Blackvue DR500GW cannot read plates?

Lens looks out of focus. Get an exchange...

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk 2
 
dashingthrusnow said:
Lens looks out of focus. Get an exchange...

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk 2

I'll contact the ebay seller and see what he says. I cannot turn wifi off either. Is it normal for the buttons to be hard like a rock? There is no play in the buttons. I press the button but it doesn't do anything tot he wifi.
 
I have recently installed DR500GW and have exactly same problem. I am wondering if somebody could post images of the *american* license plates 2-3 meters ahead. The video looks bright, but all license plates are out of focus and I seriously doubt about 1080p/30fps claimed by the company. iPhone and iPad had no issues to make crystal clear images of the same cars in front of me. So, there were few ideas in this thread:
- defective camera (does not look like one to me)
- bad firmware (I have english version of 5.005 which came with the camera)
- just what it is, i.e. bad design/quality despite high price tag
- settings issues (changed to normal compression, increase brightness, but did not help)
At this point to claim one point or another it would be really nice to see real images/videos of what it should be for high quality. Anybody out there can demonstrate advantage of dr500gw ? I seriously doubt unclear license plates will be accepted in court in case of the accident (and that's the only real reason we need that)
 
I received my replacement today. It focus is a little bit better. I can somewhat read the plates now.
 
keeprunning said:
I have recently installed DR500GW and have exactly same problem. I am wondering if somebody could post images of the *american* license plates 2-3 meters ahead. The video looks bright, but all license plates are out of focus and I seriously doubt about 1080p/30fps claimed by the company. iPhone and iPad had no issues to make crystal clear images of the same cars in front of me. So, there were few ideas in this thread:
- defective camera (does not look like one to me)
- bad firmware (I have english version of 5.005 which came with the camera)
- just what it is, i.e. bad design/quality despite high price tag
- settings issues (changed to normal compression, increase brightness, but did not help)
At this point to claim one point or another it would be really nice to see real images/videos of what it should be for high quality. Anybody out there can demonstrate advantage of dr500gw ? I seriously doubt unclear license plates will be accepted in court in case of the accident (and that's the only real reason we need that)


Firstly the firmware would be 1.005 there is no 5. anything

Where are you trying to read the plates If you pause the video when using the viewer you can save the image and look at it full screen on your computer and usually the plate is then readable.

The magnifier is pretty hopeless despite what Blackvue show on the website.

Video with the sun behind you gives better readable images and the camera has trouble with contrast when the plates are in shade.

When they went to a wider angle lens I think the quality deteriorated and made it harder to read things.

The lens in the 400 series gave a much better view and you dont need the cinemascope view of the 500.

All in all I am reasonably happy with mine as I dont intend to make feature films on Youtube or anything

Will post some pics of USA plates later today as I have to go out
 
wozzzzza said:
keeprunning said:
I seriously doubt unclear license plates will be accepted in court in case of the accident (and that's the only real reason we need that)
here, get one of these and tape it to ya window if ya worried about quality and number plates.
http://www.videoguys.com.au/Shop/p/2838 ... pAodl08AGw

Uh, no. A simple 8mp compact camera or even an old smartphone can do the job. No need to spend 1k.
 
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vbx said:
wozzzzza said:
keeprunning said:
I seriously doubt unclear license plates will be accepted in court in case of the accident (and that's the only real reason we need that)
here, get one of these and tape it to ya window if ya worried about quality and number plates.
http://www.videoguys.com.au/Shop/p/2838 ... pAodl08AGw

Uh, no. A simple 8mp compact camera or even an old smartphone can do the job. No need to spend 1k.
this d00d seems to want cinema HD meg clear images so just pointing him to a camera that's going to do what he wants. sure other cameras will do the job as well.
 
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vbx said:
dashuser said:
Your dashcam is focused on your dashboard (^^). It must be focused to the street and not to your car.

Maybe the lens is not configured correctly. (thats also what jokiin said)

Ok, I'll adjust the camera up a little and see if that helps. Thanks

Forgive me but I disagree. There should be more dash in your video. The camera's white balance setting is compensating for too much sky. Having too much dash in the video may seem ugly but you can have the camera pointed down quite a bit and yet still have the sun or moon in the picture. My 500 is mounted behind the mirror. It is pointed down on the next to the last notch. The color in my videos improved drastically after getting a lot of dash in the video. Check other 500 videos and see which ones look best. Note how much sky is in the best videos. A blue sky videos better than a sky full of white clouds.
 
wozzzzza said:
this d00d seems to want cinema HD meg clear images so just pointing him to a camera that's going to do what he wants. sure other cameras will do the job as well.

My 3.2 mega pixel tablet takes better video than my Blackvue. I can read the license plate very clear on the Tablet Video recording. My eyes hurt when I try to make out the license plate on the Blackvue recording.

I posted a comparison shot previously.
 
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.
 

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I think the main reason is the extreme wide viewing angle.

The resolution is always the same (1920x1080 pixel).
That means the higher the viewing angle is, the more information has to be captured with the same numbers of pixels.
And every time you increase the viewing angle you will decrease the amount of pixel per inch.

And the low bitrate (7,5 mpbs) decreases quality as well.


Here is a sample video of DOD LS300W:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsIvjaKabOE
(Youtube still converts it so there is a little quality lost)
 
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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.

I agree crummy video for pricey camera. Hopefully with the app update maybe a firmware update is coming. I almost bought a 2nd Blackvue for my rear window but luckily chose the Lukas dvr wish I selected that 1st.
 
I am still playing with various settings and I am not sure it's totally crappy camera yet. I just truly believe it's not 1080p/30fps camera. The fact a software developer allocated buffer to hold 1920x1080 pixels does not mean hardware is capable of doing this 30 times a second. Take a look at the pictures from their website (http://www.blackvue.com/en/contents/sub1.asp?idx=16) Search for daytime license plate. This is what I call deception. There is no way this camera can produce these images from that distance. They are crafted (and deceptive quality is what triggered my final decision to buy that model). I carefully researched through the forums all cons and pros and nobody brought issue of blurry images for pricey camera (again, assumption here is that my camera is not defective - still waiting a word from the vendor astrobile.com)

I had near-hit event today (guy on the incoming lane was loosing lane due to talking over phone) I reviewed this event over and over again. However, there is no way for me to see the license plate (even worse, it looked like gray area through the license plate, making it impossible to guess even single digit or letter) If it was hit-and-run, I could not do anything about it. I am attaching an image of the event for you to judge (resized 90% of real size). I brought camera down to fight brightness issue, but it's my least concern at this point.



If I could return this camera, I would definitely do so at this point. Nor worth the money. That's my opinion despite all praise to the camera all over the place. My next one will not be blackvue.
 

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Return it. Here is a snapshot of a video from my replacement cam. Much better than my first cam.

Firefox: Right click and view image. You can kinda makeout the plates.
87m5.png
 
Yeah, it's a huge difference. Seems to be quite a few of those cameras are defective with focus issues (due to fixed focus lens incorrectly installed ?)
I wish I bought directly from Blackvue, but I did not. Will keep you posted if astrobile.com will honor warranty.

Meanwhile, I found interesting reading about pixel density which does make sense to me (I wish I read it before) My apologies if you already read it:
http://www.ar15.com/forums/t_10_17/6241 ... ml&page=79
(search for pixel density discussion)
 
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keeprunning said:
Yeah, it's a huge difference. Seems to be quite a few of those cameras are defective with focus issues (due to fixed focus lens incorrectly installed ?)
I wish I bought directly from Blackvue, but I did not. Will keep you posted if astrobile.com will honor warranty.

Meanwhile, I found interesting reading about pixel density which does make sense to me (I wish I read it before) My apologies if you already read it:
http://www.ar15.com/forums/t_10_17/6241 ... ml&page=79
(search for pixel density discussion)

If you just bought (within 30 days) it they should honor a replacement and pay for the shipping.
 
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Here is a video. Switch to 1080p HD in the youtube settings. You can clearly see the plates. However at night, my headlight seems to block out the plates.
 
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Thanks for the video! Huge difference with what I have. I tried to clean window, play with settings. Still all objects in front are out of focus unless I figurally in the bumper of the car in front of me. Will try to exchange. Certainly focus problem with my camera.
 
vbx said:
Return it. Here is a snapshot of a video from my replacement cam. Much better than my first cam.

Firefox: Right click and view image. You can kinda makeout the plates.
87m5.png
Can you share a video with us please? My cam run good when the car is not moving but very bad when running.
 
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