DVR FAQ - Read this first !

Olli

Member
Joined
Feb 23, 2013
Messages
116
Reaction score
6
Country
Finland
I'm going to collect some popular problems to this thread, so people don't need to ask same things again. Please feel free to suggest more topics to be covered.

My DVR does not work / Keeps crashing / Black Screen
  1. Try to remove battery, and reinstall.
  2. Try to reformat SD card in Windows, since formatting in the camera may not work always.
    DVR-207: FAT32 and sector size 32kb.
    DVR-027: FAT32 and sector size 64kb.
  3. Try to change SD card to another. It's recommended to use well known brands and class 10 (10 MB/sec)
Unsmooth image / Image is bumpy/unsharp
Please try the following settings, recommended by mariomart.
- Video quality: 720p 30fps
- Clip size: 5 minute
- Motion detection: off
- IR: off
- EV: no change

DVR207 only: The video quality is bad when using 1440*1080 video size
That is interpolated mode, the camera tries to make low resolution better. And the result is usually quite bad. Please use the 720p mode.

DVR207 only: My car radio does not work / Radio interference issues occur
It's known that DVR charger may cause radio interference issues, you can try to change the charger to another or ask seller to ship you a better one. The seller has told that units shipping from 16 March 2013 will be packed with new charger, which should fix the problems.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Olli said:
Try to reformat SD card in Windows: FAT32 and sector size 32kb. Formatting in the camera may not work always.
Shouldn't it be 64 kB sectors, like mentioned on the review? On my DVR-027, the bigger the sector, the smaller the gap between the files. I get 3 to 4 seconds between files with 64 kB sectors on a class 4 card.
 
I think it is different for different cameras, at least for DVR 207 many users have said 64kb to work. I have now corrected the info for DVR 027, thanks for pointing it out!
 
dashcam.br said:
I get 3 to 4 seconds between files with 64 kB sectors on a class 4 card.

I would never recommend using anything lower than Class 6 with a DVR, Class 10 being the preferred option. It would appear that with the slower class cards there is a very high potential for large gaps between file saves (over 4 second gaps) as the on-board DVR memory (not the SD card) can only buffer a small amount of video whilst the write action is occurring on the SD card. The longer it takes to finalize the write action on the slower class cards the higher likely hood of extended gaps occurring between finalized/saved videos.

Cheers :) Mario
 
Just got my 207 in the mail today. I'm looking at my SD card formatting options in Windows and when I select FAT32 I get a range from 512 bytes to only 16K, in order to select 32k or 64k I have to select FAT. This is the default Windows 7 formatting options. Is there a program that will let me select FAT32 AND 64k?

*edit - Ok guys sorry, it was because I was using an old SD card I found in a drawer. I looked at a newer class 10 SDHC card and the options are there. I will order a new card to use with this.
 
DVR-207 power requirements

Just received my DVR-207 and as I indend to use it both in my car and
outside I have made some measurements of the power requirements.
Possibly useful if you want to calculate how long external batteries
will last.

Each row lists supply voltage and current
5,5 V, 240 mA (LCD off), 280 mA (LCD on)
5,0 V, 260 mA (LCD off), 295 mA (LCD on)

Battery indicator shows (LCD on)
[XXX] above 4,958 V
[XX_] between 4,920 V and 4,958 V
[X__] between 4,738 V and 4,920 V
[___] between 4,585 V and 4,738 V

Since it tolerates voltages well below 5,0 V all types of USB power packs
could be used if they stay within the USB specification of 5 % (4,75 to 5,25 V).
 
I'm thinking of getting a 12-volt SLA battery pack for my DVR207. Have you by chance measured the power consumption of the 12-volt to 5.5 volt adapter that comes with the DVR207? Thanks!
 
My test setup was just as I left it for the 5 V tests so it was no trouble
to get the current values using the original power cable.

The DVR-207 draws almost constant power from the 12 Volt supply so it's easy
to calculate the current for other voltages. Tests were made from 13,5 V
down to 10,0 V.

LCD off - 1,60 W
LCD on - 1,90 W
(figures are rounded upward so actual current could be slightly less)

So 13,5 V (LCD off) will be 120 mA
and 10,0 V (LCD off) will be 155 mA
(actual measured values)

9,0 volts is enough to start the unit but that is way below the healthy
voltage range for any 12 V lead battery.

IR LED's were off in all tests.
 
You might want to add the tips on how to keep gaps away on this FAQ.

http://dashcamtalk.com/dvr-207/#Gaps_between_clips
"Make sure motion detection is off otherwise the camera will generate gaps between clips."

I wonder why? (even with a Class 10 card?) I don't have my new 702GS yet so I'll be testing soon. It would be nice to leave motion detection on
OR: do they mean gaps as in no motion, no recording? I think their are two types of gaps scenarios here maybe. (someone please clarify)

also...
http://dashcamtalk.com/dvr-027-720p/#Ga ... ideo_clips
"Note that a new model has been released, called the DVR-207. It is quite similar to the DVR-027 but comes with newer firmware and no gaps between files."
"You may also want to consider the newer DVR-207. This dash cam is nearly identical but with some minor improvements such as the elimination of the gaps between files."

They must have said that before they realized that turning on motion detection created gaps?

Also, why would turning OFF IR help with day time video quality? I guess I'll experiment and see what happens, maybe the newer 702GS is better.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
When motion detection is on, the DVR-207 creates gaps between the files. For example, if you use 2 minute clips, you will get a gap at the start of each clip as the camera will be checking for motion. This is in normal driving.
 
Unsmooth image/Image is bumpy/unsharp

I would like to point out that, depending upon the viewing equipment, it may be the program used that causes such.

While I have just become a owner and user of a DVR-207 I found that VLC would play the video in a manner that would appear to have dropped frames. I viewed the video directly from the SD Card (formatted in the DVR), using a Mac (OS X). After some effort to make my Mac able to edit videos of the .AVI format (converting .avi to .mov) I found that an "upgraded" Quicktime Player played my video without such choppy video.

I inserted the links to minimize text and confusion.
 
I would like to point out that, depending upon the viewing equipment, it may be the program used that causes such.

While I have just become a owner and user of a DVR-207 I found that VLC would play the video in a manner that would appear to have dropped frames. I viewed the video directly from the SD Card (formatted in the DVR), using a Mac (OS X). After some effort to make my Mac able to edit videos of the .AVI format (converting .avi to .mov) I found that an "upgraded" Quicktime Player played my video without such choppy video.

I inserted the links to minimize text and confusion.
This worked for me also. VLC was dropping frames and had jerky video, once I installed Perian and played files in QT player it was much better overall. Now if the suction cup would just stay on a little longer... :) So thank you for the idea!
 
Thread starter Similar threads Forum Replies Date
C DVR-XX7 5
Back
Top