Blackvue DR500GW-HD

[Foobar]

Received my Blackvue Wi-Fi today. It's similar to the DR400G-HD II but it's a little bigger, has ventilation slots, and uses Wi-Fi to connect to a smartphone to access the video.

Also took the opportunity to pick up the Power Magic Pro as I intend to wire this up full-time rather than only at ignition. Will put it on the car tomorrow and provide some video sample and impressions.

I didn't expect to receive it this quickly, but I guess they started shipping a few days ago. Expect the 400 to drop in price now that this is out.

Pictures installed and video of driving/parking are in post 38 of this thread.

[developer]

I don't see it on the English Blackvue site, is it the Korean version?

[Foobar]

Originally Posted by developer

I don't see it on the English Blackvue site, is it the Korean version?

Looks English to me, no Korean anywhere on the packaging.

[spgrizz22]

Where did you buy it? Can you send me a link please?

[kludger]

Yeah thanks in advance for the link and also for letting us know if it still runs hot.

I've been waiting for the new model to come out to see if they fix that.

[joop1987]

Be sure to mount it on your back window. I had my DR400 mounted on my front window and missed the texting girl who rear ended me.

[Foobar]

Originally Posted by spgrizz22

Where did you buy it? Can you send me a link please?

I had some newegg credit so I got it through them.
It was 299.99 and the magic pro was 39.99.

Originally Posted by kludger

Yeah thanks in advance for the link and also for letting us know if it still runs hot.

I've been waiting for the new model to come out to see if they fix that.

The ventilation slots and larger size will probably help, but we'll know for sure this weekend.

Originally Posted by joop1987

Be sure to mount it on your back window. I had my DR400 mounted on my front window and missed the texting girl who rear ended me.

I am actually thinking of getting one for both ends

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

[xjohnx]

interested in hearing your feedback. i may pick one up and move my 400 to the rear.

[chutrain]

I didn't realize the 500 was coming out at the time I got the 400. Really like the Wifi feature.

[Foobar]

Was playing around with the 500 (trying to find a good location for it, testing out the wi-fi, and using the realtime video over wi-fi to my phone) for about an hour today, with it on the entire time in 1080 mode. I didn't notice it getting hot, but I suppose it would take a month of prolonged use before I see any real effects of overheating (fuzzy picture due to the sensor overheating being the predominant symptom).

Gotta pick up some fuses and other wiring doodahs before I put it on permanently and get some video to show, but so far I'm pretty happy with this.

Edit: Additional observation, the larger dimensions of the 500 make it a tight fit in the area behind the rear view mirror if you're going to place it on the driver-side dot matrix portion. I had to adjust the mirror arm down a bit to get it to fit without rubbing up against it. Not a whole lot of room for me to adjust the mirror now, but I'm the only one who drives my car anyway.

Edit #2: I played around with the software today. Be aware that my anti-virus scanner detected the Conficker.B worm on the SD Card's autorun.inf that came with the unit. Nothing it couldn't clean up, of course, but not cool nonetheless. I checked around and at least one other person (in Australia) reported the same issue. There may have been an infected batch of SD Cards that went out from the factory. Conficker.B! is a worm that replicates via network and through mapped drives that exploits a Windows SVCHOST vulnerability to allow unauthorized remote access. Make sure you have anti-malware running.

Edit #3: OK, Magic Pro is all wired up. I have it set to shut off if battery drops below 12V or after 120 hours. The device has been live all day and it does not get excessively hot. After pro-longed use, it is warm to the touch, but nothing that appears to be abnormally hot. I don't have a temp gun to give you guys an accurate external case reading, but it's really not bad at all. I also contacted the vendor regarding the Conficker.B worm detected on the SD Card, and they are communicating with Blackvue directly.

[mobiusrain]

Thanks so much for the updates on this! I'm looking forward to getting this for my BRZ when it comes in. Hopefully the overheating issues that plagues the previous models are truly gone in this newest model. The only other thing that concerns me now is how low-profile it appears on the windshield. Still concerned about potential smash-and-grabs.

[rice_classic]

I just popped into see what people thought about having one for front and rear... Looks like I'll be buying another one for the rear window.

I should get a license plate frame that says, "If you can read this, you're being recorded."

[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?

[rice_classic]

It can do both. Mine is set to record all the time (normal/Parking/event modes) but if to stops record due to no inactivity (no motion, movement or event) then it will wake up and start recording if it senses motion/movement/event.

In a parking lot there's always cars coming and going, people walking by and other various things "moving" so the motion sensor wouldn't likely let your camera go into standby mode.