Freezing Cold Blackvue DR500GW-HD

Mtz said:
Yes, but we can agree the quality of recording is not for $300.
enjoy,
Mtz

agree, I think all the Korean cams are overpriced at retail value, the ones we've seen by eBay sellers that end up getting blacklisted for selling them are far more realistically priced
 
Mtz,

That is actually the only reason why I wanted it over a finevu cr500hd!

Still not convinced of pitta soft reliability. So far 1-1, we need more feedback!
 
We need to keep our eyes open and looking also in this forum for the news. For example the AutoCapsule ($300 maybe) or Iroad ($190) or even the Livue which is now $100.
Blackvue to be great as user expects needs some firmware improvement from Texas Instruments, the producer of the chipset, and then by Pittasoft. They can do this very easy because have the needed tools, but I don't understand their attitude and I am saying about all korean daschams producers, not only Pittasoft.
The FineVu and ITB-100HD were just lucky because received the good code and lucky firmware. And I say this because Itronics have another great dashcam called ITB-250HD which is in the same boat as Blackvue, but not so lucky to have the 100HD settings. What can be so hard for a Itronics employer to tell to the firmware developer: hey, developer, just make the same settings for 250HD as you made for 100HD, nothing more.

enjoy,
Mtz
 
Having ordered one of these, and presently waiting for delivery, I thought I'd read the manual to see what I'm getting.
Bass ackward I guess, but that's the way I do things.

From the manual (page 8) and their spelling/grammar, not mine:

>Checks for the microSD Card
Refer to the following for trouble-free use of your microSD card.
- It is recommended to format it once a week."


Once a week?
They've got to be joking.
So they know there are problems that will occur requiring formatting once a week?
What have I gotten myself into?
 
Arizona User said:
Once a week?
They've got to be joking.
So they know there are problems that will occur requiring formatting once a week?
What have I gotten myself into?

I'd do once a week if using parking mode, if only using when driving once a month should be often enough
 
Well, I'm not about to format an SD card once a week.
My DR500GW-HD hadn't shipped yet, so I just cancelled the order, and have instead purchased a FineVu CR-500-HD.
The FineVu isn't wireless but I don't need all the problems that I've been reading about with the Blackvue.
For the price of the Blackvue it should have no problems, and be very reliable - it sounds here, like that isn't the case at all.
 
Arizona User said:
Well, I'm not about to format an SD card once a week.
My DR500GW-HD hadn't shipped yet, so I just cancelled the order, and have instead purchased a FineVu CR-500-HD.
The FineVu isn't wireless but I don't need all the problems that I've been reading about with the Blackvue.
For the price of the Blackvue it should have no problems, and be very reliable - it sounds here, like that isn't the case at all.

formatting the card is not specific to any particular cam
 
So you are telling me that no matter what cam I use, I'm going to have to reformat the card maybe once a month?

I find that amazing.
I'm a vintage computer buff, and once you format a floppy disk, that's it - you don't have to reformat it unless you want to use it in a different OS or computer.
We don't reformat the hard drives in our computers every month.
We don't reformat our USB drives once a month.
I don't reformat the memory in my digital camera once a month.

So why do we need to reformat a memory stick once a month?
 
You don't have to format at all, a write error can stop recordings from happening, these are large continuos streams of data that get recorded not small pieces of data like what your PC or digital camera does, it is worthwhile with any cam to review your footage from time to time, is it really that hard to format the card when you do if it offers you the best chance of avoiding a write error?
 
Arizona User said:
Well, I'm not about to format an SD card once a week.
My DR500GW-HD hadn't shipped yet, so I just cancelled the order, and have instead purchased a FineVu CR-500-HD.
The FineVu isn't wireless but I don't need all the problems that I've been reading about with the Blackvue.
For the price of the Blackvue it should have no problems, and be very reliable - it sounds here, like that isn't the case at all.

And I just ditched my FineVu CR500 for a Blackvue DR500GW-HD camera - arriving tomorrow, that FineVu is more of a problem than it's worth! Flashing LED's that lite my vehicle up like a xmas tree when in park and when driving, wobbly dash-mount that shakes causing poor video output. When you hit an uneven section of road it was terrible and to top it off, the gforce sensor had to be disabled because the camera kept activating a collision, when in fact the cause was the poor mount design which by the way was replaced twice. The camera also was so hot, the Sdcard being too hot to touch when ejected - I made a post about it on here.

Here are some video I made of my camera.


 
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jokiin said:
You don't have to format at all, a write error can stop recordings from happening, these are large continuos streams of data that get recorded not small pieces of data like what your PC or digital camera does, it is worthwhile with any cam to review your footage from time to time, is it really that hard to format the card when you do if it offers you the best chance of avoiding a write error?

I don't mind formatting the card once in a while (like when I'm reviewing footage) but when the manual states that you need to do it once a week, that's a non-starter for me.
 
Milamber said:
And I just ditched my FineVu CR500 for a Blackvue DR500GW-HD camera - arriving tomorrow, that FineVu is more of a problem than it's worth! Flashing LED's that lite my vehicle up like a xmas tree when in park and when driving, wobbly dash-mount that shakes causing poor video output. When you hit an uneven section of road it was terrible and to top it off, the gforce sensor had to be disabled because the camera kept activating a collision, when in fact the cause was the poor mount design which by the way was replaced twice. The camera also was so hot, the Sdcard being too hot to touch when ejected - I made a post about it on here.

Here are some video I made of my camera.

Ha, ha - my CR500 will arrive on Tuesday.
We'll have to wait and see if you like the BlackVue better or not.

That video you posted of the shaking, doesn't look shaky to me.
It looks like when you hit a piece of bumpy road, there's a slight vibration but I think that's more like the car shaking as it would anyway.
I honestly don't see anything wrong with that video - I can live with a video like that, no problem.

I'll be disabling the Gforce sensor as well, as I don't think I need that.
A continuous loop with parking is all I need/want.

Now, flashing lights on the other hand, might end up getting their wires cut.
 
Arizona User said:
jokiin said:
You don't have to format at all, a write error can stop recordings from happening, these are large continuos streams of data that get recorded not small pieces of data like what your PC or digital camera does, it is worthwhile with any cam to review your footage from time to time, is it really that hard to format the card when you do if it offers you the best chance of avoiding a write error?

I don't mind formatting the card once in a while (like when I'm reviewing footage) but when the manual states that you need to do it once a week, that's a non-starter for me.

I have the same thing written in my user manual, it's just preventative maintenance, I use good quality Sandisk Class10 cards, I know of people that have used the same 24/7 for a year and never touched the cards, put in some eBay cheapy card where the quality might not be so good and write errors more common and the results might be different, some regular preventative maintenance though might see those cheap cards working ok, how does the manufacturer know what type of card you're going to put in the camera, they don't, so telling you to format the cards is good business practice in my opinion, protects you and protects them

Arizona User said:
I'll be disabling the Gforce sensor as well, as I don't think I need that.
.

the G force sensor is only a positive thing, will automatically write protect a recording in the event of an accident, I don't see any benefit in turning it off ???

Arizona User said:
Now, flashing lights on the other hand, might end up getting their wires cut.

covering the lights is perhaps a simpler solution that wouldn't impact your warranty
 
Arizona User said:
the G force sensor is only a positive thing, will automatically write protect a recording in the event of an accident, I don't see any benefit in turning it off ???

Not so positive when the camera is constantly going into protect mode and then ending up with a full sdcard because the files are protected right?
 
Milamber said:
Arizona User said:
the G force sensor is only a positive thing, will automatically write protect a recording in the event of an accident, I don't see any benefit in turning it off ???

Not so positive when the camera is constantly going into protect mode and then ending up with a full sdcard because the files are protected right?

how many accidents do you have before you empty the card? if the G-Sensor is going off all the time for no good reason and filling the card then it is either set incorrectly (too sensitive) or faulty, this is not typical behaviour, if it's a design fault then look elsewhere and buy a model that works correctly
 
jokiin said:
I have the same thing written in my user manual, it's just preventative maintenance, I use good quality Sandisk Class10 cards, I know of people that have used the same 24/7 for a year and never touched the cards, put in some eBay cheapy card where the quality might not be so good and write errors more common and the results might be different, some regular preventative maintenance though might see those cheap cards working ok, how does the manufacturer know what type of card you're going to put in the camera, they don't, so telling you to format the cards is good business practice in my opinion, protects you and protects them

Arizona User said:
I'll be disabling the Gforce sensor as well, as I don't think I need that.
.

the G force sensor is only a positive thing, will automatically write protect a recording in the event of an accident, I don't see any benefit in turning it off ???

Arizona User said:
Now, flashing lights on the other hand, might end up getting their wires cut.

covering the lights is perhaps a simpler solution that wouldn't impact your warranty

I'll be using a SanDisk Ultra 32 so hopefully I'll only need to reformat once a year at most. Putting something in a manual that tells a purchaser that they need to reformat the SD card once a week can turn some buyers off (it certainly turned me off). It's probably better to say; depending on the type/manufacturer/quality of SD card that you use, you may have to reformat once a year or once a week.

RE: the G force sensor - I'm new to this whole thing as this is my first dash cam. If I'm using normal/constant recording mode and there's an accident, aren't the few minutes before and up to the accident going to be written to the SD card anyway? Why does it need to be write protected? If I survive the accident, the first thing I'll be taking out of the vehicle will be the dash cam. If I don't survive it, I'm not going to be around to care about the camera or the recording.

Cover the flashing lights? With what? Black electrical tape doesn't work here in a car in Phoenix, Arizona. It'd melt before noon. When it's 115 F outside in the summer, the inside of a vehicle can get to 150F (and higher). A women was on the news last year - she'd put cookie dough on a baking tray on her dash in the morning, and at 1 pm she'd go and get the baked cookies for her co-workers - bonus: her car always smelled like fresh baked cookies.
With the warranties these things come with, I'm not worried about cutting a few wires. If they won't stand by and fix overheating problems or freeze up problems, the warranties aren't worth much anyway.
 
Arizona User said:
I'll be using a SanDisk Ultra 32 so hopefully I'll only need to reformat once a year at most. .

they are my card of choice, the lifetime warranty they offer probably suggests the product is reliable I would think, they've yet to let me down anyway

Arizona User said:
Putting something in a manual that tells a purchaser that they need to reformat the SD card once a week can turn some buyers off (it certainly turned me off). It's probably better to say; depending on the type/manufacturer/quality of SD card that you use, you may have to reformat once a year or once a week.

maybe, I'd prefer not to insult a customers purchase decision had they chosen a cheaper card, I recommend people use the Sandisk cards but there's no accounting for what they may choose to do

Arizona User said:
RE: the G force sensor - I'm new to this whole thing as this is my first dash cam. If I'm using normal/constant recording mode and there's an accident, aren't the few minutes before and up to the accident going to be written to the SD card anyway? Why does it need to be write protected? If I survive the accident, the first thing I'll be taking out of the vehicle will be the dash cam. If I don't survive it, I'm not going to be around to care about the camera or the recording.
.

plenty of people forget things like this after an accident if the power was left on the last thing you'd want is your evidence overwritten in error, the automatic save function just remembers for you, I can't see it being a bad thing

Arizona User said:
I'll be using a SanDisk Ultra 32 so hopefully I'll only need to reformat once a year at most. Putting something in a manual that tells a purchaser that they need to reformat the SD card once a week can turn some buyers off (it certainly turned me off). It's probably better to say; depending on the type/manufacturer/quality of SD card that you use, you may have to reformat once a year or once a week.

RE: the G force sensor - I'm new to this whole thing as this is my first dash cam. If I'm using normal/constant recording mode and there's an accident, aren't the few minutes before and up to the accident going to be written to the SD card anyway? Why does it need to be write protected? If I survive the accident, the first thing I'll be taking out of the vehicle will be the dash cam. If I don't survive it, I'm not going to be around to care about the camera or the recording.

Cover the flashing lights? With what? Black electrical tape doesn't work here in a car in Phoenix, Arizona. It'd melt before noon. When it's 115 F outside in the summer, the inside of a vehicle can get to 150F (and higher).

With the warranties these things come with, I'm not worried about cutting a few wires. If they won't stand by and fix overheating problems or freeze up problems, the warranties aren't worth much anyway.

it gets just as hot here, very unlikely there will be any wires for you to cut though, the LED's are generally surface mounted to the PC board, disconnecting them might have adverse effects, if you don't want to see the LED's then a simple solution would be a couple of dots of black nail polish over the LED (make sure your camera is working fine and you have no warranty issues before you do this I guess)
 
To bring this topic back on track, I am still having my 500 lock up every so often while booting up. After changing power circuits in the car, different memory cards, etc etc etc, I have finally contacted me seller for a replacement. He is shipping out tomorrow. I hope to have better luck with the replacement!
 
horsepower said:
To bring this topic back on track, I am still having my 500 lock up every so often while booting up. After changing power circuits in the car, different memory cards, etc etc etc, I have finally contacted me seller for a replacement. He is shipping out tomorrow. I hope to have better luck with the replacement!

Yeah, sorry about that highjack of your thread - back on topic.

Question: you said in previous posts that you'd re-formatted the card - in both the camera and on your computer (if I read that part correctly).
I formatted an 8 GB USB drive on my computer a couple days ago, and it took something like an hour.
There's a Quick Format option, and if you unckeck that box, you get the standard format (which in my case took an hour) and by the length of time it takes it must be a better format.
Which did type of format did you do when you formatted it on your computer?

I've never formatted an SD card but I find it strange that a dash cam can format a 16 GB card in three minutes, while a computer doing a "real" (non quick format) takes an hour or more for a similar device (8 GB USB drive). I just wonder if a full, proper format might reduce the frequency of the freezing.

I'm going to format my 32 GB SD card (when I receive it tomorrow) on my computer using the full format, and see how long it takes.
Longer must be better, no?
 
Yeah, I did both quick and slow formats. Doesn't make a difference.

It's a real shame, because other than that I am real happy with the camera. I am encouraged that no one else has reported the problem so I hope it's just the camera.

Even as it is, it works correctly 99% of the time. It's that 1% that's gonna screw me at some point.
 
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