New DR650GW-2ch user - picture seems below par?

xfilian

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Hi All!

I took delivery of the above system on Friday along with the Power Magic Pro hard wire kit and spent most of yesterday plumbing all in to my car. The camera all works fine in terms of functionality but the picture quality to my eyes is pretty poor. It looks rather blocky and jagged to me.


Is it just me? Or could it be because it is a rather dull day and the camera is struggling to focus correctly?

Any advice would be gratefully received!

Thanks.
 
Hello. What firmware are you running? How are you viewing the video? Over the cloud or by taking the SIM card out and putting on your PC?
 
Dr Eskimo

Thanks for you reply.

I am running the latest firmware - 2.002. I tried it with the firmware which was originally on the cam and the results are the same.

Am viewing the video by plugging the Micro SD card into the PC. The video I uploaded onto YouTube came from this.

Does the video look below par to you?
 
Dr Eskimo

Thanks for you reply.

I am running the latest firmware - 2.002. I tried it with the firmware which was originally on the cam and the results are the same.

Am viewing the video by plugging the Micro SD card into the PC. The video I uploaded onto YouTube came from this.

Does the video look below par to you?

Sorry can't say for sure since I'm on a phone. I think I do remember reading that the bit rate is quite a bit lower with the latest firmware. Might be wrong tho.
 
You know stupidly I haven't actually looked at the files on my PC to check quality. I have a 1440p monitor so the resolution is 'blown up' a little bit, but I agree with you OP, the quality is actually pretty poor.

I think when I have some time I will definitely be rolling back to the older firmware....
 
If you feel technically confident you could look into the Custom FW which allows a higher bit-rate (Not too sure how easy it will be to install though from 2.0)

Custom FW thread: https://dashcamtalk.com/forum/threads/blackvue-dr650gw-2ch-_-custom-firmware.9423/
English how to install: https://dashcamtalk.com/forum/threads/blackvue-dr650gw-2ch-_-custom-firmware.9423/page-2#post-122488

Important:When you install custom FW to a camera issued after April 2015 it will not work back camera.


Here is a video of 18MB/s bitrate
 
Last edited:
If you feel technically confident you could look into the Custom FW which allows a higher bit-rate (Not too sure how easy it will be to install though from 2.0)

Custom FW thread: https://dashcamtalk.com/forum/threads/blackvue-dr650gw-2ch-_-custom-firmware.9423/
English how to install: https://dashcamtalk.com/forum/threads/blackvue-dr650gw-2ch-_-custom-firmware.9423/page-2#post-122488

Here is a video of 18MB/s bitrate

That does look much nicer. Fairly technical so shouldn't be too difficult. How long have you had it running that firmware? Any issues? Is it easy to revert back to factory?
 
Thanks for the replies chaps.

Anno that footage is lovely and clear and kind of what I was expecting from this system to be honest. I looks so crisp - numberplates and signs are easily visible. Contrast that with some more footage of my cam below - the signs as I pass by are pretty much totally illegible and I am only doing around 40mph.


I guess what I am wondering - is my camera fualty or is it just the dodgy firmware? Guess I will have to link these videos to Blackvue and see what they say.
 
Nah not faulty as my footage looks similar. Seems to be a poor decision by BV to get the rather useless cloud functionality.

I will be rolling back to Firmware v1.003 in the first instance, then possible will look at the custom firmware if I am still not happy.
 
Where can you get the V1.003 for Dual Channel? I've looked for it.

The Custom firmware gives very good quality but the rear view camera doesn't work on any 650 made after April 2015.
 
Guys, where can I get hold on a copy of this custom firmware? I got to try this out.

Thanks
 
Guys, where can I get hold on a copy of this custom firmware? I got to try this out.

Thanks

I did a post here which explains where to go and what to do
Important:When you install custom FW to a camera issued after April 2015 it will not work back camera.
 
Nah not faulty as my footage looks similar. Seems to be a poor decision by BV to get the rather useless cloud functionality.

I will be rolling back to Firmware v1.003 in the first instance, then possible will look at the custom firmware if I am still not happy.

Yeah, I agree. I have to say - for a system that costs nearly £300.00 - it is far from impressive. I think my neighbours £80.00 one off of Ebay looks better! Were it not for the fact that it took me ages to plum it into the car think I would be tempted to return it. Admittedly, it was a dull day yesterday so I will try it again when conditions are brighter and also try messing around with the camera angle. My car has gone to be be serviced today so I won't get to mess about with it for a week or so.
 
Yeah, I agree. I have to say - for a system that costs nearly £300.00 - it is far from impressive. I think my neighbours £80.00 one off of Ebay looks better! Were it not for the fact that it took me ages to plum it into the car think I would be tempted to return it. Admittedly, it was a dull day yesterday so I will try it again when conditions are brighter and also try messing around with the camera angle. My car has gone to be be serviced today so I won't get to mess about with it for a week or so.

Yea I can see your frustration. I was running a G1W for a while which only cost me £30 and the quality isn't much different.

Looks like from the above post the customs firmware won't work on our newer cameras, but I'll be rolling back to the older firmware when I get a chance. Will let you know if it's a substantial improvement or not.
 
Xfilian, all dash cams are fixed focus, so if yours is off then you can either adjust yourself or return to dealer for replacement. Latter option is probably more advisable if you haven't got too much messing about with post and re-packing...
For best results, have the camera pointing at an angle to get the horizon at about ⅓ way down from the top of the screen. That way the exposure will be more consistent, and who needs 50% footage of the sky anyway ;-)

PS For best viewing results, take card out of camera and copy files to Mac / PC and view from there.

Hope this helps
 
Thanks for your help chaps. As I say, the car has been taken away for a service but I will give an update once it has returned. :)
 
I am a long time user of the G1W camera. Video quality has been EXCELLENT but decided to upgrade to dual channel cameras and Parking Mode.

Just got the DR650GW-2CH and the video quality is horrendous compared to the G1W! I ran it side by side and the quality is day and night. The BlackVue videos is pixelated and jagged. The G1W? Excellent as usual, considering I paid $65 for this compared to $360 for BlackVue!

I am on firmware 1.007 and just upgraded to 1.009 to see if there is any difference. Will have to test drive it but if the videos is still crap, I'll return the BlackVue and just get another G1W to make my own dual channel camera.

PS: I need the rear camera (hence changing from G1W), so I can't use custom firmware since it'll make the rear camera stop working.
 
I really think we are all paying for the styling/size/software/innovation ? of the Blackvues rather than video quality. Its becoming pretty clear that the cameras are definitely capable of better pictures with using a higher bitrate (custom software) BUT Blackvue appear to be playing it safe (no overheating issues in Summer) by keeping the bitrate lower - hence the poorer quality picture.

I would like other peoples views ?
 
I really think we are all paying for the styling/size/software/innovation ? of the Blackvues rather than video quality.

I disagree. The BlackVue is, for all intent and purpose, a video camera and video quality should be the basic thing that BlackVue make it work. I feel that BlackVue just pile bunch of things that are not even working properly (cloud feature is broke, sensitivity it too..sensitive, etc.) and ignoring the video quality. The worst part is that the BlackVue hardware CAN support higher video quality, as evidenced by the custom firmware.

One thing I noticed is that if someone never use a dashcam with higher video quality, they'll think that the BlackVue video quality is OK. My friend had a BlackVue and he saw the video quality of my G1W and was just floored at how bad the BlackVue video is in comparison!

I will re-install my G1W and run a side by side video comparison with this and the DR650-2CH and will post.
 
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