Blackvue or like dash cams please step in. Few questions

[whitex]

Same here - and tint made it even worse.
I don't understand, why don't they make 4k dolby digital dashcams!

Because not enough people are willing to pay for it at today's prices. 4K requires a lot more processing power, bandwidth, storage, etc, to the record the same amount of footage. If you are willing to pay premium, there are 4K solutions, just not consumer grade - consumers are not willing to pay for it (If they sold the same quantity of the hardware maybe they could sell it at $999, but because so many less people will pay $999, they'd need to raise the price even more to make profit with less sales volume, so you're probably looking at $2K-$4K for a dual 4K setup that can run 24/7 in the heat, the cold, etc). Oh, and it would use 50-100% more power than 1K video, a drain that may require it to come with its own batteries so not to drain your car battery (most of the car market does not have a 75KWhr+ battery). But no worries, technology is getting better and cheaper, it will get there eventually (think how much you'd have to pay for 128GB SD card 10 years ago).

 

[Xenoilphobe]

Really - I can buy a 4K camera with full gimbal for $499?,but a "highly advanced" Korean grade component crappy Blackvue camera with 1970's app is a HUGE profit center - the damn box it comes in is more expensive than the components they put in these things. The early models failed like non radial tires from the 1950's. If it costs Blackvue more than $50 for the components I would be shocked - this rest is marketing and VAR fees. I have Blackvue because they were the only ones with features that if they work (50% of the time they don't) are awesome. GPS on these things rarely work - they need an external antenna - so I buy their crap until something better comes along.

I would pay a premium for 4K, but i don't want an onboard screen and I want it as discrete as possible - I don't need fancy led's flashing in my face or reflecting off the window (perps with just take it with them when they break in your car). Spend time on the app and wifi quality and get rid of all the fancy boxes - who cares -- I HATE that Apple and Blackvue and others do that - I love watching the unboxing videos were everyone gets excited about the cool box (that it never goes back in unless it fails (so keep it with Blackvue), and then you open it and see a POS black plastic shell wrapped around a $2.50 camera..... and consumers buy it - because they have no clue..... the rule is the fancier the box - the more dollars you are giving to the marketing department and less you are giving to the engineering department - which one do you want?

 

[HankLloydRight]

. GPS on these things rarely work - they need an external antenna -

GPS works great on my Blacksys camera now, and my LUKAS camera before that.

 

[SMAlset]

Really - I can buy a 4K camera with full gimbal for $499?,but a "highly advanced" Korean grade component crappy Blackvue camera with 1970's app is a HUGE profit center - the damn box it comes in is more expensive than the components they put in these things. The early models failed like non radial tires from the 1950's. If it costs Blackvue more than $50 for the components I would be shocked - this rest is marketing and VAR fees. I have Blackvue because they were the only ones with features that if they work (50% of the time they don't) are awesome. GPS on these things rarely work - they need an external antenna - so I buy their crap until something better comes along.

I would pay a premium for 4K, but i don't want an onboard screen and I want it as discrete as possible - I don't need fancy led's flashing in my face or reflecting off the window (perps with just take it with them when they break in your car). Spend time on the app and wifi quality and get rid of all the fancy boxes - who cares -- I HATE that Apple and Blackvue and others do that - I love watching the unboxing videos were everyone gets excited about the cool box (that it never goes back in unless it fails (so keep it with Blackvue), and then you open it and see a POS black plastic shell wrapped around a $2.50 camera..... and consumers buy it - because they have no clue..... the rule is the fancier the box - the more dollars you are giving to the marketing department and less you are giving to the engineering department - which one do you want?

Xenophobe kind of confused by your comment on the lights on the camera. Our DR650S-2ch's software allows us to turn off the lights on our camera (except maybe the wifi? light on the drivers side so I guess you know its working...not 100% clear on this but a sticker over it would shield it). Hubby wanted to go stealth and we just set lights in the software to be off. I like that the Blackvue gives one the option of stealth or blinking warning light mode. I don't know if that was an option on the legacy camera you have but the lights should be settable on all the later models I believe.

Also the current 650S comes with GPS built-in. Ours works well. It takes a number of seconds to become activated when you start driving and gain the GPS signal--for us, driving out of our driveway and down our street a bit--but otherwise haven't had an issue. When we are at home in the driveway (close to our home wifi's signal), our phone will be locked onto the camera's wifi identifier but if we turn off wifi on our phone and then turn it back on we are able to select our home wifi then which allows us to get internet access and view the videos with the bird icon's GPS position on the map next to the driving video. Only one cellphone can be locked onto the camera at a time, so sometimes when we are together we need to check who's phone has the camera's wifi signal. Other than that our wifi/gps works pretty well. It did take us a little while to figure out what was going on and initially we thought it was crap and defective. Goes kind of to the manual and I also suppose how well we read it. But I think we did need to figure some things out that weren't mentioned in the manual....

...like formatting larger capacity cards like the 64 and 128Gb card for use in a Mac to use with the Viewer software. If you tried using the format button on the camera it wouldn't properly format it for that use (works fine with the 16 and 32Gb micro cards though) and I think you'd only get partial storage use on the card and the data would be unrecognizable on the Mac. It's been a while since we figured this out so I might be fuzzy on the details. Anyway we are running with a 128Gb card now and everything works great and love the extra storage space. Just need to remember to do the reformat maintenance on the Mac.

Packaging. The boxing did remind me of Apple's which a lot of companies are now copying it seems. I get what you are saying, but good package design really doesn't have to cost more to produce and companies selling high end products do want their product to present well. Apple's packaging has gone the minimal route with an eye towards being more environmentally friendly. It's really the least of my concerns when buying a product but it does show someone took some time to think about the users first impression. I get that. Company branding is important in today's world.

 

[Xenoilphobe]

I have toggled the LEDs off in the software - I think the could reduce the cost further by just getting rid of the LED's.

Frankly I think the electronics should be off board under the dash (closer to the power in most cars) and the camera should be the only device on the window. Wifi or BT to the smart phone for all options without all the glitchyness.

Don't get me wrong its an OK product, but it has a lot of room for improvement - so I hope BlackVue and their competitors are listening while BV is cashing in on the high margins they are pulling with this current product.

 

[SMAlset]

The LEDs on-or-off issue is something that seems to put people into one of two camps. Some people feel its a deterrent while other like you and my husband feel "don't advertise you have it". Not sure what side I come down on. The LEDs aren't expensive and give people the option so Pittasoft ends up with more satisfied customers in the long run by including them. Also better to know you have an indication your camera is working than not.

Heat is definitely a big issue with electronics. It would be nice if Tesla offered something built in but I'm sure some would love it and others would prefer to buy what they want on their own. We live in a hot summertime area and I know the heat coming through the windows (front and back) can affect the cameras and the recordings. Plenty of people in Australia on the Dashcamtalk.com forum have discussed that. BTW there seems to be a few Blackvue vendors and a Blackvue rep in Australia that periodically answer posts on that forum. Found a lot of useful info there.

For those looking for one for their car every so often these cameras go on sale. Thanks to a thread on here we picked up the 650S-2c with 32Gb micro card for 269 from B&H (US reseller with brick and mortar store as well--always had great service from them). Seen similar sales as well from different sources; even at these prices assume the sellers are still making a profit on them. We ended up ordering a Blackvue 128Gb card from thedashcamstore. Figured if failed down the road we had a place to return it to. There was another authorized reseller of them in the US but as I recall they only warrantied the item if you had bought your camera from them and we hadn't so they lost our sale.

 

[whitex]

Really - I can buy a 4K camera with full gimbal for $499?

Ok, so for 2 camera setup you'll need $1000. Then for storage, you need 4x the storage of a 1K system (and BV is not even 1K on the back), and this storage needs to be fast too to keep up, so let's say equivalent to 128GB SD card on BV you'll need 2x256GB at V30 or higher rating, so few hundred dollars more. Now, is the camera you mentioned doesn't say it's rated for 24/7 operation, or the operating temperatures that can be found in the car (automotive grade is has to be operational between -40degC to 95 degC, higher range for survivability). Oh, and then there is power draw too, 4K encoding uses more power than 1K, so you may need to add a dedicated rechargeable battery to the system so that when you park for few days you don't come back to a dead car.

I would pay a premium for 4K, but i don't want an onboard screen and I want it as discrete as possible

So why not just do it, pay for professional vehicle surveillance system?

 

[Xenoilphobe]

I already have made significant investments in cameras and I am done! All my cars are parked in front of my house covered by 7- 1080P POE connected constant on house cameras backed up on a 4 TB Server in a rack in the basement - and then all seven cars now have 1080P front and rear. If you walk near the car you are being recorded at multiple angles - the house cameras are also night vision (only good for about 100 feet out) and the house is lit up like a Christmas tree - so you would have to be a complete idiot (could still happen with these kids that need money for drugs) to hit these cars. Even in a power outage - all the cameras will record for a couple of days and the Tesla ones could go on for months pulling from the HV battery.

I looked at professional ones for the car - the law enforcement market makes tons of stuff - using the MasterKEY by Tactical Video App for evidence collection, most of the form factors are larger than what I was considering with the Yunteec Gimbal Solution - also with the Android controller from my drone - I could pan and see the content within 2 miles without wifi or LTE. You can really geek out with this stuff and I really don't have the time to play "Q" on the weekends anymore.