Anyone installed a dashcam?

[Transporter]

Video sample from Navman dashcam


http://www.flickr.com/photos/60080395@N04/8556713336/

[Hillbilly]

I've had my BlackVue DR400 HD II installed with PowerMagic for a few months now. It's a great setup, but now that I've had it for a while I've noticed some aspects I'm not really happy about.

The BlackVue records in 1920 x 1080px with industry standard formats, etc, but one thing I never considered was the sensor or compression. The BlackVue records at 30fps, but the image quality is not the best. Compared with my GoPro Hero3 Black, or even White edition, the video sensor/compression of the BlackVue has an inferior image quality. To my dismay, the quality is so bad that most of the time I cannot read car plates of moving cars on the road; either driving in front of me or oncoming traffic. I'd have to be 2 or 3 metres away in good lighting conditions with a front-on aspect to read plate numbers.

There are plenty of incidents on my recent 6,000Km road trip where I wish I could identify the car plate of an idiot driver from the video, but although there may be enough pixels, the sensor quality or compression algorithm was inferior.

That said, the motion detection of the BlackVue was good. Even if I park next to a busy road, the camera doesn't seem to be activated by background movement. The maximum microSD card size is 32Gb, and at maximum resolution it equates to about 9hrs recording time before it loops over itself. It gets quite sensitive when driving at higher speeds and logs "Events" at the slightest bump in the road when going 100-110Km/h. Even adjusting X,Y,Z-axis sensitivity doesn't help much there. It's possibly because of windshield mount and the vibrations on the windshield at those speeds.

For now I'm thinking of augmenting the BlackVue with my GoPro camera to capture better image snapshots while the DVR takes in the context with GPS/speed logging.

You can turn compression off and reduce sensitivity. When watching video later If you pause video when vehicle is close I find that number plates are normally readable.. If you want to retain video for future use , heres what to do.
Take card out and put it in computer Open contents and go to "RECORD" folder Copy it to a HDD on computer and you can read it later in Blackvue viewer by changing the path above the video files.
We did that every night on a recent trip to the USA have all the roads we travelled retained for posterity.
Also if you turn the beep off when an event is recorded its less annoying. I have all lights and noises turned off.

[Hillbilly]

To go along with Transporters pics here is the DR400G vers 1 and the DR500g WIFI pics


400g



500G in same car on same mount Needs pointing down a bit I think



Note the extra width in the 500 compared to the 400

[sVWatt]

The quality looks equal, so it's mainly a wider lense and the new wifi features?

[Hillbilly]

The quality looks equal, so it's mainly a wider lense and the new wifi features?

Yep and on mine voice is Korean but no biggie. I prefer the 400 picture however Here is the 350 I have in the rear window as well It has no GPS though

[Hillbilly]

English firmware update for a Blackvue DR500GW WIFi

Here is a link with all the English stuff for you Am going to see if it will work in my Korean version shortly

DR500GW-HD - BlackVue Car Black Box with Built-in Wi-Fi

[ian]

English firmware update for a Blackvue DR500GW WIFi

Here is a link with all the English stuff for you Am going to see if it will work in my Korean version shortly

DR500GW-HD - BlackVue Car Black Box with Built-in Wi-Fi

Hey hillbilly you can change from Korean to English ,just follow the instructions , I have to do it every time I format my Dr400G HUD
Should be the same principle in the 500
Please follow the steps below.
1. Format miniSD card with recommended formatter.
2. Download v.1.040E
3. Run 1.040E setup with miniSD in reader
4. Change language on miniSD in folder: \blackvue\Config\version.bin from English to Korean using notepad or any other text editor.
5. Insert miniSD in camera, powerup, wait for upgrade to be completed. (on camera restart will be in Korean)
6. Power down, take out miniSD and put it back in PC. Change language from step 4 Korean back to English
7. Insert miniSD in camera and you will be greeted in English!

[Aurange_Tiguan]

You can turn compression off and reduce sensitivity.

I have compression as Normal, instead of High. There is no setting to make the compression any better. I've even tried making fps 15 instead of 30, in the remote chance this could affect frame quality. If I can't pause on a frame and recognise the characters on a number plate within 5 metres, there's little point of having the BlackVue for "peace of mind".

I've done what you did at the start of the year and used the BlackVue to record a 6,000Km roadtrip from Perth. It's great for that, but I'm still disappointed with the poor overall video quality. If I could attach some examples of poor quality I would.

[Hillbilly]

Hey hillbilly you can change from Korean to English ,just follow the instructions , I have to do it every time I format my Dr400G HUD
Should be the same principle in the 500
Please follow the steps below.
1. Format miniSD card with recommended formatter.
2. Download v.1.040E
3. Run 1.040E setup with miniSD in reader
4. Change language on miniSD in folder: \blackvue\Config\version.bin from English to Korean using notepad or any other text editor.
5. Insert miniSD in camera, powerup, wait for upgrade to be completed. (on camera restart will be in Korean)
6. Power down, take out miniSD and put it back in PC. Change language from step 4 Korean back to English
7. Insert miniSD in camera and you will be greeted in English!

Pittasoft told me the domestic Korean versions, which mine is have encrypted firmware which cant be changed I have managed to get the English viewer to work but have just tried to install the english firmware and it doesnt like it at all.

Have been on lots of Dashcam forums and no one has come up with a solution yet, including the Russians who seem to be the best hackers

The 500 is quite a bit different to the 400 as regards to sophistication of workings.

My 400 would just run whichever language was put into it but it is a couple of years old and before they got smarter and stopped that sort of thing

Your instructions definitely dont work Sorry

Have just installed firmware on a new SD card and followed your instructions and as expected it said that " The version information is different" and wont go any further. Will leave it for the Russians I think There is hacked firmware on the DASH CAM FORUM which give a better bitrate and supposedly better clarity http://forum.dashcamtalk.com/viewforum.php?f=6

Try it at your peril after reading the thread but only on English versions I think

[Hillbilly]

I have compression as Normal, instead of High. There is no setting to make the compression any better. I've even tried making fps 15 instead of 30, in the remote chance this could affect frame quality. If I can't pause on a frame and recognise the characters on a number plate within 5 metres, there's little point of having the BlackVue for "peace of mind".

I've done what you did at the start of the year and used the BlackVue to record a 6,000Km roadtrip from Perth. It's great for that, but I'm still disappointed with the poor overall video quality. If I could attach some examples of poor quality I would.

Upload them to photobucket and post the link U use the 4th box down under the pic to do it R/click on it and copy and paste it into a post

I have found it you capture a still out of the movie you can usually read a plate The magnify in the 500 is absolute crap

Look at my images on page 6 of this thread there isnt much wrong with them I reckon and they are 3 different cameras