BlackVue vs Viofo vs other? Advice needed!

Gary W

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Morning all

I’m looking to buy a two channel (front and rear, not interior) dashcam.

I’ve looked into it and have (I think) narrowed it down to BlackVue vs Viofo, but neither seem to fit my requirements 100%.

In short I’d like a dashcam setup that:
  • Has front and rear cameras
  • Has front and rear cameras
  • Has access to real-time upload to the cloud
  • Is not hardwired so will run off its own power supply
  • 256Gb or more interchangeable memory card
  • 180 degree viewing angle on front and rear
  • 24 hour parking mode

Having reviewed all of that I think that I’ve pretty much chosen up the BlackVue with LTE and battery pack! But is it that simple? Anything that ticks a lot of those boxes but a bit cheaper?

Would appreciate any advice at all and understand that all requirements may not be able to be met.

Cheers

Gary
 
Welcome to DCT @Gary W :)

Blackvue does cloud connectivity best. Only Thinkware comes close to them in good dashcams. Other cams do 'cloud' to some degree but are usually lacking in video quality. Viofo does great vid quality but no 'cloud'.

Beware FOV listings as few are close to truth. Measured horizontally almost none reach or exceed 130 degrees no matter what is claimed, If you want to know what a cam really looks like watch some paused videos or pics taken with that cam and see the relationship to the car hood etc. FOV numbers are just a marketing trick with most cams :(

There are some 'plug and play' type dashcam battery systems and you can DIY one or use powerbanks. No decent cam is meant to be self-powered for any decent length of time. For parking most car batteries can support a few hours to 8 hours parking use without excessive battery wear based on which cam and what parking mode type. No dashcam is meant for 24/7 usage but most of the good ones will do it provided it's not too hot- dashcams don't handle really high summer heats in a closed parked car well.

Most of today's better cams can support 256GB cards including some whose manufacturer specs list a smaller size as maximum. Some even do OK with 512GB cards ;) Not much info on anything larger as few want to spend for a 1TB SD card.

Phil
 
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The cloud thing rule out most but blackvue and thinkware cameras

But no camera have its own internal power supply, that would make them huge if they was to run for a 2-3 hour drive, and you would constantly have to take it with you to charge it, and that negate one of the prime things of dashcams, that you dont really need to do anything.
180 degree lens you also will not get in any dashcam, some might claim so, but it is a lie and you should run away.
You still need to hard wire a system with its own dedicated dashcam power pack, it need to charge somehow, some you can plug into the dash socket but then it will charge slower.
24 hour parking mode can be done.

With cloud, that you most often have to pay extra for so a monthly fee added to that.
Dashcams generate at least 100 MB from each camera every minute, a larger resolution camera like 1440p or 4K would make even more, this will hit any data plan hard not least if your drive much or use parking much.
And remember you have to be within fairly decent 4G coverage to be able to constantly uploading 200 MB or so every minute ( 2 cameras )
 
Gary,

Welcome to the forum. Lots of good info here.

Concur with everyone else who's chimed in here.

I have a BlackVue DR900X-2CH, and their free cloud service is more than enough for my needs, YMMV.

Also, unless you're married to the idea of having the LTE module, I suggest looking into a vehicle hotspot. The LTE module is only ever going to connect to one device at a time, whereas a vehicle hotspot will potentially be much more useful.

That's the way I went. Obviously, I'm in the US not the UK. I generally run the cam in parking mode 8-10 hours a day, 5 days a week, plus whenever I go somewhere on weekends.

I share an 8 GB plan between 4 devices, and the vehicle hotspot averages about 300 MB per monthly billing cycle, about the same as my phone. Doesn't even come close to denting 8 GB.
 
Also, unless you're married to the idea of having the LTE module, I suggest looking into a vehicle hotspot. The LTE module is only ever going to connect to one device at a time, whereas a vehicle hotspot will potentially be much more useful.
The main purpose for LTE module is to have an access even while parked, when most of cars have their Wifi hotspot off and to remove the nessesity to have an independant MiFi hotspot which consumes "waste" energy for Wifi broadcasting, in contrary to Blackvue's LTE module which is connected directly so power reduction, interference reduction and reduction of random re-/connection issues.

Not to mention, in case of external MiFi modems, the majority of them are battery powered and are not able to turn-on by themself, in case of battery got empty, after charger is connected (USB connected in 12V ACC). The only device i was able to find and worked for me quite good was Huawei E8372 for DR900S, hooked to B-124.

I was quite happy when Blackvue announced directly-connected LTE modem for DR900X, but to be honest, it didn't work for me that well. :ROFLMAO:
 
I was quite happy when Blackvue announced directly-connected LTE modem for DR900X, but to be honest, it didn't work for me that well. :ROFLMAO:

Yeah, quite a few folks have mentioned problems with the LTE modules. One of the main reasons I decided against it.

I just turn my hotspot on when I park (or leave the garage) and off when I get home, it's become part of my routine. Then my cam connects to my home network and automatically downloads the day's footage.

It's energy consumption--for my vehicle at least--isn't enough to be of any concern.
 
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