How Reliable is the Blackvue dr900?

[SidewaysChair]

I've had mine running front/back (parking mode when stopped) with no challenges or overheating since December of 2018. I've had the car sitting in the sun all day at the Hershey Concours d'Elegance 2019 in addition to my long drives each weekend and parking at cars/coffee and car shows. I'm in PA, we've had some rather hot days this year (in addition to rather cold over the winter). If it's dry out I try to take the car out so it's in all temperatures with cloudy and/or sunny weather. I have a sample of just about all environments that you can drive a 4C in (including thunderstorm) to show the 4C group how well my DR900S has been working and image quality.

If it matters I use a Samsung 512GB card with (2) B124 batteries under the passenger seat.

 

[Skybird]

It's great. However 4k front camera has a VERY LOW bit rate quality. Something like 12-25 bit rate max, which isn't good. You can pick up number plates quite well but if a car is travelling at speed in fog or on a sunny day due to the glare, or on an overcast/sunny day, it won't pick up those number plates as easy as it would with stationary or slow moving vehicles.

I got the officially recommended CPL filter which is by a French company I think. Night time performance with the rear camera (records only in 1080p 30fps) is very grainy but during the day it's just OK. The CPL filter reduces the glare to a satisfactory standard but it does blur out a little bit more distant vehicle number plates, and on a sunny day, the sky is more of a yellowy greeny blue colour with the CPL filter. So you'll be compromising the video quality a little bit by having the CPL filter, unless you take it off and put up all the glare and sunlight reflection.

It is an expensive investment though. NZ$1,000 for the 2-CH 900S with the Blackvue B-124 parking battery. But it gets views if you're a YouTuber (post videos onto YouTube) which I do. And it helps with insurance claims, police, and in court, if it ever gets to that. Dash cam videos get shared a lot on YouTube for entertainment, or to shame bad drivers.

 

[Skybird]

I haven't had any issues regarding overheating. Mind you summers in NZ don't go above 35'C (taking into account it can get up to 85'C inside a car with even 30'C temperatures outside). Average summer temps in NZ are 25'C. I also use a Samsung Pro Endurance 128GB SDXC card which records 7 hours on maximum camera graphics settings (4k30 front, 1080p30 rear). These SDXC cards sell for NZ$100 in NZ which is a fair price.