Blackvue DR500GW cannot read plates?

Update. Video still looks like crap under direct sunlight.

Previous vids were taken during cloudy condition. Under bright light, the glare from the windshield makes the license plate unreadable.
 
My 400 is far better at reading plates than the 500.
Why Because its not such a wide angle lens so that the cars in front look a more realistic distance away and not like the view in a convex viewer.

IMHO Blackvue made a serious error in putting the wide angle lens in the 500.

I would like to see them go back to the same as the 400 or provide a lens kit that we could change back to that.

Guess they wont but maybe if we could get some defective 400's and try and see what it was like.
 
Hillbilly said:
My 400 is far better at reading plates than the 500.
Why Because its not such a wide angle lens so that the cars in front look a more realistic distance away and not like the view in a convex viewer.

IMHO Blackvue made a serious error in putting the wide angle lens in the 500.

I would like to see them go back to the same as the 400 or provide a lens kit that we could change back to that.

Guess they wont but maybe if we could get some defective 400's and try and see what it was like.

Yeah, I guess we have to give and take. Some people like the wide angle to get more coverage. Some people prefer to get a clear picture of the objects in front and could care less about what's happening on the sides.
 
Hello everyone,
I had blackvue dr-500 at first place that did not see any plates because of absence of focus overall especially on the right half of the video. I got it exchanged. The new one seemed to be significantly better, however still, the image was not clear enough. I watched tons of videos posted on YouTube and was quite hesitating whether my camera performs well enough. On one hand pretty much in a range, on the other hand way worse than best samples that I saw. So I decided that further exchange is quite useless – they are all pretty much the same poor quality & I came up with idea to do what has NOT been done by manufacturer: bring the camera to compliance. Here is what I have done:
1. Disassembled the camera as shown here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQeQ32wqxko
2. Fixed focus (similarly to http://asz555.narod.ru/index/0-37 ) using LIVE over Wi-Fi and then tuned it up (lens 0, +1mm, +2mm, -1mm, -2mm) 1mm means minimum distinguishable rotation from referenced (0) clockwise or counterclockwise. In my case after review +1mm showed the best result. You have to make sure that the camera is hot enough. Let it work before proceeding for 30 min minimum. I was rotating the lens and speaking at the same time what I was doing. Then I assembled camera back of course.
3. Installed 30mm polarizing filter, using cup from Tylenol or some other drugs; filter is this one: http://www.amazon.com/Zykkor-30--Circul ... ds=zykkor+
4. Installed firmware 1.1.1aE and bit rate 12Mbps.
Now I am pretty sure that my camera indeed worth about $300. One minor thing that I have to mention is license plates are very well visible pretty much only on traffic light with certain light conditions.
My advice: fix you hardware, then play with software. If hardware fails, software will not help.
Video with lens the way it came from distributor, but with firmware 1.1.1aE, 12Mbps & with polarizing filter:
Video after lens adjustment on the same road one day later also with polarizing filter :
Disassembled dash cam:
esh8.jpg

Assembled back dash cam with filter:
uw9s.jpg
 
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Thanks for the write up ruskie!
 
I used the cap from 'reactine' that i bought in local pharmacy about a year ago. You should use a cap that has more or less the same inner diameter as your filter outer diameter.
Cut the cup in such way that you would have barely enough room to secure the filter. then drill the hole in the cap so that diameter of the hole would be equal to lens diameter of you blackvue. I used smaller drill, then I tuned the hole with cylindrical file. it should sit tight on blackvue. Put the cap on blackvue. Put the filter as you think it should be. CPL glass shall be as close as possible to blackvue lens. Otherwise you will see more clipped edges on your video than on my video. Secure the filter in the cap. You can do it with glue or Teflon tape or whichever else way you can imagine. I used rubber gasket. Now mount the balckvue where it is supposed to be. Turn on WiFi and establish live view. Rotate the outer ring and watch when the reflection of the dash board in the windshield is minimized.
Now you are ready.
Regards.
 
thanks for the info, any chance you can post a picture with the polarizing lens off, but the mount attached.

It appears the polarize mount is in black with notches on it? is this correct.

thanks in advance.
 
I hope you people do understand that no camera will ever get a razor sharp image while inside a vehicle. With the angle of the window and the refraction of the light coming through the window, you will always have fuzzy picture. The way I understand how light is affected by a auto window is this, Light is refracted once it enters the auto window. It is refracted in such a small amout that the human eye does not recognize it. When the the light leaves the window on the inside, it is following the same path that it entered. While the light is passing through the window and being refracted, some camera's will pick this up and display a very minor blurred video. Now, if somebody wants to add to this who is much smarter than I, please feel free to add. This refraction is called Snell's Law. If you read up on Snell's Law, you will understand the refraction part. You also have to understand that most auto windows are shatter proof. They have a thin layer of invisible substance inside the window to prevent it from shattering in the event of a wreck. This also contributes to the minor blurry image sometimes picked up by your dash cam. The only way to get a solid razor sharp image is to mount the dash cam outside the car. But, if you mount the camera on the outside, you have to clean the camera from bug guts or mount it in such a way that your car protects it from road debris.

BTW, if you look at most American police dash cam videos, they are horrible. Most are black and white with very low resolution. I have seen some police dash cam videos so bad that you cannot make out if the vehicle in front is a truck or car. With this in mind, I have to say that even some of the worst dash cams on this forum are better than some of our American police dash cams. I have provided a few links to explain Snell's Law.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snell%27s_law





Enjoy the read.
 
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AmericanDriver said:
I hope you people do understand that no camera will ever get a razor sharp image while inside a vehicle.

some certainly do a lot better than others
 
AmericanDriver said:
I hope you people do understand that no camera will ever get a razor sharp image while inside a vehicle.

Enjoy the read.

Really, here is a screenshot of my 3.2mp tablet cam. Taken from inside the car. Not "razor sharp" but efficient enough.

Looks pretty sharp to me.
p76r.jpg


Sharper than the socalled 1080P HD dash cam.
 
Hello AmericanDriver,

You are absolutely right about light refraction, however, the light beam gets deflected on the edge where matter changes from air to glass, and get defected in opposite direction when it changes back from glass to air. So the image just gets shifted through the glass comparable to unobstructed view proportionally to thickness of the obstructing matter (glass). The whole picture degrade in case if the surface roughness is bigger than the light wave length which is about from 760nm to 400nm for visible light; or when surfaces of glass is not quite parallel: in this case the light beam gets splitted in spectrum. That is why you see some times red edges on things on the picture where brininess changes from dark to bright.

Yes indeed the light gets reflected from surfaces (from 4% to 16% according to Feynman's Quantum Mechanics) and that is why we are trying to use CPLs as they reduce reflected light which is polarized (unless it is reflected from metal surfaces).

Please take DCLR put CPL on and take a picture through the windshield where your camera is supposed to be. That will be your windshield resolution. and if other camera (aka dash camera) shows worse image, there is nothing to do with the quality of windshield glass materials and layers. the problem is with size of lens, curvature of lens surfaces (could have been done as aspherical) density of matrix and focus length.

I also attached image of my blackvue without the CPL filter as e350 asked:
8b03.jpg
 
The specs for the DR500GW indicate the camera sensor is "approx 2M pixels." This combined with the very wide field of view explains, in my view, why the camera can only read license plates when within a few meters of the car in front of me. My camera can't even read them on cars in the lane next to me, when stopped. Not a chance when moving. Yet, relatively distant bare tree branches seem well focused, for a 2 MP camera. So, for my camera, I don't think it is a focus issue.
 
rayseawa said:
The specs for the DR500GW indicate the camera sensor is "approx 2M pixels." This combined with the very wide field of view explains, in my view, why the camera can only read license plates when within a few meters of the car in front of me. My camera can't even read them on cars in the lane next to me, when stopped. Not a chance when moving. Yet, relatively distant bare tree branches seem well focused, for a 2 MP camera. So, for my camera, I don't think it is a focus issue.

2M is no problem, the low bitrate and very wide field of view are what work against this camera
 
I have posted two images: one standing still on traffic light and the other one while driving.
I suppose that is the maximum quality the stock lens can deliver in field conditions. I saw a few videos taken by this camera, but with different lens. ( http://www.beward.ru/goods/?model=5565 ) The video quality seems to be quite a bit higher. That makes me think that light sensor matrix is not that bad, lens generate the most of the problems. the only thing you can control is focus and software. I changed both & here are the results I was able to achieve and you are to decide whether it worth an effort for you.
If I had been in blackvue developer's shoes while designing this cam, I would have considered resolution 2880x720 or so. This would be also ~2MP for the entire picture, 17% clipped from bottom and from the top (where dashboard and sky is), that will make density of pixels across to be 50% higher then on 1080p, which would make the clarity of the picture also about 50% higher (more clear).
Good luck & Regards!
t8yp.jpg

szao.jpg
 
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keeprunning said:
Time for some images. I would appreciate if anybody can explain how 1080p/30fps camera can produce such a crappy images. Is it too much to ask to see license plate of a car 2-3 meters ahead of you?

If I knew what kind of crap this camera is, I would probably take some cheap chinese version with the same effect.

totally agree with you, I would of sent this DR500 back ages ago if it wasn't for Mio's firmware upgrade, for me, out of the box, this DR500 produced images that were terrible, I have a £40 ebay chinese DR camera and its images were as good if not better that this DR500, I think Blackvue owe Mio some/lots of money as I'm sure I'm not the only person that thinks out of the box this DR500 is over priced by about £225.oo and would of sent the camera back for a refund
 
Same issue not worth price. Poor video. I have a cheap $99 product that produces much superior video.
 
I'm surprised I can read the plates at night. With my old cam, the plates were over-saturated by the headlamps. As you can see in this pic, you can somewhat see the plates. And this is with the original firmware that came with the replacement camera. I recently updated my firmware. I will post a nighttime pic for comparison later.

Night time pic on old firmware.
2wmhzee.png


Daytime pic on newest firmware.
2zp73lw.png
 
cant really compare night and day.
 
Looks like night time quality is worse after the update. Old firmware is clearly the winner. Wish I had backed it up.

Old Firmware
2wmhzee.png


New Firmware. Video recording set to "High". I will try "Highest" later.
0676.png

0796.png

ramn.png
 
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