Disappointed with quality - faulty unit?

[Tim5000]

After 2 people decided to drive into my car in 2016 (and one into my fiancee's car) I thought it was about time to get a dashcam.
I spent quite a bit of time lurking here and went for a Blackvue DR650GW-2CH a few months back.
I considered the Lukas AR790WD but even now there seems to be nothing out there which really put me off.

To go with it I got:
* Vico Power-Plus power unit
* Sandisk Endurance 64Gb SD card (one of the better ones).


The blackvue unit itself was 2nd hand, and didn't support the cloud firmware.
I didn't want the cloud functionality - I wanted the upgrade purely for the highest bit rates.

Blackvue support to their credit were very good and upgraded it for me as I was able to give them all the details about the camera.

When I got it back (with 2.0.0.07 firmware) I configured it for max video settings, but I'm pretty disappointed with the results.
* In raw footage it's impossible to make out number plates for the front or rear cameras.
* Low light performance is poor.
I can understand the rear video being worse a bit as I have a Ford with privacy glass. But still, I'm not exactly thrilled and am wondering if i've got a badly focused unit? Perhaps even due to the upgrade?

Other issues I've got are:
* My DAB radio seems to spend time searching - it never did before.
* The blackvue reboots when I start my car. From the sound of it this is down to the auto stop/start technology in the car.
* The android app is flaky at best.
* The lack of linux app is disappointing - I see there are scripts out there to pull videos off but currently I'm just using a wifi card and manually wget'ing the videos I want from the vod.cgi list.
I know these have largely been discussed before, but if anyone has any new insight into these issues I would appreciate it.

I've made a youtube channel with a little sample video from the front and rear camera, with the usual sort of driving experience I have on a daily basis.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0H4WNvzeZGbf0g9SAUuZdQ

I appreciate youtube appears to have processed the video a bit but to be honest it's not a whole lot different from the original.

 

[SawMaster]

On the DAB problems, look here:
https://dashcamtalk.com/forum/threads/radio-interference-from-camera-mounted-in-rear-window.20620/
https://dashcamtalk.com/forum/threads/fm-interference.11958/
Although they say "radio" the same issues and solutions apply.

SanDisk cards are known to not play nicely with most dashcams, though a few people use them with good results in certain cams. The general advice is to use only Kingston, Transcend, Lexar, or PNY brands in a premium grade class 10 card, as all these seem to work excellently in any cam. SanDisk cards can cause some strange seemingly unrelated misbehavior in dashcams even though they work very well with almost everything else.

You're on target with the stop/start issue. Any solution will be specific to your make/model/year of car only as each one varies considerably from the others. In some cars it seems there is no solution available except to hardwire direct to the battery and plug/unplug the cam as needed. Your car dealer might be able to help if nothing is forthcoming from here.

Phil

 

[Ian Mills]

Your video is typical of what to expect - I could read the number plate of the car that overtook you. The time of day and the tilt of your camera in this clip isn't helping as the sky/clouds are very bright compared to the dark road/cars .. the camera will increase it's shutter speed because of the bright sky so darker details will be harder to see ... try tilting your camera down - you don't need to see the sky

 

[Hillbilly]

As far as the stop start goes I have VW with it and it never interferes with the camera. But then I have both of mine hardwired into a spare Accessory fuse I did have a Power magic but recently removed it as have been having non related battery issues. Tilt the camera down a bit and put the Brightness up to just under maximum.

On the end of each camera is the word Blackvue It equates to being level with the centre of the lens Level is equiv to 9 oclock Tilt it down to about 8 oclock or a click lower.

I use 128Gb Sandisk and Samsung cards without problems in my DR500 and a DR450. Normally you can only read plates when you pause the video and that is good enough if you need to see them. Apart from it being a bit high and brightness too low it seems to be OK

The DAB problem is out of my sphere but the links should help.

 

[Tim5000]

Thanks for all the replies. They're all really helpful so far.

SD Card:
With regards to the SD card comments about Sandisk cards - you're absolutely right. I'd done a lot of research before buying and everything suggested to stay away from most Sandisk models and go for the ones you've listed.
However I went for the Endurance card as everything I'd read about it before buying was looking pretty positive, including on here. It was also easy to get here in the UK direct from Amazon.
Fingers crossed it stays working but so far I'm pleased with my purchase.

Camera rebooting:
I think I can rule out the issues with the camera rebooting when I start the car - I'd incorrectly put it down to the stop/start based on other forum posts here.
However it's actually a function of the Vico Power Plus to reboot the camera when the Ignition (Acc) supply becomes active.
The manual is all a bit Engrish but for others reading, it's called the "Acc Restore Reboot function" which can be enabled/disabled but by default is enabled.
The manual says it's to force the camera to check the SD card - I'll probably leave it enabled now I know what the cause is.

Camera position:
The camera is mounted behind the rear-view mirror. I may well move but for now it's quite stealthy behind the mirror and is mostly covered by the rain sensor dots, with just the lens poking out.
I've taken your suggestions and dropped the camera angle down one notch, and I've also increased the brightness from 3 to 4.
I'll see if I can find a good video in the next couple of days to update you all.

DAB:
I've not investigated this at all yet - but my first steps will probably include getting some ferrite around the coax cable.

Quality/Focus:
My main issue with the quality was that I was completely unable to read the number plate of the car overtaking - that's what makes me think I've got an issue.
When I looked at a lot of other peoples videos on here I found that I could pause their ones and read the number plates pretty well, with my example.

I am fully expecting to need to pause the video to read it but so far I couldn't find a single frame to stop it that wasn't a blurred mess, so I was quite surprised that Ian could.
I'd tried many times on both the phone app, the raw footage on the PC, and the youtube videos (set to 1080p quality) but I was at a loss.

For reference the car in question had a clean number plate and it was crystal clear to read - I just can't remember it if you were to ask me what it was!

Thanks.
Tim.

 

[Hillbilly]

Sounds like one of two things.

The camera is out of focus and that is maybe the reason it was sold

The camera is vibrating in the car and making it hard to read plates.

My bet would be on the first one