One way is to buy an optional $25 hardwire kit from Vantrue, which will connect the device directly to your fuse box. Note, however, that the camera draws about 25 to 35 milliamps while in parking mode (about 3 to 4 watts on a home outlet), and this will drain your car’s battery if hardwired. This isn’t a troublesome power draw, and should be fine for days or maybe weeks if your battery’s healthy.

But in general, I’d rather not drain my car battery while it’s parked. I’d instead nix the hardwire kit and invest in a good power bank. Even a $48 portable bank from Anker should be enough for about a week’s continuous operation while parked, without ever worrying about battery drain on your car.

Limitations and Faults

Vantrue app via Matthew Korfhage

For such a dinky device, the Vantrue does nonetheless offer a real-time screen. It’s doubtful you’ll use it to scroll through video, however. It’s most useful for verifying the framing on the cam when you stick it to your windshield. The screen is a bit busy with information, and lower resolution than the actual video.

If you’re reviewing footage, you’ll be doing so on your phone using the app. But the screen is still useful for adjusting settings manually, should you desperately need to—though controlling the phone via the on-camera interface will be a little fiddly and irritating. Again, you’re better off just connecting the camera to your phone to toggle settings.

There are, in fact, settings aplenty. Through the app, you’re able to track mileage, toggle GPS tracking, set the frame rate and resolution of the camera, and set whether you want the camera to use high-dynamic range settings or PlatePix. The former will be most useful when light is dim.

It’s also a simple, single-camera device. Vantrue has more elaborate (and more expensive, and larger) multi-camera options with similar camera specs that I’m in the process of testing, including a Nexus 4 Pro with a lower-resolution front-cabin and rear cam. A 4-channel N5 adds an extra rear-cabin channel for a wild amount of camera coverage, but at the expense of some image resolution.

PlatePix does indeed help in capturing license plates, but it will do so at the expense of contrast on the rest of the image. This is a compromise that’ll matter most at night. Which is to say, you’re choosing between marginal license plate capture on a dark image, or worse, license plate capture on crisper night footage.