Jenson Radio = = Related to Tow Vehicle Dash-Cam ?

MuttonChops

{{{ rant ? ?  }}}

I'm in week three of a five-six week SnowBird trip.  Southern Utah to southern Arizona.

While driving between St George UT and Kingman AZ my dash cam died.

It was a new dash cam (the same brand as my last <$100 units [all failed after a few years]). This one failed in one month.

A replacement (different brand) was purchased in PHX.  It seems to be working correctly on a drive to Yuma . . . then I found it would not / could not connect to my laptop for viewing/copying the videos.  The unit will power-up when the 12V Adapter is used, it will not power-up when the USB Dash Cam to PC cable is used ! !  I cannot win.

The 'new' dash cam is a Kenwood brand over $100 but still a lower end price,  Back in the 60's - 80's Kenwood was a reliable mid-range Made in Japan vendor - - - this new dash cam is a Made in China and not as 'mid-range' as I had hoped.

During the research to contact Kenwood of my issue I DISCOVERED that Kenwood is now part of JVC which of course is the true owners of our Jensen Radios,   And we all seem to love them ????

Seems everything consumer be it major USA or Japan brand names have had the 'brand name' sold off to build-it-cheap Chinese corporations.  The huge "offshoring" of the late 80's to late 90's destroyed far more than just U.S. union jobs.

It gave us consumers lower quality products form respected brand names . . . .

AnOldUR

Hoping that current policies will lead to more USA made quality products and less big business corporate greed.

Maple_Geek

My opinion only...
As consumers, I believe we also play a part here. By "constantly" selecting cheap products on platforms such as Amazon, we force prices downward as higher quality products lose market shares. Our consumerism practices are very focused on price rather than quality. "We" are making clear statements to the various industries that we prefer throwing away our cheap goods rather than paying more for better quality.

I also agree that corporate greed, and various policies have had big influence also.
And yes, I consider that I'm part of that very problem at times also.

Marceline

MuttonChops said:

A replacement (different brand) was purchased in PHX.  It seems to be working correctly on a drive to Yuma . . . then I found it would not / could not connect to my laptop for viewing/copying the videos.  The unit will power-up when the 12V Adapter is used, it will not power-up when the USB Dash Cam to PC cable is used ! !  I cannot win.

The Kenwood dashcam doesn't have an internal battery and requires a power supply to function. Your laptop USB port is probably not sending enough power to the Kenwood. If you have a USB hub with its own 110 power supply, you could try using that as a workaround (plug the powered USB hub into the laptop, and plug the camera into that), but I'm not 100% sure your laptop would recognize it, even if powers the dash cam.

Otherwise, pull the micro SD out of the dash cam and plug it into the micro SD slot on your laptop (or a micro SD reader plugged into your laptop. The data will probably transfer more quickly directly from the micro SD, anyways.

The 'new' dash cam is a Kenwood brand over $100 but still a lower end price,  Back in the 60's - 80's Kenwood was a reliable mid-range Made in Japan vendor - - - this new dash cam is a Made in China and not as 'mid-range' as I had hoped.

During the research to contact Kenwood of my issue I DISCOVERED that Kenwood is now part of JVC which of course is the true owners of our Jensen Radios,   And we all seem to love them ????

Kenwood and JVC (both Japanese companies) merged in 2011. They don't have anything to do with the Jensen brand. 

The Jensen that sells the TVs and head units used in T@Bs is part of ASA Electronics, a US company. It looks like they bought some (but not all) of the Jensen businesses (RV, truck, etc) in 1996 from Audiovox.

https://www.asaelectronics.com/our-company/

Audiovox (renamed Voxx) sold the remaining Jensen car audio business to a Korean company in 2015.

https://www.twice.com/product/namsung-buys-jensen-car-audio-voxx-57822 

So there are two different companies selling products under the Jensen label in different markets.

Seems everything consumer be it major USA or Japan brand names have had the 'brand name' sold off to build-it-cheap Chinese corporations.  The huge "offshoring" of the late 80's to late 90's destroyed far more than just U.S. union jobs.

It gave us consumers lower quality products form respected brand names . . . .

There are plenty of reasons to complain about offshoring. We did lose tons of manufacturing jobs and I personally think that it was a mistake. But I think that there's no reason to believe that there's anything wrong with your Kenwood dashcam. I think that it's more likely an issue with the USB port on your laptop. I could also be the cable you're using (if it's not the one supplied with the camera).

MuttonChops

@Marceline; thanks for your comments, details.

My issue was due to the USB Cable Supplied by Kenwood . . . it has no contacts in the camera end connector . . .

Ownership of so many brand names seems to be changing every few years - - - article I read/referenced was not current/accurate - - -

IMHO the off-shoring from USA or Japan and/or direct selling of historical brand names is indeed part of the overall quality of consumer products.

Marceline

MuttonChops said:

My issue was due to the USB Cable Supplied by Kenwood . . . it has no contacts in the camera end connector . . .

That is very odd. Glad to hear that you figured out the problem.