Blackvue DR500GW-HD

[Foobar]

Originally Posted by Mo707

wait so when you turn off the car does this stay running and that is why you need magic pro? I though it turned off then back on upon impact?

You can wire it directly to battery (or a circuit that's always live) and it'll record when you turn off the car. The Magic Pro is a battery saver - if automatically shuts off the circuit if your battery voltage drops below a certain level and/or after a set limit of hours.

I have mine set to disable at 11.8 volts or 120 hours.

[spgrizz22]

can you take a picture of where you installed it? in the rear or front? thanks

[Mo707]

Originally Posted by Foobar

You can wire it directly to battery (or a circuit that's always live) and it'll record when you turn off the car. The Magic Pro is a battery saver - if automatically shuts off the circuit if your battery voltage drops below a certain level and/or after a set limit of hours.

I have mine set to disable at 11.8 volts or 120 hours.

How hard was the install? how long did it take?

[Foobar]

Not sure I'll be able to get a picture up tomorrow - I'm working late so I probably won't see any daylight, but I'll see what I can do.

Install was easy. If you've used an add-a-circuit in your car's fuse box, that's the bulk of the effort. F1point4 has a pretty good DIY article on it if you're not familiar with this. My install went very similarly to his, but I mounted my Magic Pro right above the cutout (it didn't interfere with the harnesses). Wiring goes up the A-pillar on the driver side, tucked along the headliner and right into the camera by the mirror.

I have the camera itself mounted right above the rear view mirror on the driver side. The adhesive is on the dot matrix tinted area so it's nicely hidden from view. If you didn't know what you were looking for, you probably wouldn't notice it from the outside. I also have 35% tint on the sides/rears, so that helps to obscure the view as well. I'd mount it on the passenger side for more clearance from the mirror, but I have my Passport radar detector in that spot already.

[Bigmaxy]

Cool might have to get the 500. I have the 400 and am thinking about moving it to the back for reasons explained above. I'll have to play around with the unit to see how well it captures through a tinted window.

[joop1987]

Does the DR500 still record video at 15,000 bit rate like the DR400?

[spgrizz22]

I'm getting a escort 9500ix and I bought a mirror mount for it so I don't know if I can't install the cam behind the mirror where else could I put it

[cgrey]

Post some vids whenyou get a chance? How's the wifi feature? transfer vids and permits live viewing?

[Foobar]

Originally Posted by joop1987

Does the DR500 still record video at 15,000 bit rate like the DR400?

How can I confirm this?

Originally Posted by spgrizz22

I'm getting a escort 9500ix and I bought a mirror mount for it so I don't know if I can't install the cam behind the mirror where else could I put it

I have my 9500ix on the passenger side of the mirror (above it) and the Blackvue on the driver side of the mirror (also above it). This way, both are fairly hidden from external view. I chose not to use the Passport mirror mount as it leaves it in plain view and draws a bit of attention.

Originally Posted by cgrey

Post some vids whenyou get a chance? How's the wifi feature? transfer vids and permits live viewing?

Will post some as soon as I can. I just changed all the settings yesterday and got it a 32GB memory card, so hopefully I get something to show soon. Unfortunately, I work early and don't arrive home until after dark, so I won't have any daylight driving until this weekend. I could throw up some parking mode clips though. As for the wifi feature, it allows you to configure the camera, view existing clips on the camera's memory card, or watch the video output in realtime.

Originally, the 1920x1080 resolution seemed like it had quite a bit of video compression going on, so I switched it from high to normal. We'll see what change that had on the video output when I get home tonight.

Edit: Just wanted to add that I've had the camera running all weekend in park mode as well as normal, and this new design does not appear to have any overheating issues. It does get warm, but nothing that you wouldn't expect from any other solid-state electronic device that is always on. Seems that the larger enclosure and the double-vented design is a winner here.

[joop1987]

Originally Posted by Foobar

How can I confirm this?
.

Right click on the video file, select the Details tab. What does the data rate say.

My DR400 uses 7407kbps. (I was wrong on the 15000)

Compared to GoPro HD2: 15000
GoPro Hero 3 Black 1080 @ 30fps: 20000
GoPro Hero 3 Black 1080 @ 60fps: 30000


When you look at the black asphalt road on the DR400, the blacks are grainy on the fast moving road. It looks much better on the GoPro with higher bitrate.

My DR400 (from ebay) seems OK in the heat and winter.

[Foobar]

Originally Posted by joop1987

Right click on the video file, select the Details tab. What does the data rate say.

My DR400 uses 7407kbps. (I was wrong on the 15000)

Compared to GoPro HD2: 15000
GoPro Hero 3 Black 1080 @ 30fps: 20000
GoPro Hero 3 Black 1080 @ 60fps: 30000


When you look at the black asphalt road on the DR400, the blacks are grainy on the fast moving road. It looks much better on the GoPro with higher bitrate.

My DR400 (from ebay) seems OK in the heat and winter.

OK I'll check this when I get home tonight - I put a new MicroSD card in the camera so I lost all of my video from over the weekend. I changed the compression setting anyway so it should be at the highest setting now.

I can tell you that fast moving video on the 500 is nothing like that captured with a GoPro. This is good enough for security/evidence capturing, definitely not good enough for actual fast-action video recording.

[Jive Turkey]

i wish there was a good camera that had both front and rear at same time, or front and inside at same time.

gonna order this most likely though...foo loving the catback btw!

[hlk07]

i wonder how it performs when u park your car under 44 deg C sun with parking mode on..

[Foobar]

Originally Posted by Jive Turkey

i wish there was a good camera that had both front and rear at same time, or front and inside at same time.

gonna order this most likely though...foo loving the catback btw!

The only front/rear ones I've seen were rated pretty poorly.

Re: catback - I knew you would. No silencers right? I should've charged you more

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