Avoid Blackvue Dashcams!

[Pruitt]

When I got my new S in 2016 I installed a Blackvue dashcam. It has been an unreliable piece of junk.

First they came out with a firmware upgrade, which apparently fried the parts of the memory that stores settings and holds the audio response messages, because the audio messages stopped as soon as I installed the update. Blackvue technical support had me jump through some hoops (for about 10 hours) to try to restore the camera's default settings and make it work again, to no avail. They had me buy one of their overpriced cards because others are "not reliable" and they would not provide any support until I did so.

Of course that made no difference, and then they told me, in essence, "too bad." Nothing more we can do.

It was still recording, however, so I kept using it.

Some time in the last month or so it quit working completely, except for the LED pilot light that supposedly shows you that it is on and functioning. LED is on, but the camera does not record at all.

From a small amount of research, it does appear the Blackvue line of dashcams tend to fail after a relatively short service time. Mine actually lasted longer than many.

I will be replacing it with a competitor's product.

Save yourself some aggravation and buy something other than Blackvue.

 

[azdryheat]

I have had mine for about 18 months. Software and ease of use have not been the best, but I have had no issues with it. I would keep on them to make it work right. If you just bought it, call your CC company.

 

[AmpedRealtor]

Stuff happens. Didn't it come with a warranty?

 

[Super_Popular]

Hmmmm....kinda sounds like my Model X lol

 

[Russell]

Mine is junk too. In the first year of ownership I had to replace it 3 times. It works fine for 2 months, wifi connects everytime I pull into my garage and GPS locks onto signal within a mile of driving. Now it's flaky on both.

 

[SMAlset]

We had a 650S-2ch when we bought our MS back in 3/2017. While the software in part was not the greatest and my husband didn't know why they made it necessary that you had to reformat your card periodically, the dashcam worked fine for the most part and kept recording until we updated cameras. Bought another Blackvue. We did use Blackvue's cards BTW. Have the 32GB it came with and because we wanted the record during parking mode (basically had it running 24/7) we purchased their 128GB card as well. We had some occasional issues but they got resolved and we were never without it for long.

We subsequently purchased the 900S-2ch when it came out, we're still using the same cards BTW, saw they made improvements on many fronts including software and hardware; and have been using this dashcam since April of 2018. Bought it with a 128GB card so now have two for longer recording times. At first we had an issue with the camera overheating, and my husband had a friend create a heat sink for it and it ran fine all throughout the summer and beyond. We haven't seen people on here report having a heat issue with theirs so think the units either had a change early on or maybe our unit was just more sensitive. Anyway has been very reliable. In fact just last month it captured in nice video quality the hit-and-run driver who damaged my husband's MS's rear panel and bumper. Some kind person stopped them from getting fully away before telling them they saw what happened and have photos of their vehicle and license plate and encouraged them to pull back into the lot while finding my husband to inform him what they had done. It was great having the 2-channel video for our insurance company and had no problem getting the driver's insurance company to admit fault. Also nice to let them know their insured was a hit-and-run driver.

We love the smaller form factor of the Blackvue and the quality of their cameras and night vision has gotten much better. We would have added one to my Model 3 except Tesla took away that nice power source for hardwiring it for 24/7 power that the Model S has available still right now. Some people using the Model 3's battery, however that eventually compromised the battery's life, so we didn't buy one for my car. The TeslaCam doesn't really replace a 2-channel dashcam and I do regret that aspect of it.

While the Blackvues we've had haven't been perfect, we have had a good experience with both models we had and would still recommend their products.

 

[MountainPass]

In my time researching dash cams, Blackvue is always the most highly regarded. I still haven't made a decision because it's impossible to find a model that doesn't have some bad reviews.

 

[gaswalla]

Have had mine for 5 years. When there's a problem, pull the power and reformat the memory card. So far, always works. It's an issue if you don't check frequently to see if it needs a reformat and reboot

 

[David99]

I have 2 Blackvues here. It is a little picky with memory cards, but that is not Blackvue's problem. There are just too many sh*tty cards out there that do not work as they should. I'm using tons of memory cars for my job. So many bad ones. Even cards from well known brand are sometimes counterfeit cheap ones.
I have had many different brand dash cams and to be honest, none of them has been 100% reliable. For some reason they all end up having minor or major issues. The 2 Blackvues we have have been on the better side, though. I would buy them again.

 

[mrElbe]

650S-2ch installed Feb. 2015 and still working except issues with 64GB cheap memory cards. 32GB Sandisc XC or original 16GB Blackvue card rock steady.

 

[JPP]

I had a Blackvue dual 550 on my 2013 S85--still going strong with the new owner. I have a Blackvue dual 650 in my wife's 2015 S70D--still going strong. I have a new Blackvue dual 900 in my 2018 P3D+ and got the biggest SD card Blackvue offered...all good. You do need to use the best rated SD cards in the cameras, and FWIW I tend to do an in-camera reformat every week or 2. never had a heat issue or power failure issue. Yes, electronic stuff can die.....

 

[whitex]

We have two Model S cars with dual channel 650's, one cam is 3 years old, the other one 2 years old and it lived through a crash which totaled the Model S. No problems so far. The only issue I ever had was using a cheap 64GB Sandisk SD card at the very beginning 3 years ago, which resulted in corrupted movies a week later. Once I moved to using V30 rated SD (also from Sandisk, but from their Extreme line rated for sustained video recording and for higher heat) they've been solid. I check occasionally to make sure they are still recording and videos are not corrupt.

 

[Litigate28]

My 9002ch died on me a few weeks ago. Using Blackvue's own 128GB SD card. It's currently sent back for repairs so let's see how it goes.

 

[X-Man]

So I got a blackvue (900 2channel ) dashcam installed recently (Nov). So far so good for me. I actually like the phone software and the ability to download videos onto your phone w/sound. If you are in LA or SF are highly recommend caliber custom. FYI I have no relations to the company...just thought they did a good job. I'll update this review if the dash cam ever fails, but so far I'm happy!

 

[outie]

Got the 900-2ch for my X and it’s pretty junk. It overheated in parking mode for the most part during the summer. Now it’s winter things are getting better.

Yesterday tried out the 2-way communication over cloud since my wife forgot to bring her phone while out. It was a junk feature and didn’t work well at all. It was more like a 1-way commication, if it worked.

 

[freeewilly]

How often do you need to format the SD card? Will Blackvue tell you to or show some kind of error light?

 

[whitex]

How often do you need to format the SD card? Will Blackvue tell you to or show some kind of error light?

For the 650's I got, formatted only at the very beginning so 2 and 3 years ago (2 different cars). If there is a bad card, it will tell you, but not reliably (I tried a cheap cars at first 3 years ago, had corrupt movies and no error from dashcam).

 

[Barry]

How often do you need to format the SD card? Will Blackvue tell you to or show some kind of error light?

650S-2ch here with 128gb Blackvue card. 3 years old now and still going strong. I reformat the card once a month. I recall reading that recommendation somewhere, but don't recall if it was from Blackvue, or elsewhere, such as on a forum.

 

[SMAlset]

I know on our 650S it said to reformat monthly. Pretty sure my husband said the need to do that was no longer necessary on the 900S.

 

[KyleDay]

My 900S 2CH also is having problems and constantly reboots. I've formatted the oem sdcard as well as upgraded the firmware with no improvements. Any ideas?