Blackvue DR400G-HD II

[DashCamMan]

I just tried new firmware for my DR400G-HD2. It is DR400G-HD-II_v1.010-155(2012_1110)_RU (Russian speaking). It was big surprise that the software has some new options like Video quality- High compress and normal( right under resolution options in settings) , Magnify lens on video and file with bit rate settings(can change manually ). Also I discover that my camera has lower working temperature then before with original Korean firmware(1028HD). Finally, video quality is better then before. I did low light level test in my garage with two different firmware-original Korean and DR400G-HD-II_v1.010-155(2012_1110)_RU. Last one is about 20% -25% sharper.

Hi Merkury. That is great news that this firmware is available since it seems like a large improvement. Is this an official one from BlackVue or is it user generated?

For anyone interested, this Russian firmware can be downloaded here:

http://led-car.ru/downloads/index.php?dir=blackvue

Dash Cam Man

 

[Merkury]

It is OEM but user modified. I just changed bit rate to 15 000 000. Great video quality but 2 minutes file has 211Mb size.

P.S. I believe it is easy to convert this firmware to English version

 

[Merkury]

Apparently the original BlackVue DR400G-HD had a default bit rate is 10,000,000 bits per second. The Blackvue DR400G-HD II now has a default bit rate of 5,000,000 bits per second. This reduces the heat generated by the camera since the processor is working less. However a lower bit rate generally means poorer picture quality. My guess is that Pittasoft reduced the bit rate to minimize the heat issue. It probably helps a little but given early reports of overheating, the changes are likely not enough. It also might explain why night recording appears to be worse than the original camera.

My original DR400G-HD-II Korean firmware has average 4 000 000 bit rate. Very poor! I tested video on KMPlayer.

 

[DashCamMan]

My original DR400G-HD-II Korean firmware has average 4 000 000 bit rate. Very poor! I tested video on KMPlayer.

Hi Merkury,

That is lower than the 5M bit rate I have seen reported. I can see why the adjustable setting is necessary in this version now.

Dash Cam Man

 

[venezian]

Hi All! Glad to see a forum about dash cams!

I have the DR400G as well as the II which I just got delivered the day before from Amazon for $169. I've had my DR400G for 8 months now (give or take a few months) and I've had one SD card go bad which was the original (class 4). Since I've switched to a better quality class 10 I have not had issues except for the few times it says to check SD card unplugging and plugging back in usually fixes it until I get home to format the card.

I have not fully tested the new camera yet, but with the few minutes of video i've recorded I have noticed the video quality is better. I also use the Magic Power Pro and it has worked for me without any issues. If i'm going out of town and it's garaged, I switch it off, but most times it's always on, and set for 2 hours of recording in parking mode.

I don't know if you can call it luck based on all the overheating issues I read about, but I have not had a problem with that either. I had gone through several weeks of 95*F.

I noticed the DR500 now has air vents so I'm considering modifying my DR400 II. A while back I saw a small mod where a guy used a dremel to make the mic hole bigger because the mic was actually positioned lower than the hole which significantly improved sound recording. I'll be on vacation for a month so it will be something I'll look into when I get back and capture my progress and plan and see if I can carry out a mod to dremel air vents for the DR400 II. I've also considered a very thin piece of curved aluminum piece painted black to act as a visor, but I don't know if that would make big temp difference.

 

[DashCamMan]

Hi venezian,

Thanks for joining. Not all DR400G-HD original or II suffer from the overheating issue but many of them do. You probably lucked out and got a good one. Looking forward to seeing your modified camera. Perhaps you can measure the temperature before the mod and after the mod (a meat thermometer would likely work).

Dash Cam Man

 

[k3nn3th03]

Dear All...

jus got my DR400G-HD II.... may i ask during recording, there are times when there a "beep" sound... wat tat beep mean ??

 

[Chimp8]

The "beep" means that the camera has detected a bump/shock and has made a special recording.

Unfortunately, there is a bug in the camera firmware which causes the event recording and alert to trigger even on very minor shocks (or no shock at all, just a gentle turn).

 

[k3nn3th03]

The "beep" means that the camera has detected a bump/shock and has made a special recording.

Unfortunately, there is a bug in the camera firmware which causes the event recording and alert to trigger even on very minor shocks (or no shock at all, just a gentle turn).

thanks for the reply..

tat wat i intially tot so.. but i have try going over humps and fall hard, sometime no sound and sometime it start beeping even on straight smooth road.. i wonder if its the setting...

*sigh*.. only the 3rd day i got the "check sd card" problem..

 

[Chimp8]

You can change the sensitivity of the event recording. This doesn't help much, because the event detection firmware is faulty, and will trigger randomly.

If you increase the sensitivity, so that it detects normal shocks, it will record more random events.

 

[venezian]

Has anyone run into an issue where no voice prompts work other than "version mismatch"?

I followed the instructions from http://dashcamtalk.com/blackvue-dr400g- ... l_to_HD-II and was able to get it to work, but no voice prompts, not even in Korean.
Maybe I need to follow this - http://dashcamtalk.com/blackvue-dr400g- ... to_English - and then it will work?

I messed up earlier trying to do the English prompts myself and now the BV program which is installed can't write to the SD anymore. keeps saying "Version or SD card is not valid" It's not biggie because I can edit manually and I always keep a backup of the config.ini file. I wonder if reinstalling will fix it.

 

[pookie]

Hi

This is my first post here so please bear with me

I received my Blacvue DR400G-HD II today , I got a 32Gb class 10 MSD card and installed the original software as per the instructions. It was in English

I then proceeded to mount the cam on the back of my rear vision mirror. However, a couple of hours later it just fell off

So now I have it on my windshield, seems happier there ...

Now the fun began, I decided to check out the software etc... so I pulled out the MSD and booted up my PC.

Little did I realise that it doesnt work on an Apple Mac .... Hmmm luckily I have Windows on bootcamp pheww...

So, I managed to install the software and had a look around, it seemed quite good, I love the Mapview part ..

All good until I decided to try do an update to the firmware. I formatted my MSD using the suggested formatter, took ages.

Then I went to the Blackvue site and downloaded the latest DR400G HD firmware.

But when I put it into the cam it kept repeating something about a model version is wrong or different or something ike that

So I pulled out the card and got back online.

I checked that I had downloaded the right file, yep, no prob. I checked I had correctly loaded it onto the MSD, yep, no prob there either.

Nonetheless I did it again, just to be sure. But the same thing happened

OK, so now I got onto some forums and read a whole bunch of stuff about different firmwre versions having issues etc... BUT nothing I read addressed my problem.

UNtil I found this site.... I followed the instructions regarding firmware for the series II, which is the one I have. It appears that the latest 1.040 version of firmware for the original DR400GHD wont work on the series II... SO Blackvues website was useless Nothing there I could find about firmware update for the series II.

I couldnt even find original firmware for it on their own website?? Maybe it is there, but I couldnt find it..

Anyway, I tried and tried over and over to get the HDII Korean firmware to work but still the same issues kept happening...

By this time I was ready to pack it back up....then I followed a link to a Russian version of the HD2 firmware.

I downloaded it, guessed what buttons to select (since I dont read Russian) but I finally got it to install on my PC. And also onto the cam.

BUt I have a couple of questions:

1/ From what I have read on here about the Russian firmware for the HD2, its in Russian...and yet mine speaks English?

2/ For some weird reason my PC software has now turned into an Asian version for HD2 which is useless to me as I dont read Korean/Chinese or whatever either

So where can I get English software for the HD-II ?

and

Am I the only one with an English speking Russian firmware ?


Thanks heaps for reading and I look forward to your replies

Cheers from Australia

Pookie

 

[DashCamMan]

Hi Pookie,

Unfortunately the support for the BlackVue DR400G-HD II is horrible. I don't believe Pittasoft released an official English version firmware for it. All the versions out there are pretty much user modified / hacked. Not sure why the Russian version has an English voice and Korean software :shock: Perhaps someone with more experience with this camera can help out.

 

[pookie]

Hi

Hmmm thats kind of useless of them

I have the russian firmware installed and i used the cam today... but ive noticed the following:

- Pretty good quality overall in picture but I have it mounted as recommended but i can clearly see reflections from my windscreen

- I have it set to the highest resolution and fps but compression normal, there is no way I can read numberplates of cars more than a few meters in front of me, even using the 'zoom' thing in the software

I really didnt think that paying $300+ for a dashcam would gimme such a headache ..

I thought this was the best available, money is not an issue I just wanted quality

BTW where can I get hold of some Firmware that is hacked? I think it would be hacked for improvement purposes so it must be better than OEM

Cheers

Pookie

 

[DashCamMan]

Hi Pookie,

Check out this post here. Russian firmware can be found on this site.

 

[venezian]

Hey Pookie,
I'm having the same issues where I was able to update to the DR400G-HD II KR firmware, but now there is no sound. On startup it says version mismatch, but it does not stop it from recording normally. It took me about a dozen tries to get it to work to this point. I was always messing about trying to be creative with the files and editing, but I ran out of patience mainly due to the fact that I didn't make a backup when I should have. :x

I think I will wait for an official version to come up or if I get bored enough I'll experiment again.

 

[Merkury]

Name of full Russian software file is DR400G-HD-II_v1.010-155(2012_1110)_RU
I believe you got your file from here https://rapidshare.com/#!download|630p6 ... |38906|0|0 but it is English speking Korean firmware

Here instruction how to get full English version firmware:

step 1. Download English voise firmware from here https://rapidshare.com/#!download|630p6 ... |38906|0|0
save it on you PC c:\BlackVue

step 2. Download English firmware for DRG400HD from here http://blackvue.com/en/contents/sub3.as ... searchstr=
and install it on formatted SD card

step 3. Replace folder c:\BlackVue\Application(step 1) with same folder from English firmware for DRG400HD (step 2 from SD card)

step 4. Go to folder c:\BlackVue\Config(step 1) and open file VERSION.BIN with Windows NOTEPAD. You have to change: 1. [software] model = 400GII to 400 and
2. [config] version = 1.010 to [config] version = 1.000

here result new VERSION.BIN

[firmware]
version = 1.010
model = 400GII
language = Korea
[software]
version = 2.010
model = 400
language = Korea
[config]
version = 1.000
model = 400GII

step 5. Save all changes
step 6. Format SD card
step 7. Copy from PC to SD card c:\BlackVue folder
step 8. Insert SD card in to your Blackvue DRG400-HD II. I takes a few minutes to upgarete.
step 9. Enjoy

 

[Merkury]

Hey Pookie,
I'm having the same issues where I was able to update to the DR400G-HD II KR firmware, but now there is no sound. On startup it says version mismatch, but it does not stop it from recording normally. It took me about a dozen tries to get it to work to this point. I was always messing about trying to be creative with the files and editing, but I ran out of patience mainly due to the fact that I didn't make a backup when I should have. :x

I think I will wait for an official version to come up or if I get bored enough I'll experiment again.

Go to SD card BlackVue_eng\BlackVue\System and find log file (for example 20121120.log). Open it with Notepad

Here sample:

21:54:21][read_rtc] 2012-11-21 02:54:22 (1353466462)--18000

[21:54:22][check_model_info]app_version:[1.010]

[21:54:22][check_model_info]app_model:[400GII]

[21:54:22][check_model_info]app_language:[Korea]

[21:54:22][check_model_info]cli_version:[2.010]

[21:54:22][check_model_info]cli_model:[400]

[21:54:22][check_model_info]cli_language:[Korea]

[21:54:22][check_model_info]cfg_version:[1.000]

[21:54:22][check_model_info]cfg_model:[400GII]

[21:54:22][check_model_info]/mnt/mmc/BlackVue/Config/version.bin read End

[21:54:22]#####[check_version]firmware_version:1.010, FIRMWARE_VERSION:1.010 Look here!!!

[21:54:22][check_version] config.ini is 1.000... Look here!!!

[21:54:28][JCta_parameter_init:3361] overwrite set >>>> (time)

[21:54:35]Start_System

[21:54:36][motion_init]Record Parking

[21:54:42]GPS Start

[21:54:42][recfile_start] OPEN FILE 20121120_215442_N

[21:55:12]Power OFF

If Firmware version mismatch go to SD card BlackVue_eng\BlackVue\Config and open version.bin

Here sample:

[firmware]
version = 1.010
model = 400GII
language = Korea
[software]
version = 2.010
model = 400GII
language = Korea
[config]
version = 1.010
model = 400GII

and correct it

here my corrected version.bin

[firmware]
version = 1.010
model = 400GII
language = Korea
[software]
version = 2.010
model = 400
language = Korea
[config]
version = 1.000
model = 400GII

 

[Merkury]

Hi

Hmmm thats kind of useless of them

I have the russian firmware installed and i used the cam today... but ive noticed the following:

- Pretty good quality overall in picture but I have it mounted as recommended but i can clearly see reflections from my windscreen

- I have it set to the highest resolution and fps but compression normal, there is no way I can read numberplates of cars more than a few meters in front of me, even using the 'zoom' thing in the software

I really didnt think that paying $300+ for a dashcam would gimme such a headache ..

I thought this was the best available, money is not an issue I just wanted quality

BTW where can I get hold of some Firmware that is hacked? I think it would be hacked for improvement purposes so it must be better than OEM

Cheers

Pookie

I had same problems with reflection! I just installed polarization filter front of my camera lens. You can make it from 3D movie glasses :idea:

Russian Firmware has avserver.sh file where you can change bitrate. You can play with MAXBITRATE="10000000"
from 5000000(low video quality) to 30000000(high video quality) BUT if you set more then 1000000 you may have camera overheating problem!

 

[KEVINSTEAMBUFF]

Hi Pookie, as far as reflections are concerned, I traced the part that was reflecting in my windscreen and had it spray painted with flat black textured paint PROBLEM SOLVERD