How Reliable is the Blackvue dr900?

[djmixmac]

Hello.

Would like to ask current and former Blackvue dr900 owners regarding its reliability. Is the overheat issue that common?

I ask because I was considering a discreet looking slim dual channel dash cam and Blackvue looked good on paper but after preliminary research, it appears it may not be as reliable.

Thanks in advance!

 

[chrisngrod]

Good enough to catch everything I've needed it to catch.

I've had a few generations and it seems pretty stable.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

 

[M8TJT]

Night vision is better on the 750 than the 9000, due to the use of a Sony Starviz chip.

 

[Nath]

When it works, it’s ok.

According to my experience, overheating is still a thing. During this summer almost not usable for me when it was parked - constant resets every 5 minutes (37C outside, 50C inside a white car). It has a good IQ (better than FullHD in a sunny day, worse during night). One of the reason for me to have such dashcam is the Cloud (pretty handy). Not worth the money IMHO.

If you don’t plan to use the Cloud, you better take a look at Viofo A129 Pro.

 

[SR14626]

From someone living in very hot and humid Florida, I’ve had the 900 for approximately 14/15 months without any heat issues. I keep my car parked outside. Just make sure that if you have an Apple iPhone with iOS 13 on it, that is now the current OS, that you wait until there is a fix for the Wi-Fi connection issue. With android you should have absolutely no issues at all. I get my best video footage, not from Wi-Fi to the iPhone, but by taking out the micro SD card and putting it in my iPad. Just a heads up if you never had a dash cam before.

The cost of this Dash cam is fairly high. The VIOFO on the other hand A129 pro is now coming out that is 4K for a single channel and it is almost half as much as the BlackVue. You may want to consider that

Edit: newest final update (Sept 24th) from Apple iOS for my iPhone still does not resolve the issues with Wi-Fi hook up and my dash cam.

 

[Nath]

There isn't any difference between footage you'll download via Wifi and by taking out the SDcard...

The cost of this Dash cam is fairly high. The VIOFO on the other hand A129 pro is now coming out that is 4K for a single channel and it is almost half as much as the BlackVue. You may want to consider that

DR900S has 4k just for the front as well so why do you need to mention that?

 

[chrisngrod]

Probably because as stated he mentioned it was cheaper.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

 

[silverfox]

I’ve had the 900S for about 4 months and have had no problems with it. I had a couple of times where I got a heat alert over the cloud connection when it was parked in the sun but I don’t think it switched off. The night image quality has been improved with a firmware update.

I agree it is pricey for what you get. The only reason I bought it over any others was for the cloud feature and buffered parking mode which I particularly wanted over just normal parking mode. If it wasn’t for that I would have probably gone for the Viofo. Now that Viofo have introduced buffered parking mode to their line-up I would definitely consider that.

 

[SR14626]

There isn't any difference between footage you'll download via Wifi and by taking out the SDcard...


DR900S has 4k just for the front as well so why do you need to mention that?

my 4K 1channel blackvue cost just under $370.00 and the 1channel VIOFO A129 cost about $200. That’s why I mentioned it and yes there is a difference between looking at the footage via Wi-Fi and taking out the microSD card And putting it into a computer to watch it.

 

[Nath]

Ok, i've got your point a bit differently, sorry.


OP: Btw, Viofo's support is on different level as well.

 

[djmixmac]

Thanks for everyone's insight and input. Plethera of great information here! I'll take note regarding the dr900s, sounds like its a decent dash cam but may have issues with overheating in warm climate situations during parking mode. Will continue to research to see what might be the best option for me.

Thanks guys! Will keep you updated on my final choice + feedback after install.

 

[Advocado]

OP: Btw, Viofo's support is on different level as well.

You mean Viofo has better support? Asking, because Blackvue has garbage, useless support.

That actually pissed me off so often. They make good quality dashcam. However, trash support, gimmicky features (like cloud), trash SD card support makes it so hard to justify the price tag... but you just can't find anything better quality on the market.

Just tried latest Street Guardian X2PRO+ ... and the video recording quality is even worse than my ancient blackvue-trash-dash, which I really hate. Lol. It feels like the dashcam market is dead.

 

[silverfox]

You mean Viofo has better support? Asking, because Blackvue has garbage, useless support.

That actually pissed me off so often. They make good quality dashcam. However, trash support, gimmicky features (like cloud), trash SD card support makes it so hard to justify the price tag... but you just can't find anything better quality on the market.

Just tried latest Street Guardian X2PRO+ ... and the video recording quality is even worse than my ancient blackvue-trash-dash, which I really hate. Lol. It feels like the dashcam market is dead.

A manufacturer only needs good support when they make rubbish products, otherwise their support is irrelevant.

I’ve never needed any support on both my Blackvue dashcams which I’ve had for over 4 years between them.

The only time I’ve had any contact with them was when they contacted me to tell me that my DR650GW-2CH could be upgraded for Cloud connection and they would do it free of charge, I just needed to send it to them as it needed a hardware upgrade as well as firmware. That was over 2 years after I had bought it. That is what I call good customer service.

I find the Cloud service a very good feature. You get notifications straight to your phone (and Apple watch if you have one) about anything untoward that happens while your car is parked and it uploads a clip to their Cloud server that you can view remotely on your phone. And it doesn’t cost anything unless you want extended features which the average user wouldn’t need (GPS tracking and extra storage).

I’m not sure what you mean by trash SD card support. If you mean that some cards don‘t work in their dashcams, that would happen in any dashcam. All dashcams require a certain level of SD card because of the continuous writing that goes on that doesn’t happen with any other type of device.

 

[Omega-TI]

I've had no problems whatsoever with mine. The only gripe I have is it's startup time.

 

[Advocado]

A manufacturer only needs good support when they make rubbish products, otherwise their support is irrelevant.

Sure thing, defective products do not exist?

That is what I call good customer service.

So you literally pointed out that you never contacted\reached Blackvue support besides their generic email about cloud compatibility. Yet, you claim it as good support. Dat genius move, sir.

I've had 3 different Blackvue trash-dashes in the past and two of them had issues. The best reply I've got was "Sir, we released new dashcam, you can buy it here: <link>"
If it isn't the best support... lol

I won't comment Cloud service since when it was introduced, it was a cluster "meh", which required PMP and additional device with internet connectivity. I have no idea what changed now. I don't use it and if it requires an additional investment of $$$ into a gimmick-useless feature, then F*** it.

I’m not sure what you mean by trash SD card support. If you mean that some cards don‘t work in their dashcams, that would happen in any dashcam. All dashcams require a certain level of SD card because of the continuous writing that goes on that doesn’t happen with any other type of device.

Only BlackVue (as far as I am aware) locks SD card limitation in their firmware. That means that you can buy a good quality SD card and will not be able to use it in your dashcam. (Seems to be a case by case situation) For more details about that - look at BlackVue section on this forum. It's a pretty wild topic.

All dashcams require a certain level of SD card because of the continuous writing that goes on that doesn’t happen with any other type of device.

Not precisely true. All dashcams have a compatibility list, which tells that you can "basically" use any compatible Micro SD card, BUT it's better to use High Endurance class designed for CCTV. Regular cards are going to die sooner. That's it.
BlacVue, on the other hand, doesn't want you to use regular-priced SD cards and want you to pay an extra premium for exactly the same SD cards. I hope, it's not a secret for you that BlacVue SD cards are just rebranded regular SD cards from Samsung, ADATA, etc (I'm not 100% confident in the manufacturer's list)

Best.

@jokiin knows much better about that.

 

[Nath]

You mean Viofo has better support? Asking, because Blackvue has garbage, useless support. ...

Exactly. They even rather renamed Edison for his great reputation...

A manufacturer only needs good support when they make rubbish products, otherwise their support is irrelevant.

I thought you've said you had DR900S for only 4 months. I replaced three units of DR900S-2CH over the past 10 months... (and the current unit has another issue)

BlacVue, on the other hand, doesn't want you to use regular-priced SD cards and want you to pay an extra premium for exactly the same SD cards. ...

Even worse, they want you to buy from them the cards for even higher prices than premium "endurance" cards from common manufacturers and these cards die after a few months...

 

[silverfox]

So you literally pointed out that you never contacted\reached Blackvue support besides their generic email about cloud compatibility. Yet, you claim it as good support. Dat genius move, sir.

Read my post again. I never once said they had good support, just that in my experience their products have been good enough to not require support from them. I did say, however, that I found their customer service very good. What other manufacturer would offer to upgrade a device to add extra features for free?

Only BlackVue (as far as I am aware) locks SD card limitation in their firmware. That means that you can buy a good quality SD card and will not be able to use it in your dashcam. (Seems to be a case by case situation) For more details about that - look at BlackVue section on this forum. It's a pretty wild topic.

I can only speak from my own experience and I've never had a problem using any third party SD cards in the Blackvue dashcams I've used. I didn't even realise they limited the cards that could be used, or even could do.

BlacVue, on the other hand, doesn't want you to use regular-priced SD cards and want you to pay an extra premium for exactly the same SD cards. I hope, it's not a secret for you that BlacVue SD cards are just rebranded regular SD cards from Samsung, ADATA, etc (I'm not 100% confident in the manufacturer's list)

No, it's not a secret to me that Blackvue cards are just rebranded regular cards. I wouldn't expect any dashcam manufacturer to have the resources to manufacture their own SD cards. Their cards are grossly overpriced which I why I don't use them.

You've obviously had a very different experience to me with Blackvue.

I thought you've said you had DR900S for only 4 months. I replaced three units of DR900S-2CH over the past 10 months... (and the current unit has another issue)

Yes so I can only comment on my experience since I've had it. If I experience any issues with the 900S I'll be sure to post.

 

[Nath]

Btw, @silverfox, in parking mode, have you used a rear camera or you let it turn it off after 5 minutes? Because i think it's default setting and it explains why you didn't notice the overheating issue (@SR14626 has just a 1 channel version). They added this option in order to reduce heat...

 

[silverfox]

Btw, @silverfox, in parking mode, have you used a rear camera or you let it turn it off after 5 minutes? Because i think it's default setting and it explains why you didn't notice the overheating issue (@SR14626 has just a 1 channel version). They added this option in order to reduce heat...

I’m using both front and rear cameras in parking mode but only using it event driven, not continually running.

 

[edmscan]

I have never had it reset. But then .. live in Canada and it rarely gets hot here where I am. I am going to downgrade my video quality as the 4k is too much and cannot be played on others devices .. like police departments. It is all about giving the data to the police when something happens. But overall .. very reliable, I have had very very few issues. That being said, I do not do any cloud anything and the dashcam just reliably records and records .. until something happens and at that point I will deal with it.