Blackvue DR400G-II

djay86

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I've got a DR400G-II. It's a fine camera and I'm quite happy with it.

However, for an expensive product, it has a lot of bugs and other minor glitches. The support status of the V2 is also unclear - there is no official english firmware/software for it, except that which comes pre-installed on cameras bought via official dealers. Grey-import cameras usually come loaded with Korean firmware. With no way to download an english firmware, you are SOL, unless you speak Korean, or are good at hacking firmwares.

The image sensor burnout problem with the V1, despite the marketing literature, has been improved, but not completely solved. The V2 still burns out sensor chips in SoCal type climates.

The image quality is excellent, with a decent frame-rate achievable at 1080p. The lens is wide angle, but sufficiently sharp that plates can be read during the day. Plate reading isn't possible after dark, but detail is still plenty adequate for most purposes.

For an expensive camera, it is disappointing that the camera does drop frames periodically, and this can upset some media player software/media streamer boxes which can't handle variable frame rate video. But realistically, you're not going to be shooting cinematic masterpieces with it, so it's not exactly a significant issue.

The camera has GPS and a 3-axis accelerometer. The shock detection firmware, however, is buggy. This leads to random event recording on minimal (or even no) bumps, even when sensitivity is set so low that genuine evasive action may be ignored. Again, not much of an issue; you may run into issues with the card getting filled up with locked event files if you do a lot of driving on poor roads.

There is also a minor issue with event recording generally. The camera starts a new file about 5 seconds before "impact", so you don't get much "preamble" recorded with the "event". You will have the file before it as context, but there is a glitch between the two files.

There are a few people who have issues with the supplied SD card. If the card is never removed from the camera, eventually the file system on the card suffers fragmentation and the budget SD card has terrible access time, it lags out causing the camera to crash. The solution is to use the card in a card reader and manually delete the files once a month or so, or to upgrade to a higher performance "class 10" card.

The supplied software is windows only (no mac), is very basic and only runs in a non-resizable postage-stamp sized window, where the video is downscaled to a tiny resolution. There are alternative shareware products available which are much more feature rich (e.g. registrator viewer) but they have their own bugs which make them unsatisfactory when used with the DR400G.

That said, if all you want is something small, discrete and easy to install, that can record in good image quality, then there really isn't an alternative on the market. The other high-end cameras are all equally buggy as well as being bigger and/or needing an external GPS antenna.
 
Re: Newest three cameras Car Dash Cam

djay86 said:
The image sensor burnout problem with the V1, despite the marketing literature, has been improved, but not completely solved. The V2 still burns out sensor chips in SoCal type climates.
Can you offer more info and some links about this?

enjoy,
Mtz
 
djay86 said:
I've got a DR400G-II. It's a fine camera and I'm quite happy with it.

However, for an expensive product, it has a lot of bugs and other minor glitches. The support status of the V2 is also unclear - there is no official english firmware/software for it, except that which comes pre-installed on cameras bought via official dealers. Grey-import cameras usually come loaded with Korean firmware. With no way to download an english firmware, you are SOL, unless you speak Korean, or are good at hacking firmwares.

The image sensor burnout problem with the V1, despite the marketing literature, has been improved, but not completely solved. The V2 still burns out sensor chips in SoCal type climates.

The image quality is excellent, with a decent frame-rate achievable at 1080p. The lens is wide angle, but sufficiently sharp that plates can be read during the day. Plate reading isn't possible after dark, but detail is still plenty adequate for most purposes.

For an expensive camera, it is disappointing that the camera does drop frames periodically, and this can upset some media player software/media streamer boxes which can't handle variable frame rate video. But realistically, you're not going to be shooting cinematic masterpieces with it, so it's not exactly a significant issue.

The camera has GPS and a 3-axis accelerometer. The shock detection firmware, however, is buggy. This leads to random event recording on minimal (or even no) bumps, even when sensitivity is set so low that genuine evasive action may be ignored. Again, not much of an issue; you may run into issues with the card getting filled up with locked event files if you do a lot of driving on poor roads.

There is also a minor issue with event recording generally. The camera starts a new file about 5 seconds before "impact", so you don't get much "preamble" recorded with the "event". You will have the file before it as context, but there is a glitch between the two files.

There are a few people who have issues with the supplied SD card. If the card is never removed from the camera, eventually the file system on the card suffers fragmentation and the budget SD card has terrible access time, it lags out causing the camera to crash. The solution is to use the card in a card reader and manually delete the files once a month or so, or to upgrade to a higher performance "class 10" card.

The supplied software is windows only (no mac), is very basic and only runs in a non-resizable postage-stamp sized window, where the video is downscaled to a tiny resolution. There are alternative shareware products available which are much more feature rich (e.g. registrator viewer) but they have their own bugs which make them unsatisfactory when used with the DR400G.

That said, if all you want is something small, discrete and easy to install, that can record in good image quality, then there really isn't an alternative on the market. The other high-end cameras are all equally buggy as well as being bigger and/or needing an external GPS antenna.

In answer to all of this I have had an original 400 for over 2 years and live in as hot a climate as you (QLD australia) where we have temps of 40C in the summer.

My camera and the 4 others I have installed are all still working perfectly and havent suffered from the problems you perceive.

I have even taken mine to California and it worked fine for the 3 months I was there and temps in June were nowhere near what we have at home Except for the 41C at Las Vegas for 4 days. Camera still worked in full sunshine all the way.
Yes you need a faster card and I use Samsung class 10 and delete the record files regularly and when new firmware comes out I format it first.

It is quite easy to install English firmware by a simple edit of the config file and then it will accept later versions of English firmware.

There is now a Viewer for MAC on the Blackvue download site. The event files will also be written over in date order depending on how you set up the % of each type in the settings I run mine on TIME NOT Type

If you run your video in the supplied viewer it will run fine and will run at full screen as well Just click on the picture and hit escape to go back to original.. A lot of problems are incorrect settings and lack of reading the manual. Latest ver 2.032 viewer also on the Blackvue site
 
jannishan said:
how much did you pay for it? Interested in one.
The old 400 is gone Only the 400II and the 500 now Look on Ebay for Coolguys or Dreamseller

I got my 500 from www.astrobile.com.for $259AU with a Power magic
 
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