.Y.A.-ing but good god shorten the time to 5 seconds or less. Although this is not Kenwood's issue, Android Auto is worthless and splash screen on my phone every time I connect it to one of the USB connections sucks too. I would love to see a 'mute' option. The ATT button is great but make it so that when pressed a second time it mutes or put a soft button on the screen. Have the title of the song/video scroll, it is currently cut off if it is too long. how about having the font size and color changeable. The A.D.A.S. system on the DRV-N520 needs some work. It sounds off all the time even when nothing is in front of the vehicle. This happens with the collision and late departure. I finally turned it off. The video was grainy on the unit (DMX7704S) but super clear on the laptop. The connections for this unit are: An RCA video output, a three-pin connector to the back of the head unit and three wires, Yellow (Battery), Red (Accessory) and Black (Ground) These issues are not bad enough for me to rip this combo out of my vehicle since I do like what else they have to offer. I am sure nothing will be done about the issues above but I thought a good rant will inform others before making their decision.

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